Being Nay in some sense all Creatures may be said to have been in God from all Eternity at least potentially tho' not brought forth or produc'd from all Eternity but only when Almighty God created this Universe And even some of these Philosophers and among them Tertullian particularly expresly asserted that mere Creatures in particular Human Souls were made out of the Substance of God Howbeit Platonism implying that the Son and the Spirit are above all other Creatures the Platonists generally held that the Son at least or even the Son and the Spirit are most peculiarly of the Substance of God were most peculiarly in him and were most peculiarly united to him so as that whereever the Son went and whatever he did God as it were had always a strict hold of him and wrought with in and by him Nevertheless as was said they represented the Son and Spirit as Distinct and Inferior Beings so that they own'd the Father to be properly the Supreme Being and to be the only Person consequently that is properly God or a God in the eminent Sense of the word Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus and in a word all the Primitive Doctors that were converted out of Heathenism had been taught Platonism and when they were become Christians they openly professed in all-their Writings that they were still great admirers of that Philosophy and they maintain'd that the Christian Trinity and Plato's Trinity was much the same Thus they introduced Platonism in the Christian System accommodating the one to the other as near as they could Justin Martyr it seems particularly began openly to Platonize and the rest followed after him And then they for the most part represented the Platonick Trinity very like Arianism any of 'em at most making it Semi-Arianism so that the generality of Christians might it seems mistake it for Arianism the good Fathers either purposely or otherwise expressing themselves very obseurely in a most Obscure Matter tho' some more Platonically than others These in comparison of those that followed were Moderate Platonists and scarce any or but few went further in the 2d Century or at least till towards the end of the 2d Century whereas afterwards it seems there arose among Christians several violent Opinionists and sierce Semi-Arians and then many rigid and thorow-paced or very heathenish Platonists true Polytheists that perhaps went even farther than Platonism it self and maintain'd much the same Notions concerning the Son that are laid down in Dr. Sherlocks Books Not but that in the beginning of the 4th Century at the time of the Council of Nice there were a great many of the most Learned Bishops that were still Semi-Arians and several but Arians most credibly according to the Doctrin that anciently was chiefly in vogue before Semi-Arianism was establish'd by Justin Martyr The Semi-Arians or Mildest Platonists like the Arians defended the Unity of God by saying that the Father only was the Supreme or Principal God and that God the Word was not only Lesser than he but also Subject to him wherefore they concluded it might truly be said that in Heaven and in the whole World there is but One Godhead or but one God tho' there be God the Father and God the Son as in a House where there is a Son Subject to his Father it may be said that there is but one Government one Mastership or one Master the one not being essentially different from the other when both of them perfectly agree This is so well known to have been the sense of the generality of these Ante-nicene Fathers whose Writings have in some measure been preserved as well as of many since that it is needless to take much pains to prove it Howbeit it will not be improper to give here some Instances of it And first for the conveniency of some Readers it may be useful to make these Chronological Remarks Justin Martyr flourished about the 130th Year after Christ's Nativity Hegesipâ—us and Irenaeus about the Year 170. Victo Bishop of Rome about the Year 190. And Zepherin his Successor about the Year 200. Tertullian about the Year 210. Origen about the Year 230. Novatian and Dyonisius Alexandrinus within a few Years of that time Arnobius whose Disciple was Lactantius about the Year 295. The famous Council of Nice was held in the Year 325. These few Observations sufficing for the Purpose in Hand we may now proceed to aver what we have said concerning the Sentiment of the Ante-nicene Platonists to which end we may consider these Passages out of the Writings of those of them who were most learned and esteem'd in their Generations Dalaeus towards the middle of the fifth Chap. of his first Book De Vs Pat. not distinguishing Semi-Arianism from Arianism opines that it is impossible to clear St. Justin from being an Arian that Father asserting that the God who appeared to Moses and the Patriarchs was the Son and not the Father inasmuch as the Father never changes Place neither comes up nor down and no Man therefore ever saw the Father but the Son only has been seen who is the Father's Minister and a God also by the Father 's Will. Now says Dalaeus is not this to attribute to God the Son a Nature and Being different from that of God the Father Nay he might have added is not this also to ascribe to him an inferior and a precarious Being As the same Justin Martyr says to the same purpose in other Places God in the beginning before all the Creatures that is to say before all the other Creatures or mere Creatures and immediately before the Creation of the World for that is the strain of these Platonists generated of himself a certain Rational Power one while called the Son another while Wisdom an Angel God Lord and Word For he may be called by all these Names both because he Ministreth to the Will of the Father and was voluntarily Begotten of the Father Colloq cum Tryph. p. 221. We account the Son in the Second Rank and the Prophetick Spirit in the Third Order Apol. 2. p. 47. At the 43d Page of this Book he puts the Prophetick Spirit in the same Classis with the good Angels and indeed names him after them which shews that he took him to be one of them We Honour the Father and the Son says he and the Host of the other good Angels who accompany and resemble him together with the Prophetick Spirit Which seems to be as if he had said We Honour also the good Angels and in particular the Prophetick Spirit who is one of them and their Chief Irenaeus who even was a Disciple of the Contemporaries of the Apostles his Master Polycarpus having been a Disciple and Companion of St. John and of some others that had seen the Lord and who was himself as well as Polycarpus generally in great esteem among Christians tho' every one knows he was also a follower and great admirer of Plato speaks much to the same
have been permitted to come to our hands so express themselves that they may be taken for Arians Howbeit it suffices us if they generally appear to be but Semi-Arians For then it is evident the present Trinitarians cannot justly plead Antiquity The celebrated Writings of Lactantius are a further Testimony to what I have said concerning the State of the Platonick Trinitarianism in the Church before the Council of Nice He asserts that God before he set upon this ourious Work of the World begat an incorruptible and irreproveable Spirit that he might call him his Son Altho' God produced also for his Service infinite others whom we call Angels yet he has vouchsafed to give the Name of Son but to his First-born Instit L. 4. C. 6. And because the Son was faithful to God and taught Mankind that there is one God and that he alone is to be worshipped neither did ever call himself a God because he had not discharged his Trust therefore he received the Dignity of a Perpetual Priest and the Honor of a Soveraign King and the Power of a Judg and the Name of God Ib. C. 13. Now when any one has a Son whom he entirely loves who notwithstanding dwells in the House and under the Governing Power of his Father altho' the Father grants him the Name and Authority of a Master yet in the terms of Civilians here is but one House and one Master So this World is but one House belonging to God and the Son and the Father who inhabit the World and who are of one Mind or of like Affections and perfectly agree are as One Government or One only God the One being as the Two and the Two as the One. And no marvel since the Son is in the Father because the Father loveth the Son and the Father is in the Son by reason of his faithful Resignation to his Fathers Will and that he does nothing but what the Father Commands him This evidently declares in what sense the Father and Son are to be understood to be One God or One Mind and One Spirit Namely inasmuch as they are of one Mind they are therefore as if they were but one Spirit or but one Person and one God Yet according to this they really are Two distinct Beings and Two very unequal Spirits For the Son has freely received all from the Father and is ever Inferior and Subject to the Father and was produced then when God was going to set himself upon the Creating of the World and consequently is not from all Eternity The Father then is the First and Principal God and the Son is a God of a lower kind If this be not pure Arianism as it may be taken and seems to be all that it can amount to is at most Semi-Arianism which indeed very little differs from Arianism for both Systems hold the Son to be God but in an Inferior sense and assert the Father alone to be the one only true God tho' the Semi-Arians esteem that the Son was Created out of the Fathers Nature or Substance whereas Arius and those that are exactly of his Opinion as was said conceive that the Son tho' immediately produced by the Father was Created out of Nothing and only differs from other Creatures in that he is more Excellent than they all put together was Created by the Father alone and is set by the Father over all created Beings As concerning the Person and Nature of the Holy Spirit Dalaeus in the Fourth Chap. of his Second Book De usu Patrum remarks after St. Jerom that Lactantius expresly asserts the Holy Ghost to be but a Creature and not to partake of the Deity Sandius brings many Instances to prove that both Lactantius and all the other foremention'd Authors were even of Arius his Sentiment and not they only but also generally the remaining Ante-nicene Writers All these Authors which we have quoted were undoubtedly most learned and deservedly esteem'd in their Generations and are now generally esteem'd still by all Christians and indeed they may be accounted the Chief of the Ante-nicene whose Writings have been preserved We may also rank among them Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea as well as Lactantius since he Flourished somtime before as well as since the Council of Nice and appears to follow wholly the Sentiments of Justin Martyr when not aw'd by the Nicene Tyranny so that the then current Ante-nicene Doctrin may be known in these Writings Concerning these Matters therefore we may remark Eusebius expresses himself to this purpose He that is beyond all things the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Governor of all things how many and of what quality soever they be even of the Holy Spirit himself yea further of the Only Begotten Son also is deservedly stiled by the Apostle the God that is over all and he only may be called the one God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ But the Son is the Only Begotten God who is in the Bosom of the Father And the Advocate the Holy Spirit is neither God nor Son for he has not received his Production from the Father like the Son but is one of those things which were made by the Son De Ecclesiast Theol. L. 3. C. 6. If John had conceived the Father and the Son to be one and the same thing he would have said that the Word was the God with the Addition of the Article which not doing he evidently teaches us that he is the Prime God who is the Father of the Word and that the Word was not that very God but yet that he also was a God Ib. L. 2. C. 17. This is the Current Doctrin of the Old Ante-nicene Platonists concerning the Son and Holy Ghost Eusebius like the other before him expresly asserts that the Holy Ghost is not God and it is visible he says no more of the Son than at most what is agreable to Semi-Arianism That was it seems what the generality of the Primitive or Ancient Aâ—teâ—nicene Platonists meant by the Divinity of the Word and for the not coming up to which they opposed the Ebionite and the Nazarene Vnitarians Eusebius in the 25th and last Chap. of the 5th Book of his History quotes a remarkable Passage of an Author a Platonizing Christian who had written upon that account against the most rigid Vnitarians The Passage is to this effect The Vnitarians pretend that the Apostles and all the Ancients held the very Doctrine concerning the Person of our Saviour that is now maintained by the Vnitarians and that it is but only since the Times of the Popes Victor and Zepherin that the Truth has been adulterated and discountenanced This would be credible if first the Vnitarian Doctrin were not contrary to Holy Scripture and if divers before Victor and Zepherin had not contended for the Divinity of the Lord Christ Namely Justin Martyr Miltiades Tatianus Clemens of Alexandria Irenaeus Melito To whom we may add the ancient Hymns or
purpose The Church says he dispersed thro' the whole World has both from the Apostles and their Disciples received that Faith which is in one God the Father Almighty and in one Jesus Christ the Son of God incarnated for our Salvation and in one Holy Spirit who by the Prophets published the Dispensations of God Jesus Christ is our Lord and God and Saviour and King according to the good Pleasure of the Invisible Father advers haeres L. 1. C. 2. He who has no other God above him is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Ib. C. 19. And in speaking of that Saying of Christ that he knew not the Day and Hour of Judgment he says The Father is above all things for the Father says Christ is greater than I Wherefore in knowledge also the Father is declared to have the Preeminence Ib. L. 2. C. 49. The Apostles would not call any one of his own Persor Lord but him that exerciseth Lordship over all even God the Father and his Son who has received from the Father the Lordship of all the Creation Ib. L. 3. C. 6. The Apostles confessed the Father and Son to be God and Lord but neither named any other God nor confessed any other to be Lord. Ib. C. 9. I invocate thee O Lord the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who art the only true God above whom there is no other God who rulest over all and dost in domination besides our Lord Jesus Christ rule also over the Holy Spirit Ib. C. 6. By these Passages it appears that Irenaeus held the Father alone to be God in the most eminent sense of that word and the Son to be Lord and God under the Father but the Holy Spirit to be neither Lord nor God Yet he might hold the Holy Spirit to be above the Angels and 't is probable he understood thereby what the Vnitarians do These Matters being left in a great Generality in Scripture the Fathers explained them as they thought best That liberty of inquiry and examination must be allowed of so those explications and interpretations be but offer'd as Opinions and Conjectures but be not Magisterially imposed by any Man on other Men. For to follow the Design and Intention of Scripture Christians must Unite in the Generality of the Terms of Scripture as we see it in the Apostles Creed If these Measures had always been observed Platonism had done but little harm It seems that Platonism made the Platonizing Fathers differ from the strict Vnitarians and Arians I mean the Ancient and Primitive Christians that held the Sentiment that Arius revived or improved For it seems he believed after them that the Word like other Creatures was made out of Nothing But it seems Plato as after him his Christian Disciples of the Number of whom Irenaeus seems to be taught that the Word was created out of the Substance of God Dalaeus observes in the last quoted Place of his aforesaid Book that Tertullian tho' the most thorow-stitcht Platonist of his time had much the same Thoughts and held that God the Father produced the Word out of himself and made him his Son but that the Father is the whole Substance and the Son a Portion and Derivation of that whole In another Place the same Tertullian says expresly that there was a time when the Son was not Adv. Hermogen C. 3. and it seems that by the Holy Spirit-he means only the Vertue and Power of God De Praescript C. 13. Novatian says that the Holy Spirit is less than Christ De Trin. C. 24. moreover that once the Son was not and that before him was nothing besides the Father C. 11. Whereby he positively asserts that the Father alone is from all Eternity and consequently that the Father alone is God in the eminent Sense of that word Which is very different from the Sentiment of the rigid Platonists and the present Trinitarians who hold the Son and Holy Spirit to be from all Eternity as well as the Father and to be equal among themselves and co-equal with him as it is in the Creed of Athanasius Now those that do not assert the Son and Spirit to be eternal and consequently not to have a necessary Existence nor unlimited Perfections nor unborrowed Powers or Powers that they have not received freely from another may very well pass for Vnitarians seeing they make not the Son and Spirit to be God like the Father but the Father's Creatures Dalaeus in the Place we last quoted remarks that those expressions which afterwards were so much found sault with in Arius were used by these Antenicene be mentions Dionysius Arexandrinus who expresly calls the Son the Father's Workmanship which is the same as to say the Father's Creature They expresly say that the Father Made the Son and they even use the very term that the Father Created him Nay Dalaeus in the same Place forgets not to take notice that the 80 Platonick Bishops who at the latter end of the 3d. Century so violently condemned the famous Patriarch of Antioch yet at the same time did expresly declare that the Son is not of the same Essence with the Father Now therefore by the Acknowledgement of the Trinitarians themselves the Post-Nicene Trinitarians cannot with any Modesty pretend that the Ancients were of the same Opinion with them and consequently there can be nothing more vain than for them to plead Antiquity Origen like the foregoing Authors not only called the Son a Second God Contr. Cel. L. 5. p. 258. but a Creature and the oldest of the Creatures Ib. p. 257. And in his First and Second Books concerning Prayer he has so many Arguments against Praying to any but the Father and so blames those that would also direct their Prayers to the Son plainly calling them Fools for so doing that it clearly appears that according to him the Supreme or true Divinity belong'd to the Father only This is so notorious that many have believed that Origen was of the same Opinion that Arius afterwards was of and Epiphanius did well observe that in many Places Origen makes the Son and Holy Spirit to be of another kind of God-head or of another Nature and Essence than that of the Father Epiphan adv Haer. L. 2. T. 1. p. 531. Now since so antient so renowned and learned a Doctor as Origen was of this Sentiment that alone is a sufficient Argument that the Notion of the present Trinitarians was not then known to be the Apostolick Doctrin that at least the Tradition about that Point is uncertain and consequently that the Determination thereof ought not to be sought for by this Means Indeed in reason so Abstruse and Intricate a Matter ought to be Magisterially determined by no Means if they are not attended with greater evidence but every one must be allowed to judge the best he can for himself and Men must Unite in the use of the terms and expressions themselves of Scripture if they appear to be susceptible of a
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
Sun causing the Seeds of things to grow unto Perfection and into a beautiful Order Indeed the Sun is not properly a Creatour nor are Men properly Creatours but they are Instruments in the Hands of the Creatour God is pleas'd to make use of them in the effecting of those Works but all the while He concurrs with them as well as prepares the Subject for them He not only provides the Matter and Means and endues the Instruments with a fit Capacity but He also upholds and assists them and works with as well as by them In like manner the Vnitarians observe it is not said that the Word is the Creatour or Maker but that by him God made the Universe When the Word was created or that most excellent Person which is the most express Image of the Divine Wisdom and is therefore in that sense call'd the Wisdom of God the first Being which God then produced and which with the Instrumental Concurrence of the Word He fashioned and perfected was according to the most illustrious Vnitarians another very eminent Creature which not only for distinction-sake but also for his excellent Perfection and the designation of his Office was called the Holy Spirit and the Power of God But tho' the Word had a part in the fashioning or modelling of him or in the medial and instrumental pouring vital or spiritual influences upon him yet he had so little share in the Work in comparison of that which God had in it that not the Word himself but God only is to be reckoned as the Producer or Maker of that Holy Spirit And for the same reason God only is called the Author of all the other Creatures tho' both the Word and the Holy Spirit had a hand together with God in the drawing of them out of the Chaos God prepared the Chaos and having created the Word and by the Word the Spirit by the breathing and moving of the Spirit he gave Motion to other Creatures that were set into a sit Order to that end Yet all Creatures and even the Holy Spirit are said to belong to the Word because in the creating of them God designed to Subject them all to the Word and accordingly they were all Subjected to him from the beginning tho' then so only as Servants are Subject to a Son in his Minority in his Father's House whereas after Christ's Passion and Exaltation they were Subjected to him as to the Master of the House himself or as to a Son com to Age to whom the Father commits the Government of the House If by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel be to be understood not only the First created Spirit but also a Divine Virtue and Influence united to and assisting that most excellent Creature it is easy to conceive that the Word might be Instrumental in Creating the Chaos or the World out of the Chaos Howbeit nothing in Scripture or Reason contradicts the System implying that the Chaos is an eternal Emanation of God that it is a confus'd Mixture of unactive Material and Spiritual Natures that Creating is the putting some of them in a certain Motion and Order that all Spiritual Creatures have a Material Vehicle that the Material Vehicle being prepared God with what somtimes is called his Word what is called his Breath forces into it some Portion of the Spiritual Nature scattered in the Chaos that what the Scripture somtimes also calls the Word that is the Soul of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit thereby then meaning a Creature are the largest Portions of the Spiritual Part of the Chaos that God ever put together and that the Word and Holy Spirit being created God made use of them to Create or Breath upon and Put into a fit Motion and Order the rest of the Creatures By the H. Spirit then so far as that title may be applied to other beside God may be understood the Chief of the Elect Angels or of the Seven Archangels 1 Tim. 5.21 which are represented immediately surrounding standing before the Throne of Glory Rev. 1.4 Most probably such a glorious Creature as incomparably surpasses all the other Archangels in Excellency of Nature is then primarily to be understood by the H. Spirit Yet it may be also that the whole Body of Angels under him consequently every Angel may sometime be thereby meant For the term Holy Spirit may be a Collective Word implying then several Holy Spirits or all the Holy Angels every Holy Angel being a Holy and Pure Spirit And what all the Subordinate Angels do at the Command of their Cheif is reck'ned as done by him who when he has receiv'd the Orders of the Word divides to them their Tasks and originally is the Holy Spirit or Holy Angel by excellency and so in that respect these Works are represented as performed by One Holy Spirit and the whole Body of Holy Angels is then reputed as if it were but One Holy Angel as in speaking of what is done by Devils the Scripture mentions but One of those Impure Beings as if there were but one such the Evil One or the Vnholy Spirit what all the Devils do being ascribed to their Chief who Commands and Directs them in all things Howbeit there is no reason why we may not think that One Immense Spirit next to God and the Word may not be suppos'd to do all that is attributed to the Holy Spirit For the Excellency of the Holy Spirit may be so great as to have incomparably greater Powers and Perfections than all the Angels and all other Inferior Creatures put together and even almost to equal the Word except in Dignity One Sun and One Moon pour their Influences effectually upon all the Seeds and Creatures in the World And do we think that God could not frame an excellent Spirit or two excellent Spirits so powerful as to be able to do the like to all Human Spirits on Earth and to shine upon them all and enlighten and guide them and suggest good Motions to them and watch alone over them if not with the Concurrence also of other Angels which yet cannot be doubted of as Spiritual Stars in comparison of those other most excellent Spirits Yet all these Holy Spirits are but the disposing Instruments and Ministers of the Divine Power which at their working together works by and with them The Word has the disposition of the Divine Power of that which is his particular and ordinary Attendant and even of that which God himself immediately exercises and of that also the disposition of which is given to the Holy Spirit and to the Angels For the Word having receiv'd that Priviledge has made the Holy Spirit partaker of a vast Share of the Divine Power above all Angels according to this System And to every Angel according to his Station is alloted likewise by the Word 's Appointment Authorized thereunto by God a certain Portion of the Administration of the Divine Power which always accompanies
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
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
and the special People of God may well be called his own And his own received him not These Men to whom were given the Divine Oracles and among whom Christ was born and lived and did mighty Works and was baptized and proclaim'd the Messiah by John the Baptist and by the Hoâ—y Ghost these blind and sensual Men liked him not they thought his Doctrin too pure to be a Religion fit for them and his Person too mean and despicable to be their Deliverer Thus the World knew him not and received him not notwithstanding all the Attestations of Heaven that this was their Maker their Saviour and the Mighty Prince that God design'd them Verse 14. And the Word WAS Flesh So we must render it and not was made It is the same Expression that is used at the beginning of the 6th Verse where it is said There WAS a Man sent from God If the Trinitarian Sentiment was not impossible concerning three eternal and supremely Divine Persons as it expresly seems to be yet it could not truly be said that God was made Flesh But the Trinitarian Sentiment appears to imply many express Contradictions It seems therefore every way against Reason to render this Text as the Trinitarians do It must then be Translated as we have done For as was observed the term doth bear that Sense The Word was Flesh Flesh that is to say a mortal Man encompassed with all the infirmities or appearing in the low form and meanest circumstances of Human Nature not implying Sin See Hebr. 2.14 Mark 13.20 Gen. 6.12 Deut. 5.26 Jerem. 12.12 1. Cor. 15.50 That is then it seems of somewhat a greater force and significancy than if the Evangelist had barely said that the Messiah was a Man the saying that He was Flesh being as much as to say that as to his Nature and Being he was but a Man an ordinary Man like other Men a very Man or true Man made up of Soul and Body subject to Want and Temptation to Hunger and Thirst and to all the like Frailties and Accidents of Human Nature By the last quoted Texts it appears that this is imported by the term Flesh which in the Oriental Languages is a proper expression to that purpose tho' in our Tongue like many other Scripture Phrases it seems odd but we ought to remember that the Bible was not originally written in English we must therefore carefully attend to the stile of the Scripture and explain one Place by another that we may understand it right But tho' it be certain the Messiah the Prime Minister and Chief Messenger of God was a poor mortal Man subject to the Pains and Sufferings incident to Humanity from which miserable state and wretched circumstances being perfectly innocent he might have been exempt but to which for the sake of Men and for the Redemption of Mankind he freely subjected himself yet as the Evangelist at the same time doth here observe he was not without some conspicuous and most illustrious Rays of Glory the Glory of being own'd by God for the Messiah the Glory of bringing and procuring the most excellent Revelation and the Glory of working as great and as many Miracles as he pleas'd and when he pleas'd such a Glory as declared that the Father dwelt constantly in him and as bespoke him to be the great Messenger or divine Word and the only-begotten or most beloved Son of God Such a Glory was seen in him as the Glory of the Son of God or as a Glory worthy of the Son of God by excellency Nevertheless to all other outward appearances and circumstances he was content to be as the meanest and most contemptible Men. And the Word was Flesh Now it was very pertinent to the Design of the Evangelist to use that expression For it seems to be his chief Aim to shew that Christ the Word was but a Man It is commonly thought that he wrote his Gospel purposely to oppose the Heresies of Cerinthus We are told Iren. L. 1. C. 25. and Euseb L. 3. C. 25. Cerinthus maintained that Jesus born of Mary was not the Word or Christ but that the Christ or the Logos that is to say the Word the Divine Messenger or Wisdom or Proclaimer of the Wisdom of God was an Hypostasis or real Person subsisting of it self an Eternal and Divine Substance different from Jesus but dwelling in him while he was on Earth and working wondrous Works by him Now in opposition to this St. John asserts that the Word was Flesh was truly a Man and but a Man a frail mortal Man like other Men tho' indeed the most dignified of all Creatures as he declares at the First Verse where he calls him a God which is the Highest Name that Cerinthus gave to the Word Well says St. John the Word was a God but then this God was but a Man tho' he was the Son of God the Prince of all Creatures and the designed Lord of Men and Angels The Word was a God and the Word was Flesh That is then as if the Evangelist had said The Gnosticks call the Word a God so do I too but at the same time I declare that the Word is such a God as is but a Creature and is no other but the Man Jesus who was God's only begotten Son being born of a Virgin by the Power of God and who was anointed with and constantly assisted by the Holy Spirit This is the Christ and the God Word Those then are mere Fables which the Gnosticks and Cerinthians hold of the Christ his being an I know not what uncreated Logos and Divine Hypostasis proceeding out of the Bythos or Abyss and ordered by the Father to dwell in the Man Jesus After all it is not absolutely certain whether St. John wrote against Cerinthus We have not so much as the Assertion of any one of the Ancients for it before St. Jeâ—om And as for Cerinthus his Opinions tho' it may be that some of 'em were extraordinary bad yet we know nothing of them but by the report of his Adversaries And t is no new thing for such to give but an indifferent and imperfect account of the Sentiments of those that differ from 'em and to raise Stories disadvantageous to them which good Men such as was Ireneus took afterwards upon trust Howbeit we see that St. John decares the Word to be the Man Jesus Christ and in many Places of his Gospel shews him to be a Creature And if Ireneus was well informed himself and has informed us right Cerinthus held this erroneous Opinion that the Word is a real eternal Divine Person and consequently that there are more Divine Persons than one Those of Ireneus his Party most probably found fault with Cerinthus because besides his Superstition for the Law he had not the same Notion of the Word that they had Cerinthus it seems believed the Word to be a real Divine Person equal to the Father as the real Trinitarians do And
Colledge of the Apostles with the Concurence and Consent of the 120 Disciples mentioned in Acts 1.15 who assisted them in their Councils And it seems to be referred to in Rom. 6.17 Rom. 12.6 1 Tim. 6.20 2 Tim. 1.13 Jude 3. In truth the Divine Providence might well think it self not concerned to preserve any other Evidence of the Authority and Antiquity of the Christian System but this besides the Holy Scripture Yet we have moreover the Epistle of St. Clemens or Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians That is that Clemens whom St. Paul not only calls his Fellow-laborer but of whom he says that his Name is written in the Book of Life Phil. 4.3 This Clemens being Bishop of Rome wrote that Epistle to the Christians of Corinth in the Name and by the Order of his Church And this Epistle is so avowed a Piece of Antiquity that the Trinitarians dare not disown it Howbeit the most learned Trinitarian Criticks such as Bishop Vsher Petavius and Huetius of late and Photius of old see Sandi Hist Secul 1. acknowledge that Clemens appears therein an undoubted Unitarian speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ just as the Unitarians do and no otherwise as we see for instance even in these words of the 58th Chapter God the Inspector of all things the Father of Spirits the Lord of all Flesh who has chosen our Lord Jesus Christ and us by him grant to you Peace Long Suffering Patience through our High Priest and Protector Jesus Christ by whom be Glory and Honour and Majesty unto God now and for evermore Now let the Trinitarians seriously consider whether they would thus express themselves to teach what is to be believed concerning God the Father of all and concerning our Lord Jesus Christ See Sandius's Hist Eccl. for more express Evidences of St. Clemens his Vnitarianism There are also the Recognitions which tho' perhaps by Mistake attributed to St. Clemens yet are very antient there being a Passage taken out of them in a Fragment of Bardesanes preserved in Eusebius his Praep. Evang. L. 6. C. 10. They are so evidently agreable to the Unitarian Sentiment that they are confessed so to be by the Trinitarian Criticks For a further illustration of all these particulars see the aforequoted Pamphlet The Judgment of the Fathers c. As for the other remaining Ante-nicene Writings tho they appear to begin to platonize and proceed to do so more and more by steps and some of them doing it in a pretty high degree those that asserted the rigid Unitarian Doctrine or even that Sentiment that Arius afterwards was condemned for thus being in time in some measure suppressed yet generally they are far from the Opinion that is now called Orthodox and they incline more to the Unitarian System then to the Trinitarian Sentiment of the latter Ages For first they generally believe not the Holy Ghost to be God or a God in an eminent sense like Him whom they call the God Word or the Word whom God produced before all things whom God was pleased to make a God or Soveraign next unto Him and whom they suppose God employed as his Minister in Creating the Holy Spirit and Angels and as his Chief Officer in the Creation of all other things Secondly then they by no means represent the Divine Word or Son as actually equal to God but as an inferiour God distinct from and subject to the Principal God who has no God above him and they represent him not as a Necessary Being that was generated from all eternity but as being created of the Divine Substance by the mere good Will and arbitrary Pleasure of God immediately before the Creation of the World Indeed they generally seem to make the Duration of Time to commence at the Creation of the World and so suppose that what was done before the Creation of the Material World belongs not to the Duration of Time but to the Duration of Eternity Nevertheless as was said they hold not the Son to have been from all Eternity for they assert that once he was not and they hold that he had a beginning Yet according to them he may be termed eternal in that he existed in God from Eternity and was produced in that Duration which was before the Creation of the World In like manner they reckon him to be equal to God or rather like to God no otherwise than as he is a most excellent Being that most eminently acts for and represents God and was created out of the Substance of God whereas it seems they most generally hold that other Creatures were made out of Nothing They represent the Son to be created out of the Substance of God as the Expression of our thoughts by Speech is created out of our Thoughts But they offer their Philosophical Speculations for the most part as Conjectures and not as Articles of Faith Especially at first they were pretty sparing and moderate therein Howbeit the unfathomable Depths of Platonism as it was taught in those Days and which was then by too many philosophizing Christians imagined to be in a great measure reconcileable with Christianity and near the same thing with it made that these poor Fathers often knew not well themselves or seemed not to know what they said nor whereof they affirmed Yet from the whole it seems it may be collected that generally these Platonists inclined to that Opinion which afterwards was called Semi-Arianism As was said they generally own that the Son was not from all Eternity and that he is not Equal to the Father Yet the Platonick Metaphysicks which the Heathenish World at that time highly admired as the sublimest Philosophy and the most rational Theology and which these Doctors not only followed before they were Christians but also when converted accomodated as much as they could to Christianity it seems at least implying that the Second Person of the Trinity was created out of the Substance of the First or Chief God and the Third out of the Substance of the Second yet so as that tho the Third Person of this Most High Trinity was not so Excellent as the Second nor the Second but of an Inserior Divinity neither howbeit bearing the Name of God and therein particularly surpassing the Third Divine Person these two Persons nevertheless which tho' Inserior to the Chief God were Superior to all the other Gods or Angels remained most intimately United not only with one another but also with the First Person of this transcendent Trinity insomuch that these three being thus United and being of a like Substance might be said to be one Thing or as one Being Platonism I say seeming at least to import somewhat like this these Platonizing Fathers therefore by degrees philosophized among Christians much after that way as much as can be conceived by their expressions Indeed all Creatures may be said in some sense to be united to God and to be in God for in him we live and move and have our
to our Decisions and profess the eternal Generation three Persons in one God-head and the Equality of the Son and Spirit with the Father which is to judge for others in a most abstruse and obscure Subject and to require of them as Terms of Union to act against their Conscience as the generality of them believe and be hypocrites and utter lies and grosly equivocate in the greatest Solemnities of Religion whereby many Souls may be caused to perish for whom Christ died See The Consequences of the Modalists System The Athanasian and Nicene Creeds are too express or particular and magisterial for so subling Speculations left in so great a Generality as we see these are in Scripture We have no right therefore to set up such magisterial imperious Terms of Communion according to the Protestant Principles as it appears from what has been said but We are necessarily oblig'd to keep to the Terms of Church-Vnion that we have here described seeing it appears that We are to receive the Vnitarians and not to drive them away out of our Communion it being incontestable upon impartial consideration that the Vnitarian Controversy is of that nature that Men may be Vnitarians and be very sincere and inquisitive and consequently not to be rejected and it being to be remarked that the Generality of the Scripture-Terms is sufficient and safe from the whole it being necessarily to be inferred in the last place IV. That this Generality in Terms of Church-Vnion is a safe Method in so intricate a Matter and is incontestably sufficient all being certainly worshipped when God in general is directly and ultimately Prayed to that is to be adored 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 and exalted at God's Right Hand and so is addressed to as the Mediator of the New Covenant as was said In most intricate Matters that certainly cannot but be most safe which is subject to the least Inconveniencies and which is in some measure sufficient And incontestably it is sufficient to worship God with Supreme Worship for all that is God is Worshipped when God in general is Worshipped Wherefore the generality of the Reformed Churches content themselves to address their Prayers in general to God And some of the most Learned Trinitarians maintain that it is not lawful to do otherwise but that formal Addresses to different Most Supreme Persons in Divine Worship set up different Objects of Supreme Worship For the same reasons in the Publick Terms of Vnion a general Profession of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the general Expressions of Scripture is both the safest and is certainly sufficient And all this doth even necessarily follow from the 1st and 2d Inferences For there it appears that God absolutely requires no more for Terms of Vnion What God therefore is content with to that end is to that end incontestably safest as well as sufficient so that if Men instead of taking upon them to be Magisterial Judges would have stuck to the Latitude and Generality of Scripture for Terms of Agreement and Union all had been well We must needs then own that the Scripture-Expressions to be adhered to in Terms of Church-Vnion at least will suffice to all the indispensibly necessary ends of Salvation and that consequently it is sufficient in general to know and believe that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit and Inspiration and Power of God and that Christ is the Only-Begotten Son of God in whom the Fulness of the God-head that may be communicated and that is an Influence of all the Divine Perfections most intimately dwells and that he is in some sense God It is evident that this System furnishes the same Motives to love God and Christ and to practise the Precepts of the Gospel that the other System doth For if one Divine Person with the Influences and Assistances of his Wisdom and Power be suppos'd to do together with Christ all that belongs to our Salvation have we the less reason to be thankful to God and Christ and to hearken to the Gospel-Injunctions than if we suppos'd three Divine Persons or called God three Persons It is as effectual therefore to the ends of Christianity to hold that the Spirit is the Power of God and that Christ most eminently acts for God and is most intimately united with God by the means of the Divine Influence dwelling in him so that when Christ is obey'd and lov'd thereby God is actually lov'd and obey'd Christ being thus lookt upon both as most excellently and most extraordinarily representing God and as being in some sense God Many Trinitarians do expresly assert that the Second Person is but a continual Acting of the Father Why may not the same be said of the Holy Spirit and Inspiration Or why may not the Word and the Spirit be stiled Influences as well as Acts of the Father Howbeit We may certainly very fitly conclude this Subject with the Words of the late Dr. Sherlock at the 7th Page of that Book of his intituled The Present State of the Socinian Controversy where concerning the human and unscriptural Expressions three Persons Of the same Substance Essence and the like he has this judicious remark The Catholick Faith does not depend upon the use of these terms for it was before them Now this is all that I plead for that these and the like unscriptural terms be not lookt upon as necessary for Christian-Communion but that Christians may be so reasonable and just as to Vnite in the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture which it is evident God has judg'd sufficient since He thought fit to use them as He has done that is in the Generality of which they appear susceptible Incontestably then 't is neither Necessary nor indeed consequently Safe nor Just in such most Intricate Matters to go beyond the very express Words of Scripture in Terms and Acts of Church-Communion Besides Are not the Tares as well as Wheat to be suffered in the Church by Christ's Order Math. 13.30 The Scripture-Latitude must needs therefore be THE TERMS OF UNION We need not and ought not to be more express or determining and imposing than the Scripture Tho' the Person of Christ were not fully known yet notwithstanding that there is no other Name by which Penitent Men are Saved He may be the Saviour of all them in every Nation who do righteousness and for his Sake God may accept of their sincere Repentance and Obedience As Amyraldus judiciously observed if a Prince has been graciously pleased to ransom a Captive or pay the Debts of a Poor Prisoner that Redeemed one is not the less ransomed and made free tho' he do not perfectly or exactly know all that belongs to the Person by whom he is redeemed all that is reasonably and indispensably requisite being that he should do what he can to
are not all alike and therefore neither can our Opinions in such mysterious Articles c. P. 45. This Letter was by Socrates called a wonderful Exhortation full of grace and sober councels and such as Hosius himself who was the Messenger pressed with all earnestness P. 46. The Apostles who best understood these Mysteries thought it not fit to use any words in their Creed but the words of Scripture to shew us that those Creeds are best which keep the very words of Scripture and that that Faith is best which has the greatest Simplicity If the Nicene Fathers had done so too possibly the Church would never have repented it P. 47. Concerning the Symbol of Athanasius Nothing there but Damnation and Perishing everlastingly unless the Article of the Trinity be believed as it is there with curiosity and minute particularities explained Yet I dare not say all that are not persuaded of them are irrevocably damn'd because citra hoc Symbolum the Faith of the Apostles Creed is intire c. P. 53 54. Indeed as was observed Who gave Authority to fallible Men to make and impose New Creeds or Magisterial Determinations in these abstruse Matters See what this learned Prelate says on the account of the Miracles wrought by the Aâ—ians in the 1st Part of his Sermon on John 9.31 If it were considered concerning Athanasius Creed how many People understand it not how contrary to Natural Reason it seems how little the Scripture says of those Curiosities of Explication and how Tradition was not clear on his side for the Article it self much less for those forms and minutes it had not been amiss if the Final Judgment had been left to Jesus Christ who is appointed Judge of all the World and who will judge righteously knowing every truth c. P. 54. After this Passage no more need be added I shall only point to Page 59 Line 28 c. P. 60 L. 10 c. P. 61 L. 11 c. P. 63 L. 16 c. P. 66 L. 9 c. P. 67 L. 35 c. P. 68 L. 8 c. P. 78 L. 35 c. P. 82 L. 33 c. P. 84 L. 1 c. P. 85 L. 18 c. P. 86 L. 2 c. P. 87 L. 13 c. P. 99 L. 30 c. P. 103 L. 36 c. P. 121 L. 35 c. P. 123 L. 9. c. P. 124 L. 25 c. P. 157 L. 6 c. P. 160 L. 36 c. P. 161. L. 32 c. P. 165 L. 4 c. P. 192 L. 4 c. P. 195 L. 24 c. P. 262 L. 8 c. P. 263 L. 34 c. P. 265 L. 5 c. P. 266 L. 2 c. but for the rest I refer the Reader to the Book it self which I earnestly recommend to his serious perusal May it please the Lord Jesus to have Mercy upon Us and to assist and save Us by his efficacious Intercession and by his Grace for the Sake of his most precious Death and Passion that We may not lose the Blessed Fruits of it but may all become his true Disciples and be of the number of his Redeemed ones being filled with his Holy Spirit and abounding in all Christian Virtues And may Almighty God in his infinite Compassions for his beloved Son Jesus Christ's Sake our Blessed Lord and Saviour grant every sincere and inquisitive Christian to discern and follow so far as is necessary the Ways of Truth as well as of Righteousness that walking in the Paths of Peace and true Piety and Holiness We may serve God acceptably all the Days of our Life and in the end obtain the Salvation of our Souls Amen! FINIS