Article with this Reflection It is altogether incredible that the Scripture has been materially corrupted but it is highly probable that the Writings of the Doctors may have been considerably changed and altered CHAP. VII A Farther Continuation of the Answer to the First Objection 6. HOwbeit it still in a great measure appears that the generality of the Primitive Christians were Vnitarians and even that the generality of the remaining Authors of the first three Centuries were far enough from being of that Opinion which is now called Orthodox it being evident that they incline more to the Vnitarian than to the present Trinitarian Sentiment When the rigid Platonists were become for the most part the Masters and the Strongest somtime before the Council of Nice as well as after it they expressed a blind and furious Zeal for their new Notions concerning the Son or Word and shew'd as much as they could their ill will to the Ancient Christians the Vnitarians and to those Churches and Parties that retained the Primitive Doctrin of the Gospel They therefore and that was the least harm they did them called them by several Nick-names as Nazarens Ebionites Mineans Alogi and the like The Jews had begun in the Apostles's time to call the Christians that were among them Nazarens and Mineans which last signifies Hereticks or Sectaries and the other is a Denomination from Our Saviour whom the Unbelievers in derision called the Nazarene as it appears Act. 24.5 and 14. The Jewish and most ancient Christians were also as some think called afterwards by the Platonists Ebionites which signifies the Poor either as some pretend from a Man named Ebion who they say was a great Denfender of them or because they were the ordinary and poorer sort of People who preserved the longest the Primitive Doctrin and could the most hardly be brought to relish the Notions of Platonism or as Eusebius asserts because the Platonists accused them to have but poor and low Opinions of Christ In fine among the Gentile Converts the Maintainers of the Primitive Doctrine were by some called Alogi or Alogians as if they believed not Christ to be the Logos or the Word because they believed not an eternal Word like Plato and it is said that some of these Gentile Christians received not at first the Gospel of St. John as the generality of Christians admited not presently some other Books of the New Testament particularly St. John's Revelation and the Epistle to the Hebrews which generally for 400 Years was not received as Canonical It is too usual to go from one extream to another and it may be therefore that some of those Gentile Converts who saw the absurdity of Plato's Polytheism and were told that Plato's and St. John's Expressions were the same and exactly agreed imagined that this was a counterfeit Piece of the Platonists and Cerinthians to uphold their Divin Hypostasis distinct from the Father and so at first gave not themselves leave to consider and examin what might be the true Sense of St. John's terms and the Intention of his Gospel Howbeit the Platonists in process of time hated and defamed the Vnitarians not merely for what might have been amiss among some of them but in general for their being Vnitarian Christians And in that they followed the Jews who from the beginning persecuted the Christians and gave them what reproachful Names they could some of which always remained to the Jewish Converts that is to say to those Christians who originally came from among the Jews who were not generally vitiated by the Philosophy of Plato and whom therefore as we have said the Platonists called by the same Names that the obdurate and unbelieving Jews had given them namly Nazarens and Mineans Now it appears that these Nazarens Mineans Ebionites and the Jewish Christiâ—â—s were taken to be much the same and that they and the Alogi were Vnitarians were from the beginning were most numerous and continued a considerable Party for several Centuries till they were in a great measure destroyed and extirpated by the most violent Persecutions of the Platonists Crigen says that all Jews who own Jesus to be Christ are called Ebionites Contr. Cels. L. 2. p. 56. Theodoret attests that the Nazarens honour the Lord Christ only as a Holy Man Haeret. Fab. L. 2. C. 3. Epiphanius writes that the Nazarens and Ebionites held the same Heresy Haeres 30. C. 2. It is not impossble but that Epiphanius as well as Origen and other Platonists confounded with the Ebionites the other Jewish Christians who generally did not platonize but followed the true Vnitarian System whether we suppose it to be that which was maintain'd by Arius or that which is now known under the Name of Socinianism St. Jerom acknowledges that the Jewish Mineans vulgarly called Nazarens were to that Day over all Orient Ep. ad August There indeed was the Seat of the Jewish Christians And from the 24th Chapter of the 3d. Book and the 25th of the fifth Book of Eus-bius his Ecclesiastical History it may further be gathered that these as well as the Gentile Vnitarians were the Successors of the Primitive and First Christians and were defamed only by the Malice of the Platonists Yet all this Evidence is from the Testimony of professed Enemies there remaining now no other Authors that expresly treat of these things As for the Alogi their very Nick-name bespeaks them to be Vnitarians Epiphanius is the first who gave to them the Name of Alogi Before him they were simply called Christians Epiphanius speaks of them as the ancient Vnitarians of the Gentile Converts But we have above all other Evidences an express Testimony of the Faith of the Primitive Christians in their Symbol justly called the Apostles Creed which manifestly is altogether Vnitarian For it is a Profession of Faith in one God that is the Father Almighty And every thing that is there said of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Description not of an eternal God but of a Creature or Human Person highly exalted by God And of the Holy Ghost no more is said but that it is a Holy Spirit or a Holy Breath or Holy Inspiration The Compilers of the Creed pretended to know no more of it And it is a Generality which the Vnitarians highly approve of but which hitherto the Trinitarians seem not to be pleased to stick to If they were to make a Confession of their Faith they would not express it as it is here or if they did we would readily agree with them To believe in is a Phrase that signifies no more than to believe for the Creed teaches us to believe in the Holy Catholick Church as well as in the Holy Spirit and in one God the Father Almighty As for the Antiquity and Authority of this Creed we have the unanimous Opinion of the Fathers as it appears in their Writings and as is observed by Ruffinus in particular who flourished in the Year 360 that it was compiled by the
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
Sun causing the Seeds of things to grow unto Perfection and into a beautiful Order Indeed the Sun is not properly a Creatour nor are Men properly Creatours but they are Instruments in the Hands of the Creatour God is pleas'd to make use of them in the effecting of those Works but all the while He concurrs with them as well as prepares the Subject for them He not only provides the Matter and Means and endues the Instruments with a fit Capacity but He also upholds and assists them and works with as well as by them In like manner the Vnitarians observe it is not said that the Word is the Creatour or Maker but that by him God made the Universe When the Word was created or that most excellent Person which is the most express Image of the Divine Wisdom and is therefore in that sense call'd the Wisdom of God the first Being which God then produced and which with the Instrumental Concurrence of the Word He fashioned and perfected was according to the most illustrious Vnitarians another very eminent Creature which not only for distinction-sake but also for his excellent Perfection and the designation of his Office was called the Holy Spirit and the Power of God But tho' the Word had a part in the fashioning or modelling of him or in the medial and instrumental pouring vital or spiritual influences upon him yet he had so little share in the Work in comparison of that which God had in it that not the Word himself but God only is to be reckoned as the Producer or Maker of that Holy Spirit And for the same reason God only is called the Author of all the other Creatures tho' both the Word and the Holy Spirit had a hand together with God in the drawing of them out of the Chaos God prepared the Chaos and having created the Word and by the Word the Spirit by the breathing and moving of the Spirit he gave Motion to other Creatures that were set into a sit Order to that end Yet all Creatures and even the Holy Spirit are said to belong to the Word because in the creating of them God designed to Subject them all to the Word and accordingly they were all Subjected to him from the beginning tho' then so only as Servants are Subject to a Son in his Minority in his Father's House whereas after Christ's Passion and Exaltation they were Subjected to him as to the Master of the House himself or as to a Son com to Age to whom the Father commits the Government of the House If by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel be to be understood not only the First created Spirit but also a Divine Virtue and Influence united to and assisting that most excellent Creature it is easy to conceive that the Word might be Instrumental in Creating the Chaos or the World out of the Chaos Howbeit nothing in Scripture or Reason contradicts the System implying that the Chaos is an eternal Emanation of God that it is a confus'd Mixture of unactive Material and Spiritual Natures that Creating is the putting some of them in a certain Motion and Order that all Spiritual Creatures have a Material Vehicle that the Material Vehicle being prepared God with what somtimes is called his Word what is called his Breath forces into it some Portion of the Spiritual Nature scattered in the Chaos that what the Scripture somtimes also calls the Word that is the Soul of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit thereby then meaning a Creature are the largest Portions of the Spiritual Part of the Chaos that God ever put together and that the Word and Holy Spirit being created God made use of them to Create or Breath upon and Put into a fit Motion and Order the rest of the Creatures By the H. Spirit then so far as that title may be applied to other beside God may be understood the Chief of the Elect Angels or of the Seven Archangels 1 Tim. 5.21 which are represented immediately surrounding standing before the Throne of Glory Rev. 1.4 Most probably such a glorious Creature as incomparably surpasses all the other Archangels in Excellency of Nature is then primarily to be understood by the H. Spirit Yet it may be also that the whole Body of Angels under him consequently every Angel may sometime be thereby meant For the term Holy Spirit may be a Collective Word implying then several Holy Spirits or all the Holy Angels every Holy Angel being a Holy and Pure Spirit And what all the Subordinate Angels do at the Command of their Cheif is reck'ned as done by him who when he has receiv'd the Orders of the Word divides to them their Tasks and originally is the Holy Spirit or Holy Angel by excellency and so in that respect these Works are represented as performed by One Holy Spirit and the whole Body of Holy Angels is then reputed as if it were but One Holy Angel as in speaking of what is done by Devils the Scripture mentions but One of those Impure Beings as if there were but one such the Evil One or the Vnholy Spirit what all the Devils do being ascribed to their Chief who Commands and Directs them in all things Howbeit there is no reason why we may not think that One Immense Spirit next to God and the Word may not be suppos'd to do all that is attributed to the Holy Spirit For the Excellency of the Holy Spirit may be so great as to have incomparably greater Powers and Perfections than all the Angels and all other Inferior Creatures put together and even almost to equal the Word except in Dignity One Sun and One Moon pour their Influences effectually upon all the Seeds and Creatures in the World And do we think that God could not frame an excellent Spirit or two excellent Spirits so powerful as to be able to do the like to all Human Spirits on Earth and to shine upon them all and enlighten and guide them and suggest good Motions to them and watch alone over them if not with the Concurrence also of other Angels which yet cannot be doubted of as Spiritual Stars in comparison of those other most excellent Spirits Yet all these Holy Spirits are but the disposing Instruments and Ministers of the Divine Power which at their working together works by and with them The Word has the disposition of the Divine Power of that which is his particular and ordinary Attendant and even of that which God himself immediately exercises and of that also the disposition of which is given to the Holy Spirit and to the Angels For the Word having receiv'd that Priviledge has made the Holy Spirit partaker of a vast Share of the Divine Power above all Angels according to this System And to every Angel according to his Station is alloted likewise by the Word 's Appointment Authorized thereunto by God a certain Portion of the Administration of the Divine Power which always accompanies
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
to our Decisions and profess the eternal Generation three Persons in one God-head and the Equality of the Son and Spirit with the Father which is to judge for others in a most abstruse and obscure Subject and to require of them as Terms of Union to act against their Conscience as the generality of them believe and be hypocrites and utter lies and grosly equivocate in the greatest Solemnities of Religion whereby many Souls may be caused to perish for whom Christ died See The Consequences of the Modalists System The Athanasian and Nicene Creeds are too express or particular and magisterial for so subling Speculations left in so great a Generality as we see these are in Scripture We have no right therefore to set up such magisterial imperious Terms of Communion according to the Protestant Principles as it appears from what has been said but We are necessarily oblig'd to keep to the Terms of Church-Vnion that we have here described seeing it appears that We are to receive the Vnitarians and not to drive them away out of our Communion it being incontestable upon impartial consideration that the Vnitarian Controversy is of that nature that Men may be Vnitarians and be very sincere and inquisitive and consequently not to be rejected and it being to be remarked that the Generality of the Scripture-Terms is sufficient and safe from the whole it being necessarily to be inferred in the last place IV. That this Generality in Terms of Church-Vnion is a safe Method in so intricate a Matter and is incontestably sufficient all being certainly worshipped when God in general is directly and ultimately Prayed to that is to be adored with Supreme Worship and the Mediatory Honour due to our Saviour being paid him when our Petitions are put up in the Name of Christ as our Intercessor and Redeemer most beloved of God and exalted at God's Right Hand and so is addressed to as the Mediator of the New Covenant as was said In most intricate Matters that certainly cannot but be most safe which is subject to the least Inconveniencies and which is in some measure sufficient And incontestably it is sufficient to worship God with Supreme Worship for all that is God is Worshipped when God in general is Worshipped Wherefore the generality of the Reformed Churches content themselves to address their Prayers in general to God And some of the most Learned Trinitarians maintain that it is not lawful to do otherwise but that formal Addresses to different Most Supreme Persons in Divine Worship set up different Objects of Supreme Worship For the same reasons in the Publick Terms of Vnion a general Profession of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the general Expressions of Scripture is both the safest and is certainly sufficient And all this doth even necessarily follow from the 1st and 2d Inferences For there it appears that God absolutely requires no more for Terms of Vnion What God therefore is content with to that end is to that end incontestably safest as well as sufficient so that if Men instead of taking upon them to be Magisterial Judges would have stuck to the Latitude and Generality of Scripture for Terms of Agreement and Union all had been well We must needs then own that the Scripture-Expressions to be adhered to in Terms of Church-Vnion at least will suffice to all the indispensibly necessary ends of Salvation and that consequently it is sufficient in general to know and believe that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit and Inspiration and Power of God and that Christ is the Only-Begotten Son of God in whom the Fulness of the God-head that may be communicated and that is an Influence of all the Divine Perfections most intimately dwells and that he is in some sense God It is evident that this System furnishes the same Motives to love God and Christ and to practise the Precepts of the Gospel that the other System doth For if one Divine Person with the Influences and Assistances of his Wisdom and Power be suppos'd to do together with Christ all that belongs to our Salvation have we the less reason to be thankful to God and Christ and to hearken to the Gospel-Injunctions than if we suppos'd three Divine Persons or called God three Persons It is as effectual therefore to the ends of Christianity to hold that the Spirit is the Power of God and that Christ most eminently acts for God and is most intimately united with God by the means of the Divine Influence dwelling in him so that when Christ is obey'd and lov'd thereby God is actually lov'd and obey'd Christ being thus lookt upon both as most excellently and most extraordinarily representing God and as being in some sense God Many Trinitarians do expresly assert that the Second Person is but a continual Acting of the Father Why may not the same be said of the Holy Spirit and Inspiration Or why may not the Word and the Spirit be stiled Influences as well as Acts of the Father Howbeit We may certainly very fitly conclude this Subject with the Words of the late Dr. Sherlock at the 7th Page of that Book of his intituled The Present State of the Socinian Controversy where concerning the human and unscriptural Expressions three Persons Of the same Substance Essence and the like he has this judicious remark The Catholick Faith does not depend upon the use of these terms for it was before them Now this is all that I plead for that these and the like unscriptural terms be not lookt upon as necessary for Christian-Communion but that Christians may be so reasonable and just as to Vnite in the Generality of the Expressions of Scripture which it is evident God has judg'd sufficient since He thought fit to use them as He has done that is in the Generality of which they appear susceptible Incontestably then 't is neither Necessary nor indeed consequently Safe nor Just in such most Intricate Matters to go beyond the very express Words of Scripture in Terms and Acts of Church-Communion Besides Are not the Tares as well as Wheat to be suffered in the Church by Christ's Order Math. 13.30 The Scripture-Latitude must needs therefore be THE TERMS OF UNION We need not and ought not to be more express or determining and imposing than the Scripture Tho' the Person of Christ were not fully known yet notwithstanding that there is no other Name by which Penitent Men are Saved He may be the Saviour of all them in every Nation who do righteousness and for his Sake God may accept of their sincere Repentance and Obedience As Amyraldus judiciously observed if a Prince has been graciously pleased to ransom a Captive or pay the Debts of a Poor Prisoner that Redeemed one is not the less ransomed and made free tho' he do not perfectly or exactly know all that belongs to the Person by whom he is redeemed all that is reasonably and indispensably requisite being that he should do what he can to
imply an Influence of the Divine Virtue yet God the Holy Ghost and the Inspiration a Divine Person certainly are not Scriptural Terms And the Vnitarians generally believe that in such intricate Matters and particularly concerning the Object of Worship and the making Something distinctly an Object of Worship We must not go beyond express Injunctions According to Scripture they worship Christ to the Glory of the Father as was said And in particular they ultimately worship the Father for his giving the Divine Inspiration The Governors of the Church are humbly desir'd to give Publickly their Opinion of these the like aforementioned Reasons this undoubtedly being a Subject that deserves all the illustration that according to the Obligations of Christian Charity they can give to it Tho' all that is possible ought to be done for Peace-sake yet on the other hand nothing ought to be done against Conscience and tho' some of the Vnitarians might condescend to most of the Scholastick Trinitarian Expressions yet they cannot generally approve them III. What is inferr'd from the Vnitarian Arguments remains in force so that it is an indispensible Duty to profess and establish the Gospel-Terms of Communion and to keep to the seeming and most manifest and apparent Generality of the Expressions of Scripture for Terms of Church-Vnion tho' the Trinitarians and some Vnitarians should opine that the Vnitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with the Trinitarians and even tho' there were in God what might truly be call'd three Persons For 1. If there be Somewhats in God that may be call'd three Persons which yet indeed seems absolutely both impossible in it self and not expresly implied in Scripture but contrary to many Texts yet not only that Doctrine seems absolutely unintelligible but certainly it is most obscurely revealed and but drawn from most intricate and uncertain Deductions and on the other hand the Vnitarian Arguments against the calling any thing in God three Persons are incontestably such that Men may be sincerely inquisitive and really think them to be solid Upon such most abstruse Difficulties We ought not to act rashly and condemn or reject sincere and inquisitive Persons God cannot be supposed indispensibly to require of every one to believe explicitely what he has left so difficult and obscure nor consequently to have allow'd any one to determine this Point Magisterially so as to make the Determination of it a necessary Term of Church-Communion Then it follows it is God's Will that as has been said in Terms and Acts of Church Union we should content our selves with the Expressions and Generality of Scripture And so the Human Imposition of the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds and of Publickly Praying to the Holy Ghost and in Publick Assemblies and Church-Service using the term three Persons is a piece of Presumption and Spiritual Tyranny and Oppression The Scripture says not expresly that the Son and Spirit are equal to the Father c. 2. The Generality of the Scripture-Terms as was shewn is undoubtedly sufficient For tho' God might be said to be three Persons yet not only it cannot be thought as has been remarked that under the benign Oeconomy of the Gospel God has made that indispensibly Necessary which at least seems so intricate and obscure and about which sincere and inquisitive Persons may mistake but besides as was also before observ'd when God is worshipped is not all ador'd that is the Object of Divine Worship The Trinitarians own that the unscriptural term Persons is us'd so improperly of God that what is meant thereby is most unaccountable perfectly incomprehensible Now that is an invincible Argument that that term is not necessary The Vnitarians do not deny the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature Supposing then that by the Divine Word and Spirit be meant Somewhats more then Wisdom and Inspiration as the Vnitarians who are not for determining in such obscure Matters will not contradict but that it may be so yet seeing that that whatever it be is absolutely unknown unintelligible it concerns Us not to ascribe Names to it cannot be indeed the Subject of our disquisition Howbeit at least we should take care not to advance any thing concerning these Matters that appears inconsistent with any Text but should rather stick to that which is safe and sufficient And it is certain the Scripture no where says we should Pray to the Holy Spirit in particular and it expresly sets forth Christ as the Mediator betwixt God and Men so that it is incontestably sufficient to come to God thro' the Mediation of Christ and to honour Christ as the Mediatory King under God tho' united to God as intimately as possible as was said For tho' all things are subjected to Christ yet it is to the Glory of God the Father and to the end that God may be most glorified and may most universally and illustriously reign in and by and thro' Christ So that in making Christ the King of Kings or the Universal King under God and the Head of the Church God did not abdicate the Government or divest himself of his Majesty but still remained ever the Most Supreme and reserved to himself to direct Christ and to favour his Intercession and to receive thro' him the Homages of Men Christ doing all in the Name of God And accordingly the Apostles directed their Prayers to God Acts 4 24 c. and commanded the Faithful to address themselves to him Phil. 4 6 thro' Jesus Christ as it is in the following Verse Phil. 4 7 that in his Name and thro' his Mediation they might obtain their Requests of the Father according to Christ's Promise John 14 13 John 16 23 that what they should pray for to the Father in his Name he would second by his Intercession so would do it for them that the Father might be glorified in the Son For our Saviour says expresly in John 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name He will give it you 3. The Arguments for the Scripture-Terms of Church Vnion with respect to such most intricate and abstruse Matters as the Platonick or Scholastick Speculations concerning the Doctrin of the Holy Trinity are evermore solid and invincible and as was observed a contrary Method is wholly inconsistent with the Principles of Protestants which import That the Scripture is a sufficient and the only Rule That there is no living Magisterial Judge of Controversies That Particular Christians are in such a case to examin and judge for themselves c. 4. Many sincere and inquisitive Persons may scruple other Terms than these which are incontestably good sufficient and the only warrantable ones for Terms of Church-Communion in such abstruse and intricate Matters And as was shewn it is certain the term three Persons is unscriptural and consequently cannot be absolutely necessary Wherefore surely Christian Charity obliges us not to hazard unnecessarily in such difficult Matters the Destruction of those Souls for which
purpose The Church says he dispersed thro' the whole World has both from the Apostles and their Disciples received that Faith which is in one God the Father Almighty and in one Jesus Christ the Son of God incarnated for our Salvation and in one Holy Spirit who by the Prophets published the Dispensations of God Jesus Christ is our Lord and God and Saviour and King according to the good Pleasure of the Invisible Father advers haeres L. 1. C. 2. He who has no other God above him is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Ib. C. 19. And in speaking of that Saying of Christ that he knew not the Day and Hour of Judgment he says The Father is above all things for the Father says Christ is greater than I Wherefore in knowledge also the Father is declared to have the Preeminence Ib. L. 2. C. 49. The Apostles would not call any one of his own Persor Lord but him that exerciseth Lordship over all even God the Father and his Son who has received from the Father the Lordship of all the Creation Ib. L. 3. C. 6. The Apostles confessed the Father and Son to be God and Lord but neither named any other God nor confessed any other to be Lord. Ib. C. 9. I invocate thee O Lord the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who art the only true God above whom there is no other God who rulest over all and dost in domination besides our Lord Jesus Christ rule also over the Holy Spirit Ib. C. 6. By these Passages it appears that Irenaeus held the Father alone to be God in the most eminent sense of that word and the Son to be Lord and God under the Father but the Holy Spirit to be neither Lord nor God Yet he might hold the Holy Spirit to be above the Angels and 't is probable he understood thereby what the Vnitarians do These Matters being left in a great Generality in Scripture the Fathers explained them as they thought best That liberty of inquiry and examination must be allowed of so those explications and interpretations be but offer'd as Opinions and Conjectures but be not Magisterially imposed by any Man on other Men. For to follow the Design and Intention of Scripture Christians must Unite in the Generality of the Terms of Scripture as we see it in the Apostles Creed If these Measures had always been observed Platonism had done but little harm It seems that Platonism made the Platonizing Fathers differ from the strict Vnitarians and Arians I mean the Ancient and Primitive Christians that held the Sentiment that Arius revived or improved For it seems he believed after them that the Word like other Creatures was made out of Nothing But it seems Plato as after him his Christian Disciples of the Number of whom Irenaeus seems to be taught that the Word was created out of the Substance of God Dalaeus observes in the last quoted Place of his aforesaid Book that Tertullian tho' the most thorow-stitcht Platonist of his time had much the same Thoughts and held that God the Father produced the Word out of himself and made him his Son but that the Father is the whole Substance and the Son a Portion and Derivation of that whole In another Place the same Tertullian says expresly that there was a time when the Son was not Adv. Hermogen C. 3. and it seems that by the Holy Spirit-he means only the Vertue and Power of God De Praescript C. 13. Novatian says that the Holy Spirit is less than Christ De Trin. C. 24. moreover that once the Son was not and that before him was nothing besides the Father C. 11. Whereby he positively asserts that the Father alone is from all Eternity and consequently that the Father alone is God in the eminent Sense of that word Which is very different from the Sentiment of the rigid Platonists and the present Trinitarians who hold the Son and Holy Spirit to be from all Eternity as well as the Father and to be equal among themselves and co-equal with him as it is in the Creed of Athanasius Now those that do not assert the Son and Spirit to be eternal and consequently not to have a necessary Existence nor unlimited Perfections nor unborrowed Powers or Powers that they have not received freely from another may very well pass for Vnitarians seeing they make not the Son and Spirit to be God like the Father but the Father's Creatures Dalaeus in the Place we last quoted remarks that those expressions which afterwards were so much found sault with in Arius were used by these Antenicene be mentions Dionysius Arexandrinus who expresly calls the Son the Father's Workmanship which is the same as to say the Father's Creature They expresly say that the Father Made the Son and they even use the very term that the Father Created him Nay Dalaeus in the same Place forgets not to take notice that the 80 Platonick Bishops who at the latter end of the 3d. Century so violently condemned the famous Patriarch of Antioch yet at the same time did expresly declare that the Son is not of the same Essence with the Father Now therefore by the Acknowledgement of the Trinitarians themselves the Post-Nicene Trinitarians cannot with any Modesty pretend that the Ancients were of the same Opinion with them and consequently there can be nothing more vain than for them to plead Antiquity Origen like the foregoing Authors not only called the Son a Second God Contr. Cel. L. 5. p. 258. but a Creature and the oldest of the Creatures Ib. p. 257. And in his First and Second Books concerning Prayer he has so many Arguments against Praying to any but the Father and so blames those that would also direct their Prayers to the Son plainly calling them Fools for so doing that it clearly appears that according to him the Supreme or true Divinity belong'd to the Father only This is so notorious that many have believed that Origen was of the same Opinion that Arius afterwards was of and Epiphanius did well observe that in many Places Origen makes the Son and Holy Spirit to be of another kind of God-head or of another Nature and Essence than that of the Father Epiphan adv Haer. L. 2. T. 1. p. 531. Now since so antient so renowned and learned a Doctor as Origen was of this Sentiment that alone is a sufficient Argument that the Notion of the present Trinitarians was not then known to be the Apostolick Doctrin that at least the Tradition about that Point is uncertain and consequently that the Determination thereof ought not to be sought for by this Means Indeed in reason so Abstruse and Intricate a Matter ought to be Magisterially determined by no Means if they are not attended with greater evidence but every one must be allowed to judge the best he can for himself and Men must Unite in the use of the terms and expressions themselves of Scripture if they appear to be susceptible of a
great Generality and perhaps designedly indeterminable and if there lie invincible Difficulties and unanswerable Arguments not to say Demonstrations against the Platonick Trinitarian System Howbeit as we shall further see the Scripture must be own'd to be the only Rule herein to be sought to besides the clear and incontestable Dictates of Reason and the Trinitarians if they be sincere must acknowledge that their Plea of Antiquity is vain and frivolous None but Quacks can talk at Dr. Sherlock's rate that the whole Catholick Church in all Ages has been of his Sentiment or of the Sentiment of the present Trinitarians and that the Vnitarian Controversy may be decided by the Judgment of the ancient Ante-nicene Authors whose Writings have in part been suffered to come to our Hands It appears evidently that the Ante-nicene were not of the Opinion that is now termed Orthodox To evince which Position of ours it is indeed superfluous to add many more Proofs after what we have alledged out of these most ancient and famous Authors I shall therefore only add two or three Passages out of the following Writers which tho' not altogether so ancient as the foregoing yet come not so much short of it as to deserve to be wholly unregarded They were very eminent and learned Men. It cannot be doubted but that they knew what Doctrin in as well as somtime before their time was held as Orthodox and was requir'd in that rigorous Age to be held as such And it is credible they would not have publickly asserted any thing in these Matters that would then have drawn upon them the Censures of the Church in the Communion of which they flourished and in which they were desirous to be in great esteem Nevertheless it doth appear their Opinion as well as that of the afore-quoted Authors is very different from that of the present Platonick or Scholastick Trinitarians For instance then Arnobius declared in the Treatise he wrote to inform the Gentiles with the Truths of Christianity that Christians did indeed hold Christ to be a God but inferior to the Father and a lesser God than He who alone is the Almighty God Christ says he is a God who in the form of a Man spake to the World by the Command of the Principal God Adv. Gent. L. 2. p. 106. The Almighty God who is the only God at length sent out Christ Ib. p. 120. How could he have taught more plainly or more expresly that the Father alone is the Almighty God and the only God or the only Person that is God in the eminent sense of that word Not but that he might hold both Christ and the Holy Spirit to be also Divine Persons But 't is evident he reckons them to be of an inferior kind seeing he denies them to be the Almighty the Principal and Only God He makes them therefore Creatures tho' created Gods whether or no created out of the very Substance of the Almighty God He comes then very near to Arianism if he be not altogether Arian He looks upon the Almighty Father as the only Fountain of all Being and Perfection and as able not only to produce other Beings but to communicate to whom he will immense or vast Perfections and a Divine Nature tho' inferior to his because there can be but one Infinite and Almighty Being Wherefore all Creatures tho' never so Divine and Excellent can have but limited Perfections and must ever remain subject to the Almighty Now who doth not see that this is to assert but one God properly so called or but one who is the Almighty God the Principal or Supreme God and the Only God And is not that Vnitarianism Besides tho' Justin Martyr said that in the 2d Century the Holy Angels were worshipped particularly it may be by some Platonists Arnobius declares that in his time Christians thought it sufficient to worship God even God the Father the Principal God Howbeit says he to discharge the Worship of Divinity the Chief God is sufficient for us I say the Chief God the Father and Lord of all Things In him we worship whatsoever is to be worshipped For we have in him the very Head of Divinity from whence the Divinity of all Divine Things whatsoever is derived If the Platonick Trinitarians had always kept strictly to this Generality in their Terms of Communion there needed have been no Disagreement nor Division It is evident that in the second and third Centuries after that Justin Martyr and the other converted Philosophers had introduced their Platonism in the Christian Religion the Primitive Vnitarians were indeed commonly vilisied and opposed but yet the Platonists kept not all alike at the same distance from these but somewhat differed among themselves and allowed of that difference not being then agreed how much justly of Platonism was to be admitted or held necessary nor knowing how to determine a Matter that seemed so obscure and abstruse The Nature of the H. Ghost especially was then left undetermined The generality not only of the old Christians but even of the new Platonick Doctors own'd him to be but the Power and Inspiration of God or else took him for an Archangel and a created Spirit like the other Angels but above all the Angels And therefore if there were at those times any rigid Platonists that had much the same Notion that the present Trinitarians have of the H. Spirit they contented themselves covertly or modestly to assert or intimate their Opinion but durst not and could not attempt imperiously to condemn those that were not of their Sentiment We see the generality of the Ante-nicene agree that the H. Ghost is not God tho' some call him a Divine Person but none of them would have made difficulty so to have called any Angel those that called him the Power of God as Irenaeus and others yet expresly affirmed that he was not God and so it seems took him not to be a real Divine Person or a real Divine Being but an Act or an Influence and Inspiration of the the Divin Power or an Archangel or both or they knew not what And those that positively called him a Creature were not censuredeven by the highest Platonists of those times And as touching the Nature of the Son or Word of God it seems that then Semi-Arianism did most prevail among the Doctors even perhaps from the 2d Century but yet till the Council of Nice the suppos'd ancient Doctrin afterwards called Arianism was allowed of in the Church at least in a great measure and generally for a good while approved before For most probably many of those ancient Writings that were supressed after the Council of Nice as containing a Doctrin that was then in a great measure grown out of Date tho' the avowed Works of the most excellent learned Bishops of the Church asserted the Scriptural Sentiment for it seems at least the like to which Arius was condemn'd at Nice And we see that several of those Ante-nicene that
have been permitted to come to our hands so express themselves that they may be taken for Arians Howbeit it suffices us if they generally appear to be but Semi-Arians For then it is evident the present Trinitarians cannot justly plead Antiquity The celebrated Writings of Lactantius are a further Testimony to what I have said concerning the State of the Platonick Trinitarianism in the Church before the Council of Nice He asserts that God before he set upon this ourious Work of the World begat an incorruptible and irreproveable Spirit that he might call him his Son Altho' God produced also for his Service infinite others whom we call Angels yet he has vouchsafed to give the Name of Son but to his First-born Instit L. 4. C. 6. And because the Son was faithful to God and taught Mankind that there is one God and that he alone is to be worshipped neither did ever call himself a God because he had not discharged his Trust therefore he received the Dignity of a Perpetual Priest and the Honor of a Soveraign King and the Power of a Judg and the Name of God Ib. C. 13. Now when any one has a Son whom he entirely loves who notwithstanding dwells in the House and under the Governing Power of his Father altho' the Father grants him the Name and Authority of a Master yet in the terms of Civilians here is but one House and one Master So this World is but one House belonging to God and the Son and the Father who inhabit the World and who are of one Mind or of like Affections and perfectly agree are as One Government or One only God the One being as the Two and the Two as the One. And no marvel since the Son is in the Father because the Father loveth the Son and the Father is in the Son by reason of his faithful Resignation to his Fathers Will and that he does nothing but what the Father Commands him This evidently declares in what sense the Father and Son are to be understood to be One God or One Mind and One Spirit Namely inasmuch as they are of one Mind they are therefore as if they were but one Spirit or but one Person and one God Yet according to this they really are Two distinct Beings and Two very unequal Spirits For the Son has freely received all from the Father and is ever Inferior and Subject to the Father and was produced then when God was going to set himself upon the Creating of the World and consequently is not from all Eternity The Father then is the First and Principal God and the Son is a God of a lower kind If this be not pure Arianism as it may be taken and seems to be all that it can amount to is at most Semi-Arianism which indeed very little differs from Arianism for both Systems hold the Son to be God but in an Inferior sense and assert the Father alone to be the one only true God tho' the Semi-Arians esteem that the Son was Created out of the Fathers Nature or Substance whereas Arius and those that are exactly of his Opinion as was said conceive that the Son tho' immediately produced by the Father was Created out of Nothing and only differs from other Creatures in that he is more Excellent than they all put together was Created by the Father alone and is set by the Father over all created Beings As concerning the Person and Nature of the Holy Spirit Dalaeus in the Fourth Chap. of his Second Book De usu Patrum remarks after St. Jerom that Lactantius expresly asserts the Holy Ghost to be but a Creature and not to partake of the Deity Sandius brings many Instances to prove that both Lactantius and all the other foremention'd Authors were even of Arius his Sentiment and not they only but also generally the remaining Ante-nicene Writers All these Authors which we have quoted were undoubtedly most learned and deservedly esteem'd in their Generations and are now generally esteem'd still by all Christians and indeed they may be accounted the Chief of the Ante-nicene whose Writings have been preserved We may also rank among them Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea as well as Lactantius since he Flourished somtime before as well as since the Council of Nice and appears to follow wholly the Sentiments of Justin Martyr when not aw'd by the Nicene Tyranny so that the then current Ante-nicene Doctrin may be known in these Writings Concerning these Matters therefore we may remark Eusebius expresses himself to this purpose He that is beyond all things the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Governor of all things how many and of what quality soever they be even of the Holy Spirit himself yea further of the Only Begotten Son also is deservedly stiled by the Apostle the God that is over all and he only may be called the one God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ But the Son is the Only Begotten God who is in the Bosom of the Father And the Advocate the Holy Spirit is neither God nor Son for he has not received his Production from the Father like the Son but is one of those things which were made by the Son De Ecclesiast Theol. L. 3. C. 6. If John had conceived the Father and the Son to be one and the same thing he would have said that the Word was the God with the Addition of the Article which not doing he evidently teaches us that he is the Prime God who is the Father of the Word and that the Word was not that very God but yet that he also was a God Ib. L. 2. C. 17. This is the Current Doctrin of the Old Ante-nicene Platonists concerning the Son and Holy Ghost Eusebius like the other before him expresly asserts that the Holy Ghost is not God and it is visible he says no more of the Son than at most what is agreable to Semi-Arianism That was it seems what the generality of the Primitive or Ancient Aâ—teâ—nicene Platonists meant by the Divinity of the Word and for the not coming up to which they opposed the Ebionite and the Nazarene Vnitarians Eusebius in the 25th and last Chap. of the 5th Book of his History quotes a remarkable Passage of an Author a Platonizing Christian who had written upon that account against the most rigid Vnitarians The Passage is to this effect The Vnitarians pretend that the Apostles and all the Ancients held the very Doctrine concerning the Person of our Saviour that is now maintained by the Vnitarians and that it is but only since the Times of the Popes Victor and Zepherin that the Truth has been adulterated and discountenanced This would be credible if first the Vnitarian Doctrin were not contrary to Holy Scripture and if divers before Victor and Zepherin had not contended for the Divinity of the Lord Christ Namely Justin Martyr Miltiades Tatianus Clemens of Alexandria Irenaeus Melito To whom we may add the ancient Hymns or
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
honoured with a like Honour with the Soveraign yet it is paid him particularly upon the Soveraign's Account in Honour to Him and in Obedience to his Commands who has so appointed it And thus the Scripture teaches We are to Honour our Lord Jesus Christ as one to and upon whom the highest Dignity Glory and Power that can be bestowed upon one in Commission has been in that manner confer'd and granted Namely to the Glory of the Donor and Disposer of it And this leads us to the last Particular that we have undertaken to speak to which is this CHAP. XIV An Answer to the fourth Branch of the Objection 4. THE Vnitarians produce sevâ—ral Texts of Scripture which seem most express and evident for the Vnitarian System I shall here mention but these few referring the Reader for the rest to the Apologia pro â—â—enico Magno or to Crell's Treatise Touching one God the Father in which Books may be found Several of the most select Arguments out of Scripture besides also several taken from the incontestable Principles of Reason all which of both sorts are there fully enlarg'd upon and do seem manifestly and unanswerably to evince the truth of the Vnitarian Doctrin I. The first Argument I shall mention shall be the last quoted Passage of the 2d Chap. of the Philippians where the Apostle declares that We are to own Jesus Christ as one exalted and made Lord and that we are thus to honour him to the Glory of God the Father So that as was said the Honour we are to pay to Our Lord Jesus Christ is not to terminate ultimately on him but on the Father for whose Sake and at whose Command the said Honour is given to the Lord Christ upon the account of his Exaltation as the inestimable Reward of his Obedience and upon the account of the most High Commission granted to him by God Now who doth not see that this invincibly demonstrates that properly Christ is not God himself For if he were literally God Almighty himself it would be absurd not to adore and honour him for himself ultimately for that would imply that the Divine Nature is not to be honour'd for it 's own sake It were in vain to alledg that the Trinitarians hold the Son has received his Divine Nature from the Father that so they may also worship him to the Glory of the Father They say that the Son had the Divine Nature eternally and not by a free Gift but by absolute Necessity and that it is the same numerical Divine Nature and Essence with that of the Father so that he is as much God and is as necessarily so as the Father from which Principles therefore it would need follow that the Son should be honour'd ultimately for himself or which is the same should be honoured with properly Divine Honour as well as the Father Then if things had been so the Apostle should have said We must honour Christ's Human Nature or the Man Christ Jesus to the Glory of God the Son But the Apostle doth not present us with any such Notions But he tells us that Jesus Christ is to be own'd as a Lord and the greatest Lord under God and is thus to be honoured to the Glory of God the Father What can be more express If the Son be literally God Almighty he cannot be exalted any higher and he must needs be honoured ultimately for himself with Supreme Divine Honour But says the Apostle the Father exalted him c. Whereas if the Son had been himself literally God his whole Person must needs have sat necessarily at the Helm of the Universe as well as the Person of the Father and it could not have been otherwise except a Divine Person could have ceased to be properly Divine that is to say except God could have been annihilated Now the Reader may please to make an application of this as well as the following Arguments to Dr. Sherlock's Rule mentioned before and by which he owns this Controversy is to be tried II. The Second Argument shall be that which the Dr. at the 197th and following Pages of his Book intituled The Scripture Proofs of our Saviour's Divinity explained and vindicated has carefully pointed out to us and taken great pains to prepare for us and make us sensible of it's great weight And indeed it seems a most express and decisive Argument It is that which is grounded on the 36th Verse of the 24th Chap. of St. Matthew to which the 32d Verse of the 13th of St. Mark is parallel the import whereof is That Christ declaring he did not know what God knew Namely when should be the Day of Judgment it follows necessariâ—y and most manifestly that he is not God himself The Dr. in the Place aforequoted represents the force of the Argument in these words There is an obvious Objection against the perfect intuitive Knowledge of our Saviour from what he himself tells us concerning the Destruction of Jerisalem c. For were he true and perfect God of the same Substance with his Father he could be ignorant of nothing Now how doth the Dr. solve this Objection as he calls it The common Answer to this says he is by distinguishing between the Knowledge of Christ as God and as Man That tho' as God he knew all things yet there were some Secrets for some time concealed from his Human Nature Well! Doth the Dr. know of some better Solution No. Is he then very well satisfied with this common Answer No. He neither likes this nor can tell what to say more satisfactory These are his words The common Answer to this is c. as was said in the foregoing Paragraph And this says he must be the true Answer or I know not how we shall find a better and yet it seems very hard that the Son who is but one Person tho' he have two Natures should be said not to know that which he did know whether he knew it as God or as Man This I confess is a Difficulty and always will be so while we know so little of this Personal Union that is to say of the Union of the Godhead with the Man Christ Jesus But then Dr if we know so little of it why do you call it a Personal Vnion and that of an eternal Son or an eternal Person with the Spirit of Christ But since you are pleas'd to call it so you must stand to it and must not pretend to evade by saying you know not how far it goes or what communications the Human Nature of Christ receives from its Union with the Godhead This is not the Point nor is it at all to the business in hand from which you ought by no means to be suffered now to flinch away when it manifestly appears to be against you and invincibly shews the solidity of the Vnitarian Sentiment For you have said and the Trinitarian System expresly asserts that the whole Son is but one Person and therefore