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.
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
probably Ireneus was an Arian or at most a Semi-Arian What Grotius says of the Occasion of St. John's writting this Gospel may be seen in his Annotations The Vnitarians consistently to their System may hold all that he there says of the Word Verse 15. John the Baptist bare witness of him saying This is he of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he is before me As if the Baptist had said Tho' then this Man as it is at the 30th Verse that cometh after me enters upon his Office but when I have almost done mine yet he is called to an Higher Office and Dignity than mine for he is my Superior my Lord and my Prince he is the Messiah the Saviour of the World a most Holy Man the Son of God the designed Sovereign of the Universe and I am but his Servant and Harbinger Whereas the Vulgate has translated This WAS he of whom I spake Beza shews there is no reason but that it may be rendred This IS he In like manner we need not read he WAS before me but he IS Thus it runs more naturally This is he of whom I spake or said He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he is before me Is preferred before me That is then is preferred to an Higher Office and Dignity than mine Which saying the Baptist explains tho' somewhat obscurely as are expressed all the like Mysteries on the infallible understanding of which most credibly Salvation depends not and which seem intended to try our Humility and Moderation as well as our Attention and Industry by adding For he is before me Before me Or as it is in the Original Protos mou Princeps meus My Primate the designed Head and Saviour of the Church and Lord of Men and Angels And this explains and particularizes or intimates how Christ's Office is greater than that of the Baptist's See Erasmus and Grotius upon the Place Verse 18. Which is in the Bosom of the Father Or which WAS or has been namely when immediately before his entering on his Office Christ was taken up into the Highest Heavens See John 3.13 Sometimes that Phrase to be in the bosom signifies to be most Dear See Numb 11.12 Deut. 13.6 By these remarks and hypotheses the Socinians conceive the beginning of St. John's Gospel is made plain and intelligible And they believe that by the same means by using the like care and attention all the other Texts which the Trinitarians object may also be made to appear consistent with the Unity of God with the whole Scripture and with Reason CHAP. IV. The ARIAN System THE Arians do not much dislike the foregoing Exposition excepting that they are persuaded it is short as to these Particulars in that the Socinians do not hold our Saviour's Soul to have prae-existed before its Conception and consequently do not admit it to have been an Instrument in the first Creation of the World But the Arians maintain both these Points It is true say they the Word the Son of God by excellency is a Creature tho' most intimately assisted of God which the Socinians do not deny Christ is a true Man made up of a Body and Soul only and not of an absolutely eternal Hypostasis also or infinite Person of the same numerical Essence with the Father But then say they this Man's Soul was not only before Abraham but even was the first Created Spirit John 17.5 For so the Scripture calls him expresly the First-born of every Creature or the Beginning of the Creation of God and terms him by eminency the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 Revel 3.14 c. Moreover it is asserted that by him God made the Worlds Heb. 1.2 And St. John says positively that without him was not any thing made that was made John 1.3 Which expressions seem too extensive to be restrained to the New-Creation only All things then were made by him And therefore the First-born of every Creature must be so transcendently Excellent as incomparably farther to surpass originally all Men and Angels in Excellency of Nature Wisdom and Power than they surpass the meanest of the Brute Beasts In a word the Arians believe that that Holy Spirit whom the Scripture calls the First-Born and who in process of time was made the Soul of the Messiah is originally as Perfect a Being and as like unto God as Divine and Almighty Power could produce and as can possibly be imagined salving the Unity of God seeing it is said he had a Part in the Creation of the World in which God most efficaciously assisted him and it is represented as the highest Liberality to Mankind that God gave his Son to Redeem Men. The Arians then say that the First-Bern is Omâ—â—â—ousian or as like the Divine Essence beside that he is as much assisted by the Divine Nature as it is possible for a Creature to be And they believe he was produced in the Duration of Eternity and before Time that is to say before the Creation of the World And in that sense like the Semi-Arians they will not scruple to say that the First-born is Eternal so it be remembred that he was made and that he is not an uncreated Being it being impossible there should be two uncreated Beings or two Gods in the proper sense of the word But the First-born is a God next to God and as Eternal as it is possible for the Excellentest Creature to be If it be asked how the First-born could be Instrumental in the making of Angels 〈◊〉 may be answered that a Part might be assigned to him therein that we know not 〈…〉 has been held by many that the Souls of Men are produced by the Parents Iâ— so it cannot be thought impossible but that God might have endued the most excellent created Spirit with Power to Produce other Spirits But perhaps Angels have fine Vehicles which are Part of their Being as a Human Body is Part of a Man And then the First-born might be assisting in the preparing of these Vehicles when God had Created the Substance thereof When the First-born was created then was also another eminent Spirit or other eminent Spirits according to some Modern Arians produced but inferior to him and called in Scripture the Holy Spirit Thus far the Arians hold It may be that by this or these last not only an Archangel or the Archangels 1. Tim. 5.21 but the whole Body of Angels is to be understood for they often seem to be meant when the Scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit And if so they also were instrumental in the Creation of the World as well as the First-born tho' not so eminently as he but under him Which doth not import that the Angels or the First-born produced Creatures into being out of Nothing But the Chaos being created or prepared by Almighty God then for reasons not perfectly known to us God thought good to set the First born and the Holy
apt to think implies that most Christians differed from him or that he somewhat differed from them for it seems he speaks like one whose Party is not most prevailing We may refer it to the present Trinitarians whether they do talk at that rate He owns not merely the Arians but the very Mineans for his Fellow Christians And indeed he doth like those who complain that their Sentiment is not generally followed he appeals to the Rule To whom says he I assent not tho' very many should speak it for we are commanded by Christ himself not to hearken to the Doctrines of Men but to such things as are taught by the Sacred Writers Yet as I have said probably there were still many Arians and I do also believe several others besides Justin probably began then with him to Platonize but it is not doubted but that he was the highest Christian Platonist of that time if he went beyond Arianism which even some take to be Platonism and the top of it but that is commonly rejected as undervaluing the Platonick Mysteries Howbeit there is not the least appearance that any Platonick Christians went then any further than what we call Semi-Arianism It cannot be but that the Vnitarians knew and own'd that Justin and some others then were of that Opinion if it was indeed so And truly it matters not how many then sided therein with Justin For howsoever that be it suffices us that the strictest Vnitarianism was not then condemned as intolerable in the Church or as inconsistent with Christianity And that appears incontestably from Justin's Words Therefore the Vnitarians might well say that the Truth was not yet publickly adulterated in that it was not yet magisterially condemned which we do not see it was before the prevailing and violent Semi-Arian Popes Victor and Zepherin according to the Plea of the Vnitarians And indeed they might have added that the Semi-Arians themselves were but a kind of Vnitarians All the Authority then in fine that remains for our Author to have recourse to is that of the Holy Scripture And there the Vnitarians are ready to join issue with him as shall be shewn It were now needless to add any thing more to what has here been said to shew that the generality of the Ante-nicene Writers as much as may be gathered by the Writings of them that have been thought fit to be preserved or that have been permitted to come to our hands were at most but Semi-Arians if not Arians or stricter Vnitarians as incontestably many of them were Eusebius himself will generally pass for a kind of Vnitarian whatever be said or pretended to the contrary If the Reader desires to see further Proofs of these Points I refer him to Gilbert Clerk's Ante-Nicenismus and the two other Tracts annexed to it But this truth is so notorious that it even forces an acknowledgement from the generality of the learnedest Trinitarian Criticks such as Erasmus Dalaeus Petavius Huetius c. These Learned Men manifestly shew that Arius was not the Author of the Sentiment which he defended against Alexander and his Party at the Council of Nice but that it was much the same or exactly the same with what the generality of the Ante-nicene Doctors had taught See for instance what Sandius in his Nucleus or Hist Eccl. enucleata quotes on that Subject out of Petavius the Place may be found in looking Petavius in the Index So that it is certainly a true remark that when Alexander and some of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Doctors call Arianism an unheard of or new Doctrin they speak it oratorio more et per exaggerationem as Petavius expresses it that is by way of exaggeration and after the manner of Orators whose Figures by being too lofty somtimes decline from the Truth We have seen in our 6th Chapter by a Quotation of Dalaeus out of St. Jerom that the good Fathers who are so much admir'd and whom some would take for their Rule were not wholly exempt from such Figures And therefore that they might call Arianism a new and strange Doctrin it was enough that themselves and some of their Party had been taught Semi-Arianism or one Step farther by their Platonick Tutors It appears then that if we will follow in this Matter Vincentius Lirinensis his Rule we must be content to stick to the Generality of the Apostles Creed For besides the Generality of the Scripture it self the Apostles Creed which incontestably was given for the Rule of Vnion as well as for the Summary of Religion which every one is oblig'd to endeavour to understand aright to the best of his Power as he shall answer it to God is as to these Matters the only Standard which all Christians have always agreed in As Bishop Taylor observes in his 2d Sermon on Tit. 2.7 The Catholick Church has been too much and too soon divided Yet in things simply Necessary God has preserved us still unbroken For all Nations and all Ages have received the Apostles Creed All Christian People then in all Ages having only agreed as I said in the Generality or the Expressions themselves of the Apostles Creed that must needs therefore be sufficient if God has preserv'd us unbroken in things simply Necessary or if nothing is to be judg'd absolutely Necessary but what all have always agreed in Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus Is it not indeed sufficient to the great Purposes of Christian Religion to know concerning God that He is All-Wise All-Just All Good Almighty to know that Christ is his Son and the H. Ghost his Spirit by way of eminency and to know that Christ died to Redeem us and turn us away from our Sins that it is the H. Spirit of God that Suggests good Motions to us that all those Societies where the Institutions of Christ are observ'd and celebrated and where the pure Word of God is Preach'd are true Parts of the Vniversal Church that we shall all Rise from the Dead and that God will reward all Men according to their Works Is not this to know God and Christ And have all Christians always agreed in the Super-induced Platonism Even Monsieur Jurien owns and indeed who can deny it that will deal sincerely and has inquir'd into the Matter that the Ante-nicene Fathers held not the Son 's Eternal Personality nor his Equality to the Father Lettr. Pastor Vol. 3. Let. 6. After-Ages then which broached these Tenets can no more plead Tradition than they can reasonably be suppos'd to have infallibly mended the Primitive Faith And this leads us to the next thing to be spoken to CHAP. VIII The Conclusion of the Answer to the First Objection 1. THE prevailing Sentiment of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Doctors is of no weight against the Vnitarians And that particularly for these Reasons 1. The Men that followed the Sentiment then prevailing differed from the Doctrin even of the foregoing Platonists as well as the rigid Vnitarians as appears
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
the Ephesians is that as we would stand in aw before the King of Kings so in proportion of the Subordination Servants ought to demean themselves before their Masters The Sense of the Text of the 5th of St. Mathew is that as God is truly perfect so we ought effectually to strive to be perfect with that Perfection which our Natures are capable of And in like manner the Sense of the 23d Vers of the 5th of St. John is that as we honour God we must also honour his Deputy Vicegerent tho' nevertheless the one as properly God's Chief Minister as was said the other as expresly the Almighty himself The Kings of England may use the same Phrase to declare it their Will Pleasure That the Subjects in Ireland should honour the Viceroy even as they honour the King But that doth not imply that the one must absolutely be taken for the other consequently that is not to give the Supreme Royal Glory itself to the Viceroy no more than to honour Christ is to give expresly God's Supreme Glory to Another as the Arians do well observe besides that the Saying that God will not give his Glory to Another may signify that He will not give it to be dispos'd of that He will not give the disposition of it to Another or that He will not give to Another that Glory which is peculiar to Him of disposing of religious Honour and appointing Rites of Religion or that He will not give or impart a Sublime Heavenly Honour to Strangers or Aliens from Him neither will give his Praise to Idols that is He will not patiently suffer or allow that Men should make to themselves Objects of Religious Service at their Pleasure like the Heathens that the Religious Worship which is properly ultimately due to Him should be paid to Unfit Beings to Stocks Stones or to Daemons which are not truly in any holy scriptural sense Gods being neither the Supreme God nor Soveraign Officers of God commissionated with Power Authority thus to act for God so as most eminently to represent god and so to receive a Suitable Honour appointed to terminate ultimately to God So that God then doth not give properly the Religious Honour to Another tho' He commands us to bow the Knee to the Man Jesus Christ as we do to God If He pleased He might set Angels over Us or any Good Spirits and command Us to bow to them and ask and receive Graces of them tho' his Holy Nature cannot permit him to give any such Glory to his Enemies or ever to allow that Impure Spirits be sought to and reverenced That could not redound to God's Glory or the Good of his Creatures whereas the other might See a Passage of St. Gregory's quoted in the 1st Part of Bishop Taylor 's Sermon on Ps 86.5 where St. Gregery observes that Angels were Worshipped under the Old Testament But if so yet to be sure not only that was not a Divine Worship but even that Worship so far as it extended was for the sake of and terminated to God whose Immediate and Highest Officers and Messengers the Angels then appeared to be and so that hindred not but it might truly be said that God alone was properly Worshipped The Text Gal. 4.8 which we translate doing Service to them which By Nature are no Gods may be translated doing Service to them which TRUELY are no Gods yet it is the same if we read Of their Nature whether Supreme according to the proper and eminent sense of the word or Inferiour of God's creating and constituting according to the Scripture-Stile See Grotius on the Place Certainly we are expresly Commanded in Scripture to Serve the Man Jesus Christ Phil. 2.9 Yet incontestably the Man Jesus Christ properly is a God but in an inferiour sense We are then without doubt to serve the Man Jesus Christ as such a God appointed and dignified by the Supreme and Eternal God Act. 2.36 and we are to serve the Supreme God as absolutely being the Supreme God or as Him who is of himself God and who consequently is God in the most proper and eminent sense of that word Howbeit this doth not imply that Christ is not as intimately united with the Divine Nature as possible For all Power is given him in Heaven and Earth and acting for God in the highest Post he represents God at the Helm of the Universe But a Creature cannot thus represent God and govern the World and have all Power given it except God be with it and assist and direct it so as that that Creature have the enjoyment and disposition of the Divine Nature as of it's own Being whereby it's Power and Understanding being enlarged it may in a high measure Know and Act as God And accordingly as Sandius observes the Vnitarians held from the Beginning of Christianity that an Influence of the Divine Nature was incarnated in and most strictly united with the Man Christ Jesus So that Christ is not Worshipped neither is God's Representative or the Father's Universal Vicegerent merely as he is a Creature A mere Creature cannot comprehend in it's Thoughts and under it's Care the whole Universe and can never be such a Representative of the Father 's at the Helm of the Universal Government Nor can a mere Creature be Worshipped by all the Creatures in the Universe as Christ by God's Appointment is to be It seems God neither can nor will be thus represented by any Creature as a Creature Christ then is God's Representative and is Worshipped in his Mediatory Kingdom over the whole Universe Inasmuch as an Influence of the Divine Nature most intimately Dwells in him Assists and Directs him and Worketh in and by him and Inasmuch as the Divine Majesty is Conspicuous in him and As by his Intercession and by the Merit of his Death and the Vertue of the Covenant of Grace and of his Union with God and his Exaltation he Disposes of the Divine Power in the Gospel-Oeconomy A mere Creature may have a vast Honor and Power but not like that which appears in Christ in his Government of the Universe Whereas God has given us two Eyes whereby we may perceive three or four Objects at a time at a certain distance and two Ears which may imperfectly discern some few several Sounds also at the same time as the Sounds of certain several Voices and of some Instruments and two Hands by which we may take hold of several Particies of Matter and strike ten Strings at a time and move a certain Mass and steer a Ship and but a narrow Understanding according to the present Needs and the Capacity of our bodily Organs God might give a freer Carrier to our Spirits and endue us with more noble and vaster Capaeities and give us two hundred or two hundred thousand Hands and Ears and Eyes and enable our Souls to use them all fitly in reference to so many several Objects in the same instant
rendered determined may be translated judged or condemned and so Erasmus has interpreted it as if St. Paul had said to declare that actually he did not rely on the force of Eloquence but on the Power it self of the Gospel which he knew was attended with sufficient Evidences without setting it forth with the Ornaments and Advantages of an Elaborate Oration as he might have done which declaration is incontestably the scope and whole intent of the Apostle's reasoning I have condemned my self to be among you or I have judged it fittest to be among you as knowing nothing but Christ Crucified lest the Testimony of the Cross and Sufferings of Christ and the Demonstration of the Spirit should be thought insufficient Evidences therefore when I came unto you I came not with excellency of Speech but barely contented my self most simply to set before you the Testimony of God The current of the Discourse shews that St. Paul did not deny his knowing any thing besides Christianity but only asserted that he judged a Demonstration of all his other Learning unnecessary in comparison of that and in order to the end which he proposed to himself namely the Conversion of the Corinthians wherefore according to our Version he determined to be or determined to appear as knowing nothing else but Christ Crucified and wholly neglected to make a shew of his Eloquence It is undeniably evident that this is his meaning But it is as evident that there is no such restriction in our Saviour's expression and that he fimply denies his knowing at all the Day of Judgment and expresly asserts that none but the Father knew it This Argument it seems therefore will remain to the end of the World such a one as the Dr. desired a positive Proof that Christ properly is not God Almighty himself And the Vnitarians hold that to deny it is to fly wilfully in the face of Evidence For as to the Knowledge of that Day the Son puts himself into the same rank with the Angels and all other Creatures and says that he knows it no more than they which is as express a denial of his knowing it as it is possible to be To this Head and for a further Illustration of this Argument we may add the Saying in the first Verse of the first Chapter of the Revelations that God gave that Revelation to Jesus Christ For by those words it appears that Jesus Christ had not that Revelation of himself and consequently that Jesus Christ is not the Supreme God tho' yet he be God or a God and God's Representative in whom the Father in an extraordinary manner dwells as was said If that Person designed or signified in Scripture by the Name of Jesus Christ were literally the Supreme God that Verse would bear this Sense that the Supreme God gave to another Person who is also the Supreme God a Revelation which he had not till then that it was given him otherwise if he had it before it needed not to have been given him On the other hand if he had it not 't is plain this is an indigent God not the same with the Giver and consequently not the Supreme God To this some answer that this Person received the whole Godhead from all eternity from the Father and therefore whatever he enjoys at any time or whatever knowledg he has he may be said to receive it from God there by God meaning the Father But we reply this visibly is precariously said For if from all eternity Christ had all knowledg from the Father what occasion was there for taking notice here that he had this particular knowledg from God There appears not to be here any particular reason for it Therefore the last refuge is in the distinction of the two Natures And so either the Meaning is that the Father gave that Revelation to the Man Christ But then we reply that was not necessary if another All-knowing Person was hypostatically-united with that Man Or else it only remains the Meaning must be supposed to be that the Second Person of the Trinity gave that Revelation to the Man Jesus Christ To this we reply The Name Jesus Christ denotes the whole Person and according to the Trinitarians that Person implies the Supreme God as well as the most highly dignified Creature and therefore God then could not be said simply or in general terms to give any thing to Jesus Christ III. The Vnitarians do very much wonder that any one who has read the Scripture should ask for a Text where it is taught that Christ is not literally the Almighty God himself seeing that in Two Hundred and Seventy Three distinct Passages of the New Testament Christ is expresly distinguished from God Whence rationally we ought to infer that Christ is not literally and expresly that God from whom he is distinguished and that therfore when he is called God it must be understood in an infeferior Sense according to the Significations we have mentioned in which that Title is used As in a Country as it is in France where the King 's Eldest Son when he is spoken of either singly or together with other Princes or Lords is by way of eminency called My Lord it is obvious that then another Lord who is also tho' in an inferior sense called My Lord but not simply or as by a distinguishing character but as by a common title to which is and must be added something to notify the Person spoken of or who at least is never simply stiled My Lord when spoken of together with the King 's Eldest Son being thus distinguished from My Lord or from Him that is called My Lord simply and by way of eminency then I say the other Lord is thereby declared not to be that My Lord himself the King's Heir but an inferior Lord. What the Trinitarians then here say that the Title of God tho' most particularly and eminently appropriated to the Father as it is in Scripture does not exclude other Persons thus expresly distinguished from him from being the same God not only is a mere begging of the question and is without grounds but is expresly contrary to all reason That Subtersuge therefore of the Trinitarians is wholly vain And indeed did St. Peter suppose that Cornelius knew of the Evasion of the Trinitarians when preaching the Gospel to him he distinguished in the current of his Discourse Christ from God Acts 10.36 IV. At the 19th Verse of the 5th of St. John our Saviour himself tells us that the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do Now in good truth could one that were literally the Almighty God say this concerning himself Can the Almighty and All-Wise God be supposed able to do nothing but what he must be taught how to do it Surely it were a monstrous Supposition to reckon He needed to be taught any thing Whereas if God's Only-Begotten Son be not properly God Almighty himself but the Word Incarnate according
Egypt and he swore to him that he should be the Disposer of War and Peace and that all things should be managed according to his Desire and by his Laws and his Orders Genes 41.40 c. This first Inference then is incontestable That Men may be Vnitarians and be very pious and sincerely inquisitive If any body will deny it let him shew that the Vnitarian Arguments are frivolous contemptible and insignificant Till then We shall be obliged to hold that Vnitarians are accopted of God This is one of those four things which seem to be the least that can be granted and concluded from the Vnitarian Arguments The Second Inference which with the two other is of the like nature with this is now to be considered and is to this effect II. That in our Terms of Church-Communion with relation to this most abstruse and intricate Subject We ought to keep exactly to the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture and not to make beyond it any Publick Determinations and Impositions which would drive away the Vnitarians out of our Communion This necessarily follows from the first Inference particularly considering the Nature of the Gospel Terms of Communion If the Vnitarian Sentiment has so very considerable and weighty Arguments that pious and inquisitive Men may sincerely and without any crime on their part take it to be the true Meaning of Scripture We cannot Magisterially determine that Controversy to the Scholastick and Anti-Vnitarian Sense by any Human and Unscriptural Impositions without rejecting out of our Communion those whom God receives In doing which we manifestly transgress the express Injunction of the Apostle's Rom. 14 1 not to reject those who may be accounted to be weak in the Faith in such a case that notwithstanding their suppos'd weakness and error it appears they may still be acceptable to God Indeed the Apostle wills not that such be admitted expresly to dispute in the Church about doubtful Matters howbeit 't is evident on the other hand what he enjoyns can imply no less than this that the Terms of Church-Communion be regulated in that Generality that no Publick Determinations and Impositions be made as would drive away those who may be accounted to be weak in the Faith in such a case as this Otherwise how can We be said to receive them The Apostle therefore thus argues at the 4th Verse of this Chapter Who art thou that judgest another Man's Servant To his own Master he standeth or falleth yea he shall be holden up And at the 13th Verse he concludes the Argument in these words Let us not then judge one another any more but judge this rather that no Man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way See Bishop Wilkin's two Sermons on Rom. 17.17 18. These are manifestly and incontestably the Gospel-Terms of Church-Vnion and this is all that I plead for and no Protestant can with any colour of reason refuse these Terms consistently to the Principles of the Reformation According to these Principles what Right had Athanasius or the Nicene to make and impose New Creeds to judge Magisterially for all the Members of the Church to determine Magisterially the Generality of Scripture to straiten the Terms of Communion in Matters at least most abstruse and intricate and thus to break the Church's Union in pieces We hold that the Scripture is a perfect and sufficient Rule that there is no living publick magisterial Judge of Controversies that the Church-Governors are not to exercise dominion over the Faith of their People that they are not infallible that every one is bound to examine and is to be allowed the Judgment of discerning See Bishop Wilkins's aforequoted Sermons Now what follows from these and the like Principles but that in most abstruse and intricate Matters We must not make publick Determinations and Impositions but must then strictly keep to the Generality of the Terms of Scripture as is shewn in the First and Second Chapters of the Apologia pro Irenico Magno Otherwise it is most palpably evident We expresly contradict our own Principles We allow not to the Church-Members the liberty to judge for themselves We reckon not the Expressions and Generality of Scripture to be a sufficient Rule of Union but imagin We can devise one better and fitter We act as if We were infallible and were the Magisterial Judges of Controversies and not contenting our selves with the Terms of Scripture for Terms of Union nor being content to set the Truth on its own Bottom We run the hazard since We may err of fighting effectually and criminally against God in crushing the Truth in eternizing Error in taking away the Key of Knowledge and at least in oppressing the Consciences of those whom God accepts and in being the Cause of endless Schisms and Divisions It follows then according to the 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. 2 Cor. 1.24 1 Thess 5.21 1 Cor. 10.15 Rom. 14.1 and 13. Phil. 3.15 16. c. and consistently to the 6th Article of the Church of England and to all the abovesaid Principles of Protestants That in our Terms of Church-Communion with relation to the Vnitarian Controversy We ought to keep exactly to the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture and not to make beyond it any Publick Determinations and Impositions which would drive away the Vnitarians out of our Communion Hence therefore We must necessarily infer III. That First in the Publick Service We ought to address the Current of our Prayers directly as well as ultimately to God in general in the Name and thro' the Mediation of Christ in the conclusion of them besecching 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 or Mediatory Governor Soveraign in whom the Fulness of the Godhead so dwells as abundantly constantly to assist him in the Discharge of his Mediatory Office whereby he both acts for God and represents God and is in some sense God Secondly in our Publick Service likewise and the Terms of Church-Vnion 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 For if We do not take these Measures or do not follow this Method if we do not stick to this Generality in all Terms and Acts of Church-Union and do not content our selves with a general Profession that Christ is God and with the Scriptural-Terms and Expressions we both act rashly and unjustly in a most intricate Matter and We drive away the Vnitarians out of our Communion not receiving them without they think in these difficult Points exactly as we do and submit
imply an Influence of the Divine Virtue yet God the Holy Ghost and the Inspiration a Divine Person certainly are not Scriptural Terms And the Vnitarians generally believe that in such intricate Matters and particularly concerning the Object of Worship and the making Something distinctly an Object of Worship We must not go beyond express Injunctions According to Scripture they worship Christ to the Glory of the Father as was said And in particular they ultimately worship the Father for his giving the Divine Inspiration The Governors of the Church are humbly desir'd to give Publickly their Opinion of these the like aforementioned Reasons this undoubtedly being a Subject that deserves all the illustration that according to the Obligations of Christian Charity they can give to it Tho' all that is possible ought to be done for Peace-sake yet on the other hand nothing ought to be done against Conscience and tho' some of the Vnitarians might condescend to most of the Scholastick Trinitarian Expressions yet they cannot generally approve them III. What is inferr'd from the Vnitarian Arguments remains in force so that it is an indispensible Duty to profess and establish the Gospel-Terms of Communion and to keep to the seeming and most manifest and apparent Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church-Vnion tho' the Trinitarians and some Vnitarians should opine that the Vnitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with the Trinitarians and even tho' there were in God what might truly be call'd three Persons For 1. If there be Somewhats in God that may be call'd three Persons which yet indeed seems absolutely both impossible in it self and not expresly implied in Scripture but contrary to many Texts yet not only that Doctrine seems absolutely unintelligible but certainly it is most obscurely revealed and but drawn from most intricate and uncertain Deductions and on the other hand the Vnitarian Arguments against the calling any thing in God three Persons are incontestably such that Men may be sincerely inquisitive and really think them to be solid Upon such most abstruse Difficulties We ought not to act rashly and condemn or reject sincere and inquisitive Persons God cannot be supposed indispensibly to require of every one to believe explicitely what he has left so difficult and obscure nor consequently to have allow'd any one to determine this Point Magisterially so as to make the Determination of it a necessary Term of Church-Communion Then it follows it is God's Will that as has been said in Terms and Acts of Church Union we should content our selves with the Expressions and Generality of Scripture And so the Human Imposition of the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds and of Publickly Praying to the Holy Ghost and in Publick Assemblies and Church-Service using the term three Persons is a piece of Presumption and Spiritual Tyranny and Oppression The Scripture says not expresly that the Son and Spirit are equal to the Father c. 2. The Generality of the Scripture-Terms as was shewn is undoubtedly sufficient For tho' God might be said to be three Persons yet not only it cannot be thought as has been remarked that under the benign Oeconomy of the Gospel God has made that indispensibly Necessary which at least seems so intricate and obscure and about which sincere and inquisitive Persons may mistake but besides as was also before observ'd when God is worshipped is not all ador'd that is the Object of Divine Worship The Trinitarians own that the unscriptural term Persons is us'd so improperly of God that what is meant thereby is most unaccountable perfectly incomprehensible Now that is an invincible Argument that that term is not necessary The Vnitarians do not deny the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature Supposing then that by the Divine Word and Spirit be meant Somewhats more then Wisdom and Inspiration as the Vnitarians who are not for determining in such obscure Matters will not contradict but that it may be so yet seeing that that whatever it be is absolutely unknown unintelligible it concerns Us not to ascribe Names to it cannot be indeed the Subject of our disquisition Howbeit at least we should take care not to advance any thing concerning these Matters that appears inconsistent with any Text but should rather stick to that which is safe and sufficient And it is certain the Scripture no where says we should Pray to the Holy Spirit in particular and it expresly sets forth Christ as the Mediator betwixt God and Men so that it is incontestably sufficient to come to God thro' the Mediation of Christ and to honour Christ as the Mediatory King under God tho' united to God as intimately as possible as was said For tho' all things are subjected to Christ yet it is to the Glory of God the Father and to the end that God may be most glorified and may most universally and illustriously reign in and by and thro' Christ So that in making Christ the King of Kings or the Universal King under God and the Head of the Church God did not abdicate the Government or divest himself of his Majesty but still remained ever the Most Supreme and reserved to himself to direct Christ and to favour his Intercession and to receive thro' him the Homages of Men Christ doing all in the Name of God And accordingly the Apostles directed their Prayers to God Acts 4 24 c. and commanded the Faithful to address themselves to him Phil. 4 6 thro' Jesus Christ as it is in the following Verse Phil. 4 7 that in his Name and thro' his Mediation they might obtain their Requests of the Father according to Christ's Promise John 14 13 John 16 23 that what they should pray for to the Father in his Name he would second by his Intercession so would do it for them that the Father might be glorified in the Son For our Saviour says expresly in John 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name He will give it you 3. The Arguments for the Scripture-Terms of Church Vnion with respect to such most intricate and abstruse Matters as the Platonick or Scholastick Speculations concerning the Doctrin of the Holy Trinity are evermore solid and invincible and as was observed a contrary Method is wholly inconsistent with the Principles of Protestants which import That the Scripture is a sufficient and the only Rule That there is no living Magisterial Judge of Controversies That Particular Christians are in such a case to examin and judge for themselves c. 4. Many sincere and inquisitive Persons may scruple other Terms than these which are incontestably good sufficient and the only warrantable ones for Terms of Church-Communion in such abstruse and intricate Matters And as was shewn it is certain the term three Persons is unscriptural and consequently cannot be absolutely necessary Wherefore surely Christian Charity obliges us not to hazard unnecessarily in such difficult Matters the Destruction of those Souls for which
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
of him that is spoken to and so a Supreme or Eternal and Infinite God has a God that is his Superior or which implies the same thing has a God that is his God and that confers Honours and Benefits upon him which is an Absurdity no less than that of supposing two absolutely Supreme or Essential Gods Besides a God in the most eminent Sense of the word cannot be said to be anointed For either his Deity is not true or not truely perfect in it self and so not absolutely divine or else it is all-sufficient and can need no anointing Even a Man Personally-United with God if that were possible cannot be supposed to be anointed with the Assisting Spirit seeing he cannot need it for such a Person must needs have in himself all that is Great and Necessary Howbeit it is the God that is here spoken to Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever c. And God in fine has no Fellows Nor even has a God-Man Fellows except there be more God-Men as there were more Kings Sons besides Solomon For all these reasons therefore those words of this Psalm cannot be understood as the Adversaries of the Vnitarians would understand them and it doth then appear that another is called God besides the Supreme God And so it is to no purpose here to Object that we do not read of any Children by Pharaoh's Daughter and that the Kingdom was not of long continuance in Solomon's Family as we suppose is here promised First these might be the Psalmists Wishes which were very natural on that Occasion and seemed requisite ex Epithalamii lege says Rivetus But besides that there are frequently in Scripture Conditional Promises even when the Condition is but Tacitely understood and not expressed And thus it might be promised to Solomon that his Throne would be for ever or that the Kingdom would be of a very long Continuance in his Family in Case he and his Children remained true to their Duty Ps 132.13 In like manner Pharaohs Daughter might here be promised many Children who would have been accounted Great Lords and Princes in all the Land of Judea and in all the Coasts of Israel And the Reason why that Promise took no effect might be because she revolted to the Idolatry which undoubtedly she had abjured at her Marriage At the 10th and 11th Verses the Psalmist addresses himself thus to the Queen Hearken O Daughter forget thine own People and thy Fathers House so shall the King greatly desire thy Beauty Doth not this Exhortation appear very Suitable to a Princess come out of an Idolatrous Family And at the same time doth it not hereby appear that She is Married to a Prince in whose Country Idolatry was not the National Religion What Country that was is evident And it is added in the following Verse that the City of Tyre famous for her Rich Trading would bring Presents to the Queen Which Suits well with Solomens prosperous Reign It must then be Unreasonable to suppose that this Psalm has not a literal Sense or that that is not the literal Sense thereof which so well Suits with it and which as was observed has always been reputed to be its primary meaning by the Generality of the best and most learned Interpreters in all Parties There is therefore visibly all the Reason in the World to believe that it is Solomon that is here called God And why should any tho' but the least number among the Trinitarians be so averse to own it or what need is there to be at so much pains to put that matter out of doubt Are not Great Men in other Places of Scripture said to be Gods I have said ye are Gods Ps 82.6 Ps 138.1 and 4. c. Why then should not Solomon here be called God that is a Sovereign Prince acting for God by Gods express Commission to that purpose and so in some measure or in some respects representing God Have we not seen that our Saviour himself observed it that they are called Gods unto whom the Word of God came John 10.35 And at what occasion did our Saviour make that Observation That also to the purpose before us is well worth the being noted It was when the Jews reproached to him that he Equalled himself to God and as they judged made himself the Most High God And now what doth he Answer to that Charge Doth he say that he was literally the Eternal God and that a Second Divine Person was incarnate in him or doth he leave any Room for any such conceit or rather do's he not expresly obviate and refute it This is manifestly the whole meaning of his Answer Why should you think that I make my self the Most High God Is it because I am called God or the Son of God And don't you know that in your own Law it is written of some Great Men I have said ye are Gods and the Sons of the Highest Were those Men therefore to be reputed Homousian Sons of God or of the same Essence with the Father No. Neither am I therefore any more to be thought so If we take not that Answer and Reasoning of our Saviour's in this Sense it seems we make of it a mere Shuffling and an Equivocating Discourse nothing to the purpose and absolutely unworthy the Gravity of the Speaker as seems obvious upon an impartial Reading of the Text. (*) John 10.33 34 35 36. The Jews answered him Saying For a good Work we Stone thee not but for Blasphemy and because that thou being a Man makest thy self God Jesus answered them Is it not Written in your Law I said Ye are Gods If He called them Gods unto whom the Word of God came 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 Howbeit it doth here suffice us that we see there is no necessity to take always the term God in the most eminent Sense seeing that some Men in the Scripture stile are called Gods For if we can take that term in an inferior sense when applied to Men we can shew that there is a great deal of Reason to understand it in that sense when appropriated to our Saviour who is the Word or High Officer of God and Chief Interpreter of the Divine Will and who as to his Person and Being and Constitution was in all things like unto us yet without Sin Heb. 2.17 and 4.15 It is to no purpose therefore for the Trinitarians to alledge any Text where they think Christ is called God unless they can expresly shew that he is the Supreme God actually equal to and of the same Essence with the eternal God and that the Father is not greater than he I shall only add concerning the aforesaid Answer of our Saviour's that if he had been the Most High God it seems he dissembled it at an occasion that required the speaking it out
or else as was said it seems there can be shewn no connection or coherence in his Reasoning For so it would run according to the Trinitarian Exposition Jesus answered them are not some Men called Gods in Scripture How can ye then say of Me that I Blaspheme because what I say implies I am the Most High God CHAP. III. A Continuation of the Socinian Explication BUT it is time to go on to what remains to be explained of the beginning of St. Johns Gospel We have done with the First Verse wherein it is generally thought there lies the greatest Difficulty In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God That last Clause the Word was God may seem to most of us the hardest expression that was of speaking not being usual with us as was observed But at the same time we have seen that the Scripture calls Kings and Great Men Gods I have said Ye are Gods We have no reason therefore to think it strange that the Messiah the Highest Officer in the World the Prince of Men and Angels and the King of Kings should be also honoured there with the most Illustrious Title that was ever given to any in the most eminent Station and be accordingly called God or a God or Sovereign Lord. The Scripture called them Gods unto whom the Word of God came John 10.35 That is to say those whom God made his Chief Officers and to whom God gave Commandment and Commission to act in some measure in his stead Thus it appears Christ might well be called God the Mediatory Kingdom of the Universe being given â—im or he being made the Sovereign of all under the Father Which being set into so great a light we need but to paraphrase a few Verses more and give some reasons for our Exposition of one Expression or two therein Verse 3. All that concerns the Establishment of the Christian Oeconomy and of the Christian Church which is the New Creation has been dene by Christ and by his orders and procurement Here on Earth having Preached the Doctrin of Repentance by his immediate Precursor and by his other Ministers as he had even done in some measure before his Birth by the Prophets and Patriarchs for it was upon his account that God sent them the Messiah being before them in God's Decree and they being therefore to be looked upon as the Messiah's Officers and what the Officers do being to be ascribed to him in whose Name or in whose Stead they act and himself having fully declared the nature and intendment of the Gospel He offered up himself as a Sacrifice for our Sins to God and thus having laid the Foundation of his Church confirmed his Doctrin by his Resurrection and innumerable Miracles and Commissionated his Apostles and Chief Disciples all which may be called the Building of his House which he purchased with his Blood He left this World Being alcended into Heaven He New-modelled things there too by his Presence He ordered and disposed them on a new foot and in a new manner For being exalted at the right hand of God He took possession of his Dignity and Authority of a Sovereign Prince in the Heavenly Places Angels were there then no longer God's Chief Ministers but were then most particularly subjected unto the Lord Jesus Christ and He appointed them their Stations or confirmed them in their Places and Offices and He daily gives them orders and commissions as he sees best for the Service of his Church and the Government of the Universe Yet it is not to be forgotten that Christ is but a Mediatory or Subordinate King having not his Kingdom of himself but from the Father and by the Fathers gift wherefore the Honour to be paid to Christ is not direct or ultimate but Inferior and Mediarory to the Glory of the Father Christ tho' a Sovereign and the King of a Creatures being the Father's Substitute or Sub-delegate and acting in the Father's Name and by the Father's Power and Wisdom And therefore he thus representing God at the Head of the Universe we accordingly honour him and worship the Divine Wisdom and Power in him Verse 4. In him was Life God was with him directed and assisted him and dwelt in him By him then Life was procured to fallen Mankind And the Light of his Doctrine of his Works and Miracles and of the Spirit or Divine Inspiration dwelling in and communicated by him was the Life of Men He brought Immortal Life to light thro the Gospel And God gave him Power to give Eternal Life to his Obedient Disciples Verse 9. That was the true Light which coming into the World lighteth all Men Jews and Gentiles Our Saviour when he appear'd in the World did not design to instruct a particular Nation only but purposed to set up such a Light as might shine to the utmost Parts of the Earth Verse 10. This Great Messenger of God appear'd among Men and Men were as it were a new Created by him for He Redeemed the Race of Mankind with his Blood yet the generality of Men perceived not that that Illustrious Person was Him whom God did set forth for their Saviour Men loved Darkness rather than Light tho' it was so abundantly and so mercifully offer'd them Verse 11. He came unto his own c. If God had not intended to have given a Saviour to Men as was said He would have destroyed this World but having resolv'd in the case of Man's Fâ—ll to provide a Redeemer God had this Intercessor in his eye and mind when He created our Heaven and Earth and some understand in that Sense those expressions that in the beginning the Word was with God that from the beginning this illustrious Messenger was design'd to be the Messiah to be the Sovereign of the Universe to be the great King most eminently representing God and the general Governor for God and in God's stead at God's right Hand and that therefore God made this World by him that is to say for him and so by him intentionally the business of his Dispensation to the highest Glory of God being the final Cause of the Creation of this World and accordingly when our Saviour let upon his Office God upon the Conditions of his Undertaking gave Mankind to him to be saved and reform'd by him particularly those that had some good dispositions and primarily and especially the People of the Jews These were then his own most peculiarly He made them As it is said in the foregoing Verse he had made the World or the World was made by him in that he preserved them and all the World by his Undertaking seeing that without it after Adam's Fall Mankind had perished like the fall'n Angels He ought then truly to be considered as the Maker of Men or as the Person from whom all fall'n Men held their Life and Being And therefore without doubt fall'n Men and among them the Jews in particular his Countrymen
Primitive Doctrin and that 't is most credible it is agreeable to the true sense of Scripture it being the general Sentiment of the Disciples of the Apostles and their Successors in the following Ages And further to evince the Antiquity Vniversality and Credibility of the Trinitarian Doctrin some add that the ancient Jews and the Heathens have believed a Trinity in Vnity to which purpose they quote Plato Philo's Works the Cabbala or Tradition delivered from Father to Son since the time of Moses and the Chaldaïck Paraphrase wherein the Word of God seems to be represented as a Person To all this the Vnitarians answer in the following Particulars 1. The Jews have never held the Doctrin of three Persons in God And as for the Authority of the Heathens it cannot much credit the Trinitarian Cause 2. The Passages in Pliny's Letter and in the Dialogue entituled Philopatris are incontestably invalid Arguments 3. No very considerable Argument can be drawn out of the Ante-nicene Authors because they were but few that wrote and it was not impossible for them to deviate from the Simplicity of the Gospel 4. Many excellent Works of the Primitive Writers have been suppressed and destroyed which were most express for the Vnitarian Sentiment 5. Of the few remaining Writings that are ascribed to the Fathers of the first three Centuries 't is very credible that some are corrupted and some supposititious 6. Howbeit it still in a great measure appears that the generality of the Primitive Christians were Vnitarians and even that the generality of the remaining Authors of the first three Centuries were far enough from being of that Opinion which now is called Orthodox it being evident that they incline more to the Vnitarian than to the Trinitarian Sentiment of the latter Ages 7. The prevailing Sentiment of the following Ages is of no weight against the Vnitarians 8. The Prevalency in general of an Opinion is no Argument that it is agreable to Truth and acceptable to God 9. The only Authority therefore that we can and ought to rely upon is that of the Bible 1. The Jews have never held the Doctrin of three Persons in God and as for the Authority of the Heathens it cannot much credit the Trinitarian Cause The Vnitarians readily grant the Trinitarian Sentiment to be Heathenish seeing it effectually sets up a Plurality of Gods or several supremely and really Divine Persons And they think it very probable that at first some Christians took this Doctrin out of Plato's School whose Philosophy was generally studied and admired tho' perhaps the original meaning of it as to this Point was little understood or considered by the generality of his Disciples For there is much reason to believe that Plato and those of the same Sentiment with him who believed but one God at first personalized the essential or chief Attributes of the Deity to accommodate themselves to the Theology of the Heathens to hide and take off the Odium of their own Notions of the Divine Vnity which otherwise would have been looked upon as next to Atheism wherefore they would seem to hold more Divine Persons or more Gods than one it being reckoned essential to Religion to own a Plurality of Gods These Philosophers therefore so reasoned about the Divine Attributes as if they really held several distinct Gods Indeed 't is very credible that many of 'em afterwards were induced to Error by those Expressions and Philosophized so high about them that they lost themselves and understood not what they said But as for Plato 't is very likely that he meant by his several Persons but the several Attributes of the same Divine Being only he was willing to vail his Sentiment for fear of exposing himself to Socrates his fate having no mind to suffer for his Opinion This appears in his Letters to Dyonisius wherein he tells him It is difficult to find out the Father of the Universe and when you have found him it is not lawful to divulge it to the People I shall then speak of this subject enigmatically that every one may not be able to understand me He sets up therefore a Trinity above all other Gods or Angels and as may be gathered from his Cautiousness from his Sentiment and that of Socrates of one God and from the Current of his Expressions by this Trinity he understood infinite Goodness infinite Wisdom and infinite Love or Power but to wrap up his Doctrin under mysterious terms he represents this Trinity as being three Divine Hypostases or Persons He says the first is the Origin of the other two the Good Being or the first Principle is the Father of the Reason or Wisdom which he has begotten and made and produced and so it might be considered by some as a Creature God and the First-born of the Good Being and the Love or Power is the third most excellent God and the second Production of the Good This Theology most obscurely expressed Plato's Followers have explained according to their own Imaginations till they made it by their Explications still more obscure and more unintelligible But of what Authority are these Philosophical Fancies and Heathenish Mysteries Tho' it seem to some that they may be accomodated to some Expressions in Scripture yet there is no reason to interpret Scripture by that fanciful and fantanstical Rule as is well observed by Beza who calls those Philosophical Conceits Platonica Deliria in his Annotations on John 1.1 Whether or no some Heathen Sages before Plato may then have had the like thoughts and design with him so that he was in some measure but an imitator of them what is that also to Christians What if Parmenides had learned of the Pythagoreans and Pythagoras of Pherecides the Notion of three Hypostases so that the accommodation of Polytheism to a dissembled Unitarianism was perhaps older than Plato by an Age or two And what if the Authors of this Theology whoever they were took these Hypostases to be real Deities Ought such an Egyptian Darkness to be of any weight with Us And can we make it a Question Which is the best either to regard these Heathenish Philosophical Whimsies or to be guided by the clear Light of Reason and the most express Texts of Scripture After all the Platonick Cant is so obscure that for ought that can be pretended to the contrary all that Platonism implies of a Trinity may amount to no more than Semi-Arianism or even Arianism As for the Opinion of the Jews Tho' it be certain that the People of God were Vnitarians yet it is not impossible but that a few of their Metaphysick Wits might Philosophize after the way of Heathen and be infatuated with Plato and conceive as well as many Christians that those strange and admired Speculations might agree with Scripture and be reconciled with the Doctrin of the Unity of God But of what consequence is the Particular Fancy of three or four Visionaries to the whole Body of the Jews Because these
God as well as Solomon Ps 45. and with much greater reason We cannot better conclude this Article than with two Observations in Dr. Bull 's Book Judicium Ecclesiae In the first Ages of Christianity it was a great Controversy between some Christians and the Jews whether the Messias according to the descriptions given of him in the Old Testament is to be God or a Man only Those Christians believed He is represented in the Old Testament as God or a God the Jews as a mere Man Judic Eccl. p. 15 16. And at p. 21. the Dr. adds Our Saviour puts this Question to the Pharisees Whose Son is Christ They answered says the Text the Son of David But if Christ says our Saviour again is the Son of David why then doth David call him Lord The Evangelist remarks hereupon they were not able to answer him a word But had they known any thing of the Divinity of the Messias the Solution of the proposed Difficulty had been most easy and obvious to ' em We may then conclude the Jews believed only that the Christ was to be a Great King in this World but not a Great King in the next and much less did they imagin He should be God in a Superior Sense than this whether in the Arian or Tritheistick Sense So that the Generality of the Jews were as certainly Vnitarians as the Generality of the Heathens were Polytheists And as for the Conceits of the objected Philosophers we have seen that their Speculations are of as little Importance and Authority as they are mysterious and uncertain obscure and unintelligible 2. The Passages in Pliny's Letter and in the Dialogue intituled Philopatris are incontestably invalid Arguments The Passage in Pliny's Letter so much objected to the Vnitarians is that he says Christians in their Meetings Sang Hymns to Christ ut Deo as being a God To this the Vnitarians give the following answers First it is probable that Passage is corrupted and instead of ut Deo we should read et Deo for so it was in the Copies in Tertullian's time Tertul. Apol. adv Gentes C. 3. And then the Meaning being that Christians Sang Hymns to Christ AND to God that is so far from implying that they held Christ to be God Almighty himself that it shews the contrary Christ being there distinguished from God And his being joyned with God in Hymns Sang to both their Praise argues no more his being God himself than it would argue that Jael is God because she is blessed as well as God in the same Psalm of Praise Judg. 5.2 Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel And at the 24th Verse Blessed above Women shall Jael be Deborah also her self the Composer of this Hymn and Barack the Governors of Israel and the Princes of Issachar are praised at the 7th 9th 12th and 15th Verses Thus in the 5th Chapter of the Revelations Men and Angels are represented Singing Hymns both to God and Christ saying Blessing Honor Glory and Power be unto Him that siteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing And the four and twenty Elders said Worthy is the Lamb for he was Slain and has redeemed us to God by his Blood c. Which by the way it may be observed shews what incontestably Christians ought to do viz. tho' not to address direct and ultimate Prayers yet to Sing Hymns in Honor to Christ which may be lookt upon as the true Interpretation of Ps 72.15 spiritually accommodated to Christ besides that there is no doubt but that the Angels and the Holy Spirits in Heaven may daily present Requests and Petitions to Christ concerning particular Men and Churches and when Christ is seen he is to be addressed unto by Men as their Saviour and their Sovereign under God Moreover the generality of the Vnitarians ever held that Christ is to be Worshipped and Prayed to as the Mediator of the New-Covenant and the Vicegerent of the Universe constantly assisted with the Divin Wisdom and Power to the Glory of the Father according to God's appointment Secondly reading Vt Deo that may signify either as being God or as being a God and as if he were God that is were held God or a God If the former that might be Pliny's own mistaken Conjecture that because he understood Christians Sang Christ's Praises he therefore imagin'd they took him for the Supreme God But indeed 't is most unlikely that this was Pliny's Meaning for being used himself according to the Heathen Rites to Sing Hymns to others besides the Supreme God or suppos'd Supreme Gods it seems he could not upon this account conclude that Christians believed Christ to be God Almighty himself It seems therefore he could only mean that Christians Sang Hymns in Praise of Christ as believing him to be A GOD. By which Phrase the Heathens themselves knew 't was not necessary to understand the Supreme God For as the Scripture calls some Creatures Gods so the Heathens tho' groundlesly yet often gave that Title to several whom they knew and owned to be Created Beings And in Chap. 2d we have seen that Christians in those times made no difficulty to do the like where whether now right or wrong is another Question they thought they had warrant from Scripture to give that Appellation to some glorified Creatures and therefore there is no doubt but that since many of them gave it to Angels in an inferior Sense they much more gave it to Christ the Sovereign of all Angels as well as Men tho' they believed him to be but such a dignified Creature If Pliny's Meaning was as 't is not impossible but that the Expression may import that Christians Sang to Christ as if he were held God or a God that is quite contrary to what Trinitarians would have him to attest For then 't is as if he had said that Christians Sang to Christ as if they had believed him to be God or a God which yet according to this it should seem they believed not But most probably not this but the foregoing was Pliny's Sense if we must read VT Deo namely as to a God or as to one whom they held for a God As for the Dialogue intituled Philopatris wherein mention is made of the God who is Three and One One and Three the best Criticks own it not to be a Dialogue of Lucian's as the Translators themselves observe We have many instances of several Treatises joyned either by chance or out of design to some Authors Works that yet belong not to that Author It may then very well be that that Dialogue is much later than Lucian But if it were Lucian's what could the Trinitarians infer from thence but that there were then some Christians that believed a Platonick Trinity and that Lucian was acquainted with some of them or had confusedly
is to know them to know the Father will do them for him and to desire them of the Father For tho' it be said that Christ did and is to do most wonderful Works yet the Scripture is very far from saying that he doth them of Himself or by his own Power Himself says the quite contrary John 5.19 The Son can do nothing of himself John 14. â—0 The Father that dwelleth in me He doth the Works Matth. 12.28 I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God And John 11.41 42. Father I thank thee that thou Hearest me always How could Christ have declared more expresly that he doth not the Supernatural Works by his own Power but by the Means which have been said Namely By knowing that the Father will do them for him and By desiring the Father to do them by his Divine Power and by what Means He pleases to use Seeing that the Father has promised our Saviour to hear him always he may truly say that all things which the Father has are his And therefore it is certain that not only there never was such another Prophet as Christ but also that he is the most Excellent and most Dignified Creature that can be But yet we see it doth not follow that because he doth what none but God can do he is therefore hypostatically united with a Divine Person and that distinct from the Father The Scripture shews us How Christ doth all Supernatural Things he himself tells us he desires the Father to do them and the Father always grants his requests and doth what he desires and he desires nothing but what he knows the Father will grant and the Father has promis'd and constantly gives him whatsoever is necessary for the Discharge of his Office Christ then may truly say that as the Father has Life in himself or at his disposal so has he given to the Son to have Life in himself For as the Father doth all things by Willing them so Christ doth all things by Desiring them As God has put Power in the Natural Sun to vivify all Seeds in the Earth so he has in an infinitely more excellent way invested Christ the Sun of Righteousness with Power to quicken the Dead But still the Power of the Lord Jesus is the Divine Power And we see that as we have said God makes Christ to be Partaker thereof So that as the Father has Divine Power in him so has He given to the Son to have Divine Power in him insomuch that when the Father has shewn him a Miraculous Thing the Son can do the same likewise by the Assistance of the Divine Power which dwells in him and which he constantly has the use of by Willing and Asking or affectionately Desiring Thus Christ knows the Hearts by the same Means by the Divine Power that is in him or annexed to him and that reveals them to him See the Brief History of the Vnitarians on John 2.25 and Revel 2.23 So that as Dr. Sherlock himself says at the top of the 196th Page of his last Book the Knowledg of Christ is from the Father's dwelling in him And by that Means Christ Governs the Vniverse and will Judge the World As to Christ's Efficacy in obtaining Forgiveness for all those Sinners whom he persuades and excites to forsake their Sins and to become Obedient and New Creatures it is the strangest thing in the World to imagin that God cannot grant that which is altogether agreable to the Propensions of his own Nature to his most beloved Son even upon that Act and Submission of his which argues the most perfect Obedience and makes the most solemn Reparation to the Divine Justice and Authority As Dr. Whichcot expresses himself upon this Subject Pages 62 d and 63 d of his Select Sermons We are in the hands of him that is Primarily and Originally Good And He will certainly commiserate every Case so far as it is compassionable Now the Case of a Sinner is compassionable if he be Penitent God might then surely accept of Christ's Sacrifice as as sufficient Attonement seeing that it so fully confirms God's Hatred to Sin and his Good Will to those that Obey him and is consequently the powerfullest Motive and the likeliest Means to engage those for whom that Sacrifice is offered and who are not yet incorrigible to forsake their evil Ways to accept the Offers of Grace and to be reconciled to God Christ's Death is the fullest Confirmation of God's Good Will to those that obey him seeing that upon the account of his Son 's perfect Obedience He has exalted him to the highest Glory even of being Partaker of the Divine Nature and Power And it is also the fullest Confirmation of God's absolute Hatred to Sin seeing He would not pardon the Sins of Men without this Consideration Condition that he who was Innocent the most Perfect Excellent Creature pleaded for the Fallen Race of Mankind should as their Advocate suffer in their stead expiate their Sins with his Blood and thus exhibit a most solemn Demonstration of the Demerit of Sin But this no where is represented in Scripture as a perfectly equivalent Satisfaction in the most rigorous sense And neither Scripture nor Reason shew that God can Pardon but upon such Terms See the aforesaid Sermons of Dr. Whichcot Pag. 301 c. on Act. 13.38 As the Bishop of Gloucester observes at the 85th and following Pages of his aforesaid Reflections on the Book of Dr. Sherlock against him Christ's meriting of God the Father cannot be understood in the highest sense of meriting as we may merit of one another that is by doing acts of Kindness and Beneficeace from mere Good Will or no antecedent Obligation to the Person to whom the Kindness is shewn 'T is nothing but the wretched Popish Doctrin of Merit that has made it an offensive word in relation to God But taking Meritum and Mereri in the Fathers sense there is no offence to be taken at it as respecting God For they meant no more than having a right to be rewarded by him from the performance of that Obedience or Service to which he has annexed the reward by a most gracious Promise But as it is impossible to do God Almighty a Kindness or Benefit so I cannot understand how the Son of God himself could in this sense merit of his Father the Redemption of Mankind since he did or suffered by vertue of the Union nothing but what the Will of his Father obliged him unto Lo I come said he to do thy Will O God And his perfectly complying with this Will was his meriting our Redemption of his Father as He willed to make him the Author thereof upon that Condition And therefore Mr. Calvin says well Totum Meritum Christi pendet à Voluntate Divina Now will any Man say that Christ as Man did not thus merit Then by the most wonderful Submission and Self-Resignation of the Man Christ Jesus who was most
Innocent to the dreadful and undeserved Death of the Cross God's absolute Authority over his Creatures was most highly vindicated after Adam and his apostate Off-spring had wofully eclipsed the Glory of his Soveraignty and the Authority of his Laws This Second Adam by the sinless and most perfect Obedience of his Life was an high Vindicator thereof but his enduring most inexpressible Torments which he did as Man and dying the most cursed Death of the Cross as our Sacrifice did God the Father as high Honor in the Face of the Sun as all the Sins of Mankind put together could do him Dishonor And by this means this Sacrifice became Satisfactory so as that God would for the sake thereof grant Terms of Pardon and Reconciliation to Fallen Mankind since He now saw it most agreable to all his Attributes to do so Thus far this Learned Prelate In Summ in Answer to the whole Objection Christ is the Excellentest Creature possible and the most like unto God and the fittest to be an Instrument in the Hand of God and God entirely loves him and continually communicates to him the Use of the Divine Power and the Assistance of the Divine Wisdom and the Fulness of the God-head constantly dwells in him and in his State of Humiliatiâ—n he received the Holy Spirit without measure and not in small portions and by intervals like the Prophets and all the Angels and Archangels are wholly subjected to him as their Prince and incessantly attend his Orders God being willing to make him as Great as a Creature can be made and God in fine is as much Vnited to him as it is possible for God to be United with a Creature God remaining still a distinct Being and the Creature a distinct Person And the Vnitarians hold that such an excellent and dignified Creature as this can obtain of God and can perform any thing that is to be perform'd or obtain'd and they do not conceive what more than this the Trinitarians can reasonably think to be requisite It may be observed that according to the Vnitarian System our Lord Jesus Christ is a more precious and worthy Being than all other Creatures together that yet not only the word Satisfaction is no where in Scripture but also that it is not the Notion of Sacrifices and Attonements to make a full Compensation that under the Gospel the Acts of Piety and Obedience which are most acceptable to God are figuratively called Attonements or Sacrifices as Alms-giving Praying with fervour Mortifying carnal Affections which is termed the offering our Bodies in Sacrifice to God and that by many Places of Scripture it appears that this expression to redeem signifies to deliver from some Evil and to put into a better State See Exod. 6.6 and 15.13 Luke 1.68 Ps 49.7 8 15. and 111.9 Luke 2.38 c. An Appendix to the IXth Chapter THERE remains but one Article to be here considered to give a particular and full Answer to every Branch of the Objection mention'd in the beginning of this Chapter It is this that according to the Ideas which the Vnitarian System gives of Christ it seems he cannot be supposed to be able to hear the Prayers of Men or to be a proper Object of Worship But this will particularly appear to be a groundless and unnecessary piece of Wrangling if these Considerations be duely weighed 1. There are divers Kinds of Worship according to the Nature of the Subject to whom it is to be paid See Grotius on Revel 19.10 All that the Trinitarians can ascribe to Christ in following the Scripture consists in reverencing him to the Honour of the Father as the Mediator of the New Covenant and under God the Universal Monarch acting for the Father in whom the Father dwells whom the Father most extraordinarily assists with his Divine Wisdom and Power to enable him in his Mediatory Kingdom to govern the Universe and save to the uttermost those that come to God thro' him and with whom consequently the Divine Nature is as intimately United as possible The Trinitarians acknowledge that the whole Person of Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant and consequently it seems incontestable that the whole Person of Christ is to be honoured as Mediator or with Mediatory and Subordinate Honour having receiv'd Kingdom Power and Godhead from the Father and acting for the Father Now thus and according to all these and the like respects the Vnitarians worship the Lord Jesus Christ and no otherwise even as one who is appointed to be honoured to the Glory of the Father as one who is exalted to the highest Dignity in the Universe and as one with whom the Divine Nature is as intimately united as possible so as that he is inlightned with the Divine Wisdom and he disposes of the Divine Power and Inspiration as of his own it being made his by his Union to the Divine Nature and by the Father his dwelling in him or by the Divine Assistance and Inspiration without measure attending him always conducting and illuminating him and thereby exalting his Spirit to the highest Pitch of Grandeur Wisdom and Power and making him in the most eminent manner possible one with God 2. The Vnitarians thus holding the Lord Jesus Christ United and Assisted with the Divine Nature the Trinitarians cannot justly pretend that the Vnitarian System represents him as unable to perform any thing which by the Trinitarian Notion of the Incarnation he may be suppos'd to be capable of seeing the Vnitarians hold that he without measure according to the Scripture Phrase is illuminated with the Divine Wisdom and disposes of and is assisted by and enjoys the Divine Power as his own so that he may hear Men and succor them It appears nevertheless as was said incontestable that his Kingdom as was observed being but a Mediatory Kingdom or his Reign being but a Government under God subject to and directed by the Father so that the Father is still to be considered not barely as jointly ruling but as literally the Supreme Ruler the Lord Jesus Christ cannot reasonably be addressed to but as Mediator or as the Vicegerent of the Universe and consequently is to be worshipped but with a Mediatory or a Subordinate Worship Wherefore the Body of the Prayers ought not to be addressed to him as they are in the Litany but the Father generally is to be Pray'd to in the Name or thro' the Mediation of the Son And some Ejaculations and particularly at the end or beginning of the Service a short Address may be offered to the Son to beseech him to Intercede for us to have Mercy upon us and to assist us with his Grace And according to the Vnitarian System the Lord Jesus Christ can be thus addressed to and worshipped This Subject concerning the Worship of Christ as Mediator or as a Man exalted to the High Honor with which it has pleased God to dignify him is fully treated of by Limborch in his Theologia Christiana Lib.
and Capacity extends is in some most sublime Points short-sighted and blind and consequently an incompetent Judge then they might discern that the Vnitarian 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 Vnitarians alledge seem not express and positive for their System All these things are put together in one Objection because they depend of or expresly support one another the Intendment of the Argument being to convince the Vnitarians that they hearken too much to Reason and too little to Scripture This Objection then is properly made up of these Four Branches which if the Reader pleases he may consider as so many distinct Objections and which are so considerable that they very much deserve to be illustrated and carefully weighed to understand the utmost force of them 1. That Reason tho' an excellent Light and Guide so far as its Province and Capacity reaches is in several mysterious Instances short-sighted and blind and consequently an incompetent Judge 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 conceived the generality of Christians can understand the Scripture in that Sense 3. That there are many Texts of Scripture which even taken asunder but especially being put together make up a strong Evidence for the Trinitarian Sentiment 4. That the Texts which the Vnitarians alledge seem not express and positive for their System 1. That Reason tho' an excellent Light and Guide so far as its Province and Capacity reaches is in several mysterious Instances short-sighted and blind and consequently an incompetent Judge The generality of Men attribute either too little or too much to Reason Howbeit if things be calmly and very carefully considered it will be found that We ought to keep to a Mean betwixt these two Extremes Reason is to the Mind what the Eyes are to the Body None but the Blind can think that the Eyes are of no use to judge of Material Objects Nevertheless if we should take no other Counsel but that of our Eyes we could not avoid the being deceived in several Instances The same must be said of Reason Undoubtedly it is a noble and excellent Faculty By a right use of it We may credibly demonstrate the Being of a God the Duties of Holiness and Vertue the Futurity of Reward and Punishment and all the eternal Truths of Natural Religion Notwithstanding all this it is certain those have not thorowly considered the most obvious things who do not discern that in many Cases Reason is not only at a loss but directly leads us to Error actually representing to us several things as false contradictory and impossible which yet we may be sure are not such We see then by experience that there can be nothing more unreasonable and unsafe than this Resolution To believe Reason in nothing or to believe it in all things If we were to trust our Eyes at all times or else at no time at all We must be forced to deny our being sensible that the Sun Shines when in its greatest Splendor or We must be confident that all Sticks are Crooked when part in Water as they seem then to be and that all Towers are Round because they appear so at a certain distance Every Man knows that there are some Means to be assured when We ought and when We ought not to credit our Eyes In like manner it cannot be doubted but that there are some Rules whereby if We carefully attend to them We may be satisfied when our Reasonings are true and certain and when not If these Rules were set into the greatest Light possible by considering Men that could not but be an excellent Means to detect manifestly all dangerous Errors Then it might be shewn that Transubstantiation need not be believ'd tho' the Trinity may For instance We see by experience as was observed that our Eyes deceive us when for instance they will judge of the nicest Circumstances of Objects at a great distance from Us. And therefore We find it rational not to determine our Judgement concerning these Particulars without further Evidence But if credible Persons assure us that to their certain knowledge that Tower for instance is Square which at a distance appears Round We do not at all esteem it irrational but most agreable to Reason to credit them before or rather than the present Judgement of our own Eyes Likewise concerning our Spiritual Eye-sight There are undoubtedly several mysterious or sublime Matters above the reach of Human Understanding There are several things which expresly appear to be impossible which yet We are sure are certainly true We have before suppos'd that there are many such things To give now some Instances of them There are Demonstrations against the Possibility of Motion holding that there is no Vacuum and holding a Vacuum there are other Demonstrations against it And yet there must either be a Vacuum or no Vacuum and whether there be a Vacuum or no We actually see there is Motion In like manner We are sure there must be such a thing as Eternity and it must either consist of an eternal Succession of Moments or else it must be an eternal Instant without Succession the whole Eternity always present without any part of it past or to come yet which of the two ways We hold We find therein express and most manifest and unavoidable Contradictions We meet likewise with evident Contradictions and Impossibilities whether We assert Matter to be divisible infinitely or whether We suppose the contrary and yet 't is plain there can be no Medium but it must necessarily be either the one or the other There are many such Cases Now what can We say to such things but that they are mysterious and that so far as they are so they are above our Capacity to judge of them or to determine our selves about the contrary Contradictions concerning them But suppose a competent and credible Judge should certify to us which side the truth lies so far as that Judge should appear to be a good Judge it would be rational to assent to his Declaration notwithstanding the Contradictions which our Reason finds in the Subject If such a Judge for instance should tell us that Matter is divisible infinitely that Eternity is a perpetual Duration without Succession and that there is no Vacuum it would be irrational
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
Kind and Extent or ascribe more to Reason than Protestants do then in God's Name shew it and don 't declaim against or invalidate your own Principles play not at fast and loose or sometime hold the same Principles of Reason and anon reject them and dispute against them This is what the Vnitarians answer in general But more particularly they represent The Vnitarians do not lay the whole stress of their Cause upon Arguments drawn from Reason For a Proof of this the Reader may be referr'd to Crell's Book Touching One God the Father where there are many Arguments from Scripture for one taken from the Topick of Reason If the Vnitarians did not appeal to Scripture and offerred not to put the Controversy upon that Issue and were not willing to be decided chiefly by that but proposed wholly to set the Divine Revelation aside and resolved only to hearken to what Human Reason can inform us of the Matter controverted the Trinitarians would have some grounds to blame them and to assert that they gave too much to Reason But the Vnitarians expresly acknowledge as well as the Trinitarians both that Reason's Sphere and Reach is not unlimited that there are many Truths above Reason and attended with inextricable Difficulties and incumbred with seeming Contradictions and that therefore what is credibly demonstrated to be is not to be rejected upon the account of such Reason-Objections as these where Reason is short and doth not see clearly and distinctly and then expresly the Vnitarians do hold that in Matters of Revelation the Holy Scripture is primarily to be consulted and followed as the Supreme Rule What will then the Trinitarians have or what can they require more and what is there here that they can justly blame It is true indeed that hereby the Use of Reason is not wholly discarded For On the other Hand the Vnitarians think like all Protestants that Reason ought not to be wholly Slighted For indeed what Reason shews clearly and distinctly no Man in his Senses that duely considers will contemn it or reject it And in reason We ought not lightly to take any Thing in a Sense that seems contrary to Reason when there is no absolute Necessity for it or when that Thing may be taken in another Sense It is certain that Protestants allow as much to Reason and hold that Scripture is to be understood consistently and agreably to these Natural Principles so that when the Words of Scripture in their literal Signification imply something manifestly contrary to Reason they must be taken in any other Sense that they may be susceptible of In short Protestants doubt not but that the whole Scripture perfectly agrees with Right Reason and therefore they take it as much as possible in Senses evidently agreable to Reason and they expresly reject those Senses which are plainly inconsistent with it Upon that account all Protestants hold that We must necessarily make Vse of Reason in interpreting of Scripture if We will understand it right Accordingly they consult and use Reason both in expounding the Text of Scripture and in drawing the natural and necessary Consequences from it And agreably to these just Measures they take in a Figurative Sense those Texts which according to the Literal Sound of the Words manifestly appear to our Reason to be unworthy of God and to be expresly contrary to Reason Upon that account they understand figuratively for instance that Saying of our Saviour's that the Bread of the Eucharist is his Body and that except We Eat his Flesh and Drink his Blood we cannot have Eternal Life as also those Expressions which ascribe to God a Body or bodily Parts the Saying of Moses that God laboured and rested the Term which imports that Jeptha Sacrificed his Daughter c. Now the Vnitarians desire not to make any other Vse of Reason But then they maintain that by no means they ought to be hindered to make the like Use of it that Protestants so justly do or so justly plead for for instance in the Controversies with the Church of Rome What Reason shews clearly and distinctly they esteem ought not to be unregarded They hold therefore that We are not rashly to understand or interpret Scripture in Senses manifestly contrary to Reason when especially that Scripture appears susceptible of some other Sense And they affirm that this is nothing but what is not only most evidently just and rational but also expresly agreable to the Protestant Principles and Practice as has been shewn So that We must needs conclude God surely will not take it ill but on the contrary He cannot but require that We should thus reason or make use of Reason and Consideration as the Vnitarians here would do so as to have some regard and make some inquiry Whether things agree or disagree with the Common Notions of Human Vnderstanding Indeed where Reason doth not see clearly and distinctly seeming Difficulties ought not to be looked upon as wholly conclusive and most particularly Difficulties then ought in reason to be reck'ned of no weight against a thing which manifestly or most credibly appears to be But the Vnitarians assert as has been shewn in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno that this is not the Case with the Trinitarian Doctrin They humbly represent that the Trinitarians cannot say that the Doctrin of three Persons in one God is most credible and manifest in it self nor incontestably express in Scripture But the Vnitarians assert on the contrary it is most clearly and distinctly evident that that Doctrin is inconsistent with several Texts as well as implies many most express Contradictions and manifest Impossibilities The Trinitarians then have no just grounds to compare this Point with some Things that are Incontestable or absolutely out of our Sight For tho' the Whole of God cannot be perfectly comprehensible yet in general some things of God may be clearly discerned and therefore God is unanimously acknowledg'd in that sense to be an Object of Reason and all Parties affirm or deny some things of God upon the account of their being evidently agreable or disagreable to Reason There is no reason consequently why the same Measures should not be followed with respect to the Trinitarian Controversy And plainly then that is very unreasonable which the Trinitarians so earnestly desire that no account at all should be made of the so many so express and so obvious Contradictions and Impossibilities which appear to be implied in the Trinitarian Doctrin If they were only obscure and uncertain Difficulties and if the Trinitarian Doctrin were most manifest and certain or unavoidable and not contradicted by any Scripture-Evidence the Vnitarians would be to blame to insist on this Plea of Reason But as was said the Case will be found to be quite otherwise if it be duly considered And if so the unjust and unreasonable Measures that are taken will be a Shame to the present and a Wondering to future Times The Arguments of the Trinitarians in
fine are not infallible which import that some certain and incontestable Truths are incumbred with any most express and unavoidable Contradictions It is certain that some Truths are above Reason to give an account How they are and those are true Mysteries but it doth not follow that they are contrary to Reason It were indeed the greatest Folly upon any Difficulties to deny any Thing which manifestly appears to be But if the Manner or the Things concerning those Difficulties were rightly stated understood they might appear to be free from Contradictions for real Contradictions cannot be true It is Men's rash Judgment then that concludes a Truth to be attended with Contradictions when really it is not so I doubt not but that those Systems if duly considered may be vindicated from Contradictions which assert that there is no Vacuum that Matter is divisible infinitely that Eternity consists in a perpetual Succession of Moments It is true We are not to lean too much to our own Understandings or to be stiff to our Prepossessions Imaginations without sufficient knowledge of the Cause and without due examination But then on the other hand it is known We are bid in Understanding to be Men to prove all things to the best of our power that is those things especially that concern our eternal Welfare And by that means God tries our Sincerity and our real Concernment for the most momentous Matters We must not then reject the Use of our Reason It is indeed certain and evident those are faulty and criminal who when Religion and Revelation are so well prov'd and credibly attested and confirmed dispute either of them because they do not know how things were created and with what Instruments God made the World as if He needed any or because they do not understand how God can forsee Events and why He permits Evil. No wise Man will agree that these Difficulties expresly imply unavoidable Contradictions And all good Men will grant that the grossest Solution of these Objections renders the Infidels utterly inexcusable Now what considering Christian will say that the said or any the like Objections are absolutely unanswerable The most difficult Objections incontestably are those of Spinoza and Bayle Yet we see them answered the one by the most Reverend Archbishop of Dublin in his Book De Origine Mali and the other by the Famous Dr. Henry More in the Second Part of his Metaphysicks There are some Answers to those Objections which need not take up above two Sheets and to which the Infidels can not reply with the least colour of Reason As to the rest the Reader may be referred to the 12th Chapter of the Apologia pro Irenico Magno which comprises a general Answer to the Objections against the Vse of Reason Yet certainly it is not necessary that all Difficulties against Religion should expresly be answered It is undoubtedly sufficient that it be solidly prov'd and that it appear most rational and credible And when we are assured that God says any thing we may rationally believe it and ought in reason to do so notwithstanding any seeming Difficulties inferior to a stronger and clearer Evidence Howbeit on the other hand that the Inferiority of such Difficulties be most fully evinced the essaying to resolve Difficulties as much as possible ought by no means to be discouraged For if things be duly considered Religion will then be sufficiently vindicated and illustrated and otherwise it may often be sadly misrepresented and corrupted as well as wretchedly exposed to the Calumnies of the Infidels CHAP. XII An Answer to the Second Branch of the Objection 2. THE Vnitarians maintain that none of their Assertions are incredible and that their Interpretations are rational and agreable to the stile and current of Scripture and therefore natural and obvious enough 'T is certain on the one hand the Trinitarian Tenets are most strange and unintelligible and on the other the Stile of Scripture like that of all Eastern Languages is most figurative Now this being duly weighed and it being withal consider'd that Reason is a Divine Light that ought not wholly to be slighted if some constraint is to be made either to some Difficult Expressions that may be taken with the help of a warrantable Figure in an accountable Sense or to the Common Notiont of Mankind that cannot be reconcil'd with the literal or first seeming import of those Expressions what course in this Case is it most pious and rational to take The Trinitarian Objection it self implying that what is incredible is to be rejected decides the Matter The chief Instances of the pretended Remoteness of the Vnitarian Interpretations are particularly concerning the Vnitarian Expositions of Christs Creating all things and in what Sense the Word is said to be God c. Now to the latter the Vnitarians observe that if we will understand that Text aright we must not determine our selves about the Sense of it before we have considered what the Scripture elsewhere teaches as well as Reason concerning this Person that is here called the Word and that if it appear that thereby a Creature is meant as even according to them it evidently doth then there can be no difficulty in explaining the Title of God which is attributed to the Word but we must necessarily take it in an Inferior Signification in which it may be applied and we find it is sometimes in Scripture communicated to a Creature especially our Saviour himself accordingly warning us that some Creatures in Scripture are called Gods John 10.34 35. Angels in the Original are termed Gods Ps 8.5 c. And it was common among the Heathens to give that Title to others beside those whom they accounted the Supreme Gods The giving then of that Title to some Creature in an Inferiour Sense was not at all unintelligible either to Jews or Gentiles Indeed one of the Designs of Christianity was to inform the Pagans that there are not many Gods in the supreme or proper Sense of that word but only One such God to whom alone Divine Worship is due But the Gospel never intended to signify that there are not many in Heaven and Earth that may be termed Gods in an inferior Sense according to the Scripture as well as the Gentile-Stile If St. Thomas directed his Speech to Christ in that exclamation My Lord and My God he might mean no more than if he had said My Prince and My Soveraign The Trinitarians own that by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel is meant Christ Now Reason it self shews us manifestly that we must not take Christ to be the Supreme God For Christ is a Man and was always own'd to be but one Person but God is a distinct Spirit and consequenly a distinct Person for an intelligent Being whether Divine or Human has all that is requisite to the constituting of a Person and so cannot always but be a distinct Person two Spirits then must needs be two Persons
And therefore Christ being but one Person and being known to be a Human Person or a Man cannot in reason be imagined to be the Most High God And there cannot be more than one Person in God for God is always spoken of and to in the Singular Number by Pronouns that imply a Person c. Now the Scripture speaks to us as to Men who are bound to make use of their Sense and Reason and for a trial thereof Figurative Expressions are sometimes employed But besides all the Considerations flowing from the Tâ—pick of Reason the Vnitarians as is to be observed in the Fourth Particular shew by divers unanswerable and express Arguments taken out of Scripture that Christ is a Creature and is not literally the God Almighty himself but only his Chief Minister and Representative and the most excellent and most dignified Creature in whom God most extraordinarily and most intimately dwells and in and by whom God most wonderfully works And therefore if by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel should literally be understood God himself or some Influence of the Divine Nature as it were incarnated with or constantly dwelling in and assisting the Man Christ Jesus it would not follow that Christ is literally the Supreme God himself or that there are more Persons than one in the God head As to the Creation attributed to Christ it is sufficiently evident it must be understood of such a Creation as a Creature is capable of if Christ appear to be a Creature Prophets God's Creatures and Ministers are said to do Super-natural Works and raise the Dead tho' it be not they properly that do such things but God by them at their presence at their streching out of their hand at their word or request and the like They do not the Miraculous Work by their mere Strength or by their own Power but by a Divine Power thus inherent in them or annexed to them accompanying and assisting them and working at their desire and yet they themselves are said to do the Work For instance in Mat. 10.8 Our Saviour bids his Disciples Heal the Sick Cleanse the Lepers Raise the Dead and in John 14.12 he tells them that they should do most wonderful Works now incontestably that signifies that God would do those Works by them or that they should do 'em by God's Assistance or with the concurrence of the Divine Power working at their desire In like manner the First-born might Create the World or might be said to Create the World and God might be said to Create the World by him as it is said that by the Hands of the Apostles were many Signs and Wonders wrought Acts 5.12 God was pleas'd to work by those Hands which of themselves were not able to do these Miracles but were enabled to do them by the concurring Assistance of the Power of God annexed to them or accompanying them To Raise the Dead or Cure the Blind is as well above Natural Power as to Create the World tho' to Create the World be more than to Cure the Blind and tho' a Creature which Creates the World or which may be said to Create the World has a greater Concurrence of the Divine Power annexed or united to him than one that only Cures the Blind Howbeit certainly a Creature which so represents God as to be Worshipped with God tho' but as the most highly dignified Creature possible must undoubtedly be infinitely more united to the God-head than one which only doth some Miracles or than any Prophet or Apostle before whom 't is not lawful to bow the Knee or on whose Name 't is not lawful to call Moreover we must consider it is undoubted and most obvious that often in Scripture by Creating is only meant disposing or modelling fashioning and setting in order Ephes 2.10 and 4.24 c. There is then not only no reason why the Creation attributed to Christ even if it were the First Creation should not be taken in that Sense but there may be an absolute necessity it should be so understood if Christ appear to be a Creature tho' never so intimately united to the God head And so that is then obvious enough to those who will diligently attend to the Stile of the Scripture and it is not God's intendment that any others should come to the true knowledge of it See Bishop Taylor 's 2d Sermon on Tit. 2.7 He that will understand God's Meaning must look above and below and round about c. The Secret of the Lord is with them who fear him and who consequently do what they can to know exactly his Law and reveal'd Will. Will any say that there are not some Expressions in Scripture to be understood in as seemingly a far-fetch'd Sense as any given by the Vnitarians If Men mistake when they have done what they well can in their circumstances to be informed aright it is credible that God will judge that a pitiable Case so they be humble and moderate and be not violent magisterial and imperious and do not pretend to impose their Sentiment on others but be willing in abstruse Matters to unite in the Generality of the Terms of Scripture In that manner the most ignorant not being so thro' their fault may be safe But God has not left the Scripture into tho hands only of unlearned and unthinking Men immersed in and mostly taken up with the concerns and businesses of this Life Tho' all Christians are bound in some measure to search and meditate upon the Scriptures God has set up an Order of Men whose particular Vocation is to assist other Men as much as possible in the right understanding of the Divine Revelation And surely no possible Means ought to be neglected which are Subservient to that great end And if these Means were freely calmly and impartially us'd which would be if Ministers were fairly to represent the Reasons Pro and Con in Difficult Matters without deciding condemning and imposing then all necessary Truths would soon be discern'd and it would therefore easily be made to appear to all Christians what may be meant by the Creation attributed to Christ in Scripture or how far the understanding of that Point is necessary and in what Generality this and the like ought to be lest The Chief Instances then which the Trinitarians give of the pretended incredible Assertions implied in the Vnitarian Expositions are these That a Creature could perform the Office of a Creator And then That one in whom the Fulness of the God-head dwells should need the Assistance of Angels and on the other hand That a Creature should be more honourable than and should have the preheminence over and be named before the Power of God by the Holy Ghost understanding an Influence of the Divine Power or the Divine Inspiration That a Creature could perform the Office of a Creatour Even at most upon as good grounds the Trinitarians might make the same Difficulty against Men producing other Men or the
fine pretended that it seems marvellous that a Creature should be named before and should be said to have the preheminence over the Power of God by the Holy Ghost understanding the Influence of the Divine Power and Divine Inspiration it must be remembred both that by the Divine Inspiration or Influence of the Divine Power the Vnitarians do not understand a Person but a Property or an Act and that agreeably to the express Doctrine of Scripture they hold that Christ is made partaker of the Fulness of the Godhead in the manner we have spoken of before and just now have further specified so that for Desiring the Father he may at any time Dispose of the Divine Power and Inspiration and doth actually dispose thereof as is said according to what he pleases to ask it of God and therefore the Holy Spirit is represented as proceeding from the Father by the Son and the Holy Spirit is said to be Christ's Now it is not strange that the Disposer should be mentioned before the thing disposed of as it is in the Form of Baptism There is then no need to insist any longer upon this And so we have don with the second Particular importing that the Assertions of the Vnitarians are not uncredible and that their Interpretations are rational and agreeable to the stile and current of Scripture and therefore natural and obvious enough And this together with the following Particular being considered the Trinitarian Sentiment will appear to be wholly groundless and incontestably therefore altogether incredible For indeed is it likely that Christianity for many Ages having been altered in many weighty Points the present Trinitarian at least seemingly impossible and contradictory System has all this while remained the same that it was from the beginning and by the hands of the Platonists and Scholasticks has passed pure and undefiled In Summ. When some Texts seem susceptible of two Senses the one more literal but expresly irrational or contradictory impossible manifestly inconsistent with other Passages and the Current of Scripture and the other more strained or figurative but agreeable to the Scripture-Stile and reconcileable with Reason which of the two Senses do the generality of Christians and in particular Protestants commonly prefer in their Interpretations They unanimously hold as a standing Rule by which the Scripture is to be interpreted that it may be rightly understood as was shewn in the last Chapter That We are to reject that Sense which is manifestly absurd and inconsistent with express Texts and are then to hold by that which is reconcileable to Reason and Scripture tho' somwhat more remote from the Sound of the Words And indeed it would evidently be most unreasonable to follow other Measures We ought then most incontestably constantly to prefer that Interpretation which is consistent with Scripture and Reason before that which is inconsistent with both And this Consideration leads Us to the next Particular CHAP. XIII An Answer to the third Branch of the Objection 3. IT is possible and easy and warrantable to understand in an Vnitarian Sense all the Texts which the Trinitarians alledge for their Sentiment To evince the truth of which Proposition we shall consider those Texts which are mentioned in the Objection and instanced in as the strongest for the Anti-Vnitarian Cause and as for the others we shall refer the Reader to the Brief History of the Vnitarians or even to Grotius his Annotations but especially to the Works of the Fratres Poloni The Texts instanced in for the purpose aforesaid are those which either call Christ the Son of God by way of eminency or shew that Christ may and is to be Pray'd to and declare that God will have Men honour the Son even as they honour the Father As to the Texts which call Christ the Son of God by way of eminency an Observation of Dr. Sherlocks will go a great way to give a light into that Matter These are his words at Pages 71st and 72d of his Book against the Bishop of Gloucester That which entitles Creatures to the natural relation of Sonship to God is to receive their being from God in the likeness and resemblance of his own Nature Thus Angels are called the Sons of God and so is Adam who was immediately formed by God in his own Image and Likeness And thus som think that Christ who was as immediately formed by a Divine Power in the Womb of the Virgin as Adam was of the Dust of the Earth is for this reason called the Son of God See Luk. 1.35 where that reason is expresly given of Christ's being call'd the Son of God The Vnitarians to this Observation will in particular add that no Creature was ever made in so great a Likeness and Resemblance of the Divine Nature nor designed to so high a Dignity as Christ was and that this particularly is the reason why Christ is called the Son of God by way of eminency besides that He is actually God's Only-Begotten Son as we did observe from Luk. 1.35 This is a plain and a rational and after all an unexceptionable account of the Matter and therefore what Dr. Sherlock adds thereupon serves only to shew that the Scholastick or Platonick Trinitarian Sentiment of Christ's Sonship is impossible For this is certain and undeniable and yet if the Platonick or Scholastick Sentiment were true this could not be allowed of according to that System for he says that System implies that there being but one Son in Christ it is Heresy to hold that Christ is the Son of God in any other sense than by an Eternal Generation Christ as we have seen is called the Only-Begotten Son of God because he is the only Person whom God caused to be born of a Woman without the help of Man And in that sense he is God's Only Son as well as in this respect that he is the only Lord whom God has placed at the head of the Vniverse and to whom he has subjected all Creatures For Soveraigns and Kings are called the Sons of God Luk. 1.32 John 1.49 c. as is shewn in the Introduction of Dr. Patrick's Witnesses of Christianity and this is the Only Soveraign and King who is constituted the Lord of all other created Lords and Kings in which respect he is like to God which we have not well translated equal to God as also in respect of the exercise of the Divine Power in working the greatest Miracles whenever be pleased and whenever he will Som People are apt to imagin that even God being called the Father is a valid Proof of more Persons than One in the Divine Nature But seriously do they think that the Samaritan Women and common Soldiers were acquainted with the Scholastick or Platonick Trinity Yet these speak of a Son of God Mat. 27.54 and to the other our Saviour speaks of the Father as of Somwhat intelligible to them John 4.21 Conclude we then that by the Father we must understand God the
and consequently vastly enlarge the Natural Understanding in order to it's forming at the same time so many Thoughts and Conceptions It may be that an Angel or a Human Soul in a Spiritual Body has greater Capacities than we conceive and is all Hands and Eyes and Fars and Tongues and can clearly discern and hear and discourse and act upon a whole Nation But after all a finite Creature with the mere Strength of a Creature cannot comprehend the Universe Therefore an Angel or a Human Spirit cannot have all Power given him except God be with and in him in the manner aforesaid Likewise God may set up particular Kings in particular Places and give them vast Dominions and oblige their Subjects to be uncovered in their Presence and to bow the knee before them But in order that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of Things in Heaven and Things in Earth and Things under the Earth and that Christ may be enabled to receive these Homages and to govern the Universe and dispose fitly of all Creatures it is necessary that the Divine Majesty and Power and Wisdom be with and in this Man in the manner aforesaid Thus all the Lines of a Circle terminate to an individual Point in the Center A Spider circumscribed by and fixed in a Place teaches of its self no further than that Place but when it has weaved it's Web it may by the Means of those wonderful Threads act at a Distance from it's self and above it's own Power A Man with a Telescope pierces the Skies and discovers undiscerned Stars All this and infinitely more is the Divinity to the Man Jesus Christ He is in the Center of God and the Godhead is to him an infinite Circle all the Lines whereof as far as is necessary act upon him and uphold him and so he acts thereby The Influence of the Divine Nature dwelling in Christ and extending it self all over the Universe is the mighty Telescope whereby Christ sees all things and the infinite Web by which he is enabled to act every where And this acting is to be ascribed to him as well as to God or the Father and to him in this respect primarily or chiefly inasmuch as God doth all things in the Christian Oeconomy upon Christ's Account and at his Desire Indeed Christ wills nothing but what God wills But then God is pleas'd and willing now to do many things for the Sake of Christ and through his Mediation which He would not have done if it had not been for his Undertaking and his free and wonderful Condescension and Humiliation for the Race of Mankind and the Merit of his Death and the Covenant of Grace purchased by his Blood and his continual Intercession at the right hand of the Majesty on high Thus God and Christ are to be considered and sought to and honoured and worshipped and the Distinction that is to be made between them is evident God is of himself God and his Dominion is ever the most Supreme and thus He is to be Worshipped And Christ receives all things of God and his Kingdom is a Mediatory Kingdom and he is thus to be Worshipped And this is the Primitive and Scriptural Notion of Christ's Divinity The Heathens were particularly Criminal in these 3 respects 1. They set up of their own Heads and without any Warrant or Command some Mediators and some Symbols and Schechinas which they worshipped with likewise devised strange Rites and they made the Chiefest Part of their Religion to consist in the Worship of these they had such a vast Number of them 2. They set up many Supreme Gods Yet 3. They passed by the true God and worshipped Creatures and many of them Most Vicious Wicked Creatures for their Supreme Gods Which is the Meaning of Gal. 4 8 and Rom. 1 25. Whereby Religion became perfectly corrupted and unfit to purify Men and actually did as much harm as it was designed to do good Wherefore God would be own'd for the Only true God and requir'd to be Serv'd and Obey'd as such so willed that Men should not introduce any thing in his Service but what they had express Warrant for from Him either by the Light of Nature or the Light of Positive Revelation And that is the Meaning of Deut. 6 13. and Matth. 4 10. But all this hinders not but that tho' God is the Only Absolute and Independent Being who Only is to be Served as such and who Only is to be Worshipped with Ultimate or Divine Worship and who Only is the Fountain of Honour so that None besides Him ought to be Honoured but Those whom He Honours yet for all that Others besides God may when God pleases be Served and Honoured in an Inferiour Degree Relatively and in Obedience to God and so to his Glory and He may appoint a Mediator thro' whom We may come to Him Ephes 2.18 John 20 31 Phil. 2.11 God requiring it in order to his Glory and so it being done to that intent that is actually to glorify God and so is not to give his Glory to Another but to Himself Himself Only being ultimately served thereby See the aforequoted 18th Chap. of the 5th Book of Limborch's Theologia Christiana § 10. and an Vnitarian Pamphlet intituled A Vindication of the Worship of the Lord Jesus Christ P. 23 c. We may then incontestably Serve and Honour our Lord Jesus Christ as our Mediator and Mediatory King as was said tho' God Only is to be Served and Honoured as the Most Supreme and as the Eternal Fountain of Honour At the 11. Ve. of the 2. Ch. of the Phil. as we have intimated the Apostle shews expresly how that Matter ought to be distinguished when he says that it is God's Will we should honour and worship our Saviour and subject our selves to him and own him as our Lord viz. to the Glory of God the Father So that as was said it is evident the Honour we are to give to Christ is a Mediatory or Inferior Honour and is not ultimately to terminate on him but on the Father for whole Sake and at whose Command the said Honour is paid Howbeit tho' the Worship of Christ be not properly the Most Supreme yet it may be termed a Divine Worship in that Sense that Christ is said to be God We must needs then observe with St. Hilary concerning the difficult or figurative Expressions of Scripture that they are to be understood with Reason or in a reasonable sense Vâ—rba non Sono sed Sensu sapiunt Thus we may understand how Christ is God how we are to Call upon his Name and how he is to be Worshipped All Soveraigns are jealous of their Honour the Soveraigns of Great Britain would not endure that Wro-would of their Subjects should have Guards or should be served Kneeling Yet they freely allow it to their Lieutenant or Deputy because the Glory of it terminates to them For tho' the Lord Lieutenant be
to put an end to the Controversy and either excuse or justify all the Vnitarian Interpretations of Scripture how harsh soever they may otherwise appear c. The Scripture-Proofs of our Saviour's Divinity explained P. 55. I leave it to the Reader to summ up the Evidence it being so obvious and easily done and shall only shew what follows most incontestably from the whole including the Arguments for the Gespel-Terms of Communion handled in the Ireniâ—um Magnum and particularly in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno where as was said there are also Arguments as here and in Crell's Book against the Trinitarian System which I find no where satisfactorily answered and which appear indeed most express and unanswerable Howbeit it is my most earnest desire to be rightly informed and to see the Truth set into the greatest light CHAP. XV. The Inferences most incontestably following from the whole foregoing Discourse and the Gospel-Terms of Communion FROM the whole these four things do most incontestably follow as the least that can be granted to the Vnitarians by Protestants that impartially consider the Arguments treated of in the foregoing Discourse and in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno I. That the State of this Controversy is such that Men may be Vnitarians and be very sincere pious and inquisitive and that if Vnitarianism be an Error it is not a damnable and an intolerable one or an Heresy II. That in the Case of this most abstruse Controversy we ought in our Terms of Communion with relation thereunto to keep to the Generality of the Terms of Scripture and not Magisterially determine this Matter any farther than that Generality nor force or fright away the Vnitarians out of the Church-Society but ought to regulate our Publick Service and our Terms of Church-Union according to the utmost Generality of the Expressions of Scripture so as that Vnitarians may without Scruple joyn with Us therein seeing the Gospel-Terms of Communion and the Principles of Protestants require this Moderation and enjoyn that Method in reference to such Points as are so very difficult and intricate that sincere and inquisitive Persons may be at a loss and may mistake about them III. That therefore First in the Publick Service we ought to address the Current of our Prayers directly as well as ultimately to God in general in the Name thro' the Mediation of Christ in the Conclusion of them beseeching God to hear us 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 as has been shewn in general to address to him as to our Mediator or Mediatory Governor Soveraign in whom the Fulness of the God-head so dwells as abundantly and constantly to assist him in the Discharge of his Mediatory Office whereby he both acts for God and represents God is in some sense God 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 and ought not to think other Creeds necessary or expedient which are artificially fram'd on purpose to depart from that Generality and are incumbred with Human Decisions and Magisterial Impositions Thirdly no Subscription or Assent ought to be required of Clergy-men but to the Bible it self to Doctrines expressed in the Words of Scripture or in Terms that agree to the Scripture-Generality the Clergy-men's Declaration being admitted that they Subscribe and Assent to the things proposed to them but so far as they are agreable to the Generality of Scripture These Three Points not only follow necessarily from the 2d Inference but are implied in it and we rank them on a distinct Head only that the Principles in general which are the Grounds on which these Particulars are built may first be more distinctly observed to be necessarily deducible from the First Inference and from the Gospel-Terms of Communion and that then it may distinctly be considered what Particulars necessarily follow from those Principles that the said Particulars may upon those demonstrated Grounds be firmly established IV. That among all the other incontestable Reasons for this Generality in the Terms of Church-Union this is one which follows from the First and Second Inferences deserves a distinct rank Namely that this Method is the safest in a Controversy at least to be own'd by all considering Trinitarians to be most intricate and that incontestably it suffices to Pray to God in general to satisfy to the Duty of Praying to the God-head God in general including the whole God-head so that when God in general is directly ultimately Pray'd to all is certainly worshipped that is to be adored with Supreme Worship and when our Petitions are put up in the Name of Christ the Mediatory Honour due to our Saviour is thereby paid him being thus addressed to as the Mediator of the New Covenant in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwells as was said I. That the State of this Controversy is such that Men may be Vnitarians and be very sincere pious and inquisitive and that if Vnitarianism be an Error it is not a damnable and an intolerable one or a Heresy This follows from the high Probability at least of the Arguments for Vnitarianism to say no more of them for after all upon mature consideration these Arguments seem to be express and unanswerable and on the other hand it seems that a Solution is given to the Chiefest Objections of the Scholastick or Platonick Trinitarians Howbeit this at least cannot be denied to be a most difficult intricate Point And admitting that the Vnitarian System has no higher evidence than the other and is encumbred with as great Difficulties to which Sentiment I have often for a great while been most inclined even since I began to write on this Subject esteeming it to be God's will and intention that we should for the most part suspend our judgment about it and indeed it may with great appearance of reason be judged the fittest not to be too decisive in so mysterious and abstruse a Matter yet no advantage can thence be taken against the Vnitarians and every Trinitarian that carefully and sincerely considers the Vnitarian Arguments seeing they are so weighty and considerable must at least grant that they are such that Men may take them to be good Arguments and yet be very Honest hearty Lovers of God and to the best of their power Inquisitive and that consequently if Vnitarianism be an Error it is not a damnable and an intolerable one or a Heresy For is it credible that God will assign the dreadful Torments of Hell for an Error which good Men who sincerely and diligently seek to know his Will and to practice it cannot avoid taking for a Truth God punishes nothing but what has some Wickedness in it or some Pravity and Malice Now what Malice or Wickedness
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
others that disagree from our opinions I am sure this will secure us but I know not any thing else that will Ib. P. 33. If Men must be permitted in their Opinions and Christians must not persecute Christians there is as much reason to reprove all those oblique Arts ungentle and unchristian and destructive of Learning and Ingenuity as Burning or Suppressing the Books and Writings of those of different Sentiments forcing them to recant c. It is a strange Industry us'd by our Fore-Fathers Of all those Heresies which gave them battle we have absolutely no Record or Monument but what themselves who were their Adversaries have transmitted to us c. Ib. P. 34. Of the same consideration is Mending of Authors not to their own mind but to ours Ib. P. 35. I am not sure that such an Opinion is Heresy neither would other Men be so sure as they think for if they did consider it aright and observe the infinite deceptions and causes of deceptions in wise Men and in all doubtful Questions and did nor mistake Confidence for Certainty Ib. P. 39. It is of geatest consequence to believe right in the Question of the Validity or Invalidity of a Death-Bed Repentance and the consequences of the Doctrin of Predetermination are of deepest and most material consideration and yet these greatest Concernments where a Laberty of Prophesying in these Questions has been permitted have made no distinct Communion no Sects of Christians The Liberty of Prophesying P. 3. Salvation is in special and by name annexed to the belief of those Articles only which have in them the indearments of our services or the support of our confidence or the satisfaction of our hopes Ib. P. 8. The Apostles or their Contemporaries and Disciples compos'd a Creed to be a Rule of Faith to all Christians which Creed unless it contain'd all the intire object of Faith and the foundation of Religion it cannot be imagin'd to what purpose it should serve and it was so esteemed by the whole Church of God c. Ib. P. 9. But if this was sufficient to bring Men to Heaven then why not now If the Apostles admitted all to their Communion that believed this Creed why shall we exclude any that preserve the same intire Ib. P. 11. Neither are we oblig'd to make these Articles more particular and minute than the Creed For altho' whatsoever is certainly deduced from any of these Articles made already so explicite is as certainly true and as much to be believed as the Article it self yet because it is not certain that our deductions from them are certain what one calls evident is so obscure to another that he believes it false it is the best and only safe course to rest in that explication the Apostles have made Ib. P. 12. But if we go farther besides the easiness of being deceived we relying upon our own discourses which tho' they may be true and then bind us to follow them but yet no more than when they only seem truest yet they cannot make the thing certain to another much less necessary in it self And since God would not bind us upon pain of Sin and Punishment to make deductions our selves much less would he bind us to follow another Man's Logick as an Article of our Faith Ib. P. 13. For it is a demonstration that nothing can be necessary to be believed under pain of Damnation but such Propositions of which it is certain that God has spoken and taught them to us and of which it is certain that this is their sense and purpose For if the sense be uncertain we can no more be obliged to believe it in a certain sense than we are to believe it at all if it were not certain that God delivered it c. Ibid. Here to these words I would only add that this Generality may suffice at least for Terms of Church-Vnion and that Men are answerable to God Whether or no they do what lies in their power to understand every Article as well as they can Howbeit certainly fallible Men are not Magisterially to prescribe in most intricate Matters or make then their Deductions a Rule to other Christians Perhaps the Apostles themselves knew not all Mysteries or understood not perfectly all the obscure Expressions which they had written when they were inspired as the Prophets did not always fully conceive the whole Meaning of all their Prophesies and Writings How should this Consideration then humble Us and keep Us from a decisive magisterial and imposing Spirit And this also I affirm altho' the Church of any one denomination or represented in a Council shall make the Deduction or Declaration Ib. P. 14. Particular Churches are bound to allow Communion to all those that profess the same Faith upon which the Apostles did give Communion P. 262. To refuse our Charity to those who have the same Faith because they have not all our Opinions which we over-value is Impious and Schismatical c. Ib. The Arians and Meletiant joined against the Catholicks The Catholicks and Novatians joyned against the Arians Now if Men would do that for Charity which they do for Interest it were handsomer and more ingenuous P. 263. Men would do well to consider whether or no such proceedings do not derive the guilt of Schism upon them who least think it and whether of the two is the Schismatick he that makes unnecessary and inconvenient Impositions or he that disobeys them because he cannot without doing violence to his Conscience submit to them P. 265. He that is most displeased at another Man's Error may be as much deceived in his Understanding P. 266. The word Heresy is used in Scripture indifferently c. P. 18. The further the Succession went from the Apostles the more forward Men were in numbring Heresies and that upon slighter and more uncertain grounds P. 32. I am willing to believe their sense of the word Heresy was more gentle than it is now P. 39. They whose Age and Spirits were far distant from the Apostles had also other judgments concerning Faith and Heresy than the Apostles had Ibid. In all the Animadversions against Errors by the Apostles no pious Person was condemn'd no Man that did invincibly err or bona mente but somthing that was amiss in genere morum was that which the Apostles did redargue P. 22. If a Man mingles not a Vice with his Opinion tho' he be deceiv'd in his Doctrin his Error is his Misery not his Crime it makes him an Argument of weakness and an object of pity but not a Person sealed up to ruin and reprobation P. 24. The Epistle of Constantine to Alexander and Arius tells the truth and chides them both The Emperor calls their Different a vain piece of a Question and a fruitless Contention For tho' says he the Matter be grave yet because neither necessary nor explicable the Contention is trifling Christians should not fall at variance upon such Disputes considering our Understandings
to the Arians such as we have described who from the beginning was a God in the highest signification of the inserior senses in which that title is used in Scripture and who is assisted of God in the manner we have declared it is very rational and true to say of him that he cannot do the Divine Works of himself but that he doth them only as he is taught and assisted by the Father to do them To which agrees what he says at the 10th Verse of the 14th Chapter of the same Gospel the Father not a Second Divine Person that dwels in me he properly doth the Works inasmuch as it is he that assists me to do them And accordingly Christ declared that tho' he had a vast Power even then granted him and was enabled to do mighty Miracles yet God the free Donor and Disposer thereof had reserv'd infinitely more Prerogative to himself and the Disciples were not to doubt but that God from whom Christ had all that he had was still greater than he John 14 28. V. In like manner a Person that were literally the Almighty God himself could not say to the Father as Christ doth John 17.5 Glorify thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was For whatever the Trinitatarians may say or think of it a Person that were literally the Almighty God could no more be at any time without his Glory than he could ever be without his Nature and Essence or could cease to exist For the Highest Glory is inseparable from the Supreme God for as he exists necessarily from all Eternity so he is necessarily All-Perfect and consequently All-Glorious But the Word being such as we have described having received all his Perfection from the mere free Bounty of the Father and holding the Height of his Glory precariously from the Hand of the Supreme God and as but during the Pleasure of the Almighty this Sublime Creature then I say that is called the Word might be divested of the greatest part of his Glory for a time and be reduced to and contracted into the Narrowness and Lowliness of an Innocent Human Soul for the Undertaking and Performance of a peculiar Office during which considering the Anguish and Difficulties attending it this Person may well be supposed to groan and long for that excellent and inestimable Glory and Happiness which he enjoyed with God before the World was being then glorified and dignified with an extraordinary and an eminent and intimate partaking even of the Divine Nature Soveraignty and Power which in becoming Man he in a great measure actually deposited into the hands of God to receive again indeed afterward with Interest whereas as was said it is impossible for the Almighty God at all to deposite at any time his Perfection Power and Glory See the afore-quoted Treatise of Crellius Book 1st Section 2d Chapter 18th on the Argument That all things are given to Christ from the Father VI. The last Argument of the Vnitarians which I shall now take notice of and that also briefly considering all that has been said here and elsewhere is That it is expresly declared in several Places of Scripture that the Father Only is the Supreme God John 17.3 This is Life eternal to know thee only Father to be the true God and Jesus Christ to be thy Messenger It is evident that that must necessarily be the Construction of the words For the Adjective Only when it is employed to exclude other Subjects from the partaking of the Predicate belongs to the Subject and not to the Predicate Now it is incontestable seeing the Reason of the Thing and the Scope of the Argument that is the Resolution of these grand Articles Namely Who is the true God And Which is the Way to eternal Life and indeed it is agreed by all that in this place the word Only is employed to exclude other Subjects from the partaking of the Predicate Wherefore all others besides the Father are hereby necessarily excluded from being the true God For if all others were not so then none could be suppos'd to be hereby excluded and so the reasoning would be insignificant See Crell in the beginning of his afore-quoted Treatise Ephes 4.4 5 6. There is one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all The Father only is that God who is above all or who is properly the True and Supreme God 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus That it is the Father only who is that one God is then evident in that Christ is opposed to that one God And the Mediator between God and Men is said to be a Man and not a God-Man See Crell on that Text. 1 Cor. 8.6 To us there is but one God the Father To which Place we may joyn the 9th Verse of the 3d. of St. James's That one then who is properly the God is the Father of whom are all things And under him there is but one Universal Lord by and for whom the Father prepared all things that this most God-like Lord might be at the Head of them to the greatest Glory of the Father the eternal and Supreme the only Wise perfectly and in himself and the only one the true God See 1 Tim. 1.17 compared with Rom. 15.6 and 16.27 1 Tim. 1.17 Vnto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever Rom. 16.27 To God only Wise be Glory thro' Jesus Christ Rom. 15.6 With one Mind and with one Mouth glorify God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ So Jam. 3.9 Thus we see the Vnitarians not only shew some most express or expresly seeming Contradictions in the Platonick or Scholastick Trinity which Contradictions cannot be denied to be most express unless it can be shewn expresly and invincibly that they are not such but they also produce several Texts which appear most express and evident for the Vnitarian System Upon which account they think they are the more authorized and incontestably warranted to consult also as they do in this Matter the Light of Reason which as was said furnishes them with several unanswerable Arguments of the Impossibility of the Scholastick or Platonick Trinity of real Divine Persons in one God as may be seen in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno and consequently of the Reasonableness of the Vnitarian System and the Vnitarian Interpretations They reckon that the Arguments taken from Reason and those taken from Scripture do very much strengthen one another Howbeit they chiefly insist on those taken from Scripture as appears from that Treatise of Crellius which has been so often quoted Here then it is very fit to remember Dr. Sherlock's Words which we quoted before and which are to this purpose That if any Text be produced which proves Christ properly or in his own Person to be but a Creature this ought