Reason we must notwithstanding prefer an Interpretation of it that is Absurd and contrary to it self to Reason and to the rest of Scripture such as the Trinitarian Interpretation exprest in this Creed appears to be In a word the Question only is whether we ought to interpret Holy Scripture when it speaks of God according to Reason or not that is like Fools or like Wise Men The Son is of the Father alone not Made nor Created but Begotten Here and in the next period Athanasius is got into his Altitudes or Profundities which you will Here 't is that the Ignorant think they are taught the Inmost Secrets of Theological Knowledge but High and Low are not more contrary than the things which are here affirmed as equal Truths If the Creed-maker had spoke here of the Generation of the Son by the Divine Power on the Virgin Mary it would have been true that the Son is neither Made nor Created but Begotten but then the first part of the Article would be false that the Son is of the Father alone for He that has a Father and a Mother is of Both. But since he speaks of the pretended Eternal Generation the latter part of the Article is false and inconsistent with the first part of it Every Novice in Grammar and proper speaking knows that Begotten when 't is distinguished from Made and Created always supposes two Parents a Mother as well as Father 't is therefore a Contradiction to say the Son is of the Father alone not Made nor Created but Begotten for if He is Begotten He cannot be of the Father alone and if He is of the Father alone He is not begotten but either Made or Created The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son neither Made nor Created nor Begotten but Proceeding The first Fault here is that the Holy spirit is said to proceed from the Father and from the Son To which Heresie the Greek Church have ever opposed those clear words John 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which Proceeded from the Father He shall testify of me Secondly He saith here that the Holy Ghost is not Begotten but Proceeding He adds shortly after that He who will be saved must thus think of the Trinity Therefore surely Begotten and Proceeding differ very much and very clearly else t is an Harsh Sentence that we shall be damned if we do not Conceive besides all other unconceivable Mysteries of this Creed that the Holy Ghost is not Begotten but Proceeds Yet after all 't is now confessed by the most Learned Trinitarians that Begotten and Proceeding differ nothing at all and that it is rightly said The Son proceeds from the Father and that the Holy Ghost is generated of Both directly contrary to this Creed It follows that Athanasius has damned the whole World for not distinguishing where no Distinction can be made at least with any certainty And perhaps this Damning Humour of his has justly provoked some to write him not S. Athanasius but drawing the S. a little nearer Sathanasius So there is one Father not Three Fathers one Son not three Sons one Holy Ghost not three Holy Ghosts In consistence with what goes before He should have said Two Fathers Two Sons and Three Holy Ghosts or Spirits For the Second Person is the Son of the First and the Third proceeds which is nothing else but is Generated from the First and Second which makes Two Fathers and Two Sons and all Three of them are Holy Spirits for the Father is an Holy Spirit and so is the Son no less than the Third Person But this is not the first time in this Creed that Athanasius has discovered He could not count In this Trinity none is Afore or After other none is Greater or Less than another Yet the Son himself saith John 14.28 My Father is Greater than I. And for the other clause None is Afore or After other 't is just as true as that there is no difference at all between Afore and After I ask Whether the Son doth not as He is a Son derive both Life and Godhead from the Father All Trinitarians grant He do's grounding themselves on the Nicene Creed which expresly calls the Son God of God Light of Light very God of very God Begotten not Made But if the Father gave to the Son Life and Godhead He must have both before he could communicate or give either of them to the Son and consequently was afore the Son was No Effect is so early as its Cause for if it were it should not have needed or had that for its Cause No Proposition in Euclid is more certain or evident than this The right Faith is That we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is both God and Man Then the Lord Christ is two Persons For as He is God He is the second Person of the pretended Trinity and as He is Man a perfect Man as this Creed afterwards speaks He is also a Person for a Rational Soul vitally united to an Human Body is a Person if there be any such thing as Person upon Earth nay 't is the only thing upon Earth that is a Person Let the Athanasians therefore either say that the Lord Christ is Two Persons which is the Heresie of Nestorius condemned in a General Council Or that He is not a Man contrary to 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Jesus Christ Or that He is not God which is the Truth Who altho' He be God and Man yet He is not two but one Christ One not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God One not by Confusion of Substance but by Unity of Person But because these words One by taking of the Manhood into God not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh And again One not by Confusion of Substance but Vnity of Person cannot readily be understood by themselves the Creed-Maker explains them in this following Article For as the reasonable Soul and Flesh is one Man so God and Man is one Christ That is as a Soul united vitally to a Body maketh one Person called Man without confounding the two Substances of the Soul and body for the Soul remains what it was and so also does the Body So God the Son being united to a reasonable Soul and Body doth together with them make one Person called Christ without confounding the Substances of the Divinity or Humanity for the Divinity remains without the least Change what it was and so doth the Humanity or reasonable Soul and Body This is the only Offer at Sense that is to be found in this whole Creed but so far from explicating that it farther perplexes the Difficulty of the pretended Incarnations as will appear by those two Considerations 1. In the Personal Vnion of a Soul with a Body
the Union is between two finite things but in the pretended Personal Vnion of God to Man and Man to God the Union is between Finite and Infinite which on the Principles of the Trinitarians 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 united but to some part of the Infinite and is disjoyned from the rest which all Trinitarians deny and abhor You will say If they admit neither of these how do they shew the Possibility of the Incarnation or Union of God to Man They tell you God indeed is Infinite and every reasonable Soul and Body even that of Christ is Finite yet the whole God and whole Man are united because As the whole Eternity of God doth coexist to a moment of Time so the whole Immensity of God is in every Mathematical Point of Space The very Truth is they cannot otherways defend the Incarnation or Personal Vnion of an infinite God to a finite Man but withal it must be owned that then the Doctrins of the Trinity and Incarnation do infer imply and suppose all the Contradictions that Mr. Johnson has objected to the Doctrin of Transubstantiation in that little Golden Tract so deservedly esteemed by All. His whole Book and all his Demonstrations are founded on these two Suppositions that a longer time doth not all of it coexist to a shorter nor is a greater Extension constipated or contained in a less much less in a Mathematical Point Therefore all his Books and all that he hath so well said and argued in the Preface concerning the Authority and Judicature of Reason in Matters of Religion equally and effectually destroys the Ductrins of the Trinity and Transubstantiation If the Reader would have an excellent Book let him procure that But Oh! were the Press as free for the Unitarians as 't is for other Protestants how easily would they make it appear that the Follies and Contradictions so justly charged on the Transubstantiation are neither for Number Consequence nor Clearness any way comparable to those implied in the Athanasian Creed and that the Trinity hath the same and no other Foundation with the Transubstantiation so that we must of necessity admit both or neither If the Church is to interpret Scripture for us we must admit both but if Reason we can admit neither and this I think the Trinitarians will not deny But secondly In the pretended Incarnation or Union of God with Man the Union cannot be Personal as 't is between the Soul and Body it cannot I mean be such an Union as to make but one Person The Union of the Soul and Body may be properly Personal that is may constitute or make one Person because 't is not the Union of two Persons but only of one Person the Soul to a thing otherways without Life Reason Memory or Free-will The Body is but as it were the Garment of the Soul and is wholly acted by it and depending on it But in the pretended Union of God with a Man there are two distinct and very different Lives Memories Reasons and Free-Wills which utterly destroys a Personal Union for that supposes but one Life one Reason one Memory one Free-Will for if these things which constitute a Person are sound more than once there is no longer one Person but two and consequently no Personal Union in the sense of which we are speaking This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe faithfully he cannot be saved By believing Athanasius doth not mean bare believing but he includeth also therein Profession for He saith a little before The right Faith is that we Believe and Confess c. So that a Man cannot be saved unless he Believes and Professes as this Creed directs him First for Believing What if a Man cannot believe it Are we obliged under the Penalty of the loss of Salvation to believe it whether we can or no Doth God require of any Man an impossible Condition in order to Salvation Secondly As to professing under pain of Damnation What if it be against a Man's Conscience to profess it The Scripture saith Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin if therefore a Man profess against his Conscience He sins and if notwithstanding this a Man must either Profess or be Damned then God requires some Meâ— to sin in order to their Salvation but this we are sure is false and therefore that the Menace in the Artide is vain And now I appear to all Men that have any freedom of Judgment remaining Whether this Creed is fit to be retained in any Christian much less Protestant and reformed Church Since it subverts the Foundations not only of Christianity but of all Religion that is to say Reason and Revelation there being no Principle in Reason and Scripture more evident than that God is One or that there is one Almighty only-Wise and Good Person or Father of all If we cannot be sure of this then Religion and Christianity are built upon Fancy only and have no solid Foundation This Creed may be profess'd by the Roman Political Church because it gives countenance to their Absurd Transubstantiation and Cunning Traditions added to Scripture as those Doctrins do to the gaining of Veneration and consequently Dominion and Riches to their Clergy But in a eformed Church where the Scripture is held to be a Compleat Rule of Faith and Manners and also to be Clear and Plain in all things necessary to Salvation even to the meanest Understanding that reads it or hears it with Sobriety and Attention such a Confession of Faith is I think intolerable as being utterly inconsistent with those Principles and reducing us back to the Roman Bondage Besides Nothing has been or is more scandalous to Jews and Mahometans than his Creed the chief Article of whose Religion is that there is one only God The evidence of which Principle is such in nature as well as Scripture that it has propagated Mahomatism among greater Numbers than at this day own Christianity for the sake of that one Truth so many Nations have swallowed all the Errors and Follies of the Alchoran or Book of Mahomet as on the other Hand Christianity has been rejected and detested among them on the account of the Christians Three Persons who are severally and each of them God But the Mischiefs of this Creed do not stay here it is levelled not only against the True Faith but is destructive of that Love and Charity Which is the Spirit and Life of Christianity and without which Faith is but a Life-less Body For as if it would effectually inspire all its Believers with a Spirit of Judging Damning and Uncharitableness it pronounces the Sentence of Eternal Damnation in the Beginning Middle and Conclusion upon all that do not both Believe and Profess this Faith and keep it whole and undefiled that is upon the whole Greek Church and other Churches in the East and upon
the Father was not the Cause and the Son the Effect for all Causes produce their Effects by the Mediation of an Action whereof the Cause is the Origine and the Effects is the term whâ—ch receives the action and subjects it in it self as the Philosophers teach Now the Eternal Son of God was produced by an act of the Divine Understanding which doth not operate by acts distinct from it self as Men and Angels do but all acts of the Divine Intellect 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 Trabsubstantiation and yet in all his Discourse he hath not alledged two Propositions with a contradictory opposition which follows out of the Doctrin of this Creed nay I confidently assert that neither he nor any of his Sect can alledge any one contradiction issuing from the same Doctrin 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 Mistery 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 Labyrinth of Errors 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 hence proceeds to the Incarnation of the Divine Word thus The right Faith is that we believe and confess that our â—ord Jesus 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 ratione naturae but to be compleat also ratione Personae you must add to this compleat Nature a subsistentia which makes up the compleat Suppositum or Hypostasis of a man ratione personae But in Christ there was no need of this Humane subsistentia for the Divine Word assumed the compleat Humane Nature not the Human 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 Error and flatly denies 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 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 prondered 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 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 not yet come its duration is not yet produced and so of all Created Durations whether this be done only by indivisible instances as Zeno Taught or by indivisible instances and divisible parts which was Aristotle's Opinion in his Treatise De continuo Successivo But God's Eternity is far different for this admits of no parts but is one indivisible duration essentially determin'd to co-exist to all Created duration and Eternity there are no parts destroyed and others to come not yet in being for by the same indivisible duration whereby the Divinity existed from Eternity he exists now and existed yesterday and shall exist to morrow and ever and yet loses no parts of its duration because it hath none Hence Boetius and with him the current of Divines gives this definition of it Aeternitas Dei est indeterminabilis vitae tota simul perfect a possessio a perfect possession of an endless life altogether tota simul not by parts as it is in all Created durations The Immensity of God Consists in this that he is essentially determin'd to all Created space whensoever or wheresoever it exists so that God by his Immensity without any parts is actually present to all Created space or place how distant soever the parts of space are from one another to which God corresponds not by several parts but by an increate definitive ubication whereby he is torus in toto totus in qualibet parte all the Deity is in all the space and all the Deity is in every part and particle of space wheresoever or whensoever existent as an Angel which is indivisible is in the place which he Occupies by a definitive ubication for the whole Angel is at the same time in all the space and the whole Angel at the same time is in every part and particle of the same space so is the Soul of Man which is likewise indivisible in a humane Body for the whole Soul is in all the Body and the whole Soul is in every part and particle of the Body so that the Soul exists in the Body by a definitive ubication whereas the Body at the same time exists in space by a circumscriptive ubication whereby its parts are collocated so as that one part of the Body corresponds to one part of the space and another part of the Body to another part of the space Now to the Objection The Humanity of Christ is constituted in place by a circumscriptive ubication where the Divinity the whole Divine Word is intimately present to him what commensuration more than this is necessary for a conjunction between the Humanity and the Divine Word For that the Divine Word is in all places else by his immensity is impertinent to this case as long as the Divine Word is in irely and intimately present to the whole Humanity where the Hypostatical Union may exercise its functions of connecting the Humanity to the Divinity for it is too gross an imagination of the Divinity that part of it should correspond to the Humanity and part not for in the Divine Nature there are no parts but all is indivisible Now for the Hypostatical Union it is subjected in the Humanity and terminated to the Divinity or Divine Word for the Essence of God is uncapable of receiving any thing distinct from it self And 't is in vain to tell me that this includes as many Contradictions as Mr. Johnson's Treatise against Transubstantiation doth Produce those Contradictions that this Mystery doth include and we shall use our endeavour to solve them The second Objection is grounded upon an Error that the Union between the Divine Word and the Humanity of Christ connects two Persons as Nestorius would have it but this error is already exploded But it is in vain to sift all the extent of Nature for a parity to the Hypostatical Union of the Divine Word to the Humanity of Christ which is transcendent above all the power of Nature where the two distinc Lives Memories Reasons and free Wills are no obstacle at all to it for these two Natures do not hinder the Operations and Functions of each other Thus I have run through all the Arguments pretended Contradictions and Impossibilities which this Author alledgeth against those Sacred Mysteries of Christianity wherein I have endeavoured to give a satisfactory solution to them all Tho' he hath insisted upon such Mysteries as are easiest to be impugned and hardest to be defended For they are such as are delivered to us by the Sacred Scripture as back'd by Divine Authority and are not within the reach of Natural Reason to demonstrate ' For it were no less than a temerarious presumption in any man that should attempt to prove any one of these Mysteries by Natural Reason Mysteries that are so sublime and elevated above the reach of Natural Reason that they are not pervious to the Wit or Capacity either of Man or Angel which if Faith did not teach Reason could not explicate so that we receive them from Holy Writ as attested by Divine Authority with great submission and veneration and are ready to vindicate them from all pretended impossibilities Contradictions and other Difficulties which the Mahometans Jews Deists Atheists or other Infidels can muster up against them And I hope in this short Treatise I have not swerved from the receiv'd and approved Doctrin of the Reformed Protestant Church of England to whose Authority and Correction I submit FINIS