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which dwells in him. See the following paffages: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.-Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto. -And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we b held his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father; full of grace and truth.-For it pleafed the Father, that in him fhould all fulnefs dwell,-In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For in him dwe.leth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.-God hath given to us eternal life: and this life is in his Son,—And it is obferved, that the record of God concerning the divinity of Chrift was expreffed in the fame manner before his incarnation, as it has been fince, and gives us the same complex idea, if this be a proper term, cf this glorious Perfon, that we have now in the New Teflament.-The name of God was in the angel, Exod. xxiii. 21; and alfo, in the beginning was the Word.

But, confidering the subject in the light of the divine theory, it may be eafily perceived, that this is the fame thing which has been fo fully illuftrated, as being effential to the nature of the divine principle, and mode of divine exiflence, viz, that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father. The Word that was in the beginning, the name that was in the angel, and the eternal life, which is in the Son, is plainly no other thing than that parental will, or commandment, which Chrift the Lord received before the world was; which formed his own filial character, and

which he has given to us, that we alfo may be made the Sons of God. Again, being rewarded as a Son, with the glory of the Father, and installed upon the throne, in his eternal kingdom, which completes our view of the purpose or will of God, he is thus truly in the form of God, and in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead.

The divine will, in these distinct parts, the truth of which is effential to the filial character, and is imported by the name of the Son of God, conftitutes the divinity of Chrift; and this fame bleffed will, as has been fhewn, is as effential to the parental character, is imported by the name, and conftitutes also the divinity of the Father.-The divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft, fubfifts manifeftly in this one eternally bleffed and adorable principle of parental and filial love.So that the great obfcurity and perplexity, which has fo much prevailed concerning the divinity of Chrift, has arisen evidently from darkness refpecting the form of God, and the mode of divine existence, or in what divinity truly confifts: It is a darknefs, equally grofs, as it refpects the Father himself, and in what divinity effentially confifts, as it does the true character of the Son. And, in the fame degree that a man is in the dark refpecting the divinity of the Son, he is really in the dark refpecting the divinity of the Father.

Some have conceived, that in eternity, Christ was merely fet up in the purpose of God, and that neither himself, nor the glory

of his kingdom, exifted, in fact, till the exhi bition in time; but it is thought, as to this, that enough has been faid, to fhew that it is a mifconception.-Chrift was fet up, or or dained, before the world began, and eternal life was given to us in him before the world was. But a mere purpose to fet up and or dain, is not setting up and ordaining; and the purpose of beftowing a gift is not giving. Setting up or ordaining is a fact, and beflowing a gift is a real deed, an actual transfer of property. Chrift, therefore, pre-exifted the crea tion; and the pre-existence of Chrift implies, that there exifted a heavenly world, and eter nal things of a certain form and fyftem.

Section 3. THE ARCHETYPE OF THE CREA

TION.

The word or will of God dwelling in Chrift, or the divine principle firft opening in him as the beginning of the creation of God; opening and expanding ftill farther in him as the Angel of the Church; and, finally, fully dif played in him as the Son over his own House, is the truth manifefted by the whole creation, and the one infinite and adorable fact recorded and witnessed throughout the inspired voJume.-As, therefore, all things declaratively are merely the evidence of Jefus Chrift's divinity—and as the works of creation and providence, and alfo the fcriptures, are of him, and through him, and to him

and are only expreffive or declarative of his glory; all this excellence muft exift diftinctly in him, as his effential divinity, and be thus the Archetype of all God's works.

In a view, therefore, of the pre-exiftent glory of Chrift, we are led to contemplate the perfect fampler, or inftitute of the creation; the foundation, according to which all things were framed; the head by which all things confift; the primary operation from which all fecondary and progreffive operations proceed; the one omnipotent fact, of which all the works of creation and providence are the expreffion, and to which they all conform, as to a most perfect rule or pat

tern.

The reason has been already affigned, why the divine principle is contemplated under the name of the second person of the bleffed Trinity, the Logos or Word, and that our view is fo drawn to Christ, viz. because he is the covenant fubject, and the word or will of God is in him, and the whole divine display is made through him. Thus Chrift, as the Beginning, muft have been in the form of God, and poffeffed of a kingdom, power and glory, full of life, light and felicity.

This primary eternal work of God muft have been a finished work; for it is evident that the operation in which it exifts, is effential to the Divine Being, and that a right view of the divine principle will no more admit of the fuppofition of a fucceffion of oper ations, than it will admit of that of a fucceffion of volitions and purposes.-And to this

agree the fcriptures. By him all things confift, Col. i. 17-The works were finished from the foundation of the world, Heb. iv. 3.-Before me there was nothing formed of God, neither fhall there be after me, Ifaiah xliii. 10.Here then we have in view the finished work of God; and as before this nothing existed in fact, we may neither form conceptions, nor ufe terms denoting the exiftence of any thing or being, before this effential and true glory of God, which is the beginning or principle of all things; for fuch conceptions must be mere imaginations, and fuch terms must be used without inftruction.

The Beginning, as has been fhewn, is Chrift's primary name. Then faid they unto him, Who art thou?-And Jefus faith unto them, The Beginning One, and that I fay to you,* John viii. 25.-Who is the Beginning, Col. i. 18. And in him was the Word: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, John i. 1.—This is the most plain declaration, that there was in him true divinity, and an expreffion of the effential glory of God. And this pre-existent glory was the foundation of the earth, and the beginning of the creation of God.-In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, Gen. i. 1.-And thou, Lord, in the beginning, haft laid the foundation of the earth, Heb. i. 10.-The beginning of the creation of God, Rev. iii. 14. It appears therefore that Chrift is not merely the efficient caufe, but also is

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