be equal with God: Hence he is called the mighty God, and the everlasting Father, Ifai. ix. 6. As according to the Divine Theory, the Son from everlasting was put into the poffeffion of the eternal throne and kingdom of God the Father; we may fee the grounds of its being faid of him, Heb, i. 8. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a fceptre of rightcoufness is the fceptre of thy kingdom.

For the fame reafon, alfo, both the Father and the Son appear to be called Ancient of Days, Dan. vii. The Ancient of Days did fit, ver, 9. And behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they (the clouds of heaven,) brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages fhould ferve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which fhall not be deftroyed, verfes 13, 14. Here we have in view the eternal truth of the inftallation of Chrift, declaratively, or in the exhibition. But this one like the Son of Man, having received the kingdom and appearing in the glory of the Father, is alfo called the Ancient of Days, ver. 22. from whom, immediately, judgment fhall be given to the faints of the Molt High, and they fhall poffefs the kingdom.

Ancient, was the common name or title of á ruler among the Jews, as now fome tribes of Indians call their chiefs, white hairs; and as foon as one of whatever age, became a

member of the council, he was thus diftinguifhed: See Ifai. iii. Behold the Lord of Hofts, doth take away from Jerufalem the pru dent, and the ancient-and the child fhall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the bafe against the honourable, Chap. ix.The ancient and honorable, he is the head and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail, and Chap. xxiv. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the fun afhamed, when the Lord of Hofs fhall reign in mount Zion, and in Ferujalem, and before his ancients gloriously See also, Ezek. viii. Son of Man haft thou feen what the ancients of the houfe of Ifrael do in the dark? and Chap. ix. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.

The Father is Ancient of Days-King eternal, immortal, and invifible. And the Son, being from the beginning a member of council, and in the form of God; is alfo Ancient of Days, The bleffed and only Potentate, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, who only bath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man bath feen, nor can fee: to whom be honor and power everlafling. Amen

Some, in attempting to prove the divinity of Chrift, have confounded the distinction of Father and Son: but this is unneceffary and injurious the divinity of the Son will be fupported, not by confounding this diftinction, but by clearing it: Let the truth that Fejus Christ is the Son of God be established, and his divinity cannot be doubted.

The view which we every where have in

the fcriptures, of the existence of an operation of the divine will, before the world was, by which Chrift was brought forth and fet up in the glory of the eternal heaven; and that he had thus a real form: this, together with the manner of his appearing in the world previous to his incarnation, originated the opinion of the pre-existence of his human foul, and that the wifdom and word of God was united to it before the world began. This opinion of the union of the divine word with a human foul, appears to have been entertained by the people of God previous to the incarnation of Chrift; and it has been adopted more or lefs in almost every Chriftian age.-Doubtless, Arius, and others have made ufe of this opinion for a bad purpofe; this, however, does not prove it false; the most indifputable doctrines have been perverted for the worst of purposes.

But, refpecting this opinion, it may be obferved, that a weighty objection is found a- · gainst it, in the difficulty of admitting the fuppofition of the exiftence of the human foul before the body; it is alfo observed, that the facts which have led to the fuppofition, are fully explained in the Divine Theory without it: yea, moreover, it is manifeft that the matter, which chiefly originated the opinion, belongs effentially to the divine will; and that the operation itself, and all the immediate refult of it, is included neceffarily in the eternal divine exiftence.

If this opinion be admitted, however, it does not materially affect the theory; it is

meraly contemplating one more lak in the chain of purine operation: which, if a fact, mni exi berveen the crise parpole and primary coercice, wich is the eternal prine ope, and the framing of the worlds—But as this option is in its cature fubject to great embarra.ments, and as that matter of the pre-extent glory of Chril, which originated, and has principally fupported the fentiment, may be demonfirated to belong effentially to the Godhead, or the eternal principle, as alfo, the use of it is not difcovered, and the divine theory appears to be complete without it; there does not appear evidence of its being a fact; and it will not, therefore, be confidered as belonging to the theory.

And when the truth of the divine principle is admitted, and it is confidered that the primary divine operation, or the beginning of the creation of God, is eternal, being co-existent, and one with the divine purpose, it is thought this queftion will wholly fubfide; for, undoubtedly, the primary operation of the divine will gave rife to the opinion of the preexiftence of the human foul, and has been its principal fupport; but it is evident, both from reafon and the fcriptures, that this matter exills in the divine principle itself.—In contemplating this fact, therefore, we are led too far to find fupport for the opinion of the pre-existence of the human foul, which is not fuppofed to exifl from eternity, and to belong ellentially to the Godhead.-Let the divine theory appear complete, and the idea of Chrifl's being brought forth as a Son, and his

being, in the form of God, installed in the kingdom and glory of heaven, be found to belong to another fubject, and the mind fearching for truth, as to this question, will reft fatisfied.

The divine theory, however, is not underflood as rejecting the idea of the pre-existence of the human foul; on the contrary, it offers the idea of the pre-exiftence of all things, or of their exiftence in a beginning or principle; but this is eternal exiftence.-Wisdom, herself, hath a foul: Wisdom fhall praife her foul; and a foul is human existence.-What though the human nature has been Wifdom's darling, and before the heavens were prepared, and before the earth and the depths, her delights were with the fons of men? Still the human foul was not all that pre-exifted in the wifdom of God: For fhe faith, The Lord poffeffed me, the beginning of his ways, Prov. viii, 22.-And the Apoftle writes,-Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed of the Word of God, so that not of things appearing were the vifible things made, Heb. ix. 3. In Chrift, therefore, we are led to contemplate the beginning, the pre-existence, the great inftitute and glorious type of all God's works.

Another circumstance relative to the truth of Chrift, which has led to the idea that, in his pre-exiftent ftate, he was a complex being, or that he exifted with two natures, is this, that in the divine record we are referred to his divinity, as being fomething that bears a distinct name, which either he dwells in, or