Predicable is a term of scholastic logic, and con- nected with the scheme of classification. There were five designations employed in classifying objects on a systematic plan: genus, species, differena (differentia), property | proprium), and accident (accidens I. The first two genus .and species— name the higher and lower classes of the things classified; a genus comprehends several Bpecies. The other three designations differ- ence, property, accident -exprc-s the attributes that
the classification turns upon. The difference is what distinguishes one species from the other Bpecies ol the same genus; as, tor example, the peculiarities wherein the cat differs from the tiger, lion, and other species of the genaafeKs. The property expresses a distinction that is not ultimate, but a consequence of some other peculiarity. Thus, "the use of tools" is a property of
man. and not a difference, for it flows from other assign- able attributes of his bodily and mental organization, or from the specific differences that characterize him. The accident is something not bound up with the nature of the species, but chancing to be present in it. For in- stance, the high value of gold is an accident; gold would still be gold though il were plenty and cheap. It was by an arbitrary and confusing employment of the notion of predication that these various items of the first attempt at a process of systematic classification were called predieables, or attributes that might be "predicated," that is, affirmed, of things. All that is ne.dful to affirm is that a certain thing belongs to a given Bpecies or genus; and that to belong to the spe- cies is to possess the specific differences; and to belong to the genus is to possess the generic differences. We may also, if we please, affirm (or predicate) that the
thing does belong to the spi eies. or does possess the spe- cific difference; but this power of affirming bas □ sed
to be formally proclaimed, or made the basis oi the whole scheme. The allied term ••predicament" is an- other case where an abusive prominence is given to the idea of predication. The predicaments, or categories, were the most comprehensive classes of all existing things— under such heads as substance, attribute, quan- tity, quality, etc ; and it could be predicated of any- thing falling uniler any one bead that it does so fall un- der. Thus, "virtue" is an attribute; and therefore we might say that " attribute" can be predicated of 'vir- tue." But the notion of predicating does not indicate! the main fact of the process in this cafe, any more than "predicable" in the foregoing. Classification, and not predication, is the ruling idea in each.— Chambers, Cyclop, s. v. Pre-eminence of Christianity, i. e. the higher
power and honor due to Jesus the Christ. This doctrine is laid down in Colossians i, 18. In all things in nature. in person, in office, work, power, and honor, Christ has the pre-eminence above angels and men, or any other creature. But a man has no /in -i mim nee above a beast as to his body: he is liable to the same diseases and death (EccleS. iii, 19). See BibKotheCO Sana, 1863, p. 681 ; Church R< m mbranct r, Jan. 1856, p. 132 Bq.
Pre-established Harmony. See Leibnitz.
Pre-existence of Jesns Christ is his existence before he was born of the Virgin Mary. That he really did exist i- taught plainly in John iii. 13; vi, 50, 62, etc.; viii. 58; xvii. 5, 24; 1 John i. 2; but there are various opinions respecting this existence. Some, ac- knowledging, with the orthodox, that in Jesus Christ there is a divine nature, a rational soul, and a human body, go into an opinion peculiar to themselves. His body was formed in the Virgin's womh; but his human soul — the first and most excellent of all the work- of God — they suppose was brought into existence be- fore the creation of the world, and subsisted iu happy union in heaven with the second Person of the Godhead till his incarnation. The doctrine is thus clearly set forth by bishop Hull in his Defend oftht Nicem Creed: "All the Catholic orators of the tir-t three centuries taught that Jesus Christ, he Who Was afterwards ni
called, existed before he beci ■ man. or before be was
horn, according to the flesh, of the Blessed Virgin, in another nature far more excellent than the human nat- ure; that he appeared to holy men. giving (hem an
earnest., as it were, of his incarnation; that he always presided over and provided for the Church, which in time to come he would redeem with his own Mood, and of consequence that, from the beginning, the whole or- der or thread of the divine dispensation, as Tertullian Bpeak8,ran through him; further yet. that he was with the Father before the foundation of the world, and that by him all things were made."'
Those who advocate this doctrine differ in their christological views from those called Arians, for the 1 itti t ascribe t" Christ only a created deitv, whereas the
PRE-EXISTENCE OF CHRIST 503
PRE-EXISTENTS
former hold his true and proper divinity. They differ from the Socinians, who believe no existence of Jesus Christ before his incarnation ; they differ from the Sabel- lians, who only own a trinity of names ; they differ also from the generally received opinion, which is, that Christ's human soul began to exist in the womb of his mother, in exact conformity to that likeness unto his brethren of which St. Paul speaks (Heb. ii, 17). The writers in favor of the pre-existence of Christ's hu- man soul recommend their opinion by these argu- ments: 1. Christ is represented as his Father's messen- ger, or 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 pure God- head. The appearances of Christ to the patriarchs are described like the appearance of an angel, or man really distinct from God ; yet one in whom God, or Jehovah, had a peculiar indwelling, or with whom the divine nat- ure 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 be- fore his incarnation. Now if there had existed before this time nothing but his divine nature, this divine nat- ure, it is argued, could not properly have divested it- self of any glory (John xvii, 4, 5 ; 2 Cor. viii, 9). It cannot be said of God that he became poor: he is in fi- nitely 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. 3. It seems needful, say those who embrace this opinion, that the soul of Jesus Christ should pre-exist, that it might have an opportunity to give its previous actual consent to the great and painful undertaking of making atonement for man's sins. It was the human soul of Christ that en- dured the weakness and pain of his infant state, all the labors 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 cov- enant with itself, is inconsistent.