great Generality and perhaps designedly indeterminable and if there lie invincible Difficulties and unanswerable Arguments not to say Demonstrations against the Platonick Trinitarian System Howbeit as we shall further see the Scripture must be own'd to be the only Rule herein to be sought to besides the clear and incontestable Dictates of Reason and the Trinitarians if they be sincere must acknowledge that their Plea of Antiquity is vain and frivolous None but Quacks can talk at Dr. Sherlock's rate that the whole Catholick Church in all Ages has been of his Sentiment or of the Sentiment of the present Trinitarians and that the Vnitarian Controversy may be decided by the Judgment of the ancient Ante-nicene Authors whose Writings have in part been suffered to come to our Hands It appears evidently that the Ante-nicene were not of the Opinion that is now termed Orthodox To evince which Position of ours it is indeed superfluous to add many more Proofs after what we have alledged out of these most ancient and famous Authors I shall therefore only add two or three Passages out of the following Writers which tho' not altogether so ancient as the foregoing yet come not so much short of it as to deserve to be wholly unregarded They were very eminent and learned Men. It cannot be doubted but that they knew what Doctrin in as well as somtime before their time was held as Orthodox and was requir'd in that rigorous Age to be held as such And it is credible they would not have publickly asserted any thing in these Matters that would then have drawn upon them the Censures of the Church in the Communion of which they flourished and in which they were desirous to be in great esteem Nevertheless it doth appear their Opinion as well as that of the afore-quoted Authors is very different from that of the present Platonick or Scholastick Trinitarians For instance then Arnobius declared in the Treatise he wrote to inform the Gentiles with the Truths of Christianity that Christians did indeed hold Christ to be a God but inferior to the Father and a lesser God than He who alone is the Almighty God Christ says he is a God who in the form of a Man spake to the World by the Command of the Principal God Adv. Gent. L. 2. p. 106. The Almighty God who is the only God at length sent out Christ Ib. p. 120. How could he have taught more plainly or more expresly that the Father alone is the Almighty God and the only God or the only Person that is God in the eminent sense of that word Not but that he might hold both Christ and the Holy Spirit to be also Divine Persons But 't is evident he reckons them to be of an inferior kind seeing he denies them to be the Almighty the Principal and Only God He makes them therefore Creatures tho' created Gods whether or no created out of the very Substance of the Almighty God He comes then very near to Arianism if he be not altogether Arian He looks upon the Almighty Father as the only Fountain of all Being and Perfection and as able not only to produce other Beings but to communicate to whom he will immense or vast Perfections and a Divine Nature tho' inferior to his because there can be but one Infinite and Almighty Being Wherefore all Creatures tho' never so Divine and Excellent can have but limited Perfections and must ever remain subject to the Almighty Now who doth not see that this is to assert but one God properly so called or but one who is the Almighty God the Principal or Supreme God and the Only God And is not that Vnitarianism Besides tho' Justin Martyr said that in the 2d Century the Holy Angels were worshipped particularly it may be by some Platonists Arnobius declares that in his time Christians thought it sufficient to worship God even God the Father the Principal God Howbeit says he to discharge the Worship of Divinity the Chief God is sufficient for us I say the Chief God the Father and Lord of all Things In him we worship whatsoever is to be worshipped For we have in him the very Head of Divinity from whence the Divinity of all Divine Things whatsoever is derived If the Platonick Trinitarians had always kept strictly to this Generality in their Terms of Communion there needed have been no Disagreement nor Division It is evident that in the second and third Centuries after that Justin Martyr and the other converted Philosophers had introduced their Platonism in the Christian Religion the Primitive Vnitarians were indeed commonly vilisied and opposed but yet the Platonists kept not all alike at the same distance from these but somewhat differed among themselves and allowed of that difference not being then agreed how much justly of Platonism was to be admitted or held necessary nor knowing how to determine a Matter that seemed so obscure and abstruse The Nature of the H. Ghost especially was then left undetermined The generality not only of the old Christians but even of the new Platonick Doctors own'd him to be but the Power and Inspiration of God or else took him for an Archangel and a created Spirit like the other Angels but above all the Angels And therefore if there were at those times any rigid Platonists that had much the same Notion that the present Trinitarians have of the H. Spirit they contented themselves covertly or modestly to assert or intimate their Opinion but durst not and could not attempt imperiously to condemn those that were not of their Sentiment We see the generality of the Ante-nicene agree that the H. Ghost is not God tho' some call him a Divine Person but none of them would have made difficulty so to have called any Angel those that called him the Power of God as Irenaeus and others yet expresly affirmed that he was not God and so it seems took him not to be a real Divine Person or a real Divine Being but an Act or an Influence and Inspiration of the the Divin Power or an Archangel or both or they knew not what And those that positively called him a Creature were not censuredeven by the highest Platonists of those times And as touching the Nature of the Son or Word of God it seems that then Semi-Arianism did most prevail among the Doctors even perhaps from the 2d Century but yet till the Council of Nice the suppos'd ancient Doctrin afterwards called Arianism was allowed of in the Church at least in a great measure and generally for a good while approved before For most probably many of those ancient Writings that were supressed after the Council of Nice as containing a Doctrin that was then in a great measure grown out of Date tho' the avowed Works of the most excellent learned Bishops of the Church asserted the Scriptural Sentiment for it seems at least the like to which Arius was condemn'd at Nice And we see that several of those Ante-nicene that
Innocent to the dreadful and undeserved Death of the Cross God's absolute Authority over his Creatures was most highly vindicated after Adam and his apostate Off-spring had wofully eclipsed the Glory of his Soveraignty and the Authority of his Laws This Second Adam by the sinless and most perfect Obedience of his Life was an high Vindicator thereof but his enduring most inexpressible Torments which he did as Man and dying the most cursed Death of the Cross as our Sacrifice did God the Father as high Honor in the Face of the Sun as all the Sins of Mankind put together could do him Dishonor And by this means this Sacrifice became Satisfactory so as that God would for the sake thereof grant Terms of Pardon and Reconciliation to Fallen Mankind since He now saw it most agreable to all his Attributes to do so Thus far this Learned Prelate In Summ in Answer to the whole Objection Christ is the Excellentest Creature possible and the most like unto God and the fittest to be an Instrument in the Hand of God and God entirely loves him and continually communicates to him the Use of the Divine Power and the Assistance of the Divine Wisdom and the Fulness of the God-head constantly dwells in him and in his State of Humiliatiâ—n he received the Holy Spirit without measure and not in small portions and by intervals like the Prophets and all the Angels and Archangels are wholly subjected to him as their Prince and incessantly attend his Orders God being willing to make him as Great as a Creature can be made and God in fine is as much Vnited to him as it is possible for God to be United with a Creature God remaining still a distinct Being and the Creature a distinct Person And the Vnitarians hold that such an excellent and dignified Creature as this can obtain of God and can perform any thing that is to be perform'd or obtain'd and they do not conceive what more than this the Trinitarians can reasonably think to be requisite It may be observed that according to the Vnitarian System our Lord Jesus Christ is a more precious and worthy Being than all other Creatures together that yet not only the word Satisfaction is no where in Scripture but also that it is not the Notion of Sacrifices and Attonements to make a full Compensation that under the Gospel the Acts of Piety and Obedience which are most acceptable to God are figuratively called Attonements or Sacrifices as Alms-giving Praying with fervour Mortifying carnal Affections which is termed the offering our Bodies in Sacrifice to God and that by many Places of Scripture it appears that this expression to redeem signifies to deliver from some Evil and to put into a better State See Exod. 6.6 and 15.13 Luke 1.68 Ps 49.7 8 15. and 111.9 Luke 2.38 c. An Appendix to the IXth Chapter THERE remains but one Article to be here considered to give a particular and full Answer to every Branch of the Objection mention'd in the beginning of this Chapter It is this that according to the Ideas which the Vnitarian System gives of Christ it seems he cannot be supposed to be able to hear the Prayers of Men or to be a proper Object of Worship But this will particularly appear to be a groundless and unnecessary piece of Wrangling if these Considerations be duely weighed 1. There are divers Kinds of Worship according to the Nature of the Subject to whom it is to be paid See Grotius on Revel 19.10 All that the Trinitarians can ascribe to Christ in following the Scripture consists in reverencing him to the Honour of the Father as the Mediator of the New Covenant and under God the Universal Monarch acting for the Father in whom the Father dwells whom the Father most extraordinarily assists with his Divine Wisdom and Power to enable him in his Mediatory Kingdom to govern the Universe and save to the uttermost those that come to God thro' him and with whom consequently the Divine Nature is as intimately United as possible The Trinitarians acknowledge that the whole Person of Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant and consequently it seems incontestable that the whole Person of Christ is to be honoured as Mediator or with Mediatory and Subordinate Honour having receiv'd Kingdom Power and Godhead from the Father and acting for the Father Now thus and according to all these and the like respects the Vnitarians worship the Lord Jesus Christ and no otherwise even as one who is appointed to be honoured to the Glory of the Father as one who is exalted to the highest Dignity in the Universe and as one with whom the Divine Nature is as intimately united as possible so as that he is inlightned with the Divine Wisdom and he disposes of the Divine Power and Inspiration as of his own it being made his by his Union to the Divine Nature and by the Father his dwelling in him or by the Divine Assistance and Inspiration without measure attending him always conducting and illuminating him and thereby exalting his Spirit to the highest Pitch of Grandeur Wisdom and Power and making him in the most eminent manner possible one with God 2. The Vnitarians thus holding the Lord Jesus Christ United and Assisted with the Divine Nature the Trinitarians cannot justly pretend that the Vnitarian System represents him as unable to perform any thing which by the Trinitarian Notion of the Incarnation he may be suppos'd to be capable of seeing the Vnitarians hold that he without measure according to the Scripture Phrase is illuminated with the Divine Wisdom and disposes of and is assisted by and enjoys the Divine Power as his own so that he may hear Men and succor them It appears nevertheless as was said incontestable that his Kingdom as was observed being but a Mediatory Kingdom or his Reign being but a Government under God subject to and directed by the Father so that the Father is still to be considered not barely as jointly ruling but as literally the Supreme Ruler the Lord Jesus Christ cannot reasonably be addressed to but as Mediator or as the Vicegerent of the Universe and consequently is to be worshipped but with a Mediatory or a Subordinate Worship Wherefore the Body of the Prayers ought not to be addressed to him as they are in the Litany but the Father generally is to be Pray'd to in the Name or thro' the Mediation of the Son And some Ejaculations and particularly at the end or beginning of the Service a short Address may be offered to the Son to beseech him to Intercede for us to have Mercy upon us and to assist us with his Grace And according to the Vnitarian System the Lord Jesus Christ can be thus addressed to and worshipped This Subject concerning the Worship of Christ as Mediator or as a Man exalted to the High Honor with which it has pleased God to dignify him is fully treated of by Limborch in his Theologia Christiana Lib.
them and concurrs with them at their Working and which properly doth the Wonders or the Chiefest Part of them in the effecting of Super-natural Works They are as it were but the Bearers of the Divine Virtue or the Disposers of it which God entrusts to them because in that Employment they reap the glory delight of Serving God and of being Instrumental in the good of Others They dispose therefore of that Portion of Divine Power as they dispose of their own Faculties That which was alloted to a Prophet was called his Spirit 2 Kings 2 15. and 5.26 1 Cor. 5.3 4. But the Word especially since his Exaltation has the Disposition of the Divine Power as was said of all the Holy Angels whom he sends whensoever he will on Errands to do what He pleases and so he is said to have received the Spirit without Measure whereas no Prophet before him had and that but at sometimes the Share but of an Angel or at most the Assistance it may be of two or three Angels and the Power accompanying them or annexed to them That by the Holy Spirit something like this Viz some Angel or Angels together with a certain Concurrence of God's Acting or a certain Influence of the Divine Power is to be understood and not altogether and expresly God himself or a literally and properly Divine Person is evinced by the Vnitarian Arguments in the Brief History in the Apology for the Irenicum Magnum and in Crell's Book Of one God the Father It is certain that in Job 32.8 the Spirit and the Divine Inspiration are manifestly put as Synonyma or as Terms that imply and explain one the other the Original Words Rouak in the Hebrew and Pneuma in the Greek being undoubtedly susceptible of that Sense not only signifying Spirit but properly signifying Breath or Breathing which is likewise the import of Afflatus the Expression Metaphorically also us'd in Latin to imply Inspiration which is represented as a Spiritual Breathing or a certain Acting of the Divine Power figured by Breathing And on the other hand in John 1.32 compared with John 1.51 Acts. 8.26.29.39 Revel 8.3 compared with Rom. 8.26 and several other Places the Spirit and an Angel or the Angels John 1.51 Hebr. 1.7 compared with Acts 2.3 4. are also put as the same or synonymous terms From whence it seems it follows that by the Spirit we must understand the Divine Inspiration carried and communicated by the Means of a Holy Spirit or Holy Angel that is to say an Acting and Influence of the Divine Power communicated to or performed on some Men at the Presence and Acting of an Angel or which is the same a Holy Angel acting according to the Direction of the Divine Inspiration and together with the Assistance and a certain Instuence of the Divine Power Thus the Spirit is both a Creature and not a Creature an Angel and also the Spiritual Breath of God or a certain Virtue of God or an Influence of the Power of God which is Something belonging to the Father or a certain Acting of the Father but appears not and need not be concluded and in reason cannot be thought to be a particular real Divine Person distinct from the Father As by the Word is understood both the First-Born the Word-Bearer and the Chief of all Creatures and a Divine Word or an Influence of the Father's Wisdom and Divine Nature dwelling in and as intimately as possible united with the First-Born The Father according to these Notions may then truly be said to be the whole Godhead or the only true God and to know alone all things but then by the Influences of his Divine Word Spirit he may manifest to others what He pleases that when he thinks fit properly 't is not the Father that is Incarnate but his Word which is agreable to Scripture as well as Reason And the Spirit may be said by a Figure to search the things of God See Crell's Touching One God c. Book 1. Sect. 3. Chap. 14. And indeed who besides God should know or search the things of God but the Divine Inspiration or they to whom it is reveal'd by the Divine Inspiration In the Form of Baptism and in the Creed the Word and the Spirit may well be mentioned after mention made in general of the Father tho' they be not Divine Persons distinct from the Father but be certain Influences of the Divine Perfections or certain Actings of the Father by some Powers or Virtues belonging to his Nature The Form of Baptism thus implies that thereby we are Consecrated the Disciples of God our Father and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Disciples of the Word communicated to Christ who has Redeemed us by his Doctrine and by his Blood and in fine of the Holy Inspiration also which Confirms the Gospel and Sanctifies the Soul of true Believers And in the Creed we profess this Belief Evidently herein is no Tautology nor any thing Superfluous For the Father and his Influences or God and the most eminent Actings of his Powers are things distinct And those Actings and Influences are not therefore known tho' the Father be and tho' they belong to the Father And tho' they were Necessarily in the Father it would not be Impertinent to particularize them after having made mention of the Father As after having said that there is a Sun it would not be irrational to add that we believe and know the Sun produceth Light and Heat Otherwise indeed what could the Trinitarians themselves plead for mentioning the Son and Spirit after the Father when they hold that the whole Son and Spirit are wholly in the Father and that the Father cannot be without them Now according to our System the Spirit implying an Influence and an Acting of the Divine Nature those may well be said to be the Temple of God in whom the Divine Inspiration resides tho' the Divine Inspiration be not a Person or not a Person distinct from the Father Indeed tho' the Divine Inspiration were only the Acting of an Angel commissionated and directed by God Christians in whom the Impiration works might then also be truly said to be the Temple of God and not of the Angel because the Angel works not for himself or on his own account but as sent and ordered by God and Christ and then according to the Jewish Phrase Apostolus cujusque est quisque as when an Embassador Wedds a Princess in his Master's Name She is not thereby Married to the Subject but to the Prince that sent him And the Angels may be called by way of eminence the Breath of God inasmuch as they proceed from him as our Breath doth from us or most probably inasmuch as they carry the Influence of the Divine Spirit or Power as God's-Word Bearer is called God's Word inasmuch as he carries the Commands of God and both acts by Gods ' Power and Wisdom and represents and exhibits God's
fine pretended that it seems marvellous that a Creature should be named before and should be said to have the preheminence over the Power of God by the Holy Ghost understanding the Influence of the Divine Power and Divine Inspiration it must be remembred both that by the Divine Inspiration or Influence of the Divine Power the Vnitarians do not understand a Person but a Property or an Act and that agreeably to the express Doctrine of Scripture they hold that Christ is made partaker of the Fulness of the Godhead in the manner we have spoken of before and just now have further specified so that for Desiring the Father he may at any time Dispose of the Divine Power and Inspiration and doth actually dispose thereof as is said according to what he pleases to ask it of God and therefore the Holy Spirit is represented as proceeding from the Father by the Son and the Holy Spirit is said to be Christ's Now it is not strange that the Disposer should be mentioned before the thing disposed of as it is in the Form of Baptism There is then no need to insist any longer upon this And so we have don with the second Particular importing that the Assertions of the Vnitarians are not uncredible and that their Interpretations are rational and agreeable to the stile and current of Scripture and therefore natural and obvious enough And this together with the following Particular being considered the Trinitarian Sentiment will appear to be wholly groundless and incontestably therefore altogether incredible For indeed is it likely that Christianity for many Ages having been altered in many weighty Points the present Trinitarian at least seemingly impossible and contradictory System has all this while remained the same that it was from the beginning and by the hands of the Platonists and Scholasticks has passed pure and undefiled In Summ. When some Texts seem susceptible of two Senses the one more literal but expresly irrational or contradictory impossible manifestly inconsistent with other Passages and the Current of Scripture and the other more strained or figurative but agreeable to the Scripture-Stile and reconcileable with Reason which of the two Senses do the generality of Christians and in particular Protestants commonly prefer in their Interpretations They unanimously hold as a standing Rule by which the Scripture is to be interpreted that it may be rightly understood as was shewn in the last Chapter That We are to reject that Sense which is manifestly absurd and inconsistent with express Texts and are then to hold by that which is reconcileable to Reason and Scripture tho' somwhat more remote from the Sound of the Words And indeed it would evidently be most unreasonable to follow other Measures We ought then most incontestably constantly to prefer that Interpretation which is consistent with Scripture and Reason before that which is inconsistent with both And this Consideration leads Us to the next Particular CHAP. XIII An Answer to the third Branch of the Objection 3. IT is possible and easy and warrantable to understand in an Vnitarian Sense all the Texts which the Trinitarians alledge for their Sentiment To evince the truth of which Proposition we shall consider those Texts which are mentioned in the Objection and instanced in as the strongest for the Anti-Vnitarian Cause and as for the others we shall refer the Reader to the Brief History of the Vnitarians or even to Grotius his Annotations but especially to the Works of the Fratres Poloni The Texts instanced in for the purpose aforesaid are those which either call Christ the Son of God by way of eminency or shew that Christ may and is to be Pray'd to and declare that God will have Men honour the Son even as they honour the Father As to the Texts which call Christ the Son of God by way of eminency an Observation of Dr. Sherlocks will go a great way to give a light into that Matter These are his words at Pages 71st and 72d of his Book against the Bishop of Gloucester That which entitles Creatures to the natural relation of Sonship to God is to receive their being from God in the likeness and resemblance of his own Nature Thus Angels are called the Sons of God and so is Adam who was immediately formed by God in his own Image and Likeness And thus som think that Christ who was as immediately formed by a Divine Power in the Womb of the Virgin as Adam was of the Dust of the Earth is for this reason called the Son of God See Luk. 1.35 where that reason is expresly given of Christ's being call'd the Son of God The Vnitarians to this Observation will in particular add that no Creature was ever made in so great a Likeness and Resemblance of the Divine Nature nor designed to so high a Dignity as Christ was and that this particularly is the reason why Christ is called the Son of God by way of eminency besides that He is actually God's Only-Begotten Son as we did observe from Luk. 1.35 This is a plain and a rational and after all an unexceptionable account of the Matter and therefore what Dr. Sherlock adds thereupon serves only to shew that the Scholastick or Platonick Trinitarian Sentiment of Christ's Sonship is impossible For this is certain and undeniable and yet if the Platonick or Scholastick Sentiment were true this could not be allowed of according to that System for he says that System implies that there being but one Son in Christ it is Heresy to hold that Christ is the Son of God in any other sense than by an Eternal Generation Christ as we have seen is called the Only-Begotten Son of God because he is the only Person whom God caused to be born of a Woman without the help of Man And in that sense he is God's Only Son as well as in this respect that he is the only Lord whom God has placed at the head of the Vniverse and to whom he has subjected all Creatures For Soveraigns and Kings are called the Sons of God Luk. 1.32 John 1.49 c. as is shewn in the Introduction of Dr. Patrick's Witnesses of Christianity and this is the Only Soveraign and King who is constituted the Lord of all other created Lords and Kings in which respect he is like to God which we have not well translated equal to God as also in respect of the exercise of the Divine Power in working the greatest Miracles whenever be pleased and whenever he will Som People are apt to imagin that even God being called the Father is a valid Proof of more Persons than One in the Divine Nature But seriously do they think that the Samaritan Women and common Soldiers were acquainted with the Scholastick or Platonick Trinity Yet these speak of a Son of God Mat. 27.54 and to the other our Saviour speaks of the Father as of Somwhat intelligible to them John 4.21 Conclude we then that by the Father we must understand God the
Second Man the last Adam who was formed by God and had God only for his Father has been made a quickning Spirit Power thus having been committed to him to raise the Dead and do all that God doth 1 Cor. 15.45 Do they not in fine know that God will judge the World in righteousness by that Man Acts 17.31 And will the Trinitarians renounce that Man their Saviour and reject their Lord their Judge their Redeemer Will they slight this Man will they not honour him whom God has appointed to reign with himself whom the Angels worship and who because he was Slain has been accounted worthy to receive Power and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing Revel 5.12 If they think it not unfit to honour this Man to reverence this Man to bow the knee to this Man as God has appointed it then they serve a Creature and worship a Creature and consequently use an Inferior religious Worship as well as the Vnitarians Let them not slander the Vnitarians then for thus acting and let them not impute it to them as a fault thus to honour the Man Jesus Christ to the Glory of the Father who could make such an Excellent Creature as this and could so highly Dignify and Exalt that Creature The Children of Israel at the same time Worshipped God and King David and were blameless 1 Chron. 29.20 And shall Christians be blamed for worshiping God and the King whom God has set over the Vniverse when Men every Day fall down before Earthly Kings and ask Petitions of them The Vnitarians worship the Lord Jesus Christ as such a King to the Glory and Religious Service of God not barely as a King but as such a one to whom all Power is given in Heaven and Earth Matt. 28.18 Would you then think it unfit to call upon such a Prince or to ask Grace and Salvation of Him for the sake of his precious Death and Passion Or do you think that He to whom all Power is given and the Spirit without measure and in whom the Father most intimatelydwells is not able to know your Wants and to hear your Requests To worship Christ is then in some measure to worship God since Christ not only is a God or Soveraign the King of Heaven and Earth under God and not only acts most eminently for God so as most eminently to represent God but Christ is the true Schechina the Divine Nature constantly dwells in him and all Power is given unto him He is then hon'red to the Glory of God by God's Order and so God as was said is worshipped in him There is then but one God properly that is religiously worshipped tho' Christ be called God and be worshiped to the Glory of God In all the Dominions of Great Britain and Ireland there is but one Soveraign tho' a Subject in the Isle of Man bears also the Title of Soveraign and tho' the Viceroy in Ireland represents the Soveraign and be honoured as the Soveraign Indeed the Vnitarians that did not Pray at all to Christ when they own'd him to be the Governor of the World under God had not sufficiently weighed the last quoted Text of Mat. 28.18 where all Power is said to have been given to Christ nor had fully consider'd that the Father who dwelleth in Christ can enable him to do all things and that therefore now at least Christ is such an excellent Creature as the Arians hold him to have been from the beginning namely as has himself incomparably more Perfections and Power than all the other Creatures together They needed then no more have doubted that Christ can Know and Supply the Needs of Men in the Rank and Order that He is set than they would have question'd that a Mother can Take care of her Family I know not therefore that there be now any Vnitarian that do not Pray to and Worship the Saviour of the World the Lord of Men Angels the Man Jesus Christ in the manner I have specified namely in a subordinate degree to God honouring him as the King of the Vniverse under God as be that governs disposes all things under God's Direction as well as mediates for Men intercedes with God who is still to be held and ever must necessarily be lookt upon as the Supream Vnitarians then can no more be accounted Idolaters for thus worshipping Christ than Irish-Men can be said to be Rebels for honouring their Viceroy as they do Christ then being thus Call'd upon nothing is ascribed to him that is inconsistent with the Unity of God a Man is not Worshipped as God but as assisted of God and most highly exalted by God and Trust is not put in a mere Creature but in one abundantly assisted of the Divine Nature That is therefore ultimately and properly to put our Trust in the God-head dwelling in Christ. And the Vnitarians account the Worship of Christ a Religious Worship no otherwise than as it is intended and appointed to the Glory of the Father as Christs acts for God at the Helm of the Vniverse and as the Divine Nature assists him dwells in him is as intimately united with him as possble and is made in a manner Part of his Being And is it not thus that the Trinitarians themselves adore God and worship Christ And then where is the Great Difference or the Great Fault and Defect of the Vnitarian System Would they adore God as the Human Nature of Christ Or would they the Trinitarians worship Christ's Human Nature as God The Vnitarians worship or honour the Man Jesus Christ as the most Dignified Creature and as most intimately United to God and God as the Supream Being The Trinitarians cannot reasonably do otherwise And they cannot deny that to honour Christ as has been said the Vnitarians do is to honour God and not to give his Glory to Another Indeed to honour a Being that God has not appointed to be honoured is to dishonour God But incontestably to honour one whom God has commanded us to honour to the Glory of God is to glorify and serve God in that Particular and so to worship God And God dwelling in Christ as he doth as has been shewn is honoured and worshipped in Christ by his own Appointment as already said As to John 5.23 declaring it to be the Will of God That Men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father an Equality of Honour is no more necessarily to be imagined to be intended and required here than an Equality of Perfection in those Words Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Mat. 5 48 or an Equality of Fear and Trembling before mortal and earthly Masters as before the King of Men and Angels in this Text Servants be Obedient to them that are your Masters according to the Flesh with Fear and Trembling in Singleness of your Heart as unto Christ. Ephes 6.5 The Sense of this Verse of the 6th of
honoured with a like Honour with the Soveraign yet it is paid him particularly upon the Soveraign's Account in Honour to Him and in Obedience to his Commands who has so appointed it And thus the Scripture teaches We are to Honour our Lord Jesus Christ as one to and upon whom the highest Dignity Glory and Power that can be bestowed upon one in Commission has been in that manner confer'd and granted Namely to the Glory of the Donor and Disposer of it And this leads us to the last Particular that we have undertaken to speak to which is this CHAP. XIV An Answer to the fourth Branch of the Objection 4. THE Vnitarians produce sevâ—ral Texts of Scripture which seem most express and evident for the Vnitarian System I shall here mention but these few referring the Reader for the rest to the Apologia pro â—â—enico Magno or to Crell's Treatise Touching one God the Father in which Books may be found Several of the most select Arguments out of Scripture besides also several taken from the incontestable Principles of Reason all which of both sorts are there fully enlarg'd upon and do seem manifestly and unanswerably to evince the truth of the Vnitarian Doctrin I. The first Argument I shall mention shall be the last quoted Passage of the 2d Chap. of the Philippians where the Apostle declares that We are to own Jesus Christ as one exalted and made Lord and that we are thus to honour him to the Glory of God the Father So that as was said the Honour we are to pay to Our Lord Jesus Christ is not to terminate ultimately on him but on the Father for whose Sake and at whose Command the said Honour is given to the Lord Christ upon the account of his Exaltation as the inestimable Reward of his Obedience and upon the account of the most High Commission granted to him by God Now who doth not see that this invincibly demonstrates that properly Christ is not God himself For if he were literally God Almighty himself it would be absurd not to adore and honour him for himself ultimately for that would imply that the Divine Nature is not to be honour'd for it 's own sake It were in vain to alledg that the Trinitarians hold the Son has received his Divine Nature from the Father that so they may also worship him to the Glory of the Father They say that the Son had the Divine Nature eternally and not by a free Gift but by absolute Necessity and that it is the same numerical Divine Nature and Essence with that of the Father so that he is as much God and is as necessarily so as the Father from which Principles therefore it would need follow that the Son should be honour'd ultimately for himself or which is the same should be honoured with properly Divine Honour as well as the Father Then if things had been so the Apostle should have said We must honour Christ's Human Nature or the Man Christ Jesus to the Glory of God the Son But the Apostle doth not present us with any such Notions But he tells us that Jesus Christ is to be own'd as a Lord and the greatest Lord under God and is thus to be honoured to the Glory of God the Father What can be more express If the Son be literally God Almighty he cannot be exalted any higher and he must needs be honoured ultimately for himself with Supreme Divine Honour But says the Apostle the Father exalted him c. Whereas if the Son had been himself literally God his whole Person must needs have sat necessarily at the Helm of the Universe as well as the Person of the Father and it could not have been otherwise except a Divine Person could have ceased to be properly Divine that is to say except God could have been annihilated Now the Reader may please to make an application of this as well as the following Arguments to Dr. Sherlock's Rule mentioned before and by which he owns this Controversy is to be tried II. The Second Argument shall be that which the Dr. at the 197th and following Pages of his Book intituled The Scripture Proofs of our Saviour's Divinity explained and vindicated has carefully pointed out to us and taken great pains to prepare for us and make us sensible of it's great weight And indeed it seems a most express and decisive Argument It is that which is grounded on the 36th Verse of the 24th Chap. of St. Matthew to which the 32d Verse of the 13th of St. Mark is parallel the import whereof is That Christ declaring he did not know what God knew Namely when should be the Day of Judgment it follows necessariâ—y and most manifestly that he is not God himself The Dr. in the Place aforequoted represents the force of the Argument in these words There is an obvious Objection against the perfect intuitive Knowledge of our Saviour from what he himself tells us concerning the Destruction of Jerisalem c. For were he true and perfect God of the same Substance with his Father he could be ignorant of nothing Now how doth the Dr. solve this Objection as he calls it The common Answer to this says he is by distinguishing between the Knowledge of Christ as God and as Man That tho' as God he knew all things yet there were some Secrets for some time concealed from his Human Nature Well! Doth the Dr. know of some better Solution No. Is he then very well satisfied with this common Answer No. He neither likes this nor can tell what to say more satisfactory These are his words The common Answer to this is c. as was said in the foregoing Paragraph And this says he must be the true Answer or I know not how we shall find a better and yet it seems very hard that the Son who is but one Person tho' he have two Natures should be said not to know that which he did know whether he knew it as God or as Man This I confess is a Difficulty and always will be so while we know so little of this Personal Union that is to say of the Union of the Godhead with the Man Christ Jesus But then Dr if we know so little of it why do you call it a Personal Vnion and that of an eternal Son or an eternal Person with the Spirit of Christ But since you are pleas'd to call it so you must stand to it and must not pretend to evade by saying you know not how far it goes or what communications the Human Nature of Christ receives from its Union with the Godhead This is not the Point nor is it at all to the business in hand from which you ought by no means to be suffered now to flinch away when it manifestly appears to be against you and invincibly shews the solidity of the Vnitarian Sentiment For you have said and the Trinitarian System expresly asserts that the whole Son is but one Person and therefore
know his Benefactor and that he should be in a hearty disposition to express his Gratitude for the Benefit to the best of his power according to the Knowledge he can get thereof In the Revelations 19 12 We find it is said that our Saviour has a Name which no Man understands but He Himself Why then should We be so Decisive Magisterial and Imposing as if We certainly and infallibly understood all these Mysteries As we cannot reasonably imagin that we infallibly understand the most difficult things we ought not in reason to pretend to determine and judge for other Men in the most abstruse and intricate Matters Howbeit it seems the Semi-Arian System is much the same with or not essentially different from this of the Father or God and his two Powers and Influences or Acts. And it seems this is reconcileable with Scripture and Reason God grant Us all to do our Duty in this Inquiry and in all respects that We may discern and follow the things absolutely Necessary to Peace and Salvation A POST-SCRIPT Wherein it is farther consider'd That the Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost at most seem not to be inconsistent with the Unitarian System or to destroy the Necessity of keeping with relation to this Doctrin to the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church-Communion Wherein also it is inquir'd Whether the Unitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with a Trinitarian Church Of the Reasons of both Sides of which Query the Governors of the Church are humbly desir'd to give their Opinion FROM the whole it seems that these three Points deserve a particular Consideration I. It should be considered that the Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost seem not inconsistent with the Vnitarian System II. It should be inquired Whether the Vnitarians may joyn in Communion with the Trinitarian Church III. We should consider that what is inferred from the Vnitarian Arguments remains in force and that it is an indispensable Duty to profess and establish the Gospel-Terms of Communion and to keep to the seeming or apparent Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church-Union tho' the Trinitarians and some Vnitarians should opine that the Vnitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with the Trinitarians and even tho' there were in God what might truely be called Three Persons I. It should be considered that the Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost seem not inconsistent with Vnitarianism For tho' by the Holy Ghost and the Word the Divine Nature be taken to be implied yet it follows not that the Father is not the whole God-head Nay the Scholastick Trinitarians themselves acknowledge that the Father implies the whole Divine Nature Consequently whatsoever is properly and literally Divine belongs to the Father and is a Property or Act of his Essence seeing that it belongs to the Divine Nature and 't is own'd the Father implies the whole Divine Nature St. Basil agreably to this Tom. 1. Pag. 778. Paris 1638. calls the Divine Word and Spirit the two Hands of God founding that Expression on Ps 19.1 and 102.25 compar'd with Ps 33.6 Hands or Arms are the same speaking of a Spirit And we see mention made of the Arms of God Deuter. 33.27 Jâ—b 40.9 Ps 98.1 Isa 51.5 c. Howbeit in speaking of God who is a Spirit or a Spiritual Being it is evident it must be own'd thas these Expressions are but Figurative All then that the Arms or Hands of God can imply must be some Powers Properties or Acts Influences that belong to God Now by God the Scholastick Trinitarians themselves understand the Father or Him whom the Scriptures and particularly the Books of the New Testament ordinarily or frequently stile our Father as well as in general the Father meaning the Common Parent of Men more particularly the Father of Christians most especially the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as all agree And then as was observed the Scholastick Trinitarians acknowledge that the Father implies the whole God head Our Saviour is express that the Father dwells in him and doth the Works in him Joh. 14.10 And the Apostle teaches us that Christ is to be honoured to the Glory of the Father Phil. 2.11 All therefore that is meant and that appears can be meant by the Divinity of Christ or the Hypostatick Union is that the Divine Nature is so intimately united with the Soul of the Man Jesus Christ as the Human Soul is with the Body that the Divine Influence or Divine Indwelling in him and particularly the Divine Wisdom constantly illuminate conduct and assist Christ so as to enable him to represent God at the Head of the Universe to perform all the things necessary for such a Representative of God to do so that what belongs to God may be said to be Christ's all in kind tho' not all in all degrees who sees honours Christ may be said to see honour God what God doth at Christ's desire may be said to be done by Christ who procures it to be done by the God-head dwelling in him as a Human Soul simply and meerly by desiring procures of the Body with which she is united to do many Actions that she willeth that God has subjected to the Soul's Will and Power Holding then that some Texts of Scripture in some sense import the Supreme Divinity of Christ yet it can never be prov'd or with any colour of reason pretended that they necessarily imply any more than this For there are invincible Arguments against the being of more than one real Person in God by a Figure common in Scripture in all Languages Personal Acts may reasonably be attributed to Divine Wisdom or to a Divine Influence tho' it be not a distinct Person but a Property or an Act of the Father Even Charity is represented as a Person 1 Cor. 13.1 And God is said to send forth his Mercy Ps 57.3 Supposing then that by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel be meant the Divine Wisdom produc'd forth and shewn in the Old and New Creation as it is even interpreted in the Brief History in that case it must necessarily be suppos'd to be said by a Figure to be incarnate meaning that it rested upon in an extraordinary most ample manner or most intimately dwelt with and constantly assisted and illuminated the Man Jesus Christ as if it had become Part of him or were his own Soul Christ then the Son of God is a Divine Person in that he is a Man assisted and inhabited by a Divine Influence or Divine Virtue And holding that some Texts of Scripture assert the Supreme Divinity of the Holy Ghost it doth not follow that thereby is meant any thing else than the Divine Inspiration or an Influence of the Divine Power either Directing or Wonder-Working that is commonly annexed to
and so communicated to Men by the Chief Arch-angel and under him some Select Angels or the whole Body of Holy Angels as a healing Virtue was sometimes annexed to and communicated by the Waters of Jordan c. 2 Kings 5 14 13 21. John 9.6 Acts 19.12 Now then tho' the Divine Wisdom and Power be God himself that doth not destroy the Vnitarian System or necessarily imply more than one real Person in God For if the Holy Spirit is also a Person it is as it implies an Angel assisted by the Divine Power as the Divine Word is a Person meaning thereby the Man Jesus Christ inhabited by the Divine Nature We have seen that the Vnitarians themselves in that Sense acknowledge the Supreme Divinity of Christ and of the H. Ghost by the Divine H. Ghost meaning the Divine Inspiration annexed to communicated by the Angels by the Supreme God-head of Christ meaning in particular the Divine Wisdom and Soveraign Authority Influence of the Divine Power dwelling acting in and with Christ From which it doth not follow that the Vnitarians make the Angels or some Angel to be God tho' Christ be For they do not hold that the God-head in any respect is most intimately United with any Angel or that the Dignity Majesty Authority and Wisdom as well as Power that is the Fulness of the God-head dwells in any Angel so as that God be in an Angel to be therein Worshipped as in a Schechina or appointed Token and Symbol of the Divine Presence no Angel being constituted to represent God at the Head of the Universe as Christ is nor what belongs to God being said to belong to any Angel who is but a Servant as it is to Christ who is made the Lord of all No Angel then can be said to be God tho' Christ may as the Vnitarians acknowledge And yet they hold that as was said the Divine Power as well as the Divine Wisdom may be said to be God Now is it not the Safest here to stick to that which is Incontestable and Sufficient And is it not Sufficient to acknowledge that by the Divine Word may be understood a Divine Power Virtue or Influence of the Father that the Divine Spirit likewise is another Influence or Virtue of the Father that the Divine Word is most intimately Vnited with the First-born the Word-bearer or Soul of the Messiah that this Virtue of the Father is so much made Christ's own enjoying it as much as his own Soul or his own Reason Power that it may be look'd upon as Part of his Being as always having been even from the Beginning of the World Part of his Being so that the Messias may be said to have made all things inasmuch as all things were made by that Divine Virtue of the Father which from the beginning as was said was most intimately United to the Soul of the Messiah that the Messiah is to be honoured as the Mediator of the New Covenant exalted to the Government of the Universe under God and as the most Glorious Schechinah in whom the Father most intimately dwels by an ineffable tho' not visibly impossible Virtue or Influence in whom the Father is thus willing to be Worshipped that the Divine Spirit whether or no residing in or accompanying some Archangel or any Angels tho' incontestably not requiring to be Worshipped in any of the Angels nor devolving any kind of Divine Worship to any Angels as to the Soveraigns of the Universe nor making a Schechinah of any of the Angels is that Mitacle-Working or Sanctifying Virtue of the Father which dwells in Christians as its Temple or the Father's Temple whose Virtue the Spirit is and which with the Divine Word was instrumental to the Father in making all things as Fire is instrumental to the Apothecary in the preparing of all the Compositions in his Shop or as Heat and Light are the Instruments by which the Sun operates all things and benefits all the World If the Father implies the whole God-head as the Trinitarians unanimously own it cannot then bedenied but that the Vnitarians acknowledge worship the whole God-head And as I conceive it the Vnitarians assert that they worship Christ so much upon the account of the Divine Nature Dwelling in and most intimately United with him that otherwise they would not altogether â—â—â—ship him as they do It follows therefore that on the Vnitarian part the Difference cannot be thought to be essential or fundamental or that the Vnitarians cannot truly be said to deny the Divinity of Christ or of the Holy Ghost For as touching the Holy Ghost it cannot be denied but that a Divine Virtue Inspiration may be meant thereby And as concerning what the Scholastick Trinitarians mean by or assert of the Divinity of Christ the Vnitarians own that that Divine Nature which is most intimately United with our Lord Jesus Christ doth truly belong to the Eternal and Almighty Being so that in that sense Christ may be said to be God tho' properly the title Christ denotes the Man that was born of the Virgin Mary as Grotius shews on Col. 1.16 and Math. 1.16 The Difference then here is only a Verbal Difference the Meaning of both Parties at the bottom being in this respect the same for when the Trinitarians say that Christ is Almighty God they do not mean that the Man is literally the Almighty but that the Divine is most strictly Vnited with the Human Nature And this the Vnitarians will not deny 'T is certain the Primitive Vnitarians did not deny it as was before said Then II. We are to inquire Whether the Vnitarians may not joyn in Communion with the Trinitarian Church By three Persons in one God which term Persons the Trinitarians themselves own to be here not only unscriptural but even very improper may not the Vnitarians mean as some do three Considerations of the Divine Nature for instance Divine Mind Divine Wisdom Divine Power which are a kind of Modal Persons which may be in the same Subject as Tully says that a Man may sustain divers Persons The Reason for the Affirmative is that for Peace-sake We must be made all things to all Men so far as there is no Divine Law or Prohibition against that which We condescend to Ephes 4 3 and that there is no Law against the terming the Divine Wisdom and Power Persons meaning Modal Persons The Reasons for the Negative are these particularly Not only by the three Persons the Trinitarians generally mean not such Modal but rather Real Persons so that to mean such suppos'd or pretended Modal Persons would be a piece of Dissimulation but even this term disguises the Christian Religion and is contrary to the Gravity and Solemnity of the Divine Worship c. The Scripture no where enjoyns us to address Prayers to God the Inspiration or to assert a Divine Person by the Name of God the Holy Ghost Tho' the Holy Ghost be taken to
15. 16. The Arian Notion of the Creation of the Material World by the Word and the Spirit or according to some the Holy Spirits under God p. 16. 17. That Christ in his Agony was strength'ned by an Angel is no Argument against the Arian System p. 18. In CHAP. V. That the Authority of some Heathens who spake somewhat like the Anti-Unitarians doth not credit the Trinitarian Cause and can be made no Argument against Unitarianism p. 19. 20. That the Jews never held the Doctrin of three Persons in God p. 20. c. The objected Passages in Pliny's Letter and in a Dialogue ascribed to lucian consider'd p. 23. 24. In CHAP. VI. That few of the Ante-nicene wrote and it was not impossible for them to deviate from the truth and therefore it is certainly 〈◊〉 preposterous Way to seek to be tried by the Writings of the Fathers p. 25. 26. That several Books of the Primitive Writers most credibly were suppressed which favoured the Unitarian Sentiment p. 27. That of the few remaining Ante-nicene Writers 't is credible that some are corrupted and that some are suppositious p. 28. c. In CHAP. VII That nevertheless it still appears that the generality of the Primitive Christians were really Unitarians Nazerenes Arians or Semi-Arians p. 31. c. Some Chronological Remarks or the Times in which some of the Chief of the Ante-nicene Fathers lived p. 36. In CHAP. VIII That the prevailing Sentiment of the Nicene and Post-nicene Doctors is of no weight against the Unitarians p. 46 c. In CHAP. IX An Answer to this Objection That the Work of Redemption and what the Scripture ascribes to our Saviour seems inconsistent with the Unitarian System it being impossible even for the most innocent and the most excellent Creature to reconcile God with those that have forfeited his Favour to know the Hearts to forgive Sins to govern the Universe to raise the Dead to judge the World and to do whatsoever the Father doth p. 50. c. An Appendix to the IXth Chapter being a Consideration of the Controversy concerning the Invocation of Christ p. 56. In CHAP. X. The stating of the third and last general Objection which consists of four Branches to this effect That the Unitarians their too much leaning to Human Reason is the Cause of their Error wherefore they should consider that Reason tho' an excellent Light and Guide so far as its Province and Capacity extends is in some most sublime Points short-sighted and blind and consequently an incompetent Judge then they might discern that the Unitarian Interpretations besides that they imply most unlikely Assertions are forced and unnatural and so remote from the obvious Import of the Words that 't is not to be conceived the generality of Christians when they read the Scripture can find out such Interpretations and imagin that it is to be understood in that Sense and therefore it is incredible that that is the true Meaning thereof moreover in opposition to all Reasonings it is to be observed that there are many Texts of Scripture which make up a strong Evidence of the truth of the Trinitarian Sentiment whereas in fine the Texts that the Unitarians alledge seem not express and positive for their System p. 60 In CHAP. XI That the Unitarians do not lay the whole or chief stress of their Cause upon Arguments drawn from Reason yet very justly on the other hand they think like all Protestants that Reason ought not wholly to be slighted p. 66. c. In CHAP. XII That none of the Unitarian Assertions are incredible and that their Interpretations are rational and agreable to the stile and current of Scripture and therefore natural and obvious enough p. 69. c. Some further Considerations concerning the Creation attributed to Christ in Scripture p. 71. c. What is to be understood by the Holy Spirit more largely shewn something also very particular specified concerning what may be the Nature of what the Scripture calls the Word and the Creation p. 73. c. In CHAP. XIII That it is possible and easy and warrantable to understand in an Unitarian sense all the Texts which the Trinitarians alledge for their Sentiment p. 79. Some further Considerations concerning the Worship and Invocation of Christ p. 80. c. In CHAP. XIV That several Texts of Scripture are most express and evident for the Unitarian System p. 88. c. In CHAP. XV. That from the whole Dissertation and the Gospel-Terms of Communion these four things are the least that can be inferrâ—d in favour of the Unitarians p. 96. 1. That the State of this Controversy is such that Men may be Unitarians and be very sincere pious and inquisitive and that if Unitarianism be an Error it is not a damnable and intolerable one or a Heresy p. 97. 2. That in our Terms of Church-Communion with relation to this most abstruse and intricate Subject We ought to keep to the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture and not to make any Publick Determinations and Impositions which would drive away the Unitarians out of our Communion p. 100. 3. That therefore First in the Publick Service We ought to address the Current of our Prayers to God in general in the Name and thro' the Mediation of Christ in the conclusion of them beseeching God to hear us and grant us our Requests for the sake of his Dear Son our Blessed Lord Saviour and Redeemer and so when We address some Ejaculations to Christ We ought in general to address to him as to our Mediator most highly exalted and assisted by the Divine Nature dwelling in him as aforesaid Secondly in our Publick Service likewise the Terms of Church-Union We ought to be content with the Apostles Creed which is worded in a Generality agreable to that of Scripture Thirdly no Subscription or Assent ought to be required of Clergy-Men in this Matter and its dependents but to the Expressions of the Scripture it self or to Terms that agree to the Scripture-Generality the Clergy-Mens Declaration being admitted of and accepted that they solemnly subscribe and assent to any of those things proposed to them but so far as they are agreeable to the Generality of Scripture p. 101. 4. That this Generality in Terms of Church-Union is a Safe Method in so intricate a Matter and is incontestably Sufficient all being certainly worshipped when in general God is pray'd to that is to be ador'd with Supreme Worship and the Mediatory Honour due to our Saviour being paid him when our Petitions are put up in the Name of Christ as our Intercessor and Redeemer most beloved of God exalted at God's Right Hand and in whom the Fulness of the God-head dwells p. 102. In the Post-Script I. That the strongest Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost are not inconsistent with Unitarianism p. 104. II. An Inquiry Whether the Unitarians may joyn in Communion with a Trinitarian Church Of the Reasons of both
the other wherefore we must explaine one Place of Scripture by another And we are to consider that St. John is writing the History of the Gospel of Christ We may therefore be sure that by the beginning here spoken of is meant the beginning of the New Dispensation that succeeded the Mosaical Oeconomy and that that New Dispensation began by the Preaching of the immediate Forerunner of the Saviour of the World For we see St. Mark calls that the beginning of the Gospel And thus 't is evident St. John begins his History by our Saviour's Instalment or his Entering into his Office which was at that time when John the Baptist was Baptizing and when our Saviour being Thirty Years Old was Baptized of him The Word The same term often denotes several things By the Spirit for instance several things are signified In like manner by the Word several things may be implied What here may be particularly meant thereby we are carefully to consiâ—er If every thing be duly weigh'd it will appear that our Evangelist to go on with his Allusion calls the Author of the New Creation by the Name of the Instrumental Cause to which the Old is attributed Heaven and Earth being represented in the First Chapter of Genesis as created by the Word of God And he had warrant enough to extend the Allusion so far and to bestow that Title to our Saviour seeing it was not unusual to give it to the Chief Officers of Princes See Grotius De Jure Belli et Pacis Lib. 2. Cap. 8. § 5. and seeing the Heavenly Messengers of God sent to execute his Commandments upon Earth were known to the Jews under the Name of his Word Ps 107.20 Wisd 18.15 16. Which last is the Angel by whom God smote the First-born of Egypt and who is call'd the Destroyer Exod. 12.23 which Name appears to be the Designation of the Office of an Angel 1 Chron. 21.12 The Author of the Wisdom of Solomon calls him the Almighty Word of God according to his most eloquent and figurative Stile not only to denote the Eminency of that Angel who was one of them that stand before the Divine Throne but also to declare his Swiftness and Ability in the executing his Commission and to illustrate the Fierceness of his Errand Philo calls the Angels Logous the Words of God as Dr. Allix himself observes There is nothing more common in Scripture than to put the Abstract for the Concrete as we see our Lord Jesus Christ constantly calls himself the Way the Truth the Life meaning that He shews the Way to Salvation that He teaches the Truth that He procures Eternal Life to all them that will obey Him By the same Figure He is call'd the Word that being as much as to say that He is He who brings the Word of God concerning the Eternal Gospel and who is commissionated to do and to declare the Will of God with respect to the Reconciliation of Fallen Mankind Thus Origen in Joh. 1. interprets it Seeing Christ is call'd the Light by reason of his Enlightning the World it is plain He is call'd the Word upon the Account of his Office c. See the Accounts why Christ is called the Word judiciously given by Pasor in his Manuale upon the word Logos and by Beza in his Annotations on this First Verse of the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel where he observes that Nazianzen and dustin give the same Reason with Origen why Christ is called the Word or God's Word-Bearer by excellency or the most Eminent Minister and Executor of God's Commands Was. The Word was in the beginning of the New Oeconomy That is to say While John the Baptist was Preaching to the Jews Christ was then in the World and was then the Person whom God intended and took for his Chief Word-Bearer And the Word was with God This design'd Embassador of God and Interpreter of the whole Will of God in whom the Divine Wisdom and Authority did most Eminently reside and most Conspicuously shine who was all his Life-time most Extraordinarily Inspir'd and Assisted of the Holy-Ghost and of whom it was foretold before his Nativity that He should be a Prince and a Saviour that He should Save his People from their Sins and that of his Kingdom there should be no End the World having been created for him that thereby God might be glorifiedâ— this most Illustrious Person was upon the Entering on his Office caught up to the Highest Heaven that He might behold the Glory to which he was called that He might converse with God in the eminentest Place and with the brightest Circumstances of Glory that He might there be most Solemnly endued with the Divine Wisdom and Power and that He might there have the Honour to receive immediately from God his Commission and to be most particularly taught by God Himself what he was to do and suffer and how much reason there was for him constantly to undergo and perform all this See John 12.49 50. John 8.38 John 6.51 c. Thus In the beginning the Word was with God whether both in his Body and Soul or with his Soul only it matters not for the Mind properly is the Man The Spirit of the Holy Jesus was then taken up into the Highest Heaven For he sais himself expresly John 3.13 that no Man before Ascended up to that Heaven but He who came down from thence even the Son of Man by excellency who was in Heaven or had been caught up into Heaven For every one that understands the Original knows that the Participle which here our Version hath Translated is may as well be Translated was And accordingly it is thus Translated by Beza Erasmus Camerarius and others on the Place John 3.13 And the Word was God And this Holy and Immaculate Person that was to be the Great Messenger of the Gospel and the Author and Procurer of Salvation was then Installed in his Office He was then Ordained and Sanctified and Sent into the World He was Solemnly constituted the Messiah He was appointed the Chief of the Chief of the Arch-angels as well as of the rest of the Angels He was made partaker as much as possible of the Divine Nature and particularly of the Divine Wisdom and Divine Power on certain conditions only his fuller communicating to others the Divine Spirit was reserv'd to his actual Reigning in Heaven after his Resurrection and most Glorious Ascension In a word He was declared to be upon the performing of his Undertaking the Heir and Lord of every Creature He was then on these Terms Proclaim'd God's First Minister He was thus even then made a Prince a Lord a Sovereign acting for God and by God's Commission And that is what the term God often signifies in Scripture That most Noble and Glorious Name is there given to Persons commissionated by God in most eminent Stations not only because they are God's Chief Ministers but because acting for and as it were
probably Ireneus was an Arian or at most a Semi-Arian What Grotius says of the Occasion of St. John's writting this Gospel may be seen in his Annotations The Vnitarians consistently to their System may hold all that he there says of the Word Verse 15. John the Baptist bare witness of him saying This is he of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he is before me As if the Baptist had said Tho' then this Man as it is at the 30th Verse that cometh after me enters upon his Office but when I have almost done mine yet he is called to an Higher Office and Dignity than mine for he is my Superior my Lord and my Prince he is the Messiah the Saviour of the World a most Holy Man the Son of God the designed Sovereign of the Universe and I am but his Servant and Harbinger Whereas the Vulgate has translated This WAS he of whom I spake Beza shews there is no reason but that it may be rendred This IS he In like manner we need not read he WAS before me but he IS Thus it runs more naturally This is he of whom I spake or said He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he is before me Is preferred before me That is then is preferred to an Higher Office and Dignity than mine Which saying the Baptist explains tho' somewhat obscurely as are expressed all the like Mysteries on the infallible understanding of which most credibly Salvation depends not and which seem intended to try our Humility and Moderation as well as our Attention and Industry by adding For he is before me Before me Or as it is in the Original Protos mou Princeps meus My Primate the designed Head and Saviour of the Church and Lord of Men and Angels And this explains and particularizes or intimates how Christ's Office is greater than that of the Baptist's See Erasmus and Grotius upon the Place Verse 18. Which is in the Bosom of the Father Or which WAS or has been namely when immediately before his entering on his Office Christ was taken up into the Highest Heavens See John 3.13 Sometimes that Phrase to be in the bosom signifies to be most Dear See Numb 11.12 Deut. 13.6 By these remarks and hypotheses the Socinians conceive the beginning of St. John's Gospel is made plain and intelligible And they believe that by the same means by using the like care and attention all the other Texts which the Trinitarians object may also be made to appear consistent with the Unity of God with the whole Scripture and with Reason CHAP. IV. The ARIAN System THE Arians do not much dislike the foregoing Exposition excepting that they are persuaded it is short as to these Particulars in that the Socinians do not hold our Saviour's Soul to have prae-existed before its Conception and consequently do not admit it to have been an Instrument in the first Creation of the World But the Arians maintain both these Points It is true say they the Word the Son of God by excellency is a Creature tho' most intimately assisted of God which the Socinians do not deny Christ is a true Man made up of a Body and Soul only and not of an absolutely eternal Hypostasis also or infinite Person of the same numerical Essence with the Father But then say they this Man's Soul was not only before Abraham but even was the first Created Spirit John 17.5 For so the Scripture calls him expresly the First-born of every Creature or the Beginning of the Creation of God and terms him by eminency the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 Revel 3.14 c. Moreover it is asserted that by him God made the Worlds Heb. 1.2 And St. John says positively that without him was not any thing made that was made John 1.3 Which expressions seem too extensive to be restrained to the New-Creation only All things then were made by him And therefore the First-born of every Creature must be so transcendently Excellent as incomparably farther to surpass originally all Men and Angels in Excellency of Nature Wisdom and Power than they surpass the meanest of the Brute Beasts In a word the Arians believe that that Holy Spirit whom the Scripture calls the First-Born and who in process of time was made the Soul of the Messiah is originally as Perfect a Being and as like unto God as Divine and Almighty Power could produce and as can possibly be imagined salving the Unity of God seeing it is said he had a Part in the Creation of the World in which God most efficaciously assisted him and it is represented as the highest Liberality to Mankind that God gave his Son to Redeem Men. The Arians then say that the First-Bern is Omâ—â—â—ousian or as like the Divine Essence beside that he is as much assisted by the Divine Nature as it is possible for a Creature to be And they believe he was produced in the Duration of Eternity and before Time that is to say before the Creation of the World And in that sense like the Semi-Arians they will not scruple to say that the First-born is Eternal so it be remembred that he was made and that he is not an uncreated Being it being impossible there should be two uncreated Beings or two Gods in the proper sense of the word But the First-born is a God next to God and as Eternal as it is possible for the Excellentest Creature to be If it be asked how the First-born could be Instrumental in the making of Angels 〈◊〉 may be answered that a Part might be assigned to him therein that we know not 〈…〉 has been held by many that the Souls of Men are produced by the Parents Iâ— so it cannot be thought impossible but that God might have endued the most excellent created Spirit with Power to Produce other Spirits But perhaps Angels have fine Vehicles which are Part of their Being as a Human Body is Part of a Man And then the First-born might be assisting in the preparing of these Vehicles when God had Created the Substance thereof When the First-born was created then was also another eminent Spirit or other eminent Spirits according to some Modern Arians produced but inferior to him and called in Scripture the Holy Spirit Thus far the Arians hold It may be that by this or these last not only an Archangel or the Archangels 1. Tim. 5.21 but the whole Body of Angels is to be understood for they often seem to be meant when the Scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit And if so they also were instrumental in the Creation of the World as well as the First-born tho' not so eminently as he but under him Which doth not import that the Angels or the First-born produced Creatures into being out of Nothing But the Chaos being created or prepared by Almighty God then for reasons not perfectly known to us God thought good to set the First born and the Holy
Angels in their several stations to work upon it and He directed and enabled them to concur with Him in the disposing and setting of it into a regular frame and beautiful and convenient order It is now the constant course of Nature that Creatures produce other Creatures A like Power then in an incomparably higher degree might undoubtedly be given by God to incomparably more excellent Beings It may be said that by the Sun all things in the World live and grow and that without him no living thing subsists or can subsist And could God create no intelligent spiritual and invisible Beings Superior to the Sun in Power and Vertue Why should we think the Material Sun to be God's Ne plus ultra or his powerfulest and excellentest Creature possible Thus then the Holy Spirits of God and among the rest and in the Chiefest Place that Most Excellent Spirit which afterwards took Flesh of the Virgin Maâ—y and was the Soul of the ever Blessed Jesus and next after him that Holy Spirit who is the Chief of the Angels or the select Angels sate and moved upon the Face of the Waters and helped to give the Chaos a Motion and to hatch it into a World It is certain that God alone might as easily have done all this as with the concurrent Assistance of his Son or Chief Minister and of his Angels But it may be He had a mind thereby to exercise their Talents and to try their Obedience Assiduity Diligence and Faithfulness in his Service Probably it adds to the Happiness of vertuous and holy Spirits to be doing somthing in the service of God It is also possible God would cause them to have a hand in that Work to endear the whole Creation to them and them to all rational Creatures according to the natural Duties of Gratitude What has cost us some labor we commonly have a great affection for witness the love of Mothers to their Children It cannot then but be a great satisfaction to the Holy Spirits to look upon Men as in some measure their Production as well as their Pupils That will naturally give them an extraordinary tenderness for Mankind Now there is a Pleasure in Love and in doing good And that the Holy Angels might not want that rational solid and durable Pleasure God according to this System thought good to employ them in his Works It is then no Argument that God could not employ them therein because He is himself All-sufficient thereto being Almighty Tho' God can easily do all things alone and is properly the only Creator yet we daily see that He makes use of Instruments or Means and Second Causes We have then no reason to stagger at that assertion of the Scripture that by and with that Holy Spirit that was born of the Virgin Mary God had made the World or drawn Order out of the Chaos and dispos'd all the Parts of the Universe in their due Places and Frame Tho' that Holy Spirit was the First born of every Creature and a most excellent Image of God yet immediatly after that he was produced before the being of Time or the Production of Angels and of the Material Creation it may be that God created many more Spirits of almost a like Kind and Dignity or incomparably above the Angelical Nature and that the Soul of the Messiah had then no Superiority besides that of Order over them but these were in a manner or in other respects equals subject only to God and equally Superior to the Holy Angels an equal number of the Angels and inferior Spirits being put when created as they were afterwards under those principal Lords or Gods according to the Scripture-stile But when the Lord Jesus was become Man and especially after He had shed his Blood upon the Cross and was risen from the Dead and ascended again into Heaven then He was made the Prince and Sovereign under Almighty God of all Archangels as well as of all Angels and of all other Creatures It seems necessary to suppose that then began his Superiority over all the sublimest Angels and all Creatures because the Scripture represents that as the Reward of his Obedience and of the constant and faithful Performance of his Undertaking So that if there were no created Spirits of almost the like Excellency with him yet from the very beginning that there were Angels there might be many Archangels which were not wholly subjected to him tho' of a nature very much inferior to his but had like him an immediate access to God and were then accountable to God alone altho' at the first at their Creation God had left it to the First-born to appoint to each of them their Office and Station Perhaps the Socinian Exposition is here to take place as to the Creation of Dominions and Powers by our Lord Jesus Christ and the First-born inherited not the Dominion till after the Performance of his Undertaking for Mankind And perhaps the Eternal Continuation of Glory was the Reward proposed to Christ These things may exactly be some of these ways for ought any body knows And there is no reason to look upon the Arian System as incredible upon the account that during the Agony which our Blessed Saviour underwent a little before his Passion an Angel was sent to strengthen him Creatures may sometime need to be put in mind of those things which they already know We daily see that good Men are much comforted and edified by the Exhortations of other Men like themselves and somtimes inferior to themselves Our Saviour was become a Man and was then under such streights as are most dreadful to Human Nature He wanted therefore external Assistances the Powers of his Spirit being depressed to the Measure of a Human Soul at its Incarnation But it was afterwards raised above its former Grandeur being exalted to Sir at the right hand of God The first Verses of St. John's Gospel and the other Texts relating to our Lord Jesus Christ are very easy and intelligible being taken in a Sense agreable to this System But as to the Holy Spirit it may be the Scripture means chiefly thereby the Holy Inspiration and an Influence of the Power of God CHAP. V. The Answers of the Unitarians to the Chief Objections commonly made against their Expositions in General and First the Answer to the Objected Antiquity and Vniversality of the Trinitarian Sentiment THE Trinitarians urge that all the Vnitarian Expositions may in general and all at once be confuted by this one consideration That theirs is the old prevailing Sentiment To evince which besides the Writings of the Fathers since the Council of Nice and some Passages out of the Ante-nicene they quote Pliny's Letter to Trajan wherein he acquaints him that Christians Sang Hymns to Christ as to a God and Lucian's Philopatris where mention is made of the God of Christians his being one in three and three in one Now say the Trinitarians it hereby appears that ours is the
heard of that strange Doctrin and took occasion to mention it Yet the original Meaning of that Mystery might be that Christians looked on the Son and Spirit as Divine or most Sublime Persons next to God and one or as one with God being of the like Nature or of the like Affections with Him and being together with Him above all Angels as well as above all Men whereby however was constituted but one Divine Government the Holy Scripture owning properly but one God and the Primitive Christians so understanding it Howbeit t is reckoned that Lucian flourished about the middle of the Second Century And the Vnitarians own that the Evangelical Doctrin concerning the Divin Vnity was then begun to be corrupted On the other hand Trinitarians will not cannot deny but that Vnitarianism was professed at least by many Christians from the beginning of Christianity Wherefore the Trinitarian Plea of Antiquity appears vain unless it could be shewn that the Vnitarian Doctrin was not allowed of in the earliest times of the Church and was not the Sentiment of the Apostles themselves CHAP. VI. A Continuation of the Answer to the First Objection 3. NO very considerable Argument can be drawn out of the Antenicens Authors because they were but few that wrote and it was not impossible for them to deviate from the Simplicity of the Gospel Therefore certainly it is a preposterous Way to seek to be tried by the Writings of the Fathers Good Christians as Origen observes Pref. Operis contra Cels. reckoned in those Primitive times that Christianity was better taught and defended by an innocent and exemplary Life than by a multitude of Writings Which shews that they esteemed the essence of Christian Religion to consist not in abstruse Notions or strange Mysteries and many Points of Speculation but in plain Doctrines few in number easy to be remembred if Men would have been content with them and worthy of all acceptation and in natural Precepts agreable to right Reason approved to every Mans Conscience and but a new Transcript and Confirmation of the Light of Nature They were persuaded that Sincere Repentance according to the tenor of the Gospel and Holy Living and the Habitual Practice of Vertue proceeding from a Principle of Faith that God is and that thro' Christ He will reward them that diligently seek him and will render to all Men according to their Deeds was the Way to Heaven and the Sum of Christianity They thought it not necessary therefore to write many Books looking upon Christianity but as Natural Religion revived and confirmed by Christ or by God in and by the Ministry of Christ with the addition only of the two Sacraments and Praying to God in the Name of Christ as our Mediator and Intercessor the Procurer and Chief Minister of the Covenant of Reconciliation the Head of the Church the Saviour of Men and the Governor of the World to whom all Power was given for the Administration of the Universe under God and who is constantly assisted by the Spirit of God which he has the priviledge to communicate to his Disciples as it is sufficiently declared in the Writings of the New Testament Christian Religion thus conceived and understood is soon taught and learnt and therefore needs not many Glosses and Comments according to the Oracle in Jeremiah 31.34 And it seems the generality of the Primitive Christians had this Idea of Christianity as may be shewn by the Relicks we have of them or even by the Writings of their Successors tho' those went farther * The same God who gave the two Covenants is He who gave Philosophy to the Greeks Clem. Alex. Strom. L. 6. Our Faith is agreable to the Common Innate Notions of all Mankind Origen Contr. Cels. L. 3. The Law of Nature is the Chief of all Laws Id. Ib. L. 5. The Dispensation of the Gospel is the Restoration of the Primitive Religion which was in force before the Law of Moses Euseb Dem. Ev. L. 1. C. 6. The Religion which we now call Christian is the same with that since the beginning Aug. Retract L. 1. The Sacrifices that God requires of us are an upright Heart a pure Mind and a clear Conscience These are our Sacrifices these are our Mysteries Min. Fel. Octav. See Dr. Cave's Primit Christianity There were therefore after the inspir'd Writers but very few and most of those either too great Admirers of Human Learning or Fanciful Men that then wrote as appears from them that remain and as cannot with any reason be denied And it was not impossible for such as these to deviate from the Simplicity of the Gospel The generality of the Primitive Christians were plain and illiterate Men who contented themselves with the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles and stuck to them as their only Rule These were not like to become Innovators They studied only how to acquit themselves of their Duty and prepare for Martyrdom to which they were daily exposed But when Learned and Fanciful Men embraced Christianity especially those who had been Disciples to the Heathen Philosophers they soon looked for new Mysteries in the Gospel and supposed they made great Discoveries therein by the means of their Philosophy which they always had in great esteem They accomodated therefore as much they could the Expressions of the New Testament to their Philosophical Systems And thus the Mysteries of the Platonick Trinity were by degrees introduced among Philosophizing Christians These are not bare Conjectures Dalaeus in the 1st Chapter of his 1st Book De usu Patrum gives a List of the few Primitive Writers that we have whose Works are Genuine and Incontestable But even making the Catalogue as it is commonly made yet the generality of them that were Heathenish Converts prove to be Philosophers that always retained a high veneration for their Philosophy 'T is well known they were professed Platonists to the end and therefore it is no wonder if in some measure they accommodated Christianity to the Philosophy of Plato Justin Martyr said that the Opinions of Plato are not remote from those of Jesus Christ And the same was affirmed by Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Tertullian and the rest of the Platonick Fathers who expounded the beginning of St. John's Gospel by Plato's most obscure Notions of his Logos or Second God See Le Clere's Lives of Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea c. p. 28.29.84.85 c. Men that were such admirers of the Heathenish Philosophy were easily disposed to think that St. John's Meaning was much the same with their Philosopher's Sentiment when they perceived some Likeness between their Terms It is not at all strange therefore if they introduced some change in the Christian Doctrin especially considering that their Interpretations seemed to make for the Glory of Christ and the Honor of Christianity which without doubt in its native Simplicity appeared to Pagans to be too mean and too much destitute of Sublime Mysteries In Circumstances less
the contrary This may be a Sign that they searched after the Truth like other Men as well as they could which is very commendable and is every ones indispensible Duty But it is not the Character of those who are infallible and who must implicitely and absolately be followed as our Rule CHAP. IX A Second General Objection against the Unitarian System Answered THE next Objection on which the Trinitarians commonly lay great stress is That the Work of Redemption and what the Scripture ascribes to our Saviour is above the Capacity of a Man it being impossible for a Creature to become the Object of Worship and hear the Prayers of Men to make Satisfaction for Sins or reconcile God to these that have forfeited his Favour to know the Hearts to forgive Sins to govern the Vniverse to raise the Dead to judge the World and do whatsoever the Father doth In answering this this Reflection cannot but be premised that it is lamentable Men are usually so careless as not to inform themselves rightly of the Sentiment of those whom they condemn or are so unsincere as not fairly to represent it But most certainly this is the Case here As for my part I absolutely take party neither with the Socinians nor with the Arians but think it presumptuous to determine expresly a Mystery which the Scripture has left in a great Generality Howbeit I see plainly and am fully persuaded that the present Objection is wholly groundless and doth not in the least invalidate either of those Systems for it is founded on an either wilfully or otherwise erroneous and mistaken Supposition as if the Arians or Socinians held our Saviour to be a mere Creature or a mere Man Surely it is a Point of Justice and a Duty of Christian Charity not to misrepresent the Cause of any Party but to endeavour to take it in the best Sense and put upon it the favourablest Construction possible But the quite contrary is done in this Objection The Vnitarians therefore answer it thus According to our Sentiment Christ in the business of Salvation or Redemption is not left to work with the bare Strength and Capacity of a Man but is commissionated of God and by him constituted in Authority constantly enlightened and influenced by the Holy Spirit and directed and assisted by the Divine Wisdom and Power dwelling in him For we hold agreably to the Scripture that the Father assisting acting and dwelling in his Son by his Inspiration and the Influences of his Power and Wisdom the Fulness of the God-head inhabiting in him by its constant concurrence enables him to perform all that he is appointed to do Christ therefore in the Execution of his Office is not to be considered as a mere Creature but as a Creature in and by which God works and which acts for God and most eminently represents God and is most intimately possible one with God There is no Vnitarian but holds all this believing that by the said Means there is as strict an Union betwixt the God-head and Christ as there can be betwixt God and a Creature This is particularly what the Arians mean in giving the title of God to our Lord Jesus Christ And this especially is what the Socinians intimate by their seemingly strange Saying that Christ was made God Homo Deus factus What Advantage then over the Vnitarians have the Trinitarians by their Notion of the Incarnation of a supposed Second Divine Person Can any thing be done by a Man supposed Hypostatically or Personally United with a Second Divine Person that cannot be performed by a Man in whom the Fulness of the God-head dwells in the manner aforesaid Since it is the God-head dwelling in Christ that doth the Marvellous Works can he not do whatsoever God pleases and whatsoever God can do And indeed what can the Trinitarians mean by their Term of the Hypostatical Vnion of a Divine Person with Christ's Human Nature but this In-dwelling of the God-head in the Man Christ Jesus Dr. Sherlock at the 210th and 211th Pages of his Answer to the Bishop of Gloucester's Book gives the true Description of the Trinitarian Notion of the Incarnation in these Words The perfect Wisdom and Goodness of our Saviour was not mere Human Nature tho' as innocent and perfect as Human Nature can be in this World but the Divinity dwelling and acting in Human Nature influencing and guiding all its Motions as the Soul governs the Body for this is a true Notion of a God Incarnate that God lives and acts in Human Nature and is the Principle of all its Actions and Motions And is there any thing here that the Vnitarians do not hold Do they assert that Christ did any thing without the Divine Motions or without God's Guidance and Acting in him They firmly believe that the Man Christ Jesus readily and willingly assented to the whole Will of God and that God constantly assisted him and thus wrought in and by him all the Super-natural Works that Christ did What colour of reason then have the Trinitarians to pretend that the Work of Redemption surpasses the Capacity which the Vnitarians ascribe to Christ It is plain that since the Vnitarians assert that God constantly influences and guides assists and acts in and by Christ which it seems is the Summ of what the Trinitarians themselves hold which expresly is all that the Scripture teaches of the Union between God and Christ and which most certainly suffices to impower Christ to do whatsoever God can do the Dispute and Quarrel here of the Trinitarians with the Vnitarians is altogether groundless and unwarrantable We have all the reason imaginable to love God with all our Soul and to be eternally thankful to his Divine Majesty for thus addressing himself to us miserable Sinners wonderfully speaking and acting in and by his Son Christ Jesus to reconcile the World unto himself and enabling him to Save to the uttermost all those that come to God thro' him As was said this is all that the Scripture expresly teaches us concerning this Matter The Scripture represents God doing all things for Christ upon his request The Trinitarians therefore cannot justly find fault with the Doctrin of the Vnitarians concerning our Saviour's Person But the Vnitarians are bound to reject what the Trinitarians add thereto not only without express Authority of Scripture but contrary to the clearest Light of Scripture and Reason Altho' God by the Influence of his Divine Wisdom and Power dwells in Christ and is represented as constantly assisting him and acting in and by him yet the Scripture no where says that God or the Father and Christ make but one Person It cannot be imagined and the Trinitarians themselves do not assert that by God's dwelling in Christ is meant any more than God's constant guiding and assisting him Now it no way follows that because a Son willeth all that his Father willeth and the Father constantly guides and assists his Son therefore the Father and
the Son are but one Person But it is evident that the Father being an intelligent Being and the Son a distinst intelligent Being from the Father the Father and the Son must necessarily be two Persons For a Spirit as long as he exists cannot but have always in himself distinctly from all other Spirits what constitutes a Person and can say some things of himself distinctly from others Thus how strictly soever God and Christ be United Christ can say of himself that he is a Creature so many Ages Old God can say that he is Self existent and never had a Beginning Now here are two he 's or two l's and consequently 2 Persons for these are Personal Pronouns each of them denotes a distinct Person And the Scripture is so far from asserting God and Christ to be one Person that it constantly distinguishes Christ from God Indeed in the Scripture-stile a special Messenger and Representative may beare the Name of him whom he most especially acts for and represents And Christ may moreover be termed a God in an Inferior Sense as Kings and Princes are called Gods in Scripture He may also be called God inasmuch as a Divine Influence most intimately dwells in him But the Scripture not only no where says that Christ is literally the same God with the eternal God or is the Whole of the Father but it teaches the contrary For it all along represents Christ as a Man in whom God dwells and whom God exalts to the highest Dignity over all other Creatures And Christ himself expresly says that the Father is greater than be Which manifestly imports that tho' God dwels and acts in him yet God is distinct from him and still keeps the Supreme Authority to himself reserving to himself the Power to act in him when or so far as he pleases for he was not pleased for instance to enable him to dispose wholly of the Gifts of the Spirit till after his Ascension and he had not revealed to him when should be the Day of Judgment but kept to himself the Times and Seasons c. Thereby then it appears that Christ is but a Man acting for God and to that end assisted of God as was said tho' the Trinitarians generally will not allow him to be truly a Man but only a Human Nature which is but an imaginary Shadow of a Man When they call him God-Man they mean only a Divine Person united with their General Conception of a Human Nature that has no real Subsistence which is not truly a Man For as the Bishop of Gloucester excellently well observes p. 63d of his Reflections upon the late Examination of the Discourse of the Descent of the Man Christ Jesus from Heaven to say that the Man Jesus has no Subsistence of his own is to say that he has no other Subsistence than an Accident has in union with the Substance to which it belongs and this makes him inferior to any Man God ever made Nay this actually unmans him Therefore the Bishop rightly calls this monstrous Doctrine Scholastick Gibberish Whereas the Scripture not only never calls Christ a God Man but in a great many places calls him a Man John 8.40 John 1.30 Acts 13.38 1 Tim. 2.5 c. and expresly says that as to his Person and Human Circumstances he was in all things like unto us Sin excepted Hebr. 2.17 Hebr. 4.15 1 Cor. 15.21 Now if he be a Man he has a Subsistence of his own for so has a Man and if he has a Subsistence of his own he cannot be supposed to be united to the Godhead and to be a God but as the Vnitarians hold he is Namely inasmuch as God constantly guides him and acts in and by him in the High Station in which He has placed him which after all the Trinitarians as we have seen own is all they mean by the Incarnation or Personal Union and so it is most incontestably evident that notwithstanding the Difference that the Trinitarians make between Them and the Vnitarians they can give no reason for their pretence that according to the Vnitarian System the Lord Jesus is Vncapacitated for the Work of Redemption And if he were So according to the Vnitarian from what has been said it manifestly appears he should as much be So according to the Trinitarian Scheme For both found his Capacity upon the In-dwelling or Assisting Godhead in him To this the Trinitarians reply that except the Godhead and the Man Jesus Christ were supposed to make but one Person Christ could not be said as be is to do those things which none but the Divine Power doth Therefore it must be infer'd that this one Person Christ is God-Man and implies a Divine and a Human Nature Personally-united together For the Scripture attributes the Miracles of our Saviour to his own inherent Power and his Revelations and Prophesies to his own Personal Knowledg For it is said that he knew what was in Man that he rebuked the Wind and the Sea that he will raise the Dead at the last Day c. To this Plea the Vnitarians answer that by the same reasoning when our Saviour promised his Disciples John 14.12 that They should Do greater Works than those he had done the Trinitarians cannot avoid concluding that they should do those Miracles by their own Power and that they should then be considered as indeed Personally-united with the Godhead But cannot the Trinitarians consider that Men may be said to do those things which are effected by the Means and Helps which they make use and can dispose of Is not a General said to take a City which his Army storms at his Orders Is not a Physician said to do a Cure that is effected with God's Blessing by the Remedy he has prescrib'd In like manner may not Men be said to do those things which are wrought by the Power which God has invested them with or granted them the disposal of To come then to the objected Particulars Christ works Miracles raises the Dead forgives Sins and doth whatsoever the Father does by desiring God to do these things at his request which the Father alloweth him to ask and to expect of him Therefore all things whatsoever that he sees or knows the Father doth or can do and that are requisite to the fulfilling the Work of Salvation Christ begs the Father to do them and the Father doing them at this his most beloved Son's Intercession Christ is censed or reckoned to do them The way that all Intelligent Beings Do those Things that God has put in their Power is by Willing them and Vsing the Means which God or Reason has shewn they may be effected by For instance For a Man to move his Hands or Feet his Soul needs but to will it to nourish his Body he must take the things and apply them as God has appointed to that end Now it seems all the Means which God has appointed for Christ to do whatsoever the Father doth
is to know them to know the Father will do them for him and to desire them of the Father For tho' it be said that Christ did and is to do most wonderful Works yet the Scripture is very far from saying that he doth them of Himself or by his own Power Himself says the quite contrary John 5.19 The Son can do nothing of himself John 14. â—0 The Father that dwelleth in me He doth the Works Matth. 12.28 I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God And John 11.41 42. Father I thank thee that thou Hearest me always How could Christ have declared more expresly that he doth not the Supernatural Works by his own Power but by the Means which have been said Namely By knowing that the Father will do them for him and By desiring the Father to do them by his Divine Power and by what Means He pleases to use Seeing that the Father has promised our Saviour to hear him always he may truly say that all things which the Father has are his And therefore it is certain that not only there never was such another Prophet as Christ but also that he is the most Excellent and most Dignified Creature that can be But yet we see it doth not follow that because he doth what none but God can do he is therefore hypostatically united with a Divine Person and that distinct from the Father The Scripture shews us How Christ doth all Supernatural Things he himself tells us he desires the Father to do them and the Father always grants his requests and doth what he desires and he desires nothing but what he knows the Father will grant and the Father has promis'd and constantly gives him whatsoever is necessary for the Discharge of his Office Christ then may truly say that as the Father has Life in himself or at his disposal so has he given to the Son to have Life in himself For as the Father doth all things by Willing them so Christ doth all things by Desiring them As God has put Power in the Natural Sun to vivify all Seeds in the Earth so he has in an infinitely more excellent way invested Christ the Sun of Righteousness with Power to quicken the Dead But still the Power of the Lord Jesus is the Divine Power And we see that as we have said God makes Christ to be Partaker thereof So that as the Father has Divine Power in him so has He given to the Son to have Divine Power in him insomuch that when the Father has shewn him a Miraculous Thing the Son can do the same likewise by the Assistance of the Divine Power which dwells in him and which he constantly has the use of by Willing and Asking or affectionately Desiring Thus Christ knows the Hearts by the same Means by the Divine Power that is in him or annexed to him and that reveals them to him See the Brief History of the Vnitarians on John 2.25 and Revel 2.23 So that as Dr. Sherlock himself says at the top of the 196th Page of his last Book the Knowledg of Christ is from the Father's dwelling in him And by that Means Christ Governs the Vniverse and will Judge the World As to Christ's Efficacy in obtaining Forgiveness for all those Sinners whom he persuades and excites to forsake their Sins and to become Obedient and New Creatures it is the strangest thing in the World to imagin that God cannot grant that which is altogether agreable to the Propensions of his own Nature to his most beloved Son even upon that Act and Submission of his which argues the most perfect Obedience and makes the most solemn Reparation to the Divine Justice and Authority As Dr. Whichcot expresses himself upon this Subject Pages 62 d and 63 d of his Select Sermons We are in the hands of him that is Primarily and Originally Good And He will certainly commiserate every Case so far as it is compassionable Now the Case of a Sinner is compassionable if he be Penitent God might then surely accept of Christ's Sacrifice as as sufficient Attonement seeing that it so fully confirms God's Hatred to Sin and his Good Will to those that Obey him and is consequently the powerfullest Motive and the likeliest Means to engage those for whom that Sacrifice is offered and who are not yet incorrigible to forsake their evil Ways to accept the Offers of Grace and to be reconciled to God Christ's Death is the fullest Confirmation of God's Good Will to those that obey him seeing that upon the account of his Son 's perfect Obedience He has exalted him to the highest Glory even of being Partaker of the Divine Nature and Power And it is also the fullest Confirmation of God's absolute Hatred to Sin seeing He would not pardon the Sins of Men without this Consideration Condition that he who was Innocent the most Perfect Excellent Creature pleaded for the Fallen Race of Mankind should as their Advocate suffer in their stead expiate their Sins with his Blood and thus exhibit a most solemn Demonstration of the Demerit of Sin But this no where is represented in Scripture as a perfectly equivalent Satisfaction in the most rigorous sense And neither Scripture nor Reason shew that God can Pardon but upon such Terms See the aforesaid Sermons of Dr. Whichcot Pag. 301 c. on Act. 13.38 As the Bishop of Gloucester observes at the 85th and following Pages of his aforesaid Reflections on the Book of Dr. Sherlock against him Christ's meriting of God the Father cannot be understood in the highest sense of meriting as we may merit of one another that is by doing acts of Kindness and Beneficeace from mere Good Will or no antecedent Obligation to the Person to whom the Kindness is shewn 'T is nothing but the wretched Popish Doctrin of Merit that has made it an offensive word in relation to God But taking Meritum and Mereri in the Fathers sense there is no offence to be taken at it as respecting God For they meant no more than having a right to be rewarded by him from the performance of that Obedience or Service to which he has annexed the reward by a most gracious Promise But as it is impossible to do God Almighty a Kindness or Benefit so I cannot understand how the Son of God himself could in this sense merit of his Father the Redemption of Mankind since he did or suffered by vertue of the Union nothing but what the Will of his Father obliged him unto Lo I come said he to do thy Will O God And his perfectly complying with this Will was his meriting our Redemption of his Father as He willed to make him the Author thereof upon that Condition And therefore Mr. Calvin says well Totum Meritum Christi pendet à Voluntate Divina Now will any Man say that Christ as Man did not thus merit Then by the most wonderful Submission and Self-Resignation of the Man Christ Jesus who was most
5. Cap. 18. The Author of the Humble Inquiry at P. 15th 16th of that Book observes this Doctrin concerning Christ's Human Nature being capable to know what passes upon Earth and so to see and hear and assist Men is so far from being with any justice or reason to be by the Trinitarians objected to the Vnitarian System that the greatest part and the most Learned of the Trinitarians agree with Socinus in this Point For the School-Men both Thomists and Scotists and the Lutherans generally ascribe this Universal Knowledge to the Man Jesus Christ And of the Modern Reformed Divines that Author quotes Mr. Baxter Dr. Goodwin together with a worthy Divine of the Church of England who wrote a Book called The Good Samaritan asserting that an Angel might be capable of Ruling the Universal Church on Earth now a Human Soul in a gross and fleshy Body is an Angel shackled and straitned in a dark and close Dungeon where he cannot exert his Powers and Faculties no more than an Infant can reason like a Philosopher but the Impediments being remov'd a Human Spirit is wise free powerful like an Angel knows as he is known perhaps can direct the Course of the Sun or move the Globe of the Earth as easily as a Child can a Tennis-Ball that the Man Jesus Christ as easily inspects the whole Earth as we can view a Globe of an Inch Diameter that he Intercedes particularly as Man and cannot be thought to Intercede in a Case if he do not know it that the Human Understanding of Christ takes in all Occurrences which concern his Church that like the Sun-Beams He pierces into every corner and that as a Looking-Glass wrought in the form of a Globe represents the Images of all that is in the Room so the enlarged Human Understanding of Christ takes in all things in Earth at once The Vnitarians would only add that Christ doth this by the Affistance of the Divine Nature dwelling in him and both enlarging and inlightning his Understanding And indeed if Christ acting in God's stead at the Head of the Universe represented not God to the Glory and Service of God and by God's Appointment and if the Divine Nature the Divine Knowledge Power and Authority dwelled not in the Man Jesus Christ as the Vnitarians hold their Worship of him would be a kind of Idolatry That is to say if the Father by his own Appointment was not worshipped in Christ in whom incontestably He most eminently dwells or which is the same if Christ was not appointed by God to be worshipped to the Glory of the Father to which end it is necessary that the Father should make him partaker of his Nature and Power as has been said for tho' the Foreknowledge of Christ be not Universal and tho' at sometimes he feels greater Influences of the God-head dwelling in him than at some other times yet he must always receive sufficient Influences thereof to enable him to discharge the Parts of his Mediatory Kingdom and the God-head by a Divine Power which is an Influence of the Father's must constantly refide in and be as intimately as possible United with Christ to make him the most eminent Divine Schechina and to capacitate him to represent as he doth and act for the Father at the Helm of Government over all things so that being such a Representative of God as neither is nor ever was the like besides Him He truly exhibits God and the Divine Majesty dwelling in him in a most extraordinary manner In a word We hold that no other is of himself God or properly and eminently God Eternal and Almighty but the Father And we own no other for Inferior Gods but such as are truly so according to the Divine Order and Appointment And we honour them accordingly But God only We worship with properly Divine Worship Howbeit We worship God mediately or relatively in the Person of his Representative and Chief Officer Jesus Christ who under God is the Soveraign Prince and Great Lord or God or Vniversal King who acts most eminently for God that God may be honoured in him and who is appointed thereto to be honoured and bowed to or worshipped to the Glory of God And so we may truly and allowably worship God immediately in his own Person and mediately in the Person of his Lieutenant and most eminent Representative appointed thereunto that God may be worshipped in him in the extraordinary Honour that is paid him 3. The Vnitarians unanimously hold that indeed we constantly are to bow the knee to and worship the Lord Jesus Christ in offering our Petitions to the Father in his Name and thro' his Mediation but that it is not necessary to address our selves otherwise than thus to him and that this is sufficiently to call upon his Name in Prayer And in the most ancient Lyturgies extant there are but very few words addressed to Christ Which shews that originally Christians addressed the current of their Prayers to the Father excepting when in a Vision they saw the Lord Jesus Christ and heard him speak to them which St. Paul acquaints us happened to him once in the Temple 2 Cor. 12.8.9 4. It cannot indeed reasonably be denied but that when God in general is Pray'd to and these Prayers are put up in the Name of Christ then both the Mediatory Honour due to our Saviour is thereby paid him and all is Supremely Worshipped that is to be Adored with Supreme or Direct and Ultimate Worship Our Lord assures his Disciples that whatsoever they shall ask the Father in his Name the Father will give it them John 16.23 No more then can be absolutely needful In a word the Vnitarians honour the God-head above all things and the Man Jesus Christ above all other Creatures What can the Trinitarians do more Or what can they in this Worship justly reprehend Both Christ and the Holy Ghost will nothing but what the Father willeth and they will all that the Father wills Manifestly therefore it is sufficient to address to the Father the Government of the Universe is but one Government tho' God be the Supreme and tho' Christ have a Soveraignty over all Creatures yet considering the Subordination and Good Order and considering the perfect Agreement of their Wills and Affections there is as it were but One Soveraign but the Father is alone in himself the One only true Soveraign the Soveraign properly and eminently all own He sustains the Chiefest Part in the Supreme Majesty Authority and Government CHAP. X. A Third General Objection consisting of Four Branches THE last General Objection which the Trinitarians commonly reckon to be decisive against the Vnitarian Interpretations and System may be conceived as comprising these Particulars and may be Summarily expressed in these Terms The Vnitarians their too much leaning to Human Reason is the Cause of their Error wherefore they should consider that Reason tho' an excellent Light and Guide so far as its Province
And therefore Christ being but one Person and being known to be a Human Person or a Man cannot in reason be imagined to be the Most High God And there cannot be more than one Person in God for God is always spoken of and to in the Singular Number by Pronouns that imply a Person c. Now the Scripture speaks to us as to Men who are bound to make use of their Sense and Reason and for a trial thereof Figurative Expressions are sometimes employed But besides all the Considerations flowing from the Tâ—pick of Reason the Vnitarians as is to be observed in the Fourth Particular shew by divers unanswerable and express Arguments taken out of Scripture that Christ is a Creature and is not literally the God Almighty himself but only his Chief Minister and Representative and the most excellent and most dignified Creature in whom God most extraordinarily and most intimately dwells and in and by whom God most wonderfully works And therefore if by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel should literally be understood God himself or some Influence of the Divine Nature as it were incarnated with or constantly dwelling in and assisting the Man Christ Jesus it would not follow that Christ is literally the Supreme God himself or that there are more Persons than one in the God head As to the Creation attributed to Christ it is sufficiently evident it must be understood of such a Creation as a Creature is capable of if Christ appear to be a Creature Prophets God's Creatures and Ministers are said to do Super-natural Works and raise the Dead tho' it be not they properly that do such things but God by them at their presence at their streching out of their hand at their word or request and the like They do not the Miraculous Work by their mere Strength or by their own Power but by a Divine Power thus inherent in them or annexed to them accompanying and assisting them and working at their desire and yet they themselves are said to do the Work For instance in Mat. 10.8 Our Saviour bids his Disciples Heal the Sick Cleanse the Lepers Raise the Dead and in John 14.12 he tells them that they should do most wonderful Works now incontestably that signifies that God would do those Works by them or that they should do 'em by God's Assistance or with the concurrence of the Divine Power working at their desire In like manner the First-born might Create the World or might be said to Create the World and God might be said to Create the World by him as it is said that by the Hands of the Apostles were many Signs and Wonders wrought Acts 5.12 God was pleas'd to work by those Hands which of themselves were not able to do these Miracles but were enabled to do them by the concurring Assistance of the Power of God annexed to them or accompanying them To Raise the Dead or Cure the Blind is as well above Natural Power as to Create the World tho' to Create the World be more than to Cure the Blind and tho' a Creature which Creates the World or which may be said to Create the World has a greater Concurrence of the Divine Power annexed or united to him than one that only Cures the Blind Howbeit certainly a Creature which so represents God as to be Worshipped with God tho' but as the most highly dignified Creature possible must undoubtedly be infinitely more united to the God-head than one which only doth some Miracles or than any Prophet or Apostle before whom 't is not lawful to bow the Knee or on whose Name 't is not lawful to call Moreover we must consider it is undoubted and most obvious that often in Scripture by Creating is only meant disposing or modelling fashioning and setting in order Ephes 2.10 and 4.24 c. There is then not only no reason why the Creation attributed to Christ even if it were the First Creation should not be taken in that Sense but there may be an absolute necessity it should be so understood if Christ appear to be a Creature tho' never so intimately united to the God head And so that is then obvious enough to those who will diligently attend to the Stile of the Scripture and it is not God's intendment that any others should come to the true knowledge of it See Bishop Taylor 's 2d Sermon on Tit. 2.7 He that will understand God's Meaning must look above and below and round about c. The Secret of the Lord is with them who fear him and who consequently do what they can to know exactly his Law and reveal'd Will. Will any say that there are not some Expressions in Scripture to be understood in as seemingly a far-fetch'd Sense as any given by the Vnitarians If Men mistake when they have done what they well can in their circumstances to be informed aright it is credible that God will judge that a pitiable Case so they be humble and moderate and be not violent magisterial and imperious and do not pretend to impose their Sentiment on others but be willing in abstruse Matters to unite in the Generality of the Terms of Scripture In that manner the most ignorant not being so thro' their fault may be safe But God has not left the Scripture into tho hands only of unlearned and unthinking Men immersed in and mostly taken up with the concerns and businesses of this Life Tho' all Christians are bound in some measure to search and meditate upon the Scriptures God has set up an Order of Men whose particular Vocation is to assist other Men as much as possible in the right understanding of the Divine Revelation And surely no possible Means ought to be neglected which are Subservient to that great end And if these Means were freely calmly and impartially us'd which would be if Ministers were fairly to represent the Reasons Pro and Con in Difficult Matters without deciding condemning and imposing then all necessary Truths would soon be discern'd and it would therefore easily be made to appear to all Christians what may be meant by the Creation attributed to Christ in Scripture or how far the understanding of that Point is necessary and in what Generality this and the like ought to be lest The Chief Instances then which the Trinitarians give of the pretended incredible Assertions implied in the Vnitarian Expositions are these That a Creature could perform the Office of a Creator And then That one in whom the Fulness of the God-head dwells should need the Assistance of Angels and on the other hand That a Creature should be more honourable than and should have the preheminence over and be named before the Power of God by the Holy Ghost understanding an Influence of the Divine Power or the Divine Inspiration That a Creature could perform the Office of a Creatour Even at most upon as good grounds the Trinitarians might make the same Difficulty against Men producing other Men or the
the Ephesians is that as we would stand in aw before the King of Kings so in proportion of the Subordination Servants ought to demean themselves before their Masters The Sense of the Text of the 5th of St. Mathew is that as God is truly perfect so we ought effectually to strive to be perfect with that Perfection which our Natures are capable of And in like manner the Sense of the 23d Vers of the 5th of St. John is that as we honour God we must also honour his Deputy Vicegerent tho' nevertheless the one as properly God's Chief Minister as was said the other as expresly the Almighty himself The Kings of England may use the same Phrase to declare it their Will Pleasure That the Subjects in Ireland should honour the Viceroy even as they honour the King But that doth not imply that the one must absolutely be taken for the other consequently that is not to give the Supreme Royal Glory itself to the Viceroy no more than to honour Christ is to give expresly God's Supreme Glory to Another as the Arians do well observe besides that the Saying that God will not give his Glory to Another may signify that He will not give it to be dispos'd of that He will not give the disposition of it to Another or that He will not give to Another that Glory which is peculiar to Him of disposing of religious Honour and appointing Rites of Religion or that He will not give or impart a Sublime Heavenly Honour to Strangers or Aliens from Him neither will give his Praise to Idols that is He will not patiently suffer or allow that Men should make to themselves Objects of Religious Service at their Pleasure like the Heathens that the Religious Worship which is properly ultimately due to Him should be paid to Unfit Beings to Stocks Stones or to Daemons which are not truly in any holy scriptural sense Gods being neither the Supreme God nor Soveraign Officers of God commissionated with Power Authority thus to act for God so as most eminently to represent god and so to receive a Suitable Honour appointed to terminate ultimately to God So that God then doth not give properly the Religious Honour to Another tho' He commands us to bow the Knee to the Man Jesus Christ as we do to God If He pleased He might set Angels over Us or any Good Spirits and command Us to bow to them and ask and receive Graces of them tho' his Holy Nature cannot permit him to give any such Glory to his Enemies or ever to allow that Impure Spirits be sought to and reverenced That could not redound to God's Glory or the Good of his Creatures whereas the other might See a Passage of St. Gregory's quoted in the 1st Part of Bishop Taylor 's Sermon on Ps 86.5 where St. Gregery observes that Angels were Worshipped under the Old Testament But if so yet to be sure not only that was not a Divine Worship but even that Worship so far as it extended was for the sake of and terminated to God whose Immediate and Highest Officers and Messengers the Angels then appeared to be and so that hindred not but it might truly be said that God alone was properly Worshipped The Text Gal. 4.8 which we translate doing Service to them which By Nature are no Gods may be translated doing Service to them which TRUELY are no Gods yet it is the same if we read Of their Nature whether Supreme according to the proper and eminent sense of the word or Inferiour of God's creating and constituting according to the Scripture-Stile See Grotius on the Place Certainly we are expresly Commanded in Scripture to Serve the Man Jesus Christ Phil. 2.9 Yet incontestably the Man Jesus Christ properly is a God but in an inferiour sense We are then without doubt to serve the Man Jesus Christ as such a God appointed and dignified by the Supreme and Eternal God Act. 2.36 and we are to serve the Supreme God as absolutely being the Supreme God or as Him who is of himself God and who consequently is God in the most proper and eminent sense of that word Howbeit this doth not imply that Christ is not as intimately united with the Divine Nature as possible For all Power is given him in Heaven and Earth and acting for God in the highest Post he represents God at the Helm of the Universe But a Creature cannot thus represent God and govern the World and have all Power given it except God be with it and assist and direct it so as that that Creature have the enjoyment and disposition of the Divine Nature as of it's own Being whereby it's Power and Understanding being enlarged it may in a high measure Know and Act as God And accordingly as Sandius observes the Vnitarians held from the Beginning of Christianity that an Influence of the Divine Nature was incarnated in and most strictly united with the Man Christ Jesus So that Christ is not Worshipped neither is God's Representative or the Father's Universal Vicegerent merely as he is a Creature A mere Creature cannot comprehend in it's Thoughts and under it's Care the whole Universe and can never be such a Representative of the Father 's at the Helm of the Universal Government Nor can a mere Creature be Worshipped by all the Creatures in the Universe as Christ by God's Appointment is to be It seems God neither can nor will be thus represented by any Creature as a Creature Christ then is God's Representative and is Worshipped in his Mediatory Kingdom over the whole Universe Inasmuch as an Influence of the Divine Nature most intimately Dwells in him Assists and Directs him and Worketh in and by him and Inasmuch as the Divine Majesty is Conspicuous in him and As by his Intercession and by the Merit of his Death and the Vertue of the Covenant of Grace and of his Union with God and his Exaltation he Disposes of the Divine Power in the Gospel-Oeconomy A mere Creature may have a vast Honor and Power but not like that which appears in Christ in his Government of the Universe Whereas God has given us two Eyes whereby we may perceive three or four Objects at a time at a certain distance and two Ears which may imperfectly discern some few several Sounds also at the same time as the Sounds of certain several Voices and of some Instruments and two Hands by which we may take hold of several Particies of Matter and strike ten Strings at a time and move a certain Mass and steer a Ship and but a narrow Understanding according to the present Needs and the Capacity of our bodily Organs God might give a freer Carrier to our Spirits and endue us with more noble and vaster Capaeities and give us two hundred or two hundred thousand Hands and Ears and Eyes and enable our Souls to use them all fitly in reference to so many several Objects in the same instant
and consequently vastly enlarge the Natural Understanding in order to it's forming at the same time so many Thoughts and Conceptions It may be that an Angel or a Human Soul in a Spiritual Body has greater Capacities than we conceive and is all Hands and Eyes and Fars and Tongues and can clearly discern and hear and discourse and act upon a whole Nation But after all a finite Creature with the mere Strength of a Creature cannot comprehend the Universe Therefore an Angel or a Human Spirit cannot have all Power given him except God be with and in him in the manner aforesaid Likewise God may set up particular Kings in particular Places and give them vast Dominions and oblige their Subjects to be uncovered in their Presence and to bow the knee before them But in order that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of Things in Heaven and Things in Earth and Things under the Earth and that Christ may be enabled to receive these Homages and to govern the Universe and dispose fitly of all Creatures it is necessary that the Divine Majesty and Power and Wisdom be with and in this Man in the manner aforesaid Thus all the Lines of a Circle terminate to an individual Point in the Center A Spider circumscribed by and fixed in a Place teaches of its self no further than that Place but when it has weaved it's Web it may by the Means of those wonderful Threads act at a Distance from it's self and above it's own Power A Man with a Telescope pierces the Skies and discovers undiscerned Stars All this and infinitely more is the Divinity to the Man Jesus Christ He is in the Center of God and the Godhead is to him an infinite Circle all the Lines whereof as far as is necessary act upon him and uphold him and so he acts thereby The Influence of the Divine Nature dwelling in Christ and extending it self all over the Universe is the mighty Telescope whereby Christ sees all things and the infinite Web by which he is enabled to act every where And this acting is to be ascribed to him as well as to God or the Father and to him in this respect primarily or chiefly inasmuch as God doth all things in the Christian Oeconomy upon Christ's Account and at his Desire Indeed Christ wills nothing but what God wills But then God is pleas'd and willing now to do many things for the Sake of Christ and through his Mediation which He would not have done if it had not been for his Undertaking and his free and wonderful Condescension and Humiliation for the Race of Mankind and the Merit of his Death and the Covenant of Grace purchased by his Blood and his continual Intercession at the right hand of the Majesty on high Thus God and Christ are to be considered and sought to and honoured and worshipped and the Distinction that is to be made between them is evident God is of himself God and his Dominion is ever the most Supreme and thus He is to be Worshipped And Christ receives all things of God and his Kingdom is a Mediatory Kingdom and he is thus to be Worshipped And this is the Primitive and Scriptural Notion of Christ's Divinity The Heathens were particularly Criminal in these 3 respects 1. They set up of their own Heads and without any Warrant or Command some Mediators and some Symbols and Schechinas which they worshipped with likewise devised strange Rites and they made the Chiefest Part of their Religion to consist in the Worship of these they had such a vast Number of them 2. They set up many Supreme Gods Yet 3. They passed by the true God and worshipped Creatures and many of them Most Vicious Wicked Creatures for their Supreme Gods Which is the Meaning of Gal. 4 8 and Rom. 1 25. Whereby Religion became perfectly corrupted and unfit to purify Men and actually did as much harm as it was designed to do good Wherefore God would be own'd for the Only true God and requir'd to be Serv'd and Obey'd as such so willed that Men should not introduce any thing in his Service but what they had express Warrant for from Him either by the Light of Nature or the Light of Positive Revelation And that is the Meaning of Deut. 6 13. and Matth. 4 10. But all this hinders not but that tho' God is the Only Absolute and Independent Being who Only is to be Served as such and who Only is to be Worshipped with Ultimate or Divine Worship and who Only is the Fountain of Honour so that None besides Him ought to be Honoured but Those whom He Honours yet for all that Others besides God may when God pleases be Served and Honoured in an Inferiour Degree Relatively and in Obedience to God and so to his Glory and He may appoint a Mediator thro' whom We may come to Him Ephes 2.18 John 20 31 Phil. 2.11 God requiring it in order to his Glory and so it being done to that intent that is actually to glorify God and so is not to give his Glory to Another but to Himself Himself Only being ultimately served thereby See the aforequoted 18th Chap. of the 5th Book of Limborch's Theologia Christiana § 10. and an Vnitarian Pamphlet intituled A Vindication of the Worship of the Lord Jesus Christ P. 23 c. We may then incontestably Serve and Honour our Lord Jesus Christ as our Mediator and Mediatory King as was said tho' God Only is to be Served and Honoured as the Most Supreme and as the Eternal Fountain of Honour At the 11. Ve. of the 2. Ch. of the Phil. as we have intimated the Apostle shews expresly how that Matter ought to be distinguished when he says that it is God's Will we should honour and worship our Saviour and subject our selves to him and own him as our Lord viz. to the Glory of God the Father So that as was said it is evident the Honour we are to give to Christ is a Mediatory or Inferior Honour and is not ultimately to terminate on him but on the Father for whole Sake and at whose Command the said Honour is paid Howbeit tho' the Worship of Christ be not properly the Most Supreme yet it may be termed a Divine Worship in that Sense that Christ is said to be God We must needs then observe with St. Hilary concerning the difficult or figurative Expressions of Scripture that they are to be understood with Reason or in a reasonable sense Vâ—rba non Sono sed Sensu sapiunt Thus we may understand how Christ is God how we are to Call upon his Name and how he is to be Worshipped All Soveraigns are jealous of their Honour the Soveraigns of Great Britain would not endure that Wro-would of their Subjects should have Guards or should be served Kneeling Yet they freely allow it to their Lieutenant or Deputy because the Glory of it terminates to them For tho' the Lord Lieutenant be
tho' you know not exactly how great are the Communications of the several Parts betwixt themselves which constitute this one Person yet you must own that those Communications must needs go so far as to make of it but one Person Even all that pass for Orthodox among the Trinitarians acknowledge that Christ is but one Person and but one Son Now the business is to consider Whether any thing can be in general terms denied of one Son or of one Person which yet is true of some Part of that Person And the Vnitarians maintain that upon the considering of it this ought not to be found a mere Difficulty against the Trinitarian System but an irrefragable Argument of the truth of the System of the Vnitarians The two following Considerations are the utmost that the Dr. offers in order as he says to give a light to this Matter in so much that if both of them are invalid to solve the Difficulty it will appear that the Vnitarian Argument is demonstrative and irresistible 1. The first Reflection is this That notwithstanding the Union the Divine and Human Natures are two distinct Natures in Christ and therefore he may be ignorant of that as Man which he knows as God Now supposing that Possible with the Dr. yet this makes nothing at all to the purpose of the Trinitarians except our Saviour had thus expressed himself The Son as Man does not know that thing which you desire him to inform you of and therefore as Man he cannot inform you of it and as God he will not tell it you tho' as God he knows it very well But every one who can read our Saviour's words in the Evangelists may soon see whether they bear any such distinction 2. The 2d Reflection more to the purpose is That the God incarnate that is to say Christ being but one Person whatever belongs to either Nature may truely be afformed of his Person with respect to that Nature to which it belongs tho' it be not true of him with respect to his other Nature and thus therefore infers the Dr. if Christ as Man was ignorant of any thing which he knew as God he might truely be said not to know what he did not know as Man this says the Dr. is universally owned Now Dr. this is a gross Mistake and most notoriously your inserence is absolutely wrong and is so far from being universally owned that it is indeed owned by no body in the World that considers but the contrary is held by all Men. It is true that what belongs to any Part of a Person may be affirmed of that Person with respect to that Part to which it belongs tho' it be not true of him with respect to his other Parts For instance If a Man be Wounded in the Arm it may truly be said of that Man that he is Wounded tho' he be not Wounded in the Head nor Legg In like manner If Christ be both the Supreme God and a Man Personally-United he may be said in general to know that which he knows as God tho' as Man he know not that thing But because what belongs to any one certain Part of a Person may be affirmed of that Person with respect to that Part to which it belongs tho' it be not true of him with respect to his other Parts it doth not follow that what doth not belong to one certain Part of his may in general terms be denied of his Person when yet it truly belongs to some other Part of him That is so far from being to be inferred from the former way of speaking that every one knows it to be false that what truly belongs to one Part of a Person may in general terms be denied of that Person upon the account that it belongs not to some other Part of his Tho' a Man be not Wounded in the Head or Legg it will not in general terms be said that he is not Wounded when actually he is Wounded in the Arm. Such a denial upon this mental reservation that the Man is not Wounded in the Legg would be looked upon as a shameful Equivocation an express Lye And would the Dr. ascribe to his Saviour such a way of reasoning when he makes him dery his knowing what yet according to the Trinitarian System one of his Natures knew If this be not a Demonstration the Vnitarians think there are no Evidences in the World and it is impossible to discern what are manifest Arguments what not And therefore the Dr. they think should not barely have said as he doth that there is somthing which seems very hard in his common Answer but he should have dared expresly to affirm that it is altogether very invalid and impertinent Let the Reader himself judge of it by considering the manner how our Saviour expresses himself in both the Evangelists Of that Day and Hour knows no Man or no Body or no Person for it is in the Original None knows of that Day and of that Hour no not the Angels that are in Heaven nor the Son but the Father Mark 13.32 And at the 36th Verse of the 24th of St. Math. but my Father only If the Reader please to see any more than what has here been said upon these Texts he may be refer'd to the 24th Chapter of the Apologia pro Irenico Magno and to the 9th Chap. of the 2d Section of Crell's 1st Book Touching one God the Father in both which Places the Argument taken from those Passages of Scripture is more at large treated of and most fully illustrated Here is then what Dr. Sherlock desired Pag. 55th of his aforequoted Book Namely a Text that proves Christ to be properly but a Creature such as the Vnitarians hold him to be After this Argument the Vnitarians do not think any other to be very necessary I shall therefore in a manner but mention the following without much enlarging upon them It need only be added concerning the present Argument that Crellius takes notice of the other Answers to it and that they most visibly appear to be such that they who insist upon them do most evidently shew that they are obstinately resolv'd to defend an old Prejudice and that they will by no reasonable Means be persuaded to acknowledge the Truth which disposition cannot but be criminal To say for instance that Christ considered as God as well as Man said that he knew not the Day of Judgment in the same sense that St. Paul said of himself 1 Cor. 2.2 that he determined not to know any thing among the Corinthians save Christ Crucisied is it not to declare that those Men will take hold of any Evasion rather than yield For doth not that expression of St. Paul that he determined not to know shew manifestly the difference betwixt his Assertion and our Saviour's who says expresly that he knew not the Day of Judgment and that none but the Father knew it The Expression of St. Paul which we have
to the Arians such as we have described who from the beginning was a God in the highest signification of the inserior senses in which that title is used in Scripture and who is assisted of God in the manner we have declared it is very rational and true to say of him that he cannot do the Divine Works of himself but that he doth them only as he is taught and assisted by the Father to do them To which agrees what he says at the 10th Verse of the 14th Chapter of the same Gospel the Father not a Second Divine Person that dwels in me he properly doth the Works inasmuch as it is he that assists me to do them And accordingly Christ declared that tho' he had a vast Power even then granted him and was enabled to do mighty Miracles yet God the free Donor and Disposer thereof had reserv'd infinitely more Prerogative to himself and the Disciples were not to doubt but that God from whom Christ had all that he had was still greater than he John 14 28. V. In like manner a Person that were literally the Almighty God himself could not say to the Father as Christ doth John 17.5 Glorify thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was For whatever the Trinitatarians may say or think of it a Person that were literally the Almighty God could no more be at any time without his Glory than he could ever be without his Nature and Essence or could cease to exist For the Highest Glory is inseparable from the Supreme God for as he exists necessarily from all Eternity so he is necessarily All-Perfect and consequently All-Glorious But the Word being such as we have described having received all his Perfection from the mere free Bounty of the Father and holding the Height of his Glory precariously from the Hand of the Supreme God and as but during the Pleasure of the Almighty this Sublime Creature then I say that is called the Word might be divested of the greatest part of his Glory for a time and be reduced to and contracted into the Narrowness and Lowliness of an Innocent Human Soul for the Undertaking and Performance of a peculiar Office during which considering the Anguish and Difficulties attending it this Person may well be supposed to groan and long for that excellent and inestimable Glory and Happiness which he enjoyed with God before the World was being then glorified and dignified with an extraordinary and an eminent and intimate partaking even of the Divine Nature Soveraignty and Power which in becoming Man he in a great measure actually deposited into the hands of God to receive again indeed afterward with Interest whereas as was said it is impossible for the Almighty God at all to deposite at any time his Perfection Power and Glory See the afore-quoted Treatise of Crellius Book 1st Section 2d Chapter 18th on the Argument That all things are given to Christ from the Father VI. The last Argument of the Vnitarians which I shall now take notice of and that also briefly considering all that has been said here and elsewhere is That it is expresly declared in several Places of Scripture that the Father Only is the Supreme God John 17.3 This is Life eternal to know thee only Father to be the true God and Jesus Christ to be thy Messenger It is evident that that must necessarily be the Construction of the words For the Adjective Only when it is employed to exclude other Subjects from the partaking of the Predicate belongs to the Subject and not to the Predicate Now it is incontestable seeing the Reason of the Thing and the Scope of the Argument that is the Resolution of these grand Articles Namely Who is the true God And Which is the Way to eternal Life and indeed it is agreed by all that in this place the word Only is employed to exclude other Subjects from the partaking of the Predicate Wherefore all others besides the Father are hereby necessarily excluded from being the true God For if all others were not so then none could be suppos'd to be hereby excluded and so the reasoning would be insignificant See Crell in the beginning of his afore-quoted Treatise Ephes 4.4 5 6. There is one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all The Father only is that God who is above all or who is properly the True and Supreme God 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus That it is the Father only who is that one God is then evident in that Christ is opposed to that one God And the Mediator between God and Men is said to be a Man and not a God-Man See Crell on that Text. 1 Cor. 8.6 To us there is but one God the Father To which Place we may joyn the 9th Verse of the 3d. of St. James's That one then who is properly the God is the Father of whom are all things And under him there is but one Universal Lord by and for whom the Father prepared all things that this most God-like Lord might be at the Head of them to the greatest Glory of the Father the eternal and Supreme the only Wise perfectly and in himself and the only one the true God See 1 Tim. 1.17 compared with Rom. 15.6 and 16.27 1 Tim. 1.17 Vnto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever Rom. 16.27 To God only Wise be Glory thro' Jesus Christ Rom. 15.6 With one Mind and with one Mouth glorify God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ So Jam. 3.9 Thus we see the Vnitarians not only shew some most express or expresly seeming Contradictions in the Platonick or Scholastick Trinity which Contradictions cannot be denied to be most express unless it can be shewn expresly and invincibly that they are not such but they also produce several Texts which appear most express and evident for the Vnitarian System Upon which account they think they are the more authorized and incontestably warranted to consult also as they do in this Matter the Light of Reason which as was said furnishes them with several unanswerable Arguments of the Impossibility of the Scholastick or Platonick Trinity of real Divine Persons in one God as may be seen in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno and consequently of the Reasonableness of the Vnitarian System and the Vnitarian Interpretations They reckon that the Arguments taken from Reason and those taken from Scripture do very much strengthen one another Howbeit they chiefly insist on those taken from Scripture as appears from that Treatise of Crellius which has been so often quoted Here then it is very fit to remember Dr. Sherlock's Words which we quoted before and which are to this purpose That if any Text be produced which proves Christ properly or in his own Person to be but a Creature this ought
is there in being sincere and seeking most carefully to understand the real Meaning of the Scripture No Men do account innocent Mistakes punishable in most difficult Matters in which honest and diligent Persons may err And shall we think God harder than Men Far be that thought from any Christian The Gospel is a benign and a gracious Oeconomy and we are in the hands of the Father of Mercies We may then be sure that God will not impute unavoidable and therefore pitiable Errors Wherefore the most rigid Trinitarians that will impartially and attentively consider the Vnitarian Arguments must needs discern that if Vnitarianism be an Error yet it is not a damnable one and consequently not an intolerable one nor therefore a Heresy Gal. 5.19 20. The Apostle declares that Heresy taken in an evil Sense for in general it signifies a Sect which includes some particular Sentiment whether good or bad is a Work of the Flesh that is is the Attendant and Product of Wilfulness and Wickedness And therefore from what has been said it manifestly appears that Vnitarianism cannot be a Heresy in that Sense tho' it were an Error seeing that if it be supposed that it may be an Error yet it cannot but be own'd it has so many Arguments of Credibility and looks so much like a Truth that inquisitive Men may very honestly mistake about it if indeed they err when they take it for the very Import and real Sense of Scripture Tit. 3.11 The same Apostle expresly says that those that are Hereticks in being so sin willfully and are condemned of their own Conscience being perverted by some evil consideration knowing that they do not sincerely what lies in them towards the acknowledgement of the Truth and it being in their power to consider and discern that their Tenets are not right but favour Vice and are suggested by the Flesh So that a Heresy is a criminal and wilful departing from some Evident Truth for the gratifying of Sensual Inclinations Such was the Heresy of the Nicolaïtans who as it is thought would have Women to be Common Such was the Heresy of the Gnosticks who made Religion to consist in Speculation and the Knowledge of Mysteries and who held that it was lawful to dissemble the truth to avoid Persecution And such is the Heresy of those who possessed with a domineering Spirit and a hasty and imperious Temper drive away from their Communion by Human Decisions those that differ from their Sentiment in Matters that are most Difficult This is a Schismatical Heresy But there is no such thing in the Sentiment of the Vnitarians if it be an Error It is far from gratifying the Flesh It doth not indulge a careless and lazy humour averse to consideration and making Men willing to follow others blindly any whether so they may but enjoy their ease and pleasure But it exposes Men to trouble And it is grounded on Arguments that manifestly appear rational and apt to persuade those who are sincere and inquisitive and who fear and love God Moreover Vnitarianism doth not require of any Christians nor doth impose upon them any thing against their Conscience or necessitate them to dissemble their Sentiments For it is not Magisterial and Imposing Vnitarians in Mr. Chillingworth's words proposing the Bible that is the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church Communion And that Vnitarianism doth not cause Men to be absolutely wanting in any essential Part of Religion is implied in this consideration that it is attended with so much Evidence and Credibility that Men as has been shewn may be Vnitarians and be guiltless and without crime it being not to be thought that God has made any thing absolutely essential to Religion wherein sincere and inquisitive Persons may mistake For when Men out of a Principle of Piety do in all Particulars and even in the most intricate what they can to be rightly Inform'd and to discharge their Duty what can a Good God exact more According to the Natural Ideas of God the Tenor of the Gospel and the Principles of Protestants Whatsoever is indispensibly Necessary must needs be Ciear and Discernible to all that are sincerely Inquisitive And after all it cannot be denied but that the Vnitarians acknowledge those weighty Points which are absolutely requisite to move us to love and obey God and Christ. For in general they believe that Christ according to God's express Will is to be lov'd and worshipped on God's account and to God's Glory and as most intimately united with God that the Spirit belonging to Christ which Christ disposes of which He communicates to his Disciples and whereby Christians are sanctified is the Spirit and Power of God that God dwells and acts most eminently in Christ and that Christ is in the highest Station of the Universe all Things being Subjected to him the Father only excepted to whose Praise and Service all Dispensations are designed ultimately to tend as all own and who efficaciously directs and assists Christ in his Soveraign and Universal Government whereby Christ rules and acts as God and according to his Desire and the Laws he has enacted and established by the Covenant of Grace thus appearing not as being a Subject but as being the Soveraign together with the Father in this illustrious Oeconomy the Effect and Fruit of which will last for ever and the Honour and Glory whereof will eternally crown the Lord Jesus so that he shall to all Eternity be most intimately United to the Father and when he shall particularly commit and deliver up the Universal Administration of Government into God's hands when all his Subjects shall have attain'd to a Sinless Perfection and shall become Subjects to the Laws of a most Perfect State even then he shall retain the title of Soveraign he shall always be the next to God and tho' himself Subject to God so as that he shall live under God's peculiar Government and that all Creatures under him shall be under such an Oeconomy with respect to the Father as Adam was and as therefore may in that respect be termed the Law and not the Gospel he shall remain World without end the Prince and Head of all Men and Angels The Vnitarians therefore believe Christ to be most highly exalted and dignified and to be most intimately partaker of the Divine Nature infinitely more eminently than Joseph was made partaker of the Egyptian Majesty and Government together with Pharaoh when Pharaoh told him See I have set thee over all the Land of Egypt thou shalt be over my House and according unto thy Word shall all my People be ruled only in the Throne will I be greater than thou and when accordingly Pharaoh took off his Ring from his Hand and put it upon Joseph's Hand and arrayed him in Princely Apparel and made him to ride in the Second Chariot which he had and they cried before him Bow the Knee and so Pharaoh made Joseph Ruler over all the Land of
imply an Influence of the Divine Virtue yet God the Holy Ghost and the Inspiration a Divine Person certainly are not Scriptural Terms And the Vnitarians generally believe that in such intricate Matters and particularly concerning the Object of Worship and the making Something distinctly an Object of Worship We must not go beyond express Injunctions According to Scripture they worship Christ to the Glory of the Father as was said And in particular they ultimately worship the Father for his giving the Divine Inspiration The Governors of the Church are humbly desir'd to give Publickly their Opinion of these the like aforementioned Reasons this undoubtedly being a Subject that deserves all the illustration that according to the Obligations of Christian Charity they can give to it Tho' all that is possible ought to be done for Peace-sake yet on the other hand nothing ought to be done against Conscience and tho' some of the Vnitarians might condescend to most of the Scholastick Trinitarian Expressions yet they cannot generally approve them III. What is inferr'd from the Vnitarian Arguments remains in force so that it is an indispensible Duty to profess and establish the Gospel-Terms of Communion and to keep to the seeming and most manifest and apparent Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church-Vnion tho' the Trinitarians and some Vnitarians should opine that the Vnitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with the Trinitarians and even tho' there were in God what might truly be call'd three Persons For 1. If there be Somewhats in God that may be call'd three Persons which yet indeed seems absolutely both impossible in it self and not expresly implied in Scripture but contrary to many Texts yet not only that Doctrine seems absolutely unintelligible but certainly it is most obscurely revealed and but drawn from most intricate and uncertain Deductions and on the other hand the Vnitarian Arguments against the calling any thing in God three Persons are incontestably such that Men may be sincerely inquisitive and really think them to be solid Upon such most abstruse Difficulties We ought not to act rashly and condemn or reject sincere and inquisitive Persons God cannot be supposed indispensibly to require of every one to believe explicitely what he has left so difficult and obscure nor consequently to have allow'd any one to determine this Point Magisterially so as to make the Determination of it a necessary Term of Church-Communion Then it follows it is God's Will that as has been said in Terms and Acts of Church Union we should content our selves with the Expressions and Generality of Scripture And so the Human Imposition of the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds and of Publickly Praying to the Holy Ghost and in Publick Assemblies and Church-Service using the term three Persons is a piece of Presumption and Spiritual Tyranny and Oppression The Scripture says not expresly that the Son and Spirit are equal to the Father c. 2. The Generality of the Scripture-Terms as was shewn is undoubtedly sufficient For tho' God might be said to be three Persons yet not only it cannot be thought as has been remarked that under the benign Oeconomy of the Gospel God has made that indispensibly Necessary which at least seems so intricate and obscure and about which sincere and inquisitive Persons may mistake but besides as was also before observ'd when God is worshipped is not all ador'd that is the Object of Divine Worship The Trinitarians own that the unscriptural term Persons is us'd so improperly of God that what is meant thereby is most unaccountable perfectly incomprehensible Now that is an invincible Argument that that term is not necessary The Vnitarians do not deny the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature Supposing then that by the Divine Word and Spirit be meant Somewhats more then Wisdom and Inspiration as the Vnitarians who are not for determining in such obscure Matters will not contradict but that it may be so yet seeing that that whatever it be is absolutely unknown unintelligible it concerns Us not to ascribe Names to it cannot be indeed the Subject of our disquisition Howbeit at least we should take care not to advance any thing concerning these Matters that appears inconsistent with any Text but should rather stick to that which is safe and sufficient And it is certain the Scripture no where says we should Pray to the Holy Spirit in particular and it expresly sets forth Christ as the Mediator betwixt God and Men so that it is incontestably sufficient to come to God thro' the Mediation of Christ and to honour Christ as the Mediatory King under God tho' united to God as intimately as possible as was said For tho' all things are subjected to Christ yet it is to the Glory of God the Father and to the end that God may be most glorified and may most universally and illustriously reign in and by and thro' Christ So that in making Christ the King of Kings or the Universal King under God and the Head of the Church God did not abdicate the Government or divest himself of his Majesty but still remained ever the Most Supreme and reserved to himself to direct Christ and to favour his Intercession and to receive thro' him the Homages of Men Christ doing all in the Name of God And accordingly the Apostles directed their Prayers to God Acts 4 24 c. and commanded the Faithful to address themselves to him Phil. 4 6 thro' Jesus Christ as it is in the following Verse Phil. 4 7 that in his Name and thro' his Mediation they might obtain their Requests of the Father according to Christ's Promise John 14 13 John 16 23 that what they should pray for to the Father in his Name he would second by his Intercession so would do it for them that the Father might be glorified in the Son For our Saviour says expresly in John 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name He will give it you 3. The Arguments for the Scripture-Terms of Church Vnion with respect to such most intricate and abstruse Matters as the Platonick or Scholastick Speculations concerning the Doctrin of the Holy Trinity are evermore solid and invincible and as was observed a contrary Method is wholly inconsistent with the Principles of Protestants which import That the Scripture is a sufficient and the only Rule That there is no living Magisterial Judge of Controversies That Particular Christians are in such a case to examin and judge for themselves c. 4. Many sincere and inquisitive Persons may scruple other Terms than these which are incontestably good sufficient and the only warrantable ones for Terms of Church-Communion in such abstruse and intricate Matters And as was shewn it is certain the term three Persons is unscriptural and consequently cannot be absolutely necessary Wherefore surely Christian Charity obliges us not to hazard unnecessarily in such difficult Matters the Destruction of those Souls for which
Christ died Therefore it certainly follows both that the Scholastick Trinitarian Determinations and Impositions are contrary to God's Will and that it is an indispensible Duty to profess and establish the Gospel-Terms of Communion which are stated and pleaded for in the Irenicum Magnum and in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno Tho' some Vnitarians considering an Influence of the Divine Nature dwelling in Christ and an Influence and Act of the Divine Power implied in the Holy Spirit or Holy Inspiration and considering we are exhorted to keep as much as we can the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace should carry Christian Condescension so far as by their Presence sometime in the Religious Assemblies for Peace-Sake till these things be duely weighed to bear with the Use of some of the Scholastick Trinitarian Terms yet that is at least so nice a Point that many conscientiously may with great colour of reason absolutely scruple them and all Vnitarians are obliged to express openly their dislike of those in their opinion at least dubious Terms and rash Expressions and to appear and profess not to repeat some of them and not to assent to them in the Religious Service which Condescension indeed upon mature Consideration seems even generally to be more than is wholly warrantable particularly one would think with respect to the Litany and the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds according to what has hereupon been said so that the Afternoon-Service only can well seem tolerable to them and indeed 't is generally reckoned to be no less than Hypocritical Temporizing for any Vnitarian to carry the Condescension farther therefore even the Trinitarians themselves who are persuaded of the evident and incontestable Reasonableness and Necessity of the Gospel Terms of Communion are bound to protest against the imposing of those said Scholastick Terms deviating from the Scripture-Latitude not only as an unnecessary Burden but as a grievous and unwarrantable a pernicious and cruel Oppression perfectly contrary to the Moderation of the Gospel For has not God intended there should be one Catholick Church and Communion of Saints In a word the Scripture-Terms are the only Just and Charitable and Necessary Terms of Church Communion And they are a fit Means of Peace For so you establish no other Terms of Church-Communion but such as are agreable to the Scripture-Generality you may lay any Penalty on express Disputings in the Religious Assemblies These Terms of Church-Vnion then both are the Scripture-Terms and the only Terms of Communion that are agreable to the fundamental Grounds of the Reformation or to the incontestable Principles of Protestants and to Reason and Moderation and they are the fit and only possible Terms for all Christians that own the Scripture for their Rule to Vnite in And the Vnitarian Arguments are so considerable that it must be the highest Temerity in the World not to be willing to stick in Acts of Communion to the Safe suficient Generality included in those Terms So that to reject these Terms is not only to run the greatest Hazards to oppress the Truth and injure those who are approved of God but it is expresly to be guilty of the greatest Mischiefs of disfiguring Christianity as if it had no Means of Union hindering the growth and efficacy of the Gospel and being the Cause of endless Schisms and Divisions These Matters are set into so full and incontestable a light that to slight and resist so great Evidence cannot but be of the greatest Consequence to the Souls of them that are therein concern'd It is credible God has preserv'd the World and this Generation for the Sake of this great Light most illustriously adorning the Gospel so great a Light that against it the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail and it will never be possible for all the Powers of the Adversaries of so evident Truths to answer these unanswerable Arguments Now then incontestably Peace is presented upon just Terms by this Method which therefore should be most carefully considered For if the righteous be oppressed God noteth all things in his Book and Great Plagues are denounced against rejecting a great Light and injuring those that are accepted of God May We all take effectual Measures to avoid God's Judgments and to obtain his Mercy and Eternal Salvation I thought here to have finished this Post-Script but it may perhaps not be unfit to advertise that since the writing of it I have accidentally met with a small Pamphlet a 6d Book wherein these Terms of Communion in some measure are likewise pleaded for I recommend it therefore to the Reader 's perusal It is intituled The Moderate Trinitarian c. By Daniel Allen. Printed for Mary Fabian at Mercers-Chappel in Cheap-side 1699. Therein it is Inquired Whether and Shewn That the Trinitarians and Vnitarians may communicate together so that no Practice ought to be enjoyned for Terms of Communion contrary to the Latitude of Scripture seeing it is therein that the Trinitarians and Vnitarians may Unite But not only to put my self in the company of a more known Person but more especially seeing Men commonly regard more or slight the less an Opinion which they see held by one who is generally esteemed most Eminent for Learning and all good Qualities I ought not to omit observing that the famous Bishop Taylor incontestably establishes these Terms of Church-Communion in that for the main admirable Book of his intituled The Liberty of Prophesying which indeed I have had the misfortune to be but very lately acquainted with That the Scripture-Terms of Communion which I have been pleading for are therein implied I think may sufficiently appear by these few Quotations out of it That which I have is the 4to Edition 1647. I shall sometimes abridge the words but without altering the sense If a Doctrin be not so revealed but that wise and good Men differ in their Opinions it is a clear case it is not inter Dogmata necessaria simpliciter c. The Epistle Dedicat. P. 15.16 It is observable that the restraint of Prophesying imposing upon other Mens Understanding and lording it over their Faith came in with the retinue of Antichrist that is as other Abuses and Corruptions of the Church did c. Ib. P. 18. Let not Men be hasty in calling every dislik'd Opinion by the Name of Heresy Ib. P. 29. The Lutheran Churches the Zuinglians the Calvinists the Socinians the Anabaptists the Aethiopian Churches which are all Nestorian differ from others Where then shall we six our Considence or joyn Communion To pitch upon any one is to throw the Dice if Salvation be to be had only in one of them and that every Error be damnable We have therefore no other help in the midst of these Differences but to be all United in that Common Term which is the Medium of the Communion of Saints that is the Apostles Creed an honest endeavour to find out what truths we can and a mutual permission to