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
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
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
imply an Influence of the Divine Virtue yet God the Holy Ghost and the Inspiration a Divine Person certainly are not Scriptural Terms And the Vnitarians generally believe that in such intricate Matters and particularly concerning the Object of Worship and the making Something distinctly an Object of Worship We must not go beyond express Injunctions According to Scripture they worship Christ to the Glory of the Father as was said And in particular they ultimately worship the Father for his giving the Divine Inspiration The Governors of the Church are humbly desir'd to give Publickly their Opinion of these the like aforementioned Reasons this undoubtedly being a Subject that deserves all the illustration that according to the Obligations of Christian Charity they can give to it Tho' all that is possible ought to be done for Peace-sake yet on the other hand nothing ought to be done against Conscience and tho' some of the Vnitarians might condescend to most of the Scholastick Trinitarian Expressions yet they cannot generally approve them III. What is inferr'd from the Vnitarian Arguments remains in force so that it is an indispensible Duty to profess and establish the Gospel-Terms of Communion and to keep to the seeming and most manifest and apparent Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church-Vnion tho' the Trinitarians and some Vnitarians should opine that the Vnitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with the Trinitarians and even tho' there were in God what might truly be call'd three Persons For 1. If there be Somewhats in God that may be call'd three Persons which yet indeed seems absolutely both impossible in it self and not expresly implied in Scripture but contrary to many Texts yet not only that Doctrine seems absolutely unintelligible but certainly it is most obscurely revealed and but drawn from most intricate and uncertain Deductions and on the other hand the Vnitarian Arguments against the calling any thing in God three Persons are incontestably such that Men may be sincerely inquisitive and really think them to be solid Upon such most abstruse Difficulties We ought not to act rashly and condemn or reject sincere and inquisitive Persons God cannot be supposed indispensibly to require of every one to believe explicitely what he has left so difficult and obscure nor consequently to have allow'd any one to determine this Point Magisterially so as to make the Determination of it a necessary Term of Church-Communion Then it follows it is God's Will that as has been said in Terms and Acts of Church Union we should content our selves with the Expressions and Generality of Scripture And so the Human Imposition of the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds and of Publickly Praying to the Holy Ghost and in Publick Assemblies and Church-Service using the term three Persons is a piece of Presumption and Spiritual Tyranny and Oppression The Scripture says not expresly that the Son and Spirit are equal to the Father c. 2. The Generality of the Scripture-Terms as was shewn is undoubtedly sufficient For tho' God might be said to be three Persons yet not only it cannot be thought as has been remarked that under the benign Oeconomy of the Gospel God has made that indispensibly Necessary which at least seems so intricate and obscure and about which sincere and inquisitive Persons may mistake but besides as was also before observ'd when God is worshipped is not all ador'd that is the Object of Divine Worship The Trinitarians own that the unscriptural term Persons is us'd so improperly of God that what is meant thereby is most unaccountable perfectly incomprehensible Now that is an invincible Argument that that term is not necessary The Vnitarians do not deny the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature Supposing then that by the Divine Word and Spirit be meant Somewhats more then Wisdom and Inspiration as the Vnitarians who are not for determining in such obscure Matters will not contradict but that it may be so yet seeing that that whatever it be is absolutely unknown unintelligible it concerns Us not to ascribe Names to it cannot be indeed the Subject of our disquisition Howbeit at least we should take care not to advance any thing concerning these Matters that appears inconsistent with any Text but should rather stick to that which is safe and sufficient And it is certain the Scripture no where says we should Pray to the Holy Spirit in particular and it expresly sets forth Christ as the Mediator betwixt God and Men so that it is incontestably sufficient to come to God thro' the Mediation of Christ and to honour Christ as the Mediatory King under God tho' united to God as intimately as possible as was said For tho' all things are subjected to Christ yet it is to the Glory of God the Father and to the end that God may be most glorified and may most universally and illustriously reign in and by and thro' Christ So that in making Christ the King of Kings or the Universal King under God and the Head of the Church God did not abdicate the Government or divest himself of his Majesty but still remained ever the Most Supreme and reserved to himself to direct Christ and to favour his Intercession and to receive thro' him the Homages of Men Christ doing all in the Name of God And accordingly the Apostles directed their Prayers to God Acts 4 24 c. and commanded the Faithful to address themselves to him Phil. 4 6 thro' Jesus Christ as it is in the following Verse Phil. 4 7 that in his Name and thro' his Mediation they might obtain their Requests of the Father according to Christ's Promise John 14 13 John 16 23 that what they should pray for to the Father in his Name he would second by his Intercession so would do it for them that the Father might be glorified in the Son For our Saviour says expresly in John 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name He will give it you 3. The Arguments for the Scripture-Terms of Church Vnion with respect to such most intricate and abstruse Matters as the Platonick or Scholastick Speculations concerning the Doctrin of the Holy Trinity are evermore solid and invincible and as was observed a contrary Method is wholly inconsistent with the Principles of Protestants which import That the Scripture is a sufficient and the only Rule That there is no living Magisterial Judge of Controversies That Particular Christians are in such a case to examin and judge for themselves c. 4. Many sincere and inquisitive Persons may scruple other Terms than these which are incontestably good sufficient and the only warrantable ones for Terms of Church-Communion in such abstruse and intricate Matters And as was shewn it is certain the term three Persons is unscriptural and consequently cannot be absolutely necessary Wherefore surely Christian Charity obliges us not to hazard unnecessarily in such difficult Matters the Destruction of those Souls for which
Article with this Reflection It is altogether incredible that the Scripture has been materially corrupted but it is highly probable that the Writings of the Doctors may have been considerably changed and altered CHAP. VII A Farther Continuation of the Answer to the First Objection 6. HOwbeit it still in a great measure appears that the generality of the Primitive Christians were Vnitarians and even that the generality of the remaining Authors of the first three Centuries were far enough from being of that Opinion which is now called Orthodox it being evident that they incline more to the Vnitarian than to the present Trinitarian Sentiment When the rigid Platonists were become for the most part the Masters and the Strongest somtime before the Council of Nice as well as after it they expressed a blind and furious Zeal for their new Notions concerning the Son or Word and shew'd as much as they could their ill will to the Ancient Christians the Vnitarians and to those Churches and Parties that retained the Primitive Doctrin of the Gospel They therefore and that was the least harm they did them called them by several Nick-names as Nazarens Ebionites Mineans Alogi and the like The Jews had begun in the Apostles's time to call the Christians that were among them Nazarens and Mineans which last signifies Hereticks or Sectaries and the other is a Denomination from Our Saviour whom the Unbelievers in derision called the Nazarene as it appears Act. 24.5 and 14. The Jewish and most ancient Christians were also as some think called afterwards by the Platonists Ebionites which signifies the Poor either as some pretend from a Man named Ebion who they say was a great Denfender of them or because they were the ordinary and poorer sort of People who preserved the longest the Primitive Doctrin and could the most hardly be brought to relish the Notions of Platonism or as Eusebius asserts because the Platonists accused them to have but poor and low Opinions of Christ In fine among the Gentile Converts the Maintainers of the Primitive Doctrine were by some called Alogi or Alogians as if they believed not Christ to be the Logos or the Word because they believed not an eternal Word like Plato and it is said that some of these Gentile Christians received not at first the Gospel of St. John as the generality of Christians admited not presently some other Books of the New Testament particularly St. John's Revelation and the Epistle to the Hebrews which generally for 400 Years was not received as Canonical It is too usual to go from one extream to another and it may be therefore that some of those Gentile Converts who saw the absurdity of Plato's Polytheism and were told that Plato's and St. John's Expressions were the same and exactly agreed imagined that this was a counterfeit Piece of the Platonists and Cerinthians to uphold their Divin Hypostasis distinct from the Father and so at first gave not themselves leave to consider and examin what might be the true Sense of St. John's terms and the Intention of his Gospel Howbeit the Platonists in process of time hated and defamed the Vnitarians not merely for what might have been amiss among some of them but in general for their being Vnitarian Christians And in that they followed the Jews who from the beginning persecuted the Christians and gave them what reproachful Names they could some of which always remained to the Jewish Converts that is to say to those Christians who originally came from among the Jews who were not generally vitiated by the Philosophy of Plato and whom therefore as we have said the Platonists called by the same Names that the obdurate and unbelieving Jews had given them namly Nazarens and Mineans Now it appears that these Nazarens Mineans Ebionites and the Jewish Christiâ—â—s were taken to be much the same and that they and the Alogi were Vnitarians were from the beginning were most numerous and continued a considerable Party for several Centuries till they were in a great measure destroyed and extirpated by the most violent Persecutions of the Platonists Crigen says that all Jews who own Jesus to be Christ are called Ebionites Contr. Cels. L. 2. p. 56. Theodoret attests that the Nazarens honour the Lord Christ only as a Holy Man Haeret. Fab. L. 2. C. 3. Epiphanius writes that the Nazarens and Ebionites held the same Heresy Haeres 30. C. 2. It is not impossble but that Epiphanius as well as Origen and other Platonists confounded with the Ebionites the other Jewish Christians who generally did not platonize but followed the true Vnitarian System whether we suppose it to be that which was maintain'd by Arius or that which is now known under the Name of Socinianism St. Jerom acknowledges that the Jewish Mineans vulgarly called Nazarens were to that Day over all Orient Ep. ad August There indeed was the Seat of the Jewish Christians And from the 24th Chapter of the 3d. Book and the 25th of the fifth Book of Eus-bius his Ecclesiastical History it may further be gathered that these as well as the Gentile Vnitarians were the Successors of the Primitive and First Christians and were defamed only by the Malice of the Platonists Yet all this Evidence is from the Testimony of professed Enemies there remaining now no other Authors that expresly treat of these things As for the Alogi their very Nick-name bespeaks them to be Vnitarians Epiphanius is the first who gave to them the Name of Alogi Before him they were simply called Christians Epiphanius speaks of them as the ancient Vnitarians of the Gentile Converts But we have above all other Evidences an express Testimony of the Faith of the Primitive Christians in their Symbol justly called the Apostles Creed which manifestly is altogether Vnitarian For it is a Profession of Faith in one God that is the Father Almighty And every thing that is there said of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Description not of an eternal God but of a Creature or Human Person highly exalted by God And of the Holy Ghost no more is said but that it is a Holy Spirit or a Holy Breath or Holy Inspiration The Compilers of the Creed pretended to know no more of it And it is a Generality which the Vnitarians highly approve of but which hitherto the Trinitarians seem not to be pleased to stick to If they were to make a Confession of their Faith they would not express it as it is here or if they did we would readily agree with them To believe in is a Phrase that signifies no more than to believe for the Creed teaches us to believe in the Holy Catholick Church as well as in the Holy Spirit and in one God the Father Almighty As for the Antiquity and Authority of this Creed we have the unanimous Opinion of the Fathers as it appears in their Writings and as is observed by Ruffinus in particular who flourished in the Year 360 that it was compiled by the
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
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
great Generality and perhaps designedly indeterminable and if there lie invincible Difficulties and unanswerable Arguments not to say Demonstrations against the Platonick Trinitarian System Howbeit as we shall further see the Scripture must be own'd to be the only Rule herein to be sought to besides the clear and incontestable Dictates of Reason and the Trinitarians if they be sincere must acknowledge that their Plea of Antiquity is vain and frivolous None but Quacks can talk at Dr. Sherlock's rate that the whole Catholick Church in all Ages has been of his Sentiment or of the Sentiment of the present Trinitarians and that the Vnitarian Controversy may be decided by the Judgment of the ancient Ante-nicene Authors whose Writings have in part been suffered to come to our Hands It appears evidently that the Ante-nicene were not of the Opinion that is now termed Orthodox To evince which Position of ours it is indeed superfluous to add many more Proofs after what we have alledged out of these most ancient and famous Authors I shall therefore only add two or three Passages out of the following Writers which tho' not altogether so ancient as the foregoing yet come not so much short of it as to deserve to be wholly unregarded They were very eminent and learned Men. It cannot be doubted but that they knew what Doctrin in as well as somtime before their time was held as Orthodox and was requir'd in that rigorous Age to be held as such And it is credible they would not have publickly asserted any thing in these Matters that would then have drawn upon them the Censures of the Church in the Communion of which they flourished and in which they were desirous to be in great esteem Nevertheless it doth appear their Opinion as well as that of the afore-quoted Authors is very different from that of the present Platonick or Scholastick Trinitarians For instance then Arnobius declared in the Treatise he wrote to inform the Gentiles with the Truths of Christianity that Christians did indeed hold Christ to be a God but inferior to the Father and a lesser God than He who alone is the Almighty God Christ says he is a God who in the form of a Man spake to the World by the Command of the Principal God Adv. Gent. L. 2. p. 106. The Almighty God who is the only God at length sent out Christ Ib. p. 120. How could he have taught more plainly or more expresly that the Father alone is the Almighty God and the only God or the only Person that is God in the eminent sense of that word Not but that he might hold both Christ and the Holy Spirit to be also Divine Persons But 't is evident he reckons them to be of an inferior kind seeing he denies them to be the Almighty the Principal and Only God He makes them therefore Creatures tho' created Gods whether or no created out of the very Substance of the Almighty God He comes then very near to Arianism if he be not altogether Arian He looks upon the Almighty Father as the only Fountain of all Being and Perfection and as able not only to produce other Beings but to communicate to whom he will immense or vast Perfections and a Divine Nature tho' inferior to his because there can be but one Infinite and Almighty Being Wherefore all Creatures tho' never so Divine and Excellent can have but limited Perfections and must ever remain subject to the Almighty Now who doth not see that this is to assert but one God properly so called or but one who is the Almighty God the Principal or Supreme God and the Only God And is not that Vnitarianism Besides tho' Justin Martyr said that in the 2d Century the Holy Angels were worshipped particularly it may be by some Platonists Arnobius declares that in his time Christians thought it sufficient to worship God even God the Father the Principal God Howbeit says he to discharge the Worship of Divinity the Chief God is sufficient for us I say the Chief God the Father and Lord of all Things In him we worship whatsoever is to be worshipped For we have in him the very Head of Divinity from whence the Divinity of all Divine Things whatsoever is derived If the Platonick Trinitarians had always kept strictly to this Generality in their Terms of Communion there needed have been no Disagreement nor Division It is evident that in the second and third Centuries after that Justin Martyr and the other converted Philosophers had introduced their Platonism in the Christian Religion the Primitive Vnitarians were indeed commonly vilisied and opposed but yet the Platonists kept not all alike at the same distance from these but somewhat differed among themselves and allowed of that difference not being then agreed how much justly of Platonism was to be admitted or held necessary nor knowing how to determine a Matter that seemed so obscure and abstruse The Nature of the H. Ghost especially was then left undetermined The generality not only of the old Christians but even of the new Platonick Doctors own'd him to be but the Power and Inspiration of God or else took him for an Archangel and a created Spirit like the other Angels but above all the Angels And therefore if there were at those times any rigid Platonists that had much the same Notion that the present Trinitarians have of the H. Spirit they contented themselves covertly or modestly to assert or intimate their Opinion but durst not and could not attempt imperiously to condemn those that were not of their Sentiment We see the generality of the Ante-nicene agree that the H. Ghost is not God tho' some call him a Divine Person but none of them would have made difficulty so to have called any Angel those that called him the Power of God as Irenaeus and others yet expresly affirmed that he was not God and so it seems took him not to be a real Divine Person or a real Divine Being but an Act or an Influence and Inspiration of the the Divin Power or an Archangel or both or they knew not what And those that positively called him a Creature were not censuredeven by the highest Platonists of those times And as touching the Nature of the Son or Word of God it seems that then Semi-Arianism did most prevail among the Doctors even perhaps from the 2d Century but yet till the Council of Nice the suppos'd ancient Doctrin afterwards called Arianism was allowed of in the Church at least in a great measure and generally for a good while approved before For most probably many of those ancient Writings that were supressed after the Council of Nice as containing a Doctrin that was then in a great measure grown out of Date tho' the avowed Works of the most excellent learned Bishops of the Church asserted the Scriptural Sentiment for it seems at least the like to which Arius was condemn'd at Nice And we see that several of those Ante-nicene that
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
Majesty and Authority dwelling in him It has been necessary to make all these Digressions particularly concerning the Holy Spirit further to illustrate the Arian System concerning the Holy Spirit 's Nature and Person as well as that of the Word in order to shew â—â—â—st evidently that tho' the Word the H. Spirit were Instrumental in the Creation of the World yet the Arians need not be understood to make three Creatours properly nor three Gods according to the groundless imputation of the Platonick and Scholastick Trinitarians Not but that the Word might and did from the beginning bear the Title of God in an Inserior Signification even if it were but inasmuch as he represented God and commanded in God's stead or in God's Most Supreme Authority to the Highest Creatures next to Him to settle which Honour upon him extend it in the Highest Degree and so to continue it to him in the Oeconomy of the Gospel God required this Condition of him that he should freely undertake the Redemption of Mankind for otherwise Mankind had perished and consequently the First-Born tho' he had continued as he was remaining Innocent should not have had Men for his Subjects Howbeit the Arians do not say that the created Word is eternal and infinite and self-existent or self-moving nor consequently that he has all Perfection or any Perfection and Power of himself now every one knows this is the Description of him who is literally and properly God and this belongs only to the Father and therefore with the Apostle it may well be said that tho' there be many who are called Gods in Heaven and Earth yet the Vnitarians or true Christians do hold but One who literally is God all which may be 〈…〉 be God belonging to the Father Nevertheless the Word not only most eminently Representing God under the Oeconomy of the Gospel but being most 〈◊〉 United with the God-head as has been shewn an Influence of the Fathers 〈…〉 Virtue constantly dwelling in him so as to become in a manner Part of his 〈◊〉 in that Sense probably he may also bear the Title of God and may very 〈…〉 so tho' there be no other Divine Person but the Father And God Almighty then in the 〈…〉 all by the Ministry and by the Mediation or at the Request and upon 〈…〉 the Word as also the Word doing all in the Name and Power of God 〈…〉 he Word doth herein is truely censed or reputed to be done by God and what God doth also in that respect may be said to be don by the Word For Instance If God directs the Word to send one of his Angels on a certain Errand both God and Christ may be said to have sent that Angel If God says that He will com shortly meaning in the Person of his Word and Divine Schechina it follows that tho' Christ says also that he will com shortly yet God and Christ the Word of God by excellency need not be confounded together Which Title the Word was originally given him as was intimated in that he was designed to direct or signify and carry the Commands of God to the Creatures immediately under him in order to have the Will of God every where notified and put in execution accordingly So God says by him Let this be don and it is don himself shewing the Example of Obedience and doing what is incumbent upon him God having shewn him what is to be don for the Matter for instance being prepared and God working first thereupon the Word then with the Divine Assistance doth all that he sees the Father do and he sets the Angels a doing all that they are enabled to perform And so in the beginning the Work was effected in disposing the Chaos into the Beauty and Order and Regularity of a World the Word being the General under God And what could be Impossible to such a Creature assisted of God as has been said It is to be noted that not the Word but the Holy Spirit is call'd the Power of God because since the Creation it is by the Holy Spirit that ordinary Miracles are commonly wrought So that properly or chiefly the Office of the Word now especially is to command and that of the Holy Spirit or of the holy Angels is to execute After all there is nothing so express in Scripture concerning this intricate Subject but that many may opine that the Socinian System concerning the Holy Spirit or the Manner of the Creation attributed to Christ may be the truest Nevertheless it is certain several Passages seem very much to favour the Arian Hypothesis and there is nothing in it that is absurd or in it self incredible and apparently impossible As to the other Instances which the Trinitarians give of the pretended unaccountable Assertions held by the Vnitarians they are much easier than the former to be accounted for and have indeed but little difficulty in them The next Instance is That one in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwells should need the Assistance of Angels The Answer to this is that the Vnitarians do not say the Godhead needs the Assistance of Angels but only for divers reasons some of which have before been intimated is pleas'd to make use of their Service And it cannot becom the Trinitarians to find this strange seeing they hold Christ to be personally-united with the Deity and yet they know the Scripture in many Places teaches that the Angels minister to him and are employed by him an Angel assisted and strengthned and comforted him in his Agony and when he was apprehended he said that if he would have resisted he would have made use of the Protection of Angels of whom he might presently have had more than twelve Legions for the asking It seems indeed unaccountable that a God Almighty or a Person that were God Almighty should employ Angels in his own Defence But the Indwelling of the Godhead in Christ makes him not properly and literally to be the Almighty God but only imports that God in every respect illuminates him and assists him by what Means He pleases and as far as is Necessary for the discharge of that most eminent Office of Redeeming Men of Declaring and Performing the whole Will of God Governing the Universe and at the helm of the World Representing God and Acting in the stead of God This Indwelling of the Fulness of the Godhead therefore hind'red not but that Christ somtimes might not Know som things and when it pleased God in the time of his humiliation particularly when for that while he was for the most part divested of the Glory which he had before the Creation of the World might have occasion for the Ministry and Assistance of Angels tho' probably it was he as was observ'd who at first assigned to every one of the Angels their Share of the concomitant and concurrent Divine Power which especially since his Exaltation as we have said they employ according to his Directions As to what is in
and so communicated to Men by the Chief Arch-angel and under him some Select Angels or the whole Body of Holy Angels as a healing Virtue was sometimes annexed to and communicated by the Waters of Jordan c. 2 Kings 5 14 13 21. John 9.6 Acts 19.12 Now then tho' the Divine Wisdom and Power be God himself that doth not destroy the Vnitarian System or necessarily imply more than one real Person in God For if the Holy Spirit is also a Person it is as it implies an Angel assisted by the Divine Power as the Divine Word is a Person meaning thereby the Man Jesus Christ inhabited by the Divine Nature We have seen that the Vnitarians themselves in that Sense acknowledge the Supreme Divinity of Christ and of the H. Ghost by the Divine H. Ghost meaning the Divine Inspiration annexed to communicated by the Angels by the Supreme God-head of Christ meaning in particular the Divine Wisdom and Soveraign Authority Influence of the Divine Power dwelling acting in and with Christ From which it doth not follow that the Vnitarians make the Angels or some Angel to be God tho' Christ be For they do not hold that the God-head in any respect is most intimately United with any Angel or that the Dignity Majesty Authority and Wisdom as well as Power that is the Fulness of the God-head dwells in any Angel so as that God be in an Angel to be therein Worshipped as in a Schechina or appointed Token and Symbol of the Divine Presence no Angel being constituted to represent God at the Head of the Universe as Christ is nor what belongs to God being said to belong to any Angel who is but a Servant as it is to Christ who is made the Lord of all No Angel then can be said to be God tho' Christ may as the Vnitarians acknowledge And yet they hold that as was said the Divine Power as well as the Divine Wisdom may be said to be God Now is it not the Safest here to stick to that which is Incontestable and Sufficient And is it not Sufficient to acknowledge that by the Divine Word may be understood a Divine Power Virtue or Influence of the Father that the Divine Spirit likewise is another Influence or Virtue of the Father that the Divine Word is most intimately Vnited with the First-born the Word-bearer or Soul of the Messiah that this Virtue of the Father is so much made Christ's own enjoying it as much as his own Soul or his own Reason Power that it may be look'd upon as Part of his Being as always having been even from the Beginning of the World Part of his Being so that the Messias may be said to have made all things inasmuch as all things were made by that Divine Virtue of the Father which from the beginning as was said was most intimately United to the Soul of the Messiah that the Messiah is to be honoured as the Mediator of the New Covenant exalted to the Government of the Universe under God and as the most Glorious Schechinah in whom the Father most intimately dwels by an ineffable tho' not visibly impossible Virtue or Influence in whom the Father is thus willing to be Worshipped that the Divine Spirit whether or no residing in or accompanying some Archangel or any Angels tho' incontestably not requiring to be Worshipped in any of the Angels nor devolving any kind of Divine Worship to any Angels as to the Soveraigns of the Universe nor making a Schechinah of any of the Angels is that Mitacle-Working or Sanctifying Virtue of the Father which dwells in Christians as its Temple or the Father's Temple whose Virtue the Spirit is and which with the Divine Word was instrumental to the Father in making all things as Fire is instrumental to the Apothecary in the preparing of all the Compositions in his Shop or as Heat and Light are the Instruments by which the Sun operates all things and benefits all the World If the Father implies the whole God-head as the Trinitarians unanimously own it cannot then bedenied but that the Vnitarians acknowledge worship the whole God-head And as I conceive it the Vnitarians assert that they worship Christ so much upon the account of the Divine Nature Dwelling in and most intimately United with him that otherwise they would not altogether â—â—â—ship him as they do It follows therefore that on the Vnitarian part the Difference cannot be thought to be essential or fundamental or that the Vnitarians cannot truly be said to deny the Divinity of Christ or of the Holy Ghost For as touching the Holy Ghost it cannot be denied but that a Divine Virtue Inspiration may be meant thereby And as concerning what the Scholastick Trinitarians mean by or assert of the Divinity of Christ the Vnitarians own that that Divine Nature which is most intimately United with our Lord Jesus Christ doth truly belong to the Eternal and Almighty Being so that in that sense Christ may be said to be God tho' properly the title Christ denotes the Man that was born of the Virgin Mary as Grotius shews on Col. 1.16 and Math. 1.16 The Difference then here is only a Verbal Difference the Meaning of both Parties at the bottom being in this respect the same for when the Trinitarians say that Christ is Almighty God they do not mean that the Man is literally the Almighty but that the Divine is most strictly Vnited with the Human Nature And this the Vnitarians will not deny 'T is certain the Primitive Vnitarians did not deny it as was before said Then II. We are to inquire Whether the Vnitarians may not joyn in Communion with the Trinitarian Church By three Persons in one God which term Persons the Trinitarians themselves own to be here not only unscriptural but even very improper may not the Vnitarians mean as some do three Considerations of the Divine Nature for instance Divine Mind Divine Wisdom Divine Power which are a kind of Modal Persons which may be in the same Subject as Tully says that a Man may sustain divers Persons The Reason for the Affirmative is that for Peace-sake We must be made all things to all Men so far as there is no Divine Law or Prohibition against that which We condescend to Ephes 4 3 and that there is no Law against the terming the Divine Wisdom and Power Persons meaning Modal Persons The Reasons for the Negative are these particularly Not only by the three Persons the Trinitarians generally mean not such Modal but rather Real Persons so that to mean such suppos'd or pretended Modal Persons would be a piece of Dissimulation but even this term disguises the Christian Religion and is contrary to the Gravity and Solemnity of the Divine Worship c. The Scripture no where enjoyns us to address Prayers to God the Inspiration or to assert a Divine Person by the Name of God the Holy Ghost Tho' the Holy Ghost be taken to
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
THE SCRIPTURE-TERMS OF CHURCH-UNION With respect to the Doctrin of the TRINITY CONFIRMED By the Vnitarian Explications of the Beginning of St. John 's Gospel Together with the Answers of the Unitarians to the Chief Objections made against them Whereby it appears that Men may be Vnitarians and Sincere and Inquisitive and that they ought not to be excluded out of the Church-Communion WITH A POST-SCRIPT Wherein the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost according to the Generality of the Terms of Scripture is shewn not to be Inconsistent with the Vnitarian Systems Most Earnestly and Humbly Offered to the Consideration of those on whom 't is most particularly incumbent to examin these Matters By A. L. Author of the Irenicum Magnum c. LONDON Printed as abovementioned to be communicated to learned and inquisitive Persons and those who are most obliged to inquire into these Points Some TEXTS Authorising the Subject of this Writing PRove all things 1 Thess 5.21 Be ready to give an Answer to every Man that asketh you a Reason c 1 Pet. 3.15 Whereto we have attained let us walk by the same Rule Phil. 3.16 To the Law and to the Testimony c. Isa 8.20 Search the Scriptures John 5.39 Let us follow after the things which make for Peace Rom. 14.19 That I might by all means Save some 1 Cor. 9.22 Let us not therefore judge one another any more Rom. 14.13 What I tell you in Darkness that speak you in Light and what ye hear in the Ear that Preach ye upon the House tops Matt. 10.27 Overcome Evil with Good Rom. 12.21 To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is Sin Jam. 4.17 Who hold the Truth in Vnrighteousness Rom. 1.18 Whosoevâ—â— shall be ashamed of Me and of my Words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when 〈◊〉 â—â—â—eth in the Glory of his Father Mark 8.38 They are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.18 Is a Candle to be put under a Bushel Mark 4.21 Relieve the Oppressed Isa 1.17 We ought to obey God Acts 5.29 Chusing rather to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasuâ—â—â— of Sin for a season Hebr. 11.25 If the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the Ditch Matt. 15.14 In Vnderstanding be Men 1 Cor. 14.20 They began to make excuse Luk. 14.18 Wherefore when I came was there no Man Isa 50.2 They came not to the Help of the Lord Judg. 5.23 I pray God that it may not be laid to their Charge 2 Tim. 4.16 God has chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise 1 Cor. 1.27 Truth faileth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a Prey And the Lord saw it and it dâ—spleased him that there was no Judgment And he saw that there was no Man and wondered that there was no Intercessour Isa 59.15.16 Whosoever shall not hear your words verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the Day of Judgment than for them Matt 10.14 15. Now they have no Cloak for their Sin John 15.22 Let us therefore fear lest a Promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it Hebr. 4.1 I speak as to wise Men 1 Cor. 10.15 Whether in pretence or in truth Christ is Preached Phil. 1.18 He therefore that despiseth despiseth not Man but God 1 Thess 4.8 O that the Salvation were come to Israel Ps 14.7 We hid our Faces from him Isa 53.3 Blessed be he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Ps 118.26 God has made him both Lord and Christ Acts 2.36 The Son can do nothing of himself John 5.19 The Father loveth the Son and has given all things into his hand John 3.35 That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow to the Glory of the Father Phil. 2.10 11. The TITLES of the CHAPTERS I. THE Occasion and Design of this Paper Page 1. II. The Socinian Explication of the Beginning of St. John's Gospel p. 3. III. A Continuation of the Socinian Explication of the Beginning of St. John's Gospel p. 10. IV. The Arian System p. 15. V. The Answers of the Unitarians to the Chief Objections commonly made against their Expositions in general and first the Answer to the Objected Antiquity and Vniversality of the Trinitarian Sentiment p. 18. VI. A Continuation of the Answer to the first Objection p. 25. VII A Farther Continuation of the Answer to the first Objection p. 31. VIII The Conclusion of the Answer to the first Objection p. 46. IX A Second general Objection against the Unitarian System Answered p. 50. X. A Third general Objection stated consisting of Four Branches p. 60. XI An Answer to the first Branch of the Objection p. 65. XII An Answer to the second Branch of the Objection p. 69. XIII An Answer to the third Branch of the Objection p. 79. XIV An Answer to the fourth Branch of the Objection p. 88. XV. The Inferences most incontestably following from the whole foregoing Discourse and the Gospel-Terms of Communion p. 96. A Post-Script p. 104. A Table of the Chief Matters Treated of in each Chapter In CHAPTER I. THAT the Design of this Book is not to set up the Unitarian Sentiment but to vindicate and assert the Generality or Latitude of the Scripture Terms of Church-Communion with respect to such most intricate Points of Speculation p. 1. That there are some things exprest in a great Generality and left extremely Obscure in Scripture on purpose to try both our Industry and Sincerity and our Charity Christian Prudence and Moderation p. 1. 2. That the Unitarian Controversy is of that Nature that Men may be Unitarians and sincere and inquisitive and that the Unitarians therefore ought not to be excluded out of the Church-Communion p. 2. 3. In CHAP. II. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God explain'd p. 3. 4. 5. The reason of Christ's being called the Word p. 5. In what sense Christ the Word is called God or a God p. 6. c. In CHAP. III. The Creation by this Word explained p. 11. 12. The Word was Flesh explained p. 12. 13. The remaining Verses explained p 14. 15. In CHAP. IV. The Proofs of the Arian System p. 15. The Arian Notion of the Word viz. That thereby is meant the Chief Officer or Minister of God the first and most excellent Creature a most sublime Spirit in some respect like the Holy Spirits or Holy Angels and Archangels but yet of another kind than they and surpassing in excellency all other created Spirits being extraordinarily united to and assisted by the Divine Wisdom and the whole God-head that this Divine Spirit is as it were the Mouth of God or his Word-bearer and that in process of time taking Flesh of the Virgin Mary by the Power of God it became the Soul of the Messiah p.
15. 16. The Arian Notion of the Creation of the Material World by the Word and the Spirit or according to some the Holy Spirits under God p. 16. 17. That Christ in his Agony was strength'ned by an Angel is no Argument against the Arian System p. 18. In CHAP. V. That the Authority of some Heathens who spake somewhat like the Anti-Unitarians doth not credit the Trinitarian Cause and can be made no Argument against Unitarianism p. 19. 20. That the Jews never held the Doctrin of three Persons in God p. 20. c. The objected Passages in Pliny's Letter and in a Dialogue ascribed to lucian consider'd p. 23. 24. In CHAP. VI. That few of the Ante-nicene wrote and it was not impossible for them to deviate from the truth and therefore it is certainly 〈◊〉 preposterous Way to seek to be tried by the Writings of the Fathers p. 25. 26. That several Books of the Primitive Writers most credibly were suppressed which favoured the Unitarian Sentiment p. 27. That of the few remaining Ante-nicene Writers 't is credible that some are corrupted and that some are suppositious p. 28. c. In CHAP. VII That nevertheless it still appears that the generality of the Primitive Christians were really Unitarians Nazerenes Arians or Semi-Arians p. 31. c. Some Chronological Remarks or the Times in which some of the Chief of the Ante-nicene Fathers lived p. 36. In CHAP. VIII That the prevailing Sentiment of the Nicene and Post-nicene Doctors is of no weight against the Unitarians p. 46 c. In CHAP. IX An Answer to this Objection That the Work of Redemption and what the Scripture ascribes to our Saviour seems inconsistent with the Unitarian System it being impossible even for the most innocent and the most excellent Creature to reconcile God with those that have forfeited his Favour to know the Hearts to forgive Sins to govern the Universe to raise the Dead to judge the World and to do whatsoever the Father doth p. 50. c. An Appendix to the IXth Chapter being a Consideration of the Controversy concerning the Invocation of Christ p. 56. In CHAP. X. The stating of the third and last general Objection which consists of four Branches to this effect That the Unitarians their too much leaning to Human Reason is the Cause of their Error wherefore they should consider that Reason tho' an excellent Light and Guide so far as its Province and Capacity extends is in some most sublime Points short-sighted and blind and consequently an incompetent Judge then they might discern that the Unitarian Interpretations besides that they imply most unlikely Assertions are forced and unnatural and so remote from the obvious Import of the Words that 't is not to be conceived the generality of Christians when they read the Scripture can find out such Interpretations and imagin that it is to be understood in that Sense and therefore it is incredible that that is the true Meaning thereof moreover in opposition to all Reasonings it is to be observed that there are many Texts of Scripture which make up a strong Evidence of the truth of the Trinitarian Sentiment whereas in fine the Texts that the Unitarians alledge seem not express and positive for their System p. 60 In CHAP. XI That the Unitarians do not lay the whole or chief stress of their Cause upon Arguments drawn from Reason yet very justly on the other hand they think like all Protestants that Reason ought not wholly to be slighted p. 66. c. In CHAP. XII That none of the Unitarian Assertions are incredible and that their Interpretations are rational and agreable to the stile and current of Scripture and therefore natural and obvious enough p. 69. c. Some further Considerations concerning the Creation attributed to Christ in Scripture p. 71. c. What is to be understood by the Holy Spirit more largely shewn something also very particular specified concerning what may be the Nature of what the Scripture calls the Word and the Creation p. 73. c. In CHAP. XIII That it is possible and easy and warrantable to understand in an Unitarian sense all the Texts which the Trinitarians alledge for their Sentiment p. 79. Some further Considerations concerning the Worship and Invocation of Christ p. 80. c. In CHAP. XIV That several Texts of Scripture are most express and evident for the Unitarian System p. 88. c. In CHAP. XV. That from the whole Dissertation and the Gospel-Terms of Communion these four things are the least that can be inferrâ—d in favour of the Unitarians p. 96. 1. That the State of this Controversy is such that Men may be Unitarians and be very sincere pious and inquisitive and that if Unitarianism be an Error it is not a damnable and intolerable one or a Heresy p. 97. 2. That in our Terms of Church-Communion with relation to this most abstruse and intricate Subject We ought to keep to the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture and not to make any Publick Determinations and Impositions which would drive away the Unitarians out of our Communion p. 100. 3. That therefore First in the Publick Service We ought to address the Current of our Prayers to God in general in the Name and thro' the Mediation of Christ in the conclusion of them beseeching God to hear us and grant us our Requests for the sake of his Dear Son our Blessed Lord Saviour and Redeemer and so when We address some Ejaculations to Christ We ought in general to address to him as to our Mediator most highly exalted and assisted by the Divine Nature dwelling in him as aforesaid Secondly in our Publick Service likewise the Terms of Church-Union We ought to be content with the Apostles Creed which is worded in a Generality agreable to that of Scripture Thirdly no Subscription or Assent ought to be required of Clergy-Men in this Matter and its dependents but to the Expressions of the Scripture it self or to Terms that agree to the Scripture-Generality the Clergy-Mens Declaration being admitted of and accepted that they solemnly subscribe and assent to any of those things proposed to them but so far as they are agreeable to the Generality of Scripture p. 101. 4. That this Generality in Terms of Church-Union is a Safe Method in so intricate a Matter and is incontestably Sufficient all being certainly worshipped when in general God is pray'd to that is to be ador'd with Supreme Worship and the Mediatory Honour due to our Saviour being paid him when our Petitions are put up in the Name of Christ as our Intercessor and Redeemer most beloved of God exalted at God's Right Hand and in whom the Fulness of the God-head dwells p. 102. In the Post-Script I. That the strongest Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost are not inconsistent with Unitarianism p. 104. II. An Inquiry Whether the Unitarians may joyn in Communion with a Trinitarian Church Of the Reasons of both
in the aforementioned Irenicum Magnum and it's Apology If it be ask'd how it shall be known who are sincere and inquisitive Persons or what Points are so abstruse and intricate I answer that must be judg'd of by the Arguments of the different Parties And hereby I infer that Trinitarians and Vnitarians ought to bear with one another and so to order their Terms of Church-Communion as not to be a Stumbling-Block to or as not to fright away either of them because actually both of them bring so considerable Arguments in behalf of their Opinions that t is obvious sincere and considering Persons may not always be able to satisfy themselves which Side is most infallibly or most credibly Certain and after all when God is worshipped all is incontestably ador'd that is the Object of Divine Worship We are expresly commanded but to Pray directly to God in the Name or as the Disciples of Christ who hope to be heard for the sake of Christ and thro' his most acceptable Intercession and certainly as for Christ's Humanity it being a Creature and the Mediator between God and Men it is to be honour'd with a Mediatory or Inferior Honour As for the rest which then if rightly taken would be but a Speculative Difference the Trinitarians with seeming good cause are persuaded that their Reasons are not despicable And in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno it is shewn that the Vnitarian Arguments are far from being inconsidorable I do therefore conclude for Mutual Forbearance and Vnion upon the General Terms aforesaid For upon the Evidence of both Sides I conceive that this is a Controversy in which Men without being Faulty may mistake But against this my Sentiment some Object that that cannot be because some Texts of Scripture seem most Express against the Vnitarians and particularly the Beginning of St. John's Gospel It is therefore very just to consider what the Unitarians say to those Texts I might content my self to refer the Reader to their Brief History a Shilling Book to be had at most Booksellers wherein the several Texts of Scripture Objected to them are Explain'd from Genesis to the Revelation But in farther Vindication of my Proposal of the Scripture-Method of Church Vnion I am willing to give here an Ensample of the Vnitarian Explications to shew what they Answer in general to the Objection from this Topic. And because the Beginning of the Gospel of St. John is commonly reckoned to be most Decisive against them I have particularly pitched upon that to represent most evidently that even here they want not somthing to say for themselves that is probable enough tho it be not pretended that the Controversy is thereby wholly clear'd from all manner of Difficulty They that approve not that things be thus offer'd to be consider'd run to the implicit and slavish Faith of the Romanists and take away that Liberty which not only the Principles of Protestants allow of and recommend but which is necessary to debate and examine difficult Matters and to attain with rational assurance to the Truth CHAP. II. The Socinian Explication of the Beginning of St. John's Gospel ST John begins thus his Gospel In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God c. The Socinians esteem that the Primitive Christians understood these terms according to this System Verse 1. In the Beginning The Christian Oeconomy being founded upon the Mediation of Christ on the account of his being appointed thereunto and of his being a Man perfectly Innocent and Obedient even unto Death and not only Fallen Men being granted to the Messiah but all Creatures in Heaven and Earth being subjected unto him upon the Conditions of his Undertaking the Reformation or New-Modelling of things by that Illustrious Dispensation is compared to the Old Creation described in the 1st Chapter of Genesis If God had not resolved to have sent a Redeemer and if the New Covenant had not taken place of the First Establishment the Race of Mankind had perished Therefore the Saving it is figuratively represented as Creating of it anew by the glorious Performance of the Blessed Jesus the Lamb in God's Prescience and Fore-ordination Slain from the Foundation of the World For when Adam fell God made a Resolution to send a new Man assisted of the Spirit without measure directed in all points by the Eternal Wisdom what to do and suffer to make a Reparation to the Divine Authority and to obtain the chief place in God's Favour and on consideration of his perfect Obedience and undeserved Sufferings constituted the King of Men and Angels and exalted to a Participation of the Divine Power always ready to work for him at his holy Request that he might be enabled to Save to the uttermost those that truely Repent and Turn unto God Wherefore God made a Gracious Promise to our First Parents and from that moment admitted them to Repentance But tho' these were the Effects of God's Resolution of sending Christ into the World and even then the Gospel began in some measure to dawn nevertheless the grand Operation and Manifestation of it was not then made Christ was not yet Born and consequently not Personally entered upon his Office The First Age of the World therefore tho' it was the beginning of the New Covenant granted upon Christ's account yet is not expresly reckon'd here as the beginning of Christ's Oeconomy That is taken properly to commence many Ages after when the Saviour of the World was come in Person to do the will of God and to Reform and New-model all things Then it is that there is represented as it were a New Creation made Our Evangelist sais at the 3d. Ver. of this Chap. that all things were made by Jesus Christ VVhich the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews thus expresses By his Son God made the Worlds Heb. 1 2. And in the 5th Verse of the 2d Chapter of the same Epistle as in all the four Gospels it is declared what those VVorlds were and what that Creation was Seeing then that the Christian Oeconomy is ushered in under the Image of a Creation it is no wonder that the Evangelist alluding to the History of the Old Creation begins his Gospel as Moses doth his First Chapter of the Genesis by these VVords In the beginning But it incontestably appears by the 1st and 2d Verses of the 1st Chapter of St. Mark 's Gospel what that beginning was Namely the beginning of Christ's Dispensation which is there shewn to have begun when the Messiah was introduced into the World by his immediate Harbinger John the Baptist The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God As it is written in the Prophets Behoâ—d I send my Messenger before thy Face c. Besides that our Evangelist had seen St. Mark 's Gospel as well as those of St. Matthew and St. Luke we know the same Holy Spirit that dictated to the one inspir'd also
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
in the stead of God they do in some measure represent Him We see Exod. 23.21 that the Angel that conducted the Children of Israel had that High Name and Dignity for says God my Name is in Him There is nothing more common in Scripture than for those Beings to be said to be what they represent as also what they are figured by As Christ sais that He is the Door and the true Vine and that the Consecrated Bread is his Body So Angels and other God's Messengers are said to be God and are called Jehovah See Gen. 18.1 c. Gen. 19.13 compared with the 18th 24th and 29th Verses Gen. 31.11 and 13. Exod. 3.2.4 and 6. Exod. 4.16 compared with Exod 7.1 Exod. 14.19 and 24. 1. Sam. 3.21 c. Bishop Taylor in his Sermon on 1. Sam. 15.22 observes it is a Saying of the Jews that Apostolus cujusque est quisque every Man's Messenger is himself or is said and may be said to be himself and must be censed and reck'ned as himself The Names of some of the Chief Angels are God or the Great God which shews that God is the same with Prince or Sovereign such as was said As Gabriel which signifies the Mighty God and Michael which signifies Equal to God or Like the Highest Agreably to which Denominations the Samaritans thought they might give to Simon Magus the Name of the Great Power of God because probably they conceited him to be assisted of some Mighty Angel Act. 8.10 This Man is the Great Power of God The Superior Angels are called Gods by Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. L. 5. P. 598. The whole Army sais he of Angels and Gods is subjected to the Son Whereby as by many other Passages it appears the Primitive Christians thought it not repugnant to Christianity and the Scripture-stile to call others Gods besides Almighty God The Title of God is particularly given to some Men in Scripture Exod. 7.1 Moses is said to be God or a God to Pharaoh because he was sent on a wonderful and extraordinary Errand to him by God and was enabled to save and to destroy him Behold sais God there to Moses I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet This Text may put us in mind or cause us to observe that as we shall see was remark'd by Eusebius Pamphilus De Ecclesiastie Theolog. Lib. 2. Cap. 17. St. John's Expression which we are considering should not be rendered the Word was God but the Word was a God there being no Article here before the Term God as there was in the foregoing Sentence where it was said that the Word was with God which Sentence therefore should have been Translated was with the God by excellency or the Supreme God the Sovereign of all This Passage of St. John would appear more easy to our Apprehension if instead of the term God we did read Lord or Sovereign because in the Stile of our Modern Languages we are not used to appropriate the Title of God to any Creatures as the Scripture doth but are only wont to give the Appellation of Lord in common tho' in divers Senses to God and to some Great Men in Authority Thus then we may conceive the First Verse of St. John's Gospel to run according to its true Signification In the beginning of the New Oeconomy while John the Baptist was Preaching the Baptism of Repentance as the immediate Introduction of the New Dispensation the Messiah himself was then in the World And the Messiah was with the Lord as Moses was with the Angel in the Mountain before the giving of the Law And the Messiah was then constituted a Sovereign Lord or the Chief of those Princely Ministers and High Officers who have the Title of Lord or God communicated to them tho' in an Inferior Sense to what it imports when it is attributed to the Eternal and Supreme Lord of all And the Word was with the God and the Word was a God Our Saviour himself observes John 10.34 that the Title of God was given to Men in the Holy Scripture Is it not written in your Law I said Ye are Gods If He called them Gods unto whom the Word of God came or to whom God gave a High Commission and the Scripture cannot be broken say ye of Him whom the Father has Sanctified and Sent into the World Thou Blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God We must needs then ever remember that the Stile of Scripture differs from ours and that we must not Interpret every thing according to the Sound of Words but consistently with the whole Scripture and the clear notions of Reason Verba non Sono sed Sensu sapiunt is an excellent Rule and a Sentence of St. Hilary's quoted in Bishop Taylor 's Second Sermon upon Tit. 2.7 A notable Example of the Title of God being given to Men is that of the 45th Ps at the 6. and 7. Ver. where the Author of this Psalm addresses himself thus to Solomon upon his Marriage with Pharach's Daughter and his being declared King or Heir of the Kingdom by his Father David Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Thou lovest Righteousness and hatest Wickedness wherefore O God thy God has vnointed thee with the Oyl of Gladness above thy Fellows Here Solomon is expresly called God It is undoubted that this Psalm in a mystical Sense is applicable to the Messiah and to his Spiritual Marriage with the Church But the mystical and secundary doth not take away the first and literal Sense And it would be most Unreasonable to pretend that this Psalm has no literal Signification It appears to be the usual way of the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament to Shadow the things pertaining to the Christian Oeconomy by real Acts or literal Events then verified or belonging to those times under the former Dispensations And accordingly we find all the reason in the World to ascribe a literal Sense to this prophetical and mystical Psalm and to understand it primarily or originally of the said Wedding of King Solomon We find it has always been generally so understood We find it as sitting for that Solemnity as it could be supposed to have been if it had been made for it and we see it is entituled a Song of Love or a Wedding Poem The Prince is represented as having his Title newly confer'd upon and assured to him and as being preferred before his Fellows or Brethren by his God or King This suits very well with Solomons Case and with the Secinian System But it is inconsistent with the Trinitarian Notions as much as the Trinitarian Interpretation is repugnant to the Truth of the Divine Unity For if there be but one God can it be said to Him thy God has c If the term God be here taken in the most eminent Sense of it there are two Supreme Gods the one spoken to and the other spoken of and said to be the God
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
probably Ireneus was an Arian or at most a Semi-Arian What Grotius says of the Occasion of St. John's writting this Gospel may be seen in his Annotations The Vnitarians consistently to their System may hold all that he there says of the Word Verse 15. John the Baptist bare witness of him saying This is he of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he is before me As if the Baptist had said Tho' then this Man as it is at the 30th Verse that cometh after me enters upon his Office but when I have almost done mine yet he is called to an Higher Office and Dignity than mine for he is my Superior my Lord and my Prince he is the Messiah the Saviour of the World a most Holy Man the Son of God the designed Sovereign of the Universe and I am but his Servant and Harbinger Whereas the Vulgate has translated This WAS he of whom I spake Beza shews there is no reason but that it may be rendred This IS he In like manner we need not read he WAS before me but he IS Thus it runs more naturally This is he of whom I spake or said He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he is before me Is preferred before me That is then is preferred to an Higher Office and Dignity than mine Which saying the Baptist explains tho' somewhat obscurely as are expressed all the like Mysteries on the infallible understanding of which most credibly Salvation depends not and which seem intended to try our Humility and Moderation as well as our Attention and Industry by adding For he is before me Before me Or as it is in the Original Protos mou Princeps meus My Primate the designed Head and Saviour of the Church and Lord of Men and Angels And this explains and particularizes or intimates how Christ's Office is greater than that of the Baptist's See Erasmus and Grotius upon the Place Verse 18. Which is in the Bosom of the Father Or which WAS or has been namely when immediately before his entering on his Office Christ was taken up into the Highest Heavens See John 3.13 Sometimes that Phrase to be in the bosom signifies to be most Dear See Numb 11.12 Deut. 13.6 By these remarks and hypotheses the Socinians conceive the beginning of St. John's Gospel is made plain and intelligible And they believe that by the same means by using the like care and attention all the other Texts which the Trinitarians object may also be made to appear consistent with the Unity of God with the whole Scripture and with Reason CHAP. IV. The ARIAN System THE Arians do not much dislike the foregoing Exposition excepting that they are persuaded it is short as to these Particulars in that the Socinians do not hold our Saviour's Soul to have prae-existed before its Conception and consequently do not admit it to have been an Instrument in the first Creation of the World But the Arians maintain both these Points It is true say they the Word the Son of God by excellency is a Creature tho' most intimately assisted of God which the Socinians do not deny Christ is a true Man made up of a Body and Soul only and not of an absolutely eternal Hypostasis also or infinite Person of the same numerical Essence with the Father But then say they this Man's Soul was not only before Abraham but even was the first Created Spirit John 17.5 For so the Scripture calls him expresly the First-born of every Creature or the Beginning of the Creation of God and terms him by eminency the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 Revel 3.14 c. Moreover it is asserted that by him God made the Worlds Heb. 1.2 And St. John says positively that without him was not any thing made that was made John 1.3 Which expressions seem too extensive to be restrained to the New-Creation only All things then were made by him And therefore the First-born of every Creature must be so transcendently Excellent as incomparably farther to surpass originally all Men and Angels in Excellency of Nature Wisdom and Power than they surpass the meanest of the Brute Beasts In a word the Arians believe that that Holy Spirit whom the Scripture calls the First-Born and who in process of time was made the Soul of the Messiah is originally as Perfect a Being and as like unto God as Divine and Almighty Power could produce and as can possibly be imagined salving the Unity of God seeing it is said he had a Part in the Creation of the World in which God most efficaciously assisted him and it is represented as the highest Liberality to Mankind that God gave his Son to Redeem Men. The Arians then say that the First-Bern is Omâ—â—â—ousian or as like the Divine Essence beside that he is as much assisted by the Divine Nature as it is possible for a Creature to be And they believe he was produced in the Duration of Eternity and before Time that is to say before the Creation of the World And in that sense like the Semi-Arians they will not scruple to say that the First-born is Eternal so it be remembred that he was made and that he is not an uncreated Being it being impossible there should be two uncreated Beings or two Gods in the proper sense of the word But the First-born is a God next to God and as Eternal as it is possible for the Excellentest Creature to be If it be asked how the First-born could be Instrumental in the making of Angels 〈◊〉 may be answered that a Part might be assigned to him therein that we know not 〈…〉 has been held by many that the Souls of Men are produced by the Parents Iâ— so it cannot be thought impossible but that God might have endued the most excellent created Spirit with Power to Produce other Spirits But perhaps Angels have fine Vehicles which are Part of their Being as a Human Body is Part of a Man And then the First-born might be assisting in the preparing of these Vehicles when God had Created the Substance thereof When the First-born was created then was also another eminent Spirit or other eminent Spirits according to some Modern Arians produced but inferior to him and called in Scripture the Holy Spirit Thus far the Arians hold It may be that by this or these last not only an Archangel or the Archangels 1. Tim. 5.21 but the whole Body of Angels is to be understood for they often seem to be meant when the Scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit And if so they also were instrumental in the Creation of the World as well as the First-born tho' not so eminently as he but under him Which doth not import that the Angels or the First-born produced Creatures into being out of Nothing But the Chaos being created or prepared by Almighty God then for reasons not perfectly known to us God thought good to set the First born and the Holy
Angels in their several stations to work upon it and He directed and enabled them to concur with Him in the disposing and setting of it into a regular frame and beautiful and convenient order It is now the constant course of Nature that Creatures produce other Creatures A like Power then in an incomparably higher degree might undoubtedly be given by God to incomparably more excellent Beings It may be said that by the Sun all things in the World live and grow and that without him no living thing subsists or can subsist And could God create no intelligent spiritual and invisible Beings Superior to the Sun in Power and Vertue Why should we think the Material Sun to be God's Ne plus ultra or his powerfulest and excellentest Creature possible Thus then the Holy Spirits of God and among the rest and in the Chiefest Place that Most Excellent Spirit which afterwards took Flesh of the Virgin Maâ—y and was the Soul of the ever Blessed Jesus and next after him that Holy Spirit who is the Chief of the Angels or the select Angels sate and moved upon the Face of the Waters and helped to give the Chaos a Motion and to hatch it into a World It is certain that God alone might as easily have done all this as with the concurrent Assistance of his Son or Chief Minister and of his Angels But it may be He had a mind thereby to exercise their Talents and to try their Obedience Assiduity Diligence and Faithfulness in his Service Probably it adds to the Happiness of vertuous and holy Spirits to be doing somthing in the service of God It is also possible God would cause them to have a hand in that Work to endear the whole Creation to them and them to all rational Creatures according to the natural Duties of Gratitude What has cost us some labor we commonly have a great affection for witness the love of Mothers to their Children It cannot then but be a great satisfaction to the Holy Spirits to look upon Men as in some measure their Production as well as their Pupils That will naturally give them an extraordinary tenderness for Mankind Now there is a Pleasure in Love and in doing good And that the Holy Angels might not want that rational solid and durable Pleasure God according to this System thought good to employ them in his Works It is then no Argument that God could not employ them therein because He is himself All-sufficient thereto being Almighty Tho' God can easily do all things alone and is properly the only Creator yet we daily see that He makes use of Instruments or Means and Second Causes We have then no reason to stagger at that assertion of the Scripture that by and with that Holy Spirit that was born of the Virgin Mary God had made the World or drawn Order out of the Chaos and dispos'd all the Parts of the Universe in their due Places and Frame Tho' that Holy Spirit was the First born of every Creature and a most excellent Image of God yet immediatly after that he was produced before the being of Time or the Production of Angels and of the Material Creation it may be that God created many more Spirits of almost a like Kind and Dignity or incomparably above the Angelical Nature and that the Soul of the Messiah had then no Superiority besides that of Order over them but these were in a manner or in other respects equals subject only to God and equally Superior to the Holy Angels an equal number of the Angels and inferior Spirits being put when created as they were afterwards under those principal Lords or Gods according to the Scripture-stile But when the Lord Jesus was become Man and especially after He had shed his Blood upon the Cross and was risen from the Dead and ascended again into Heaven then He was made the Prince and Sovereign under Almighty God of all Archangels as well as of all Angels and of all other Creatures It seems necessary to suppose that then began his Superiority over all the sublimest Angels and all Creatures because the Scripture represents that as the Reward of his Obedience and of the constant and faithful Performance of his Undertaking So that if there were no created Spirits of almost the like Excellency with him yet from the very beginning that there were Angels there might be many Archangels which were not wholly subjected to him tho' of a nature very much inferior to his but had like him an immediate access to God and were then accountable to God alone altho' at the first at their Creation God had left it to the First-born to appoint to each of them their Office and Station Perhaps the Socinian Exposition is here to take place as to the Creation of Dominions and Powers by our Lord Jesus Christ and the First-born inherited not the Dominion till after the Performance of his Undertaking for Mankind And perhaps the Eternal Continuation of Glory was the Reward proposed to Christ These things may exactly be some of these ways for ought any body knows And there is no reason to look upon the Arian System as incredible upon the account that during the Agony which our Blessed Saviour underwent a little before his Passion an Angel was sent to strengthen him Creatures may sometime need to be put in mind of those things which they already know We daily see that good Men are much comforted and edified by the Exhortations of other Men like themselves and somtimes inferior to themselves Our Saviour was become a Man and was then under such streights as are most dreadful to Human Nature He wanted therefore external Assistances the Powers of his Spirit being depressed to the Measure of a Human Soul at its Incarnation But it was afterwards raised above its former Grandeur being exalted to Sir at the right hand of God The first Verses of St. John's Gospel and the other Texts relating to our Lord Jesus Christ are very easy and intelligible being taken in a Sense agreable to this System But as to the Holy Spirit it may be the Scripture means chiefly thereby the Holy Inspiration and an Influence of the Power of God CHAP. V. The Answers of the Unitarians to the Chief Objections commonly made against their Expositions in General and First the Answer to the Objected Antiquity and Vniversality of the Trinitarian Sentiment THE Trinitarians urge that all the Vnitarian Expositions may in general and all at once be confuted by this one consideration That theirs is the old prevailing Sentiment To evince which besides the Writings of the Fathers since the Council of Nice and some Passages out of the Ante-nicene they quote Pliny's Letter to Trajan wherein he acquaints him that Christians Sang Hymns to Christ as to a God and Lucian's Philopatris where mention is made of the God of Christians his being one in three and three in one Now say the Trinitarians it hereby appears that ours is the
God as well as Solomon Ps 45. and with much greater reason We cannot better conclude this Article than with two Observations in Dr. Bull 's Book Judicium Ecclesiae In the first Ages of Christianity it was a great Controversy between some Christians and the Jews whether the Messias according to the descriptions given of him in the Old Testament is to be God or a Man only Those Christians believed He is represented in the Old Testament as God or a God the Jews as a mere Man Judic Eccl. p. 15 16. And at p. 21. the Dr. adds Our Saviour puts this Question to the Pharisees Whose Son is Christ They answered says the Text the Son of David But if Christ says our Saviour again is the Son of David why then doth David call him Lord The Evangelist remarks hereupon they were not able to answer him a word But had they known any thing of the Divinity of the Messias the Solution of the proposed Difficulty had been most easy and obvious to ' em We may then conclude the Jews believed only that the Christ was to be a Great King in this World but not a Great King in the next and much less did they imagin He should be God in a Superior Sense than this whether in the Arian or Tritheistick Sense So that the Generality of the Jews were as certainly Vnitarians as the Generality of the Heathens were Polytheists And as for the Conceits of the objected Philosophers we have seen that their Speculations are of as little Importance and Authority as they are mysterious and uncertain obscure and unintelligible 2. The Passages in Pliny's Letter and in the Dialogue intituled Philopatris are incontestably invalid Arguments The Passage in Pliny's Letter so much objected to the Vnitarians is that he says Christians in their Meetings Sang Hymns to Christ ut Deo as being a God To this the Vnitarians give the following answers First it is probable that Passage is corrupted and instead of ut Deo we should read et Deo for so it was in the Copies in Tertullian's time Tertul. Apol. adv Gentes C. 3. And then the Meaning being that Christians Sang Hymns to Christ AND to God that is so far from implying that they held Christ to be God Almighty himself that it shews the contrary Christ being there distinguished from God And his being joyned with God in Hymns Sang to both their Praise argues no more his being God himself than it would argue that Jael is God because she is blessed as well as God in the same Psalm of Praise Judg. 5.2 Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel And at the 24th Verse Blessed above Women shall Jael be Deborah also her self the Composer of this Hymn and Barack the Governors of Israel and the Princes of Issachar are praised at the 7th 9th 12th and 15th Verses Thus in the 5th Chapter of the Revelations Men and Angels are represented Singing Hymns both to God and Christ saying Blessing Honor Glory and Power be unto Him that siteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing And the four and twenty Elders said Worthy is the Lamb for he was Slain and has redeemed us to God by his Blood c. Which by the way it may be observed shews what incontestably Christians ought to do viz. tho' not to address direct and ultimate Prayers yet to Sing Hymns in Honor to Christ which may be lookt upon as the true Interpretation of Ps 72.15 spiritually accommodated to Christ besides that there is no doubt but that the Angels and the Holy Spirits in Heaven may daily present Requests and Petitions to Christ concerning particular Men and Churches and when Christ is seen he is to be addressed unto by Men as their Saviour and their Sovereign under God Moreover the generality of the Vnitarians ever held that Christ is to be Worshipped and Prayed to as the Mediator of the New-Covenant and the Vicegerent of the Universe constantly assisted with the Divin Wisdom and Power to the Glory of the Father according to God's appointment Secondly reading Vt Deo that may signify either as being God or as being a God and as if he were God that is were held God or a God If the former that might be Pliny's own mistaken Conjecture that because he understood Christians Sang Christ's Praises he therefore imagin'd they took him for the Supreme God But indeed 't is most unlikely that this was Pliny's Meaning for being used himself according to the Heathen Rites to Sing Hymns to others besides the Supreme God or suppos'd Supreme Gods it seems he could not upon this account conclude that Christians believed Christ to be God Almighty himself It seems therefore he could only mean that Christians Sang Hymns in Praise of Christ as believing him to be A GOD. By which Phrase the Heathens themselves knew 't was not necessary to understand the Supreme God For as the Scripture calls some Creatures Gods so the Heathens tho' groundlesly yet often gave that Title to several whom they knew and owned to be Created Beings And in Chap. 2d we have seen that Christians in those times made no difficulty to do the like where whether now right or wrong is another Question they thought they had warrant from Scripture to give that Appellation to some glorified Creatures and therefore there is no doubt but that since many of them gave it to Angels in an inferior Sense they much more gave it to Christ the Sovereign of all Angels as well as Men tho' they believed him to be but such a dignified Creature If Pliny's Meaning was as 't is not impossible but that the Expression may import that Christians Sang to Christ as if he were held God or a God that is quite contrary to what Trinitarians would have him to attest For then 't is as if he had said that Christians Sang to Christ as if they had believed him to be God or a God which yet according to this it should seem they believed not But most probably not this but the foregoing was Pliny's Sense if we must read VT Deo namely as to a God or as to one whom they held for a God As for the Dialogue intituled Philopatris wherein mention is made of the God who is Three and One One and Three the best Criticks own it not to be a Dialogue of Lucian's as the Translators themselves observe We have many instances of several Treatises joyned either by chance or out of design to some Authors Works that yet belong not to that Author It may then very well be that that Dialogue is much later than Lucian But if it were Lucian's what could the Trinitarians infer from thence but that there were then some Christians that believed a Platonick Trinity and that Lucian was acquainted with some of them or had confusedly
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
Innocent to the dreadful and undeserved Death of the Cross God's absolute Authority over his Creatures was most highly vindicated after Adam and his apostate Off-spring had wofully eclipsed the Glory of his Soveraignty and the Authority of his Laws This Second Adam by the sinless and most perfect Obedience of his Life was an high Vindicator thereof but his enduring most inexpressible Torments which he did as Man and dying the most cursed Death of the Cross as our Sacrifice did God the Father as high Honor in the Face of the Sun as all the Sins of Mankind put together could do him Dishonor And by this means this Sacrifice became Satisfactory so as that God would for the sake thereof grant Terms of Pardon and Reconciliation to Fallen Mankind since He now saw it most agreable to all his Attributes to do so Thus far this Learned Prelate In Summ in Answer to the whole Objection Christ is the Excellentest Creature possible and the most like unto God and the fittest to be an Instrument in the Hand of God and God entirely loves him and continually communicates to him the Use of the Divine Power and the Assistance of the Divine Wisdom and the Fulness of the God-head constantly dwells in him and in his State of Humiliatiâ—n he received the Holy Spirit without measure and not in small portions and by intervals like the Prophets and all the Angels and Archangels are wholly subjected to him as their Prince and incessantly attend his Orders God being willing to make him as Great as a Creature can be made and God in fine is as much Vnited to him as it is possible for God to be United with a Creature God remaining still a distinct Being and the Creature a distinct Person And the Vnitarians hold that such an excellent and dignified Creature as this can obtain of God and can perform any thing that is to be perform'd or obtain'd and they do not conceive what more than this the Trinitarians can reasonably think to be requisite It may be observed that according to the Vnitarian System our Lord Jesus Christ is a more precious and worthy Being than all other Creatures together that yet not only the word Satisfaction is no where in Scripture but also that it is not the Notion of Sacrifices and Attonements to make a full Compensation that under the Gospel the Acts of Piety and Obedience which are most acceptable to God are figuratively called Attonements or Sacrifices as Alms-giving Praying with fervour Mortifying carnal Affections which is termed the offering our Bodies in Sacrifice to God and that by many Places of Scripture it appears that this expression to redeem signifies to deliver from some Evil and to put into a better State See Exod. 6.6 and 15.13 Luke 1.68 Ps 49.7 8 15. and 111.9 Luke 2.38 c. An Appendix to the IXth Chapter THERE remains but one Article to be here considered to give a particular and full Answer to every Branch of the Objection mention'd in the beginning of this Chapter It is this that according to the Ideas which the Vnitarian System gives of Christ it seems he cannot be supposed to be able to hear the Prayers of Men or to be a proper Object of Worship But this will particularly appear to be a groundless and unnecessary piece of Wrangling if these Considerations be duely weighed 1. There are divers Kinds of Worship according to the Nature of the Subject to whom it is to be paid See Grotius on Revel 19.10 All that the Trinitarians can ascribe to Christ in following the Scripture consists in reverencing him to the Honour of the Father as the Mediator of the New Covenant and under God the Universal Monarch acting for the Father in whom the Father dwells whom the Father most extraordinarily assists with his Divine Wisdom and Power to enable him in his Mediatory Kingdom to govern the Universe and save to the uttermost those that come to God thro' him and with whom consequently the Divine Nature is as intimately United as possible The Trinitarians acknowledge that the whole Person of Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant and consequently it seems incontestable that the whole Person of Christ is to be honoured as Mediator or with Mediatory and Subordinate Honour having receiv'd Kingdom Power and Godhead from the Father and acting for the Father Now thus and according to all these and the like respects the Vnitarians worship the Lord Jesus Christ and no otherwise even as one who is appointed to be honoured to the Glory of the Father as one who is exalted to the highest Dignity in the Universe and as one with whom the Divine Nature is as intimately united as possible so as that he is inlightned with the Divine Wisdom and he disposes of the Divine Power and Inspiration as of his own it being made his by his Union to the Divine Nature and by the Father his dwelling in him or by the Divine Assistance and Inspiration without measure attending him always conducting and illuminating him and thereby exalting his Spirit to the highest Pitch of Grandeur Wisdom and Power and making him in the most eminent manner possible one with God 2. The Vnitarians thus holding the Lord Jesus Christ United and Assisted with the Divine Nature the Trinitarians cannot justly pretend that the Vnitarian System represents him as unable to perform any thing which by the Trinitarian Notion of the Incarnation he may be suppos'd to be capable of seeing the Vnitarians hold that he without measure according to the Scripture Phrase is illuminated with the Divine Wisdom and disposes of and is assisted by and enjoys the Divine Power as his own so that he may hear Men and succor them It appears nevertheless as was said incontestable that his Kingdom as was observed being but a Mediatory Kingdom or his Reign being but a Government under God subject to and directed by the Father so that the Father is still to be considered not barely as jointly ruling but as literally the Supreme Ruler the Lord Jesus Christ cannot reasonably be addressed to but as Mediator or as the Vicegerent of the Universe and consequently is to be worshipped but with a Mediatory or a Subordinate Worship Wherefore the Body of the Prayers ought not to be addressed to him as they are in the Litany but the Father generally is to be Pray'd to in the Name or thro' the Mediation of the Son And some Ejaculations and particularly at the end or beginning of the Service a short Address may be offered to the Son to beseech him to Intercede for us to have Mercy upon us and to assist us with his Grace And according to the Vnitarian System the Lord Jesus Christ can be thus addressed to and worshipped This Subject concerning the Worship of Christ as Mediator or as a Man exalted to the High Honor with which it has pleased God to dignify him is fully treated of by Limborch in his Theologia Christiana Lib.
not to believe him Our own Reason in such a Case shews us that seeing we are credibly assured he knows these things not only better than We but perfectly well it is reasonable to submit all our Difficulties to his Testimony It is then most evident that in some Cases the most express Contradictions ought not in Reason to hinder our belief For We believe that Matter either is Divisible infinitely or is not Divisible infinitely tho' it is well known there are manifest Demonstrations against either of those Systems We firmly believe there is such a thing as Eternity tho' which way imaginable soever We conceive it to be We find therein unavoidable Contradictions We believe that either there is a Vacuum or no Vacuum tho' either seem absolutely Impossible And if We knew an infallible Judge in these Matters We would believe him and should think We ought in Reason to believe him whether he told Us there is a Vacuum or told Us there is no Vacuum c. It appears therefore that not only We are ready to believe but even that we actually believe in some Cases what evidently seems to Us to be contradictory and impossible Not that what is truely contradictory can be supposed to be possible But We must own some things may seem to Us to be truely contradictory which really are not so And therefore if a Judge credibly known to be infallible should tell us that that is not contradictory which seems to be so to Us We ought in reason to believe him Now wherein is it likely We may sooner be puzled with seeming Contradictions than in the most sublime and incomprehensible Subject the eternal the infinite the necessary and divine Being And who in reason can be thought a more credible and competent Judge of these things than Almighty God Himself We are sensible that in some Cases We must believe some things to be true which yet after all our best reasonings and inquiries exprefly seem contradictory and impossible And shall We not believe the Trinitarian System because of some seeming Contradictions tho' God Almighty should assure Us it is true What reason can there be for such a Dealing or how can We reconcile it with our own avow'd and incontestable Measures in many instances The Rule of Reason then undoubtedly implies that We are to follow what after the best search We are capable of appears the most evident notwithstanding all the Difficulties which otherwise the greatest Credibility may seem to be attended with and that there can be nothing more credible and no greater or surer Evidence than the assured Testimony of the Infallible God Thus We may reconcile together those excellent Directions of Holy Scripture in Vnderstanding to be Men to prove all things and to judge 1 Cor. 10.15 1 Thess 5.21 1 Cor. 14.20 and yet not to lean to our own Vnderstanding Prov. 3.5 That is not to stick to our own imperfect Imaginations but to consider most exactly what Right Reason after the most sincere and careful atention leads Us to and inviolably to follow that The Vnitarians therefore are unreasonable to seek any excuse not to believe the Trinitarian System if it be taught in the Word of God And those Trinitarians take more trouble than needs or than can be effectual who content not themselves to prove the Doctrin of the Trinity out of the Scripture but attempt to reconcile it to Reason There can be nothing more reasonable than to believe when God speaks whatever Difficulties our own weak and shallow Imaginations may find in the Subject-Matter of the otherwise credibly attested Divine Revelation But some Trinitarians as well as the Vnitarians seem to labour under this Prepossession that Men are to believe nothing of what God tells Us unless it can be shewn to be free from all Difficulties or unless all the Objections be answered that Human Reason can make against it Let it but be proved that God has said a thing and then tho' it be attended with never so great and many seeming Contradictions and Impossibilities it suffices Us to hold that it is a Mystery which We are to believe so far as We can find that God has revealed it Here it is most evidently our reasonable Service to sacrifice our Human Understanding to Divine Faith But this is a Point which the Vnitarians seem not to have duely considered Yet they might easily observe that God has sown Difficulties in most things in this State of Imperfection and Probation to make Men both humble and diligent or religiously industrious and to try or manifest who will be sincere and careful in the Momentous Inquiry and Search after the Truth which incontestably is of the greatest Concernment to Us to weigh as it deserves The not attending to the right use of Reason herein is what makes Men not only Vnitarians but Deists and even Atheists Some will believe no Spirit because it seems a Contradiction that what is not Material should act upon Matter They believe no God but hold the World to be of itself because they do not conceive that Something can be made out of Nothing nor are able to imagine how it is possible that what is absolutely Immaterial should produce Matter and because they do not see or understand with what Tools as well as with what Materials God made the World And some reject Revelation on pretence that there are Prophecies in Scripture and God is in it represented as Concerning himself with Men whereas if he did so they think he would not permit Evil if he could hinder it and it seems to them to be a Contradiction to fore-see certainly Future Contingencies This shews Us that We ought to be truely humble and not wise in our own conceits and that if We will not expose our selves to Error concerning Sublime Matters We are not rashly to determine those things to be impossible which to our Reason seem most strange and wonderful This is the First Branch of the Trinitarian Argument The Second is 2. That the Vnitarian Interpretations imply some most unlikely Assertions and are besides that forced and unnatural and so remote from the obvious Import of the Words that 't is not to be conceiv'd the generality of Christians can understand the Scripture in that Sense The Vnitarians to avoid the Difficulties of the Trinitarian System run to other seemingly as great Difficulties What can for instance seem more impossible than those Assertions that a Creature can perform the Office of a Creator which at least one would think is to set up two Gods one Superior and one Inferior besides the Holy Ghost or that the most excellent Creature as like God as possible and in whom the Fulness of the God-head dwells can ever need the Assistance and Ministry of Angels by the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God meaning both the Chief and under him the whole Body of Angels or that by the Spirit understanding the Divine Power and the essential Virtue and as
the Ephesians is that as we would stand in aw before the King of Kings so in proportion of the Subordination Servants ought to demean themselves before their Masters The Sense of the Text of the 5th of St. Mathew is that as God is truly perfect so we ought effectually to strive to be perfect with that Perfection which our Natures are capable of And in like manner the Sense of the 23d Vers of the 5th of St. John is that as we honour God we must also honour his Deputy Vicegerent tho' nevertheless the one as properly God's Chief Minister as was said the other as expresly the Almighty himself The Kings of England may use the same Phrase to declare it their Will Pleasure That the Subjects in Ireland should honour the Viceroy even as they honour the King But that doth not imply that the one must absolutely be taken for the other consequently that is not to give the Supreme Royal Glory itself to the Viceroy no more than to honour Christ is to give expresly God's Supreme Glory to Another as the Arians do well observe besides that the Saying that God will not give his Glory to Another may signify that He will not give it to be dispos'd of that He will not give the disposition of it to Another or that He will not give to Another that Glory which is peculiar to Him of disposing of religious Honour and appointing Rites of Religion or that He will not give or impart a Sublime Heavenly Honour to Strangers or Aliens from Him neither will give his Praise to Idols that is He will not patiently suffer or allow that Men should make to themselves Objects of Religious Service at their Pleasure like the Heathens that the Religious Worship which is properly ultimately due to Him should be paid to Unfit Beings to Stocks Stones or to Daemons which are not truly in any holy scriptural sense Gods being neither the Supreme God nor Soveraign Officers of God commissionated with Power Authority thus to act for God so as most eminently to represent god and so to receive a Suitable Honour appointed to terminate ultimately to God So that God then doth not give properly the Religious Honour to Another tho' He commands us to bow the Knee to the Man Jesus Christ as we do to God If He pleased He might set Angels over Us or any Good Spirits and command Us to bow to them and ask and receive Graces of them tho' his Holy Nature cannot permit him to give any such Glory to his Enemies or ever to allow that Impure Spirits be sought to and reverenced That could not redound to God's Glory or the Good of his Creatures whereas the other might See a Passage of St. Gregory's quoted in the 1st Part of Bishop Taylor 's Sermon on Ps 86.5 where St. Gregery observes that Angels were Worshipped under the Old Testament But if so yet to be sure not only that was not a Divine Worship but even that Worship so far as it extended was for the sake of and terminated to God whose Immediate and Highest Officers and Messengers the Angels then appeared to be and so that hindred not but it might truly be said that God alone was properly Worshipped The Text Gal. 4.8 which we translate doing Service to them which By Nature are no Gods may be translated doing Service to them which TRUELY are no Gods yet it is the same if we read Of their Nature whether Supreme according to the proper and eminent sense of the word or Inferiour of God's creating and constituting according to the Scripture-Stile See Grotius on the Place Certainly we are expresly Commanded in Scripture to Serve the Man Jesus Christ Phil. 2.9 Yet incontestably the Man Jesus Christ properly is a God but in an inferiour sense We are then without doubt to serve the Man Jesus Christ as such a God appointed and dignified by the Supreme and Eternal God Act. 2.36 and we are to serve the Supreme God as absolutely being the Supreme God or as Him who is of himself God and who consequently is God in the most proper and eminent sense of that word Howbeit this doth not imply that Christ is not as intimately united with the Divine Nature as possible For all Power is given him in Heaven and Earth and acting for God in the highest Post he represents God at the Helm of the Universe But a Creature cannot thus represent God and govern the World and have all Power given it except God be with it and assist and direct it so as that that Creature have the enjoyment and disposition of the Divine Nature as of it's own Being whereby it's Power and Understanding being enlarged it may in a high measure Know and Act as God And accordingly as Sandius observes the Vnitarians held from the Beginning of Christianity that an Influence of the Divine Nature was incarnated in and most strictly united with the Man Christ Jesus So that Christ is not Worshipped neither is God's Representative or the Father's Universal Vicegerent merely as he is a Creature A mere Creature cannot comprehend in it's Thoughts and under it's Care the whole Universe and can never be such a Representative of the Father 's at the Helm of the Universal Government Nor can a mere Creature be Worshipped by all the Creatures in the Universe as Christ by God's Appointment is to be It seems God neither can nor will be thus represented by any Creature as a Creature Christ then is God's Representative and is Worshipped in his Mediatory Kingdom over the whole Universe Inasmuch as an Influence of the Divine Nature most intimately Dwells in him Assists and Directs him and Worketh in and by him and Inasmuch as the Divine Majesty is Conspicuous in him and As by his Intercession and by the Merit of his Death and the Vertue of the Covenant of Grace and of his Union with God and his Exaltation he Disposes of the Divine Power in the Gospel-Oeconomy A mere Creature may have a vast Honor and Power but not like that which appears in Christ in his Government of the Universe Whereas God has given us two Eyes whereby we may perceive three or four Objects at a time at a certain distance and two Ears which may imperfectly discern some few several Sounds also at the same time as the Sounds of certain several Voices and of some Instruments and two Hands by which we may take hold of several Particies of Matter and strike ten Strings at a time and move a certain Mass and steer a Ship and but a narrow Understanding according to the present Needs and the Capacity of our bodily Organs God might give a freer Carrier to our Spirits and endue us with more noble and vaster Capaeities and give us two hundred or two hundred thousand Hands and Ears and Eyes and enable our Souls to use them all fitly in reference to so many several Objects in the same instant
Christ died Therefore it certainly follows both that the Scholastick Trinitarian Determinations and Impositions are contrary to God's Will and that it is an indispensible Duty to profess and establish the Gospel-Terms of Communion which are stated and pleaded for in the Irenicum Magnum and in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno Tho' some Vnitarians considering an Influence of the Divine Nature dwelling in Christ and an Influence and Act of the Divine Power implied in the Holy Spirit or Holy Inspiration and considering we are exhorted to keep as much as we can the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace should carry Christian Condescension so far as by their Presence sometime in the Religious Assemblies for Peace-Sake till these things be duely weighed to bear with the Use of some of the Scholastick Trinitarian Terms yet that is at least so nice a Point that many conscientiously may with great colour of reason absolutely scruple them and all Vnitarians are obliged to express openly their dislike of those in their opinion at least dubious Terms and rash Expressions and to appear and profess not to repeat some of them and not to assent to them in the Religious Service which Condescension indeed upon mature Consideration seems even generally to be more than is wholly warrantable particularly one would think with respect to the Litany and the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds according to what has hereupon been said so that the Afternoon-Service only can well seem tolerable to them and indeed 't is generally reckoned to be no less than Hypocritical Temporizing for any Vnitarian to carry the Condescension farther therefore even the Trinitarians themselves who are persuaded of the evident and incontestable Reasonableness and Necessity of the Gospel Terms of Communion are bound to protest against the imposing of those said Scholastick Terms deviating from the Scripture-Latitude not only as an unnecessary Burden but as a grievous and unwarrantable a pernicious and cruel Oppression perfectly contrary to the Moderation of the Gospel For has not God intended there should be one Catholick Church and Communion of Saints In a word the Scripture-Terms are the only Just and Charitable and Necessary Terms of Church Communion And they are a fit Means of Peace For so you establish no other Terms of Church-Communion but such as are agreable to the Scripture-Generality you may lay any Penalty on express Disputings in the Religious Assemblies These Terms of Church-Vnion then both are the Scripture-Terms and the only Terms of Communion that are agreable to the fundamental Grounds of the Reformation or to the incontestable Principles of Protestants and to Reason and Moderation and they are the fit and only possible Terms for all Christians that own the Scripture for their Rule to Vnite in And the Vnitarian Arguments are so considerable that it must be the highest Temerity in the World not to be willing to stick in Acts of Communion to the Safe suficient Generality included in those Terms So that to reject these Terms is not only to run the greatest Hazards to oppress the Truth and injure those who are approved of God but it is expresly to be guilty of the greatest Mischiefs of disfiguring Christianity as if it had no Means of Union hindering the growth and efficacy of the Gospel and being the Cause of endless Schisms and Divisions These Matters are set into so full and incontestable a light that to slight and resist so great Evidence cannot but be of the greatest Consequence to the Souls of them that are therein concern'd It is credible God has preserv'd the World and this Generation for the Sake of this great Light most illustriously adorning the Gospel so great a Light that against it the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail and it will never be possible for all the Powers of the Adversaries of so evident Truths to answer these unanswerable Arguments Now then incontestably Peace is presented upon just Terms by this Method which therefore should be most carefully considered For if the righteous be oppressed God noteth all things in his Book and Great Plagues are denounced against rejecting a great Light and injuring those that are accepted of God May We all take effectual Measures to avoid God's Judgments and to obtain his Mercy and Eternal Salvation I thought here to have finished this Post-Script but it may perhaps not be unfit to advertise that since the writing of it I have accidentally met with a small Pamphlet a 6d Book wherein these Terms of Communion in some measure are likewise pleaded for I recommend it therefore to the Reader 's perusal It is intituled The Moderate Trinitarian c. By Daniel Allen. Printed for Mary Fabian at Mercers-Chappel in Cheap-side 1699. Therein it is Inquired Whether and Shewn That the Trinitarians and Vnitarians may communicate together so that no Practice ought to be enjoyned for Terms of Communion contrary to the Latitude of Scripture seeing it is therein that the Trinitarians and Vnitarians may Unite But not only to put my self in the company of a more known Person but more especially seeing Men commonly regard more or slight the less an Opinion which they see held by one who is generally esteemed most Eminent for Learning and all good Qualities I ought not to omit observing that the famous Bishop Taylor incontestably establishes these Terms of Church-Communion in that for the main admirable Book of his intituled The Liberty of Prophesying which indeed I have had the misfortune to be but very lately acquainted with That the Scripture-Terms of Communion which I have been pleading for are therein implied I think may sufficiently appear by these few Quotations out of it That which I have is the 4to Edition 1647. I shall sometimes abridge the words but without altering the sense If a Doctrin be not so revealed but that wise and good Men differ in their Opinions it is a clear case it is not inter Dogmata necessaria simpliciter c. The Epistle Dedicat. P. 15.16 It is observable that the restraint of Prophesying imposing upon other Mens Understanding and lording it over their Faith came in with the retinue of Antichrist that is as other Abuses and Corruptions of the Church did c. Ib. P. 18. Let not Men be hasty in calling every dislik'd Opinion by the Name of Heresy Ib. P. 29. The Lutheran Churches the Zuinglians the Calvinists the Socinians the Anabaptists the Aethiopian Churches which are all Nestorian differ from others Where then shall we six our Considence or joyn Communion To pitch upon any one is to throw the Dice if Salvation be to be had only in one of them and that every Error be damnable We have therefore no other help in the midst of these Differences but to be all United in that Common Term which is the Medium of the Communion of Saints that is the Apostles Creed an honest endeavour to find out what truths we can and a mutual permission to