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
and the special People of God may well be called his own And his own received him not These Men to whom were given the Divine Oracles and among whom Christ was born and lived and did mighty Works and was baptized and proclaim'd the Messiah by John the Baptist and by the Hoâ—y Ghost these blind and sensual Men liked him not they thought his Doctrin too pure to be a Religion fit for them and his Person too mean and despicable to be their Deliverer Thus the World knew him not and received him not notwithstanding all the Attestations of Heaven that this was their Maker their Saviour and the Mighty Prince that God design'd them Verse 14. And the Word WAS Flesh So we must render it and not was made It is the same Expression that is used at the beginning of the 6th Verse where it is said There WAS a Man sent from God If the Trinitarian Sentiment was not impossible concerning three eternal and supremely Divine Persons as it expresly seems to be yet it could not truly be said that God was made Flesh But the Trinitarian Sentiment appears to imply many express Contradictions It seems therefore every way against Reason to render this Text as the Trinitarians do It must then be Translated as we have done For as was observed the term doth bear that Sense The Word was Flesh Flesh that is to say a mortal Man encompassed with all the infirmities or appearing in the low form and meanest circumstances of Human Nature not implying Sin See Hebr. 2.14 Mark 13.20 Gen. 6.12 Deut. 5.26 Jerem. 12.12 1. Cor. 15.50 That is then it seems of somewhat a greater force and significancy than if the Evangelist had barely said that the Messiah was a Man the saying that He was Flesh being as much as to say that as to his Nature and Being he was but a Man an ordinary Man like other Men a very Man or true Man made up of Soul and Body subject to Want and Temptation to Hunger and Thirst and to all the like Frailties and Accidents of Human Nature By the last quoted Texts it appears that this is imported by the term Flesh which in the Oriental Languages is a proper expression to that purpose tho' in our Tongue like many other Scripture Phrases it seems odd but we ought to remember that the Bible was not originally written in English we must therefore carefully attend to the stile of the Scripture and explain one Place by another that we may understand it right But tho' it be certain the Messiah the Prime Minister and Chief Messenger of God was a poor mortal Man subject to the Pains and Sufferings incident to Humanity from which miserable state and wretched circumstances being perfectly innocent he might have been exempt but to which for the sake of Men and for the Redemption of Mankind he freely subjected himself yet as the Evangelist at the same time doth here observe he was not without some conspicuous and most illustrious Rays of Glory the Glory of being own'd by God for the Messiah the Glory of bringing and procuring the most excellent Revelation and the Glory of working as great and as many Miracles as he pleas'd and when he pleas'd such a Glory as declared that the Father dwelt constantly in him and as bespoke him to be the great Messenger or divine Word and the only-begotten or most beloved Son of God Such a Glory was seen in him as the Glory of the Son of God or as a Glory worthy of the Son of God by excellency Nevertheless to all other outward appearances and circumstances he was content to be as the meanest and most contemptible Men. And the Word was Flesh Now it was very pertinent to the Design of the Evangelist to use that expression For it seems to be his chief Aim to shew that Christ the Word was but a Man It is commonly thought that he wrote his Gospel purposely to oppose the Heresies of Cerinthus We are told Iren. L. 1. C. 25. and Euseb L. 3. C. 25. Cerinthus maintained that Jesus born of Mary was not the Word or Christ but that the Christ or the Logos that is to say the Word the Divine Messenger or Wisdom or Proclaimer of the Wisdom of God was an Hypostasis or real Person subsisting of it self an Eternal and Divine Substance different from Jesus but dwelling in him while he was on Earth and working wondrous Works by him Now in opposition to this St. John asserts that the Word was Flesh was truly a Man and but a Man a frail mortal Man like other Men tho' indeed the most dignified of all Creatures as he declares at the First Verse where he calls him a God which is the Highest Name that Cerinthus gave to the Word Well says St. John the Word was a God but then this God was but a Man tho' he was the Son of God the Prince of all Creatures and the designed Lord of Men and Angels The Word was a God and the Word was Flesh That is then as if the Evangelist had said The Gnosticks call the Word a God so do I too but at the same time I declare that the Word is such a God as is but a Creature and is no other but the Man Jesus who was God's only begotten Son being born of a Virgin by the Power of God and who was anointed with and constantly assisted by the Holy Spirit This is the Christ and the God Word Those then are mere Fables which the Gnosticks and Cerinthians hold of the Christ his being an I know not what uncreated Logos and Divine Hypostasis proceeding out of the Bythos or Abyss and ordered by the Father to dwell in the Man Jesus After all it is not absolutely certain whether St. John wrote against Cerinthus We have not so much as the Assertion of any one of the Ancients for it before St. Jeâ—om And as for Cerinthus his Opinions tho' it may be that some of 'em were extraordinary bad yet we know nothing of them but by the report of his Adversaries And t is no new thing for such to give but an indifferent and imperfect account of the Sentiments of those that differ from 'em and to raise Stories disadvantageous to them which good Men such as was Ireneus took afterwards upon trust Howbeit we see that St. John decares the Word to be the Man Jesus Christ and in many Places of his Gospel shews him to be a Creature And if Ireneus was well informed himself and has informed us right Cerinthus held this erroneous Opinion that the Word is a real eternal Divine Person and consequently that there are more Divine Persons than one Those of Ireneus his Party most probably found fault with Cerinthus because besides his Superstition for the Law he had not the same Notion of the Word that they had Cerinthus it seems believed the Word to be a real Divine Person equal to the Father as the real Trinitarians do And
Colledge of the Apostles with the Concurence and Consent of the 120 Disciples mentioned in Acts 1.15 who assisted them in their Councils And it seems to be referred to in Rom. 6.17 Rom. 12.6 1 Tim. 6.20 2 Tim. 1.13 Jude 3. In truth the Divine Providence might well think it self not concerned to preserve any other Evidence of the Authority and Antiquity of the Christian System but this besides the Holy Scripture Yet we have moreover the Epistle of St. Clemens or Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians That is that Clemens whom St. Paul not only calls his Fellow-laborer but of whom he says that his Name is written in the Book of Life Phil. 4.3 This Clemens being Bishop of Rome wrote that Epistle to the Christians of Corinth in the Name and by the Order of his Church And this Epistle is so avowed a Piece of Antiquity that the Trinitarians dare not disown it Howbeit the most learned Trinitarian Criticks such as Bishop Vsher Petavius and Huetius of late and Photius of old see Sandi Hist Secul 1. acknowledge that Clemens appears therein an undoubted Unitarian speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ just as the Unitarians do and no otherwise as we see for instance even in these words of the 58th Chapter God the Inspector of all things the Father of Spirits the Lord of all Flesh who has chosen our Lord Jesus Christ and us by him grant to you Peace Long Suffering Patience through our High Priest and Protector Jesus Christ by whom be Glory and Honour and Majesty unto God now and for evermore Now let the Trinitarians seriously consider whether they would thus express themselves to teach what is to be believed concerning God the Father of all and concerning our Lord Jesus Christ See Sandius's Hist Eccl. for more express Evidences of St. Clemens his Vnitarianism There are also the Recognitions which tho' perhaps by Mistake attributed to St. Clemens yet are very antient there being a Passage taken out of them in a Fragment of Bardesanes preserved in Eusebius his Praep. Evang. L. 6. C. 10. They are so evidently agreable to the Unitarian Sentiment that they are confessed so to be by the Trinitarian Criticks For a further illustration of all these particulars see the aforequoted Pamphlet The Judgment of the Fathers c. As for the other remaining Ante-nicene Writings tho they appear to begin to platonize and proceed to do so more and more by steps and some of them doing it in a pretty high degree those that asserted the rigid Unitarian Doctrine or even that Sentiment that Arius afterwards was condemned for thus being in time in some measure suppressed yet generally they are far from the Opinion that is now called Orthodox and they incline more to the Unitarian System then to the Trinitarian Sentiment of the latter Ages For first they generally believe not the Holy Ghost to be God or a God in an eminent sense like Him whom they call the God Word or the Word whom God produced before all things whom God was pleased to make a God or Soveraign next unto Him and whom they suppose God employed as his Minister in Creating the Holy Spirit and Angels and as his Chief Officer in the Creation of all other things Secondly then they by no means represent the Divine Word or Son as actually equal to God but as an inferiour God distinct from and subject to the Principal God who has no God above him and they represent him not as a Necessary Being that was generated from all eternity but as being created of the Divine Substance by the mere good Will and arbitrary Pleasure of God immediately before the Creation of the World Indeed they generally seem to make the Duration of Time to commence at the Creation of the World and so suppose that what was done before the Creation of the Material World belongs not to the Duration of Time but to the Duration of Eternity Nevertheless as was said they hold not the Son to have been from all Eternity for they assert that once he was not and they hold that he had a beginning Yet according to them he may be termed eternal in that he existed in God from Eternity and was produced in that Duration which was before the Creation of the World In like manner they reckon him to be equal to God or rather like to God no otherwise than as he is a most excellent Being that most eminently acts for and represents God and was created out of the Substance of God whereas it seems they most generally hold that other Creatures were made out of Nothing They represent the Son to be created out of the Substance of God as the Expression of our thoughts by Speech is created out of our Thoughts But they offer their Philosophical Speculations for the most part as Conjectures and not as Articles of Faith Especially at first they were pretty sparing and moderate therein Howbeit the unfathomable Depths of Platonism as it was taught in those Days and which was then by too many philosophizing Christians imagined to be in a great measure reconcileable with Christianity and near the same thing with it made that these poor Fathers often knew not well themselves or seemed not to know what they said nor whereof they affirmed Yet from the whole it seems it may be collected that generally these Platonists inclined to that Opinion which afterwards was called Semi-Arianism As was said they generally own that the Son was not from all Eternity and that he is not Equal to the Father Yet the Platonick Metaphysicks which the Heathenish World at that time highly admired as the sublimest Philosophy and the most rational Theology and which these Doctors not only followed before they were Christians but also when converted accomodated as much as they could to Christianity it seems at least implying that the Second Person of the Trinity was created out of the Substance of the First or Chief God and the Third out of the Substance of the Second yet so as that tho the Third Person of this Most High Trinity was not so Excellent as the Second nor the Second but of an Inserior Divinity neither howbeit bearing the Name of God and therein particularly surpassing the Third Divine Person these two Persons nevertheless which tho' Inserior to the Chief God were Superior to all the other Gods or Angels remained most intimately United not only with one another but also with the First Person of this transcendent Trinity insomuch that these three being thus United and being of a like Substance might be said to be one Thing or as one Being Platonism I say seeming at least to import somewhat like this these Platonizing Fathers therefore by degrees philosophized among Christians much after that way as much as can be conceived by their expressions Indeed all Creatures may be said in some sense to be united to God and to be in God for in him we live and move and have our
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
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
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
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
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
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
wanderers strayed aside from the Simplicity of Religion and preferred the arbitrary Notions of a vain Philosophy before it doth it follow that the generality of the Jews were Platonists As for Philo Eusebius conjectures and Photius expresly affirms that he was a Christian if so it must be a Platonick Christian or kind of Semi-Arian Some then have thought it not impossible but that this Philo whose Works we have is not he who went on the Embassage to Caligula but is another Philo of the Second Century Neither do they think it impossible but that the Monks may have very much corrupted his Writings Indeed it seems improbable that a Jew should have written all that is attributed to Philo. Howbeit it suffices that he was a Platonist and had a great many extravagant Notions See Mr. Nye's Second Letter to a Peer p. 66. c. After all the Platonists as was observed are very obscure And some contend that all that Philo says of a Trinity amounts not above Arianism See Sandi Hist. Eccl. enucl Lib. 1. Secul 1. But what do we say of the Cabbala or Traditionary Knowledg delivered from Father to Son since the time of Moses Why in good earnest what can we say of it but that it is a Chimera a rabinnical Legend a pharisaïcal Device to deceive the People and make every thing pass as Sacred that the Doctors please All Protestants look upon Tradition as a most unsafe and uncertain Means of transmitting from Age to Age Divine Truths and as no fixed Rule of Religion And we see Our Saviour never mentions the Jewish Tradition but to oppose it After all it can never be shewn that the Cabbala asserts a Trinity of Persons in God Ever since that Doctrin has been broached the generality of the Jews have expressed the Offense they have taken at it and have made it an Objection against Christians Origen says that tho' he had often disputed with the Jewish Rabbins that were of most esteem he never saw any of them approve this Doctrin that the Word is God or a God in the Platonick or Trinitarian Sense And he asserts that it is not the Opinion of the Jews that the Messias whom they expect is to be a God or a Divin Person but they believe he is to be a meer Man and an Earthly King Con. Cels. L. 2. p. 79. and L. 4. p. 162. See Bull. Judic Eccl. p. 170. And in Mr. Nye's 2d Letter to a Peer p. 50 51 52. you may see some more Quotations to the same purpose out of Justin Martyr St. Athanasius and others Indeed some Jewish Books treat very mysteriously and sometimes almost unintelligibly of the Names and Attributes of God Howbeit the Authors never meant thereby so many Divine Persons or any more than one such Person the Jews all along strongly opposing the Doctrin of more Persons than one in God As for the manifestly forged Writings of some Christians they are not to be attributed to the Jews See Mr. Nye's 2d Letter p. 53. You may see his Account of the Cabbala in his 3d. Letter p. 100. c. Maimonides determines this Matter in these words There are some things says he in which Jews Mahometans and Christians do agree But the Mahometans and Christians have divers Doctrines that are peculiar to themselves the Doctrin for instance of the Trinity is proper to Christians and to defend it they have been obliged to invent some very singular Principles More Nevochim Part. 1. Chap. 71. Mr. Nye has several other Quotations to the same import as also Vorstius in his Bilibra veritatis But what do we say to the Chaldee Paraphrase which often mentions the Word of God and represents him as a Person We say perhaps it is not exactly known what Philosophical Notions Onkelos and Jonathan might have who were the Authors of that Paraphrase it may be they were Platonists and accommodated some of Plato's expressions to the Jewish Sentiments howbeit we do not doubt but that all which they say of the Word is consistent with the Vnitarian Sense and we are certain that as we have shewn the Body of the Jews were Vnitarians The same Expression then in an Author may somtimes be taken in divers Significations The Word of God may sometimes signify the Message and somtimes the Messenger of God somtimes the Command it self and somtimes the Person that carries the Divine Command to Men somtimes a Divine Influence or a Divine Virtue the Wisdom and Energy of God or his Inspiration figuratively represented as a Person or his Will and Decree and somtimes a Creature in Office and Dignity an Archangel a Minister of God or one who acts for God and by God's Commission and who in some measure represents him By these Observations 't is easy to explain in an Vnitarian Sense all the Places where the Chaldee Paraphrasts mention the Word of God Probably they thereby commonly understand in speaking of God the Wisdom of God attended and set forth with Command and Authority in acting which Word or Authority God somtimes communicates in different manners or measures to some Creatures And therefore somtimes by the Word of God they understand a Creature for instance at the 1st Verse of the 110th Psalm they give that Name to Solomon because the Kings of Israel were God's Deputies and perhaps they interpreted that Verse like some other Places of the Messiah to whom it is applicable and who as they expected was to be a Temporal King of the House of David No reason can be assigned why they could not give that Title in that sense to the Messiah holding him only as a Creature tho' sometimes they gave it to some of God's Attributes Dr. Allix fancies that Philo actually personalized one of the Divin Attributes namely the Divin Wisdom whom he called the Word of God Yet as we have before remark'd the Dr. himself observ'd that Philo calls also Angels in the Plural the Words of God Philo. De Migrat Abrah p. 415. The same Title then may be given both to God or some Divin Influence or Divin Virtue and to some Creatures who act for God and who peculiarly represent him and in and by whom he extraordinarily manifests his Wisdom and Authority What belongs to God may be accomodated or figurativly attributed to such Crearures And it is incontestable that by the Word in speaking of God and by the Divin Spirit or the Breath of his Mouth may be meant the Actings or most eminent Manifestations of his Wisdom and Power As for such expressions as these in the Old Testament O God I have waited for thy Salvation when they are accommodated to the Messiah or the times of the Messiah they may import no more than this O God I have waited for thy Succor or the Deliverance of thy People from the Power of their Enemies by the means of thy Victorious Messenger the Great King of Israel Howbeit the Messiah acting for God and being a King might be called
Being Nay in some sense all Creatures may be said to have been in God from all Eternity at least potentially tho' not brought forth or produc'd from all Eternity but only when Almighty God created this Universe And even some of these Philosophers and among them Tertullian particularly expresly asserted that mere Creatures in particular Human Souls were made out of the Substance of God Howbeit Platonism implying that the Son and the Spirit are above all other Creatures the Platonists generally held that the Son at least or even the Son and the Spirit are most peculiarly of the Substance of God were most peculiarly in him and were most peculiarly united to him so as that whereever the Son went and whatever he did God as it were had always a strict hold of him and wrought with in and by him Nevertheless as was said they represented the Son and Spirit as Distinct and Inferior Beings so that they own'd the Father to be properly the Supreme Being and to be the only Person consequently that is properly God or a God in the eminent Sense of the word Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus and in a word all the Primitive Doctors that were converted out of Heathenism had been taught Platonism and when they were become Christians they openly professed in all-their Writings that they were still great admirers of that Philosophy and they maintain'd that the Christian Trinity and Plato's Trinity was much the same Thus they introduced Platonism in the Christian System accommodating the one to the other as near as they could Justin Martyr it seems particularly began openly to Platonize and the rest followed after him And then they for the most part represented the Platonick Trinity very like Arianism any of 'em at most making it Semi-Arianism so that the generality of Christians might it seems mistake it for Arianism the good Fathers either purposely or otherwise expressing themselves very obseurely in a most Obscure Matter tho' some more Platonically than others These in comparison of those that followed were Moderate Platonists and scarce any or but few went further in the 2d Century or at least till towards the end of the 2d Century whereas afterwards it seems there arose among Christians several violent Opinionists and sierce Semi-Arians and then many rigid and thorow-paced or very heathenish Platonists true Polytheists that perhaps went even farther than Platonism it self and maintain'd much the same Notions concerning the Son that are laid down in Dr. Sherlocks Books Not but that in the beginning of the 4th Century at the time of the Council of Nice there were a great many of the most Learned Bishops that were still Semi-Arians and several but Arians most credibly according to the Doctrin that anciently was chiefly in vogue before Semi-Arianism was establish'd by Justin Martyr The Semi-Arians or Mildest Platonists like the Arians defended the Unity of God by saying that the Father only was the Supreme or Principal God and that God the Word was not only Lesser than he but also Subject to him wherefore they concluded it might truly be said that in Heaven and in the whole World there is but One Godhead or but one God tho' there be God the Father and God the Son as in a House where there is a Son Subject to his Father it may be said that there is but one Government one Mastership or one Master the one not being essentially different from the other when both of them perfectly agree This is so well known to have been the sense of the generality of these Ante-nicene Fathers whose Writings have in some measure been preserved as well as of many since that it is needless to take much pains to prove it Howbeit it will not be improper to give here some Instances of it And first for the conveniency of some Readers it may be useful to make these Chronological Remarks Justin Martyr flourished about the 130th Year after Christ's Nativity Hegesipâ—us and Irenaeus about the Year 170. Victo Bishop of Rome about the Year 190. And Zepherin his Successor about the Year 200. Tertullian about the Year 210. Origen about the Year 230. Novatian and Dyonisius Alexandrinus within a few Years of that time Arnobius whose Disciple was Lactantius about the Year 295. The famous Council of Nice was held in the Year 325. These few Observations sufficing for the Purpose in Hand we may now proceed to aver what we have said concerning the Sentiment of the Ante-nicene Platonists to which end we may consider these Passages out of the Writings of those of them who were most learned and esteem'd in their Generations Dalaeus towards the middle of the fifth Chap. of his first Book De Vs Pat. not distinguishing Semi-Arianism from Arianism opines that it is impossible to clear St. Justin from being an Arian that Father asserting that the God who appeared to Moses and the Patriarchs was the Son and not the Father inasmuch as the Father never changes Place neither comes up nor down and no Man therefore ever saw the Father but the Son only has been seen who is the Father's Minister and a God also by the Father 's Will. Now says Dalaeus is not this to attribute to God the Son a Nature and Being different from that of God the Father Nay he might have added is not this also to ascribe to him an inferior and a precarious Being As the same Justin Martyr says to the same purpose in other Places God in the beginning before all the Creatures that is to say before all the other Creatures or mere Creatures and immediately before the Creation of the World for that is the strain of these Platonists generated of himself a certain Rational Power one while called the Son another while Wisdom an Angel God Lord and Word For he may be called by all these Names both because he Ministreth to the Will of the Father and was voluntarily Begotten of the Father Colloq cum Tryph. p. 221. We account the Son in the Second Rank and the Prophetick Spirit in the Third Order Apol. 2. p. 47. At the 43d Page of this Book he puts the Prophetick Spirit in the same Classis with the good Angels and indeed names him after them which shews that he took him to be one of them We Honour the Father and the Son says he and the Host of the other good Angels who accompany and resemble him together with the Prophetick Spirit Which seems to be as if he had said We Honour also the good Angels and in particular the Prophetick Spirit who is one of them and their Chief Irenaeus who even was a Disciple of the Contemporaries of the Apostles his Master Polycarpus having been a Disciple and Companion of St. John and of some others that had seen the Lord and who was himself as well as Polycarpus generally in great esteem among Christians tho' every one knows he was also a follower and great admirer of Plato speaks much to the same
have been permitted to come to our hands so express themselves that they may be taken for Arians Howbeit it suffices us if they generally appear to be but Semi-Arians For then it is evident the present Trinitarians cannot justly plead Antiquity The celebrated Writings of Lactantius are a further Testimony to what I have said concerning the State of the Platonick Trinitarianism in the Church before the Council of Nice He asserts that God before he set upon this ourious Work of the World begat an incorruptible and irreproveable Spirit that he might call him his Son Altho' God produced also for his Service infinite others whom we call Angels yet he has vouchsafed to give the Name of Son but to his First-born Instit L. 4. C. 6. And because the Son was faithful to God and taught Mankind that there is one God and that he alone is to be worshipped neither did ever call himself a God because he had not discharged his Trust therefore he received the Dignity of a Perpetual Priest and the Honor of a Soveraign King and the Power of a Judg and the Name of God Ib. C. 13. Now when any one has a Son whom he entirely loves who notwithstanding dwells in the House and under the Governing Power of his Father altho' the Father grants him the Name and Authority of a Master yet in the terms of Civilians here is but one House and one Master So this World is but one House belonging to God and the Son and the Father who inhabit the World and who are of one Mind or of like Affections and perfectly agree are as One Government or One only God the One being as the Two and the Two as the One. And no marvel since the Son is in the Father because the Father loveth the Son and the Father is in the Son by reason of his faithful Resignation to his Fathers Will and that he does nothing but what the Father Commands him This evidently declares in what sense the Father and Son are to be understood to be One God or One Mind and One Spirit Namely inasmuch as they are of one Mind they are therefore as if they were but one Spirit or but one Person and one God Yet according to this they really are Two distinct Beings and Two very unequal Spirits For the Son has freely received all from the Father and is ever Inferior and Subject to the Father and was produced then when God was going to set himself upon the Creating of the World and consequently is not from all Eternity The Father then is the First and Principal God and the Son is a God of a lower kind If this be not pure Arianism as it may be taken and seems to be all that it can amount to is at most Semi-Arianism which indeed very little differs from Arianism for both Systems hold the Son to be God but in an Inferior sense and assert the Father alone to be the one only true God tho' the Semi-Arians esteem that the Son was Created out of the Fathers Nature or Substance whereas Arius and those that are exactly of his Opinion as was said conceive that the Son tho' immediately produced by the Father was Created out of Nothing and only differs from other Creatures in that he is more Excellent than they all put together was Created by the Father alone and is set by the Father over all created Beings As concerning the Person and Nature of the Holy Spirit Dalaeus in the Fourth Chap. of his Second Book De usu Patrum remarks after St. Jerom that Lactantius expresly asserts the Holy Ghost to be but a Creature and not to partake of the Deity Sandius brings many Instances to prove that both Lactantius and all the other foremention'd Authors were even of Arius his Sentiment and not they only but also generally the remaining Ante-nicene Writers All these Authors which we have quoted were undoubtedly most learned and deservedly esteem'd in their Generations and are now generally esteem'd still by all Christians and indeed they may be accounted the Chief of the Ante-nicene whose Writings have been preserved We may also rank among them Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea as well as Lactantius since he Flourished somtime before as well as since the Council of Nice and appears to follow wholly the Sentiments of Justin Martyr when not aw'd by the Nicene Tyranny so that the then current Ante-nicene Doctrin may be known in these Writings Concerning these Matters therefore we may remark Eusebius expresses himself to this purpose He that is beyond all things the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Governor of all things how many and of what quality soever they be even of the Holy Spirit himself yea further of the Only Begotten Son also is deservedly stiled by the Apostle the God that is over all and he only may be called the one God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ But the Son is the Only Begotten God who is in the Bosom of the Father And the Advocate the Holy Spirit is neither God nor Son for he has not received his Production from the Father like the Son but is one of those things which were made by the Son De Ecclesiast Theol. L. 3. C. 6. If John had conceived the Father and the Son to be one and the same thing he would have said that the Word was the God with the Addition of the Article which not doing he evidently teaches us that he is the Prime God who is the Father of the Word and that the Word was not that very God but yet that he also was a God Ib. L. 2. C. 17. This is the Current Doctrin of the Old Ante-nicene Platonists concerning the Son and Holy Ghost Eusebius like the other before him expresly asserts that the Holy Ghost is not God and it is visible he says no more of the Son than at most what is agreable to Semi-Arianism That was it seems what the generality of the Primitive or Ancient Aâ—teâ—nicene Platonists meant by the Divinity of the Word and for the not coming up to which they opposed the Ebionite and the Nazarene Vnitarians Eusebius in the 25th and last Chap. of the 5th Book of his History quotes a remarkable Passage of an Author a Platonizing Christian who had written upon that account against the most rigid Vnitarians The Passage is to this effect The Vnitarians pretend that the Apostles and all the Ancients held the very Doctrine concerning the Person of our Saviour that is now maintained by the Vnitarians and that it is but only since the Times of the Popes Victor and Zepherin that the Truth has been adulterated and discountenanced This would be credible if first the Vnitarian Doctrin were not contrary to Holy Scripture and if divers before Victor and Zepherin had not contended for the Divinity of the Lord Christ Namely Justin Martyr Miltiades Tatianus Clemens of Alexandria Irenaeus Melito To whom we may add the ancient Hymns or
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
it were a Property or a Faculty of God Christ a Man and a Creature should have the Preheminence over it and be named before it and be honour'd above it If these things are unaccountable what do the Vnitarians get by their differing from the Trinitarians Then the remoteness of the Vnitarian Interpretations may in particular be argued by these Instances When the generality of Christians read these Texts that the Word is God and that by him all things whether in Heaven or Earth were made and created is it likely that it will come into their minds that thereby is meant that all things were New-modelled by Christ or that supposing that all things were created by him yet he is but a Creature that bears the Name of God If these Senses are so far from being obvious that we may imagine they can scarce so much as enter into the thoughts of any ordinary Christians is it credible that they are the true Meaning of those Texts For can We think the Holy Writers have so expressed themselves as that it should not be possible for the greatest part of Men to understand them We may then be confident 3. That several Texts of Scripture whether put together or taken asunder amount to a firm Evidence of the Trinitarian Sentiment Besides those aforementioned these seem express which call Christ by way of eminency the Son of God and which not only shew that Christ may and is to be Pray'd to but declare that God will have Men Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father Which it seems after all that the Vnitarians have said concerning the Worship of the Man Jesus Christ is an invincible Demonstration that the Son is God like the Father In fine the Trinitarians esteem all these Arguments may also be strength'ned by the following and last proposed Consideration 4. That it seems there is no express Text for the Vnitarian Doctrin or against the Trinitarians If the Vnitarians will confute the Trinitarian System let them produce any decisive Text for their Sentiment thereby they will incontestably shew that all the Texts which the Trinitarians alledge must be understood in the Vnitarian Sense but this the Trinitarians do defy the Vnitarians to do This is so weighty a Consideration that Dr. Sherlock thinks sit to inculcate and repeat it a great many times in his last Book intituled The Scripture-Proofs of our Saviour's Divinity explain'd c. To this purpose for instance Page 47. How harsh and unusual soever the Expositions of the Vnitarians might appear I should allow them to be very Reasonable had they first well prov'd that Christ is but a Creature that is in the Vnitarian Sense and not the eternal and almighty God himself for that alone would be reason enough to attribute nothing to him which cannot belong to a Creature Page 50. We must understand Words in a proper and natural Sense where there is no apparent reason for a Figure and here is none to take figuratively as the Vnitarians do these words God and Son of God when applied to Christ unless they think fit to assign his being a mere Creature Which indeed would be a very good reason could they prove that Christ is but a Creature Page 55. Could any Text be produced that proves Christ to be but a Creature that is the Dr. must mean as was before remark'd but such a Creature as the Vnitarians hold as most eminently acts for God represents God and is assisted of and united to God according to the Vnitarian System it would put an end to this Controversy and either excuse or justify all their other Interpretations of Scripture how harsh soever they might otherwise appear Page 58. The whole Controversy may be put upon this Issue if they can confute ours or establish their own Interpretations of Scripture so as to prove ours to be necessarily false and theirs consequently necessarily true c. CHAP. XI An Answer to the First Branch of the Objection TO the Four Branches of the foregoing Argument the Vnitarians answer in these Four Particulars 1. The Vnitarians do not lay the whole 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 2. They maintain that none of their Assertions are uncredible and that their Interpretations are rational and agreeable to the stile and current of Scripture and therefore natural and obvious enough 3. It is possible and easy and warrantable to understand in an Vnitarian Sense all the Texts which the Trinitarians alledge for their Sentiment 4. The Vnitarians produce several Texts of Scripture which seem express and most evident for the Vnitarian System it manifestly appearing that they are not susceptible of any other tolerable Sense or that they cannot tolerably be reconciled to the Trinitarian Sentiment so that if Men do not own and discern the force of them it seems it must be either because they make no attention to them or because they are moved and acted by Passion blinded by Prejudice and Partiality and resolved not to acknowledge the Truth 1. The Vnitarians do not lay the whole 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 If this Subject be duly consider'd it will be found that Protestants and Vnitarians do not differ in Principles concerning this Question What Vse of Reason ought to be allowed in Matters of Religion Now if it be so there can be nothing less pertinent than to make a Dispute about it or to pretend a Difference where there is none It is as if a Papist should make long Harangues to Protestants to prove that Scripture is the Word of God that God cannot be suppos'd willing to deceive Men and that therefore we must heartily assent to and firmly believe whatsoever is contain'd in the Bible Why Man What Protestant is there that knows not this or that denies it Protestants profess to believe the Holy Scripture as much to the full as any Member of the Church of Rome doth Pretty then make no Controversy about that Matter But if thou wilt do any thing to the purpose shew that Protestants reject some Doctrines certainly taught in God's Word In like manner Vnitarians maintain that a Protestant is out of the way who Quarrels with them about the Vse of Reason and they challenge him to shew that they make any other Use of it than Protestants themselves make in Matters of Religion So that whenever Protestants Quarrel with the Vnitarian Principles with relation to this Point they deviate from their own Rule and accuse their own Measures than which nothing can be more unreasonable and unwarrantable Either make not Use of the Principle or Quarrel not at a like Use of it If after all you think that Vnitarians make a different Use of Reason I say a different Use in
know his Benefactor and that he should be in a hearty disposition to express his Gratitude for the Benefit to the best of his power according to the Knowledge he can get thereof In the Revelations 19 12 We find it is said that our Saviour has a Name which no Man understands but He Himself Why then should We be so Decisive Magisterial and Imposing as if We certainly and infallibly understood all these Mysteries As we cannot reasonably imagin that we infallibly understand the most difficult things we ought not in reason to pretend to determine and judge for other Men in the most abstruse and intricate Matters Howbeit it seems the Semi-Arian System is much the same with or not essentially different from this of the Father or God and his two Powers and Influences or Acts. And it seems this is reconcileable with Scripture and Reason God grant Us all to do our Duty in this Inquiry and in all respects that We may discern and follow the things absolutely Necessary to Peace and Salvation A POST-SCRIPT Wherein it is farther consider'd That the Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost at most seem not to be inconsistent with the Unitarian System or to destroy the Necessity of keeping with relation to this Doctrin to the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church-Communion Wherein also it is inquir'd Whether the Unitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with a Trinitarian Church Of the Reasons of both Sides of which Query the Governors of the Church are humbly desir'd to give their Opinion FROM the whole it seems that these three Points deserve a particular Consideration I. It should be considered that the Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost seem not inconsistent with the Vnitarian System II. It should be inquired Whether the Vnitarians may joyn in Communion with the Trinitarian Church III. We should consider that what is inferred from the Vnitarian Arguments remains in force and that it is an indispensable Duty to profess and establish the Gospel-Terms of Communion and to keep to the seeming or apparent Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church-Union tho' the Trinitarians and some Vnitarians should opine that the Vnitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with the Trinitarians and even tho' there were in God what might truely be called Three Persons I. It should be considered that the Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost seem not inconsistent with Vnitarianism For tho' by the Holy Ghost and the Word the Divine Nature be taken to be implied yet it follows not that the Father is not the whole God-head Nay the Scholastick Trinitarians themselves acknowledge that the Father implies the whole Divine Nature Consequently whatsoever is properly and literally Divine belongs to the Father and is a Property or Act of his Essence seeing that it belongs to the Divine Nature and 't is own'd the Father implies the whole Divine Nature St. Basil agreably to this Tom. 1. Pag. 778. Paris 1638. calls the Divine Word and Spirit the two Hands of God founding that Expression on Ps 19.1 and 102.25 compar'd with Ps 33.6 Hands or Arms are the same speaking of a Spirit And we see mention made of the Arms of God Deuter. 33.27 Jâ—b 40.9 Ps 98.1 Isa 51.5 c. Howbeit in speaking of God who is a Spirit or a Spiritual Being it is evident it must be own'd thas these Expressions are but Figurative All then that the Arms or Hands of God can imply must be some Powers Properties or Acts Influences that belong to God Now by God the Scholastick Trinitarians themselves understand the Father or Him whom the Scriptures and particularly the Books of the New Testament ordinarily or frequently stile our Father as well as in general the Father meaning the Common Parent of Men more particularly the Father of Christians most especially the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as all agree And then as was observed the Scholastick Trinitarians acknowledge that the Father implies the whole God head Our Saviour is express that the Father dwells in him and doth the Works in him Joh. 14.10 And the Apostle teaches us that Christ is to be honoured to the Glory of the Father Phil. 2.11 All therefore that is meant and that appears can be meant by the Divinity of Christ or the Hypostatick Union is that the Divine Nature is so intimately united with the Soul of the Man Jesus Christ as the Human Soul is with the Body that the Divine Influence or Divine Indwelling in him and particularly the Divine Wisdom constantly illuminate conduct and assist Christ so as to enable him to represent God at the Head of the Universe to perform all the things necessary for such a Representative of God to do so that what belongs to God may be said to be Christ's all in kind tho' not all in all degrees who sees honours Christ may be said to see honour God what God doth at Christ's desire may be said to be done by Christ who procures it to be done by the God-head dwelling in him as a Human Soul simply and meerly by desiring procures of the Body with which she is united to do many Actions that she willeth that God has subjected to the Soul's Will and Power Holding then that some Texts of Scripture in some sense import the Supreme Divinity of Christ yet it can never be prov'd or with any colour of reason pretended that they necessarily imply any more than this For there are invincible Arguments against the being of more than one real Person in God by a Figure common in Scripture in all Languages Personal Acts may reasonably be attributed to Divine Wisdom or to a Divine Influence tho' it be not a distinct Person but a Property or an Act of the Father Even Charity is represented as a Person 1 Cor. 13.1 And God is said to send forth his Mercy Ps 57.3 Supposing then that by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel be meant the Divine Wisdom produc'd forth and shewn in the Old and New Creation as it is even interpreted in the Brief History in that case it must necessarily be suppos'd to be said by a Figure to be incarnate meaning that it rested upon in an extraordinary most ample manner or most intimately dwelt with and constantly assisted and illuminated the Man Jesus Christ as if it had become Part of him or were his own Soul Christ then the Son of God is a Divine Person in that he is a Man assisted and inhabited by a Divine Influence or Divine Virtue And holding that some Texts of Scripture assert the Supreme Divinity of the Holy Ghost it doth not follow that thereby is meant any thing else than the Divine Inspiration or an Influence of the Divine Power either Directing or Wonder-Working that is commonly annexed to
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
Psalms wrote from the beginning by the Brethren which speak of Christ as the Word of God and attribute to him Divinity Upon this Famous Passage these Remarks may be made 1. Whereas these Ancient rigid Vnitarians said that the Primitive Doctrin was adulterated in the Times of Victor their Meaning without doubt was not that before him there was never a Platonick Christian but only that the Platonick Christians then prevailed and grew violent and began to discountenance the Truth 2. All those Writers whom this Author or Answerer and Antagonist of the rigid Vnitarians mentions as the Ancientest Assertors of the Divinity of the Word after the Platonick System were except Justin but Contemporaries to Victor and Zepherin or after them As for those Hymns which he speaks of we shall see that no stress can be laid on them or that they conclude nothing against the Vnitarians Hereby then the Novelty of the Platonick Christianity appears seeing no vouchers for it can be produced before Justin Martyr and it is therefore evident that what the Vnitarians said could not be disproved that the Times of Victor and Zepherin were the Fatal Epoche of the violent Opposition and Oppression of Vnitarianism seeing that the Crowd of fierce Antagonists then began and it cannot be shewn that the Vnitarian Doctrin was before then persecuted and discountenanced or that it was not during all the first Century the current Doctrin of the generality of Christians 3. It is probable that some of the Writers whom that Author opposes to the Vnitarians were but of that Sentiment which was afterwards so unjustly condemned in Arius Why else had their Writings been suppressed by the Platonists Perhaps also by the Word and the Spirit they understood two Divine Powers or Influences which God communicates in divers manners and degrees It was easy for the philosophizing Doctors following Plato's Notions and accommodating them to the Expressions of Scripture by those two Powers or Influences to understand so many Persons or Hypostases and so to alter insensibly the Primitive Doctrin which if they had not done they would not have suppressed the Writings of their Predecessors but they judg'd that to be the only way effectually to compass their design 4. As to those Hymns or Psalms in question which he says spake of Christ as the Word of God and which attributed to him Divinity nothing can from thence be concluded against the Vnitarians for the following reasons First taking those terms in a right sense the Vnitarians will by no means deny that Christ is the Word of God and that Divinity may be attributed to him We have seen that very eminent Doctors among the Primitive Christians called the Angels Gods much more then might they give that Name to Christ It would indeed have been somthing to the purpose if that Author could have pleaded that those Psalms of which he speaks ascribed to Christ the same or an equal Divinity with that of the Father or expressed that he was absolutely Eternal and of himself Omniscient like the Father But merely in general their attributing Divinity to Christ decides nothing not only considering the improper way of speaking of those tho' so early Times after the Apostles but also considering that the Scripture gives the Name of God to some Creatures And in Ch. 5th we observed the Vnitarians ever thought it their Duty to Sing Hymns in Honour to Christ Howbeit Secondly that Author produces no grounds for the Authority of those Psalms which he mentions He only affirms that they were wrote from the beginning by the Brethren but that is precariously said without any Proofs If he had had any evidence for his assertion no doubt he would have offered it and would thereby if that could have done it have convinced or confounded the Vnitarians But surely it was not fit for them to take things upon trust Satan then chiefly made it his particular business by his Emissaries to bring in what confusion he could by forg'd Writings If those Psalms had not been spurious and counterfeit the Authors or Primitive Abettors of them had been named It is probable that these were the Psalms that were censured by the Church of Antioch as new and dangerous See Eusebius's Eccles Hist. L. 7. C. 29. 5. The Assertion of the Unitarians that Victor and Zepherin were the first Oppressors of Vnitarianism is undeniably confirm'd by this consideration that the Platonists before those Popes looked even on the most rigid sorts of Vnitarians as their Brethren suffered those among them and owned them as Christians who not only believed Christ not to have pre-existed before his Conception in his Mothers Womb but who also held that he was a mere Man begotten like other Men and that Joseph was truly his Father God as they thought having only removed for that once some Obstacles which hindred the Virgin from being a Mother Notwithstanding the reputed grosness of this Error we see that Justin Martyr the Patriarch of the Platonists acknowledges that it is not destructive of Christianity For he thus argues with Trypho the Jew If I do not demonstrate that Jesus did pre-exist and according to the Counsel of the Father endured to be Born a Man of like Affections with us being endued with Flesh it is just and fit to say that I am mistaken in this only and not to deny that he is the Christ if he appear to be a Man born of Men and to have become the Christ by Election For there are some of our kind who confess him to be the Christ yet hold him to be a Man born of Men. To whom I assent not no not tho' very many of the same Opinion with me should speak it c. Col. cum Tryphon Jud. P. 207. One may perceive how wary or artificial Justin here is in his Expressions as if most Christians in his time were already Platonists It is credible that they were not the greatest number who held that Jesus was Josephs Son 't is certain many of the Ebionites were of another Opinion Euseb L. 3. C. 24. most probably the generality of Christians believed like our Socinians and the rest of the present Christians that Christ had no other Father but God and if that was the Apostles Sentiment which Arius afterwards defended at least we may imagin that it did then still prevail with many But Justin as we have seen seems to have held somthing more than this tho' very different from the Nicene or Post-Nicene Platonists and it is not impossible not only that his Sentiment was confounded or generally taken for much the same with that which afterwards Arius was of the which it is credible was then in Justin's time the most current Standard of Orthodoxy but also that several others Platonized then like him a little above Arianism Nevertheless Justin dares not be too positive for his Opinion he proposes it only as probable and he insinuates that very many were not of his Sentiment which one would be