Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A62253
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An answer to an anonimous pamphleteer, who impugns the doctrine contain'd in St. Athanasius his creed by J. Savage Gent.
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Savage, J. (John), 1645-1721.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S767; ESTC R8106
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11,495
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20
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AN ANSWER To an Anonimous PAMPHLETEER Who Impugns the DOCTRINE Contain'd in St. Athanasius his Creed By I. Savage Gent. Licens'd March the 10th 1689. 90. Z. Isham LONDON Printed for B. E. and are to be sold by R. Baldwin in the Old-Baily M DC XC AN ANSWER To an Anonimous Pamphleteer c. A PAPER fell late into my hands which upon perusual I found to be an Invective against the Person of St. Athanasius and the Author of it a professed Enemy to those Mysteries contain'd in his Creed which he impugns and fearing lest this should prove a stumbling-block to some of the Illiterate Vulgar to see the chief Mysteries of Christianity to be so openly attack'd by one who denies the Trinity the Incarnation of the Divine Word and the Divinity of Christ and yet asserts the Scriptures the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God I resolved to answer the Arguments of this Deist which I here undertake And because this Author hath involved himself in obscurity and confusion I shall endeavour by some previous Observations to clear the way to this Discourse in a Matter so difficult and nice and so remote from Sense by this means not to confound the Reader but to render the Discourse so clear and conspicuous as the Nature of these Sublime Mysteries are capable of where I shall wave those Indignities and Aspersions which this Author casts upon the Person of St. Athanasius leaving this to the Learned Historians and confine my self wholly to the Scope of such Dogmatical Principles as he endeavours to subvert My first Observation is the nature of the Mystery of the Sacred Trinity wherein all Orthodox Christians hold as an Article of Faith one only God and Three Divine Persons viz. The Father Son and Holy Ghost by a real identity between the Divine Nature and the Personality of these Three Persons so that the Divinity or God-head is singular and indivisible but the Personalities are really distinct from each other and yet really identified with the Divine Essence so that all together make unum-summum Ens as the Council of Lateran terms it A second Observation is That there are three manners of speaking in this Sacred Mystery which ought strictly to be observ'd I. Some expressions are absolute as the God-head the Divine Essence or Divinity with its concommitant Attributes where no mention is made of the Divine Relations nor of number II. There is another manner of speaking by notional terms as the Divines call them such are the Paternity the Filiation the Passion Spiration all in abstracto which are always to be understood with relation to each other and constitute number III. A third way of speaking is when such words are used as signify the Divine Nature contracted with the Personalities or notional Predicates as the Father the Son the Holy Ghost where Relations and Number are to be admitted A third Observation is drawn from the two former That all the absolute Perfections which are in the Father are also in the Son and in the Holy Ghost not in equality for where there is equality there is also a relation between the perfections that are equal but the self same numerical and individual perfections which are absolute Predicates of the Divinity are in all and every one of the Persons per communicationem idiomatum The reason is because all the three Personalities are identify'd with the Divine Nature which is the root of all the absolute Perfections of the Divinity so these absolute Perfections are also really identify'd with all and every one of the Divine Persons according to that receiv'd Axiom of the Divines Omnia dedit Pater Filio praeter esse Patrem so that the Father gave the Son even the fecundity of active Spiration whatsoever the Geeeks in vain object against it as I shall make it more largely appear in a Treatise of the Trinity which I intend shortly to put forth And so I proceed to answer the ill grounded allegations of this Deist or Atheist against the Orthodox Doctrine of the Church His first attempt is against that saying of Athanasius Neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance for there is one Person of the Father another of the Son another of the Holy Ghost but the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and Holy Ghost is all one On these words he thus passeth his Censure Plainly as if a man should say Peter James and John being three Persons are one Man and one Man is these three distinct Persons Peter James and John A very Learned Observation he compares three distinct humane Persons having three distinct humane Natures with the three Divine Persons of the Sacred Trinity where the same individual Divine Nature is in all three this is singular that is numerical this is indivisible that is divisible this can constitute no more Gods but one that must constitute three distinct men The Reason is obvious because the denomination of God being a term absolute is taken from the Divine Nature so that if the Divine Nature be singular the Godhead must also be singular As the denomination of Man is taken from the Humane Nature so because the Numane Hature is multiplied the denomination of Man must also be multiplied How obvious is this to any vulgar Capacity How little Reason had this Author to call this Doctrine of Athanasius and of the Church of God a ridiculous attempt a barbarous indignity a monstrous proposition He might more prudently have wav'd the discovery of his illiterate Genius herein Yet he goes on in the same strain of confounding the absolute Perfections of the Divine Essence with the notional expressions of the Persons for on these Words of Athanasius Neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance he adds But how can we not confound the Persons that have but one numerical Substance And how can we not but divide the Substance which we find in three distinct divided Persons There is one Person of the Father another of the Son another of the Holy Ghost To which he subjoyns Then the Son is not the Father nor is the Father the Son nor the Holy Ghost either of them 'T is confest What then Why says he If the Father is not the Son and yet is the one true God then the Son is not the one true God because he is not the Father I deny this illation as false and nugatory on this present subject Now to the proof for how can the Son be the one true God if he is not he who is the one true God I answer sub distinctione if the Son be not he who has the compleat and adequate essential constitution of the one true God then he cannot be God I grant it if the Son be not another Person namely the Father and yet hath the compleat and adequate essential constitution of the one true God he cannot be God I deny it The fallacy of the Author consists in this that
and Will have a real identity with the Divine Nature and Essence of God as the Divines teach for else if God should understand by distinct acts those acts must inform the Divine Understanding which would make a Change in God and so destroy his Immutability as is apparent The same with proportion is to be said of the Holy Ghost who proceeds by an act of Love from the Divine Will no less than that act of the Divine Intellect produces the Divine Word or its Hypostasis With what reason now can this Author still go on in his wilful ignorance He often saith that this Creed contains many Contradictions and as many Impossibilities as Transubstantiation and yet in all his Discourse he hath not alledged two Propositions with a contradictory opposition which follows out of the Doctrine of this Creed nay I confidently assert that neither he nor any of his Sect can alledge any one contradiction issuing from the same Doctrine Let the pretended contradiction be assigned and we are ready to answer it and to discover its fallacy but to blunder and vaper as this Author does that there are Two Fathers Two Sons and Three Holy Ghosts and yet prove nothing of all this is not to proceed like a Scholar much less like a Divine but is wholly loss of time How often must I inculcate this Orthodox Truth That in the ineffable Mystery of the Divine Trinity the characteristical notion of the Father is his innascibility together with his paternity and fecundity of active spiration of the Son is his filiation and fecundity of active spiration of the Holy Ghost is his passive Spiration alone These Three Persons as they mutually are correlatives to each other so they are really distinct from each other they are capable of Multiplication and constitute a number The Father hath in himself besides the relative predicates all the absolute Predicates and Perfections that are contained in the Divine Nature and Essence all the Attributes of the Divinity The Father hath Communicated to the Son all the absolute Perfections of the Divine Nature and the notional Predicate of active Spiration To the Holy Ghost the Father and the Son have communicated all the Divinity with all the absolute Attributes and Perfections thereunto belonging So that although these three Persons are three in number yet the Divinity of them all is the self-same individual and singular Deity for the same Divine Nature that is in the Father is also in the Son and Holy Ghost Now this Author would have us to multiply the Divinity as the Persons are multiplied thereby to lead his Reader into a Labyrnth of Errours by acknowledging more Gods than one which in effect is no better than rank Paganism Must we follow the conduct of his wild Genius because he pretends to Demonstrations which in effect are meer Improbabilities or adhere to those Sacred Truths which are delivered to us by holy Writ and are backt by Divine Authority But let us proceed with him to the Incarnation of the Divine Word The Athanasian Creed from lience proceeds to the Incarnation of the Divine Word thus The right Faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Iesus Christ the Son of God is both God and Man To which words this Author replies That then the Lord Christ is two Persons for as he is God he is the second Person of the Trinity and as he is man a perfect man he is also a Person for a Rational Soul vitally united to a Humane Body is a Person I answer that a Rational Soul vitally united to a Humane Body is the compleat Nature of a Man compleat I say in ratione naturae but to be compleat also in ratione Personae you must add to this compleat Nature a subsistentia which makes up the compleat Suppositum or Hypostasis of a man in ratione personae But in Christ there was no need of this Humane subsistentia for the Divine Word assumed the compleat Humane Nature not the Humane Person as Nestorius said for the Humanity of Christ subsists by the Personality of the Divine Word which supplies abundantly all defects and functions which the Humane Personality would exercise were it present so that the Humane Personality would be superfluous in Christ and of no use at all To what he adds viz. Let the Athanasians then Confess that Christ was not God which is the truth Here he plainly professeth his Errour and flatly denys the Divinity of Christ. It is not my design to prove at large in this short Treatise the Divinity of Christ which the Divines have effectually prov'd in the matter of Incarnation I shall therefore only hint at some Particulars as the fulfilling of the Prophecies of the Old Prophets the Testimony of the Eternal Father in a Voice from Heaven This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased the often asseveration of Christ himself confirmed by many strange and prodigious Miracles and sealed by his Death the Reluctancy of Nature at his Crucifixion his Resurrection after Death which none could effect but by the mighty hand of the Omnipotent the Universal at attestation of all the Apostles in Confirmation whereof they all sacrificed their Lives with other pregnant motives contained in the Sacred Word of God which are too prolix for this short Treatise all which being duly pondered and considered are able to convince not only an indifferent judgment but also the most obstinate and perversest judgment that can be if it be swayed by Reason and work them into a stedfast belief of the Divinity of Christ wherefore I shall wave in this place any further dilatation of my Discourse upon this Subject Now we proceed to examine the Hypostatical Union between the Divinity and Humanity of Christ how we can make it out that any Union can be of that Nature as to unite two Natures whereof the one is Infinite and the other Finite for the Athanasian Creed asserts that though Christ be God and Man yet he is not two but one Christ one not by Conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking the Manhood into God one not by confusion of substance but by Vnity of Person for as the reasonable Soul and flesh is one Man so God and Man is one Christ. Against this the Deist argues that in the Personal Vnion of God to Man and Man to God the Vnion is between Finite and Infinite which is impossible For we must either suppose that Finite and Infinite are commensurate that is equal which every one knows is false or that the Finite is Vnited but to some part of the Infinite and is disjoyned from the rest A very Learned Reflection for who is ignorant of Gods Eternity and Immensity or Ubiquity which are two of the Divine Attributes All Created Durations flow successively by parts whereof none are at any time in being but only those that are present for to day yesterday is past its duration is destroyed and to morrow is