Vnitarians that there have been Vnitarians all along and that many of them were the most learned of their time Who for instance more learned than Theodotian Symmachus Paulus Samosatenus Lucianus and Origen Arius and Eusebius for these last as Arians or Semi-Arians may as well as the former be reck'ned Vnitarians Even from the 28th Chapter of the 5th Book of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History it appears that at least a great Number of the Primitive Bishops and Churches were Vnitarians Justin Martyr owns Vnitarians for his Christian Brethren Colloq cum Tryphon Jud. P. 207. But by a Quotation in the aforesaid Chapter of Eusebius it appears the Vnitarians pretended they were all along in the first Century the greatest Number and had the Succession of Bishops in their Sentiment in the most considerable Places even till Popes Victor and Zepherin at the end of the second Century which doth not seem to be there disproved as it might then have been if it had not been true Origen owns the Jewish Christians were generally Vnitarians Contr. Cels. L. 2. P. 56. It appears that Theodoret doth the same Haeret. Fab. L. 2. C. 3. For the Jewish Christians especially were call'd Nazarens as well as Ebionites as appears Acts 24 5. Epiphan Haeres Naz. C. 1 Augustin de Haeres C. 9 10. St. Jerom. Epist ad August Thus it is own'd the Ebionites and Nazarens were no contemptible Vnitarians and they were thus nick-nam'd first by the unbelieving Jews and in like manner probably by the Heathens and afterwards by the platonizing Christians A few years after the Council of Nice the greatest part of Christians were Vnitarians In fine there have always been some Unitarian Christians in Asia and there are many Churches of them to this day in the Dominions of the Pagan and Mahometan Princes and even in Muscovy as well as in Transilvania in Hungary Solavonia and Illyricum IV. It is certain that all the Doctors that in the greatest part of the second Century were proselyted from Heathenism and that became the great ring-leaders were wholly devoted to not to say infatuated with Plato's Philosophy Even the Popish Criticks complain of it Huet Origenian L. 2. C. 2. And even some of them do insinuate what indeed cannot be doubted of that upon that account the Writings of the Primitive Vnitarians were destroy'd by the Trinitarians Vales. in Euseb L. 5. C. 11. Now all the unscriptural Terms which are us'd concerning the Trinity and which have caus'd all the Division being found in the Platonick Philosophers and so many of the Primitive Christians being avowedly Platonists it cannot be question'd or wonder'd from whence those Terms were brought in or which way came the alteration of Doctrine V. It cannot be denied but that about and since the Council of Nice the greatest Violences have been constantly used to suppress the Vnitarians It is not strange therefore if they have been driven out of many Places where the Governours persisted to persecute them Thus Protestants have been extirpated out of Spain Bohemia and in a great measure out of France VI. It seems incontestable that the Primitive Trinitarians or those commonly held such differed from those of the Council of Nice and their Followers and that these as well as the former differ from the present Scholasticks For the present Scholasticks assert that there is but one Divine Spirit and that the Son and Holy Ghost are eternal and necessary Persons equal to the Father The Nicene in their Creed say that the Son is God of God which implies distinct God of distinct God or a distinct God which title they give not to the Spirit Gregory Nazianzen says that many good Catholicks in his time would have been scandalized if in the religious Assemblies the Holy Spirit had openly been said to be God Orat. 20. The Great St. Basil says that God is not one in Number but only in Nature horrid Polytheism perfect Heathenism and too palpable a Demonstration of the Mischief of Platonism and of the then prodigious Alteration of the true Doctrine and with the current of the Doctors of those times he represents the three Persons as being as distinct Beings as three Men 141 Epist ad Caesariens Irenaeus teaches that the Father is greater than the Son Advers Haeres L. 2. C 49 and that besides the Father and the Son no other is of his own Person Lord or God L. 3. C. 9. Justin Martyr who owns that he and at least many Christians in the second Century ador'd and worshipped the Prophetick Spirit and the Host of the other good Angels together with God and his Son Apol. 2. P. 43 affirms that the Son had not a necessary Being but was voluntarily begotten of the Father that he is inferiour to him ministring to the Will of the Father Ibid. P. 221. that the unbegotten God or the Father doth not descend or ascend from any place neither is moved seeing he cannot be contain'd in any place but that this might be said from the beginning of the World of the Son who sais he by the Father's Will is a God and in the beginning before the Creation of the World was generated of the Father Ibid. P. 221 and 280. Accordingly Tertullian holds that there was a time when the Son was not Advers Hermogen C. 3. The Council which magisterially condemned the Doctrine professed by Paulus Samosatenus and his Party at Antioch at the same time decred that the Son is not of the same Essence with the Father as is even noted by Dalaeus in his Treatise De usu Patrum Lib. 1. Cap. 5. Thus by these very instances it appears that the Trinitarians have so much varied that a constant Tradition cannot be pleaded For these several reasons it seems that too great a stress should not be laid on the pretended Ecclesiastical Antiquity of this Sentiment but on the contrary that the chiefest Inquiry should be What appears most decisive in Scripture and Reason concerning the Points themselves that are controverted and concerning which it seems that the least that can be granted is that with relation to them we should keep in Terms of Vnion to the Generality of the Terms of Scripture If that should prove a Mistake yet it is very fit that so important a Matter should be most carefully consider'd and debated that the Errour may be evinc'd and confuted by those that may have the opportunity to do it But if this be no Errour the not considering of it cannot but be most pernicious wherefore I cannot but wish this were communicated to several learned Men in order to their giving their Opinion and Reasons concerning these things It seems that for any thing that appears to the contrary by the Father the Word and the Spirit in understanding them of God we may understand what the Vnitarians then understand thereby Namely God and the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Power or Divine Inspiration and that our Prayers are to be addressed to
reasons usually alledged for that part of the Arian Sentiment it is credible was the first Creature and which was God insomuch as this Spirit not only was the First-born and Heir of all the Creation and was designed the Chief of all Creatures but also was so filled with the Divine Wisdom and assisted with the Divine Power that the Godhead was from the beginning as intimately united with this Holy Soul as possible which it was not with any other in which Sense among others as upon the account of his being the Creature the most like to God as also by reason of his singular partaking of the Divine Soveraignty and Authority this Word or Word bearer may be called God's only Son And as I take it there can be meant no more by the Hypostatick Union Now seeing the Arians hold that Christ was Instrumental in Creating or Ordering of the World and the Socinians say he is Deus factus insomuch that as both Parties own he can act in all things as God govern the World raise the Dead judge all Men and do whatsoever the Father can do they must necessarily be understood to suppose such a Communication as I have specified of the Divine Nature to the Spirit of Christ whereby the Fullness of the Godhead so dwells in and conducts and assists him and acts by him that what God doth is reckoned to be done by Christ being done by the Divine Vertue both dwelling in him and disposed of by him according to his Desire What Christ doth in the discharge of his Office may be imputed to God assisting him and dwelling in him In like manner what is most properly the Work of God may be ascribed to Christ procuring it to be done by his Application to the Godhead dwelling in him Considering then as exactly as I can what can be meant by the Hypostatical Union of the Divine with Christ's Human Nature tho' the term Hypostatick Union be not scriptural nor strictly proper it seems not impossible in a sufficient measure to come to a right understanding in that Matter seeing all Parties acknowledge and the Scripture teaches the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in the Man Christ Jesus so that he is assisted and conducted thereby as the Human Body is by the Human Soul and by that means Christ is in God and God in Christ who sees Christ sees God all that is God's is Christ's and he can do all that God doth and God is in him to receive our Homages thro his Mediation and when in that manner Christ is worshipped God who is thus intimately united to him is worshipped Christ incontestably being to be adored or reverenced according to his most high Station and Dignity to the Glory of the Father being enabled to be a fit Object of our Service or of our Submission as well as Veneration by the Divine Wisdom and Power inhabiting in him and by the Supream Authority and Honour which it has pleas'd God to communicate to him and invest him with appointing him to represent God and making him most intimately partaker of the Divine Nature so that in adoring Christ there is no Idolatry as in the Invocation of Saints who have received from God neither that Dignity nor Power that Christ has God having put his Name most eminently in him Yet the Nature of the Thing as well as the Practice of Scripture shews it is necessary we then should direct our Prayers and Worship ultimately to God in Christ when properly Religious Prayers and Divine Worship Thus Christ is the Man Jesus anointed with the Spirit or Inspiration and Power of God assisted and conducted by the Divine Wisdom and intimately united to the God-head and therefore in that sence he is truly said to be God which as far as I can understand as I said is all that can be meant by the Hypostatick Union and so at the bottom there need be no Difference about that Point but all Parties in this manner may agree about it tho' properly the Title Son or the Name Jesus Christ denotes the Man in whom the Godhead dwells and with whom the Godhead is as much united as possible as is observed by Grotius in his Annotations on Matth. 1 16 and Col. 1 16 tho the Man properly be not the Godhead it self no more than the Body is the Soul and tho this Man be properly God or a God in an inferiour sense in as much as as he represents God so he is the Soveraign of the Universe under God John 10 35 so that properly the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true God 1 Cor. 8 6. John 17 3. Ephes 4 6 and it is He who by his Divine Wisdom is said to dwell in our Saviour John 14 10. which In-dwelling therefore of the Godhead in the Man Jesus Christ I take to be what may be meant by the term the Hypostatick Union But after all the consideration I am capable of I cannot find that the term that there are three Persons in God can be in any measure justifiable For there is no reason why the Divine Wisdom and Power should be looked upon as distinct Persons from the Father the Father as we have seen being said to dwell thereby in Christ any more than there is that a Man's Reason and Will or that his right Hand and left Hand should be said to be distinct Persons from him A Person is something intelligent subsisting of it self But whatsoever is in God whether Wisdom or Power cannot subsist from or without the Divine Mind All things in God avowedly are inseparable from one another and therefore it must be owned no one of them distinctly can subsist of it self it being absolutely necessary for all of them to subsist together and in particular the Divine Power and Wisdom necessarily subsisting in the Divine Mind They are as in an Human Spirit Properties and Acts or Powers of the Mind and not Persons tho' Personal Acts may be ascribed to them by a Figure common in all Languages and particularly in the Stile of Scripture Prov. 20.1 Prov. 30 16. John 3 8. Prov. 9.1 Ps 119 24 A Single Personal Pronoun is always used in Scripture in speaking of God And therefore God is to be held one Person and not three Persons The Apostle St. Paul says that what may be known of God is discernible by the Light of Nature Rom. 1 19. But certainly the Light of Nature teaches not that God is three Persons but one who is All-wise and Powerfull A Divine Person must comprise all Divine Perfections For it must be All-Perfect otherwise it were not God so as to include as it is said each Person doth the whole Divine Nature and Essence For God is All-Perfect Now one such Person must be All-Sufficient Consequently others cannot be Necessary There cannot therefore be any other or any more than one Person in God For all that is in God is Necessary Moreover to suppose three All-Sufficient or All-Perfect
Secondly there is then truly no such great Difference between the Trinitarians and the Vnitarians but that the Terms of Church-Communion may and should thus be made so general as to comprehend them For the Vnitarians will unanimously acknowledge that there is in God a Divine Mind endued with Wisdom and Power that the Wisdom whereby the World was contrived and redeemed is communicated to our Saviour from the beginning as intimately as it is possible to be communicated tho' he receives larger influences of it especially since his Ascension and Exaltation Dr. Sherlock in his last Book intituled The Proofe of our Saviour's Divinity explain'd c. P. 211 owns this to be the whole meaning of what is call'd the Hypostatick Vnion or Incarnation of the Divinity with Christ's Human Nature that by this Divine Wisdom God dwells in Christ and is most intimately united with him that Christ is to be honoured as thus dignified that the Godhead which dwells in Christ is to be ador'd with supream Worship and that God has given to Christ the Disposition of the Divine Power and Inspiration at his Desire without measure or in the largest measure possible and necessary Grotius on John 3 34. Now as was said it seems this Divine Mind Wisdom and Power is all that the Trinitarians can mean by their term three Persons The Scripture as was observed has not that term three Persons in God And it is certainly sufficient to keep to the Scripture terms especially for a Means of Church Union On the other hand the Trinitarians generally own that one Divine Person and especially the Father comprehends the Godhead as the Divine Mind cannot but be considered as being joined with and inseparable from the whole Divine Nature as a Man's Head acting is the Man himself acting that therefore when God or the Father is worshipped the whole Godhead actually is thereby necessarily worshipped that the Man Christ is not so God as if the Manhood were changed into God or ceased to be a Creature that the Man Christ being still a Creature tho one as much dignified as possible is to be honoured in the manner that the Vnitarians hold as a Creature as highly dignified as possible and that Christ being to be honoured to the Glory of the Father all the Honour to be paid him is to tend ultimately to God even as the Vnitarians assert It seems that if these Considerations were sufficiently weighed even the Agreement between the Trinitarians and Vnitarians would appear to be so great as to justifie the Terms of Church-Communion pleaded for here as in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno But I appeal to God to testify it I desire above all things to be certainly informed and directed in the Truth and therefore if the Arguments and Reasonings either here or in that Book are in any measure defective and erroneous I do most heartily wish that it may be shewn in the Spirit of Christianity And if it may be shewn the Subject doth well deserve that pains and it is to be hoped some Men may be found to be employed in that Work But if the Notion of the Generality of Scripture in this most intricate and abstruse Subject be the true Standard of Vnion then as was said Publick Prayers shou'd be directed to the Father or God in general terms and we should have no other Creed but that of the Apostles The Vnitarian even the Socinian System seems sufficiently Orthodox and most Safe as I have represented it and there seems to be nothing decisively express in Scripture against it but many things seem very much to conduce to confirm Vnitarianism Moderation therefore seems here to be absolutely necessary And that 's all that is desired For then Christians would not judge one another any more nor set stumbling-blocks in one another's way And it seems this Moderation cannot here be reasonably denied For I cannot but repeat it the least that can be said is first on the one hand that this is a most difficult Matter and the human Decisions and uncertain and most probably unscriptural Determinations in Publick Injunctions may be most unjust dangerous and pernicious and secondly on the other that the Vnitarians honour the Man Jesus Christ and worship the Godhead dwelling in the Man Jesus Christ even as much as the Trinitarians can desire and no otherwise But by the Human Terms and Magisterial Determinations which both assert three Divine Persons and make the Equality of the Son and Spirit with the Father to be an indispensibly Necessary Point of Faith sincere and pious Souls for whom Christ died may be driven out of the Communion of the Church or destroy'd by Doubts and Fears and Scruples The Protestant Principles which imply that there is no living Magisterial Judge of Controversies and that all are to prove all things and judge for themselves seem to require a greater Moderation and Generality in Terms of Church Communion with respect to so very abstruse and intricate Matters I find that a mighty stress is laid on this consideration that in the second and third Centuries and almost ever since the greatest Number of Christians seem to have been of a like Sentiment with the present Trinitarians But it seems this Argument should not be thought absolutely infallible for these reasons which the Vnitarians alledge and which seem very considerable I. Men being apt to take wrong Measures and often too presumptuous might soon deviate from the truth as appear'd by experience when the Generation next after Joshua departed from the Law of Moses Judg. 2 10 11. All at once ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel irrecoverably revolted from the Institution of God 1 Kings 12 28 And at the same time as at other divers times all or the greatest part of their Brethren did evil likewise in the sight of the Lord 1 Kings 14 22. So fickle then and weak are Men that no stress is to be laid on their Practice but our recourse must be to the Law which is the Testimony Isa 8 20. Therefore the Unitarian Arguments and especially those taken from Scripture are still at this day to carry it if they be solid for there is no Prescription against the Truth II. A thousand years in the sight of God are as one Day 2 Petr. 3 8. And all Nations before him are as nothing Isa 40 17. Yet a remnant shall be sav'd Rom. 9 27. The little Flock need not fear Luk. 12 32. Tho reduced as low as in Elias his Days 1 Kings 19 10. The Gates of Hell the Strength of Death and the Grave or the Destruction of the Faithful shall not finally so prevail as wholly and for ever to extirpate the Necessary Truth off of the face of the Earth Matth. 16 18. Therefore a time may yet com when the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Isa 11 9. III. It appears that from the beginning there were great Numbers of