"anatomies of the nature and Perfon of Chrift; and the catholic fathers were compelled to fol«low them with all fubtlety of difputations and "determinations, to exclude them from their eva“fions, and to take them in their own labyrinths: "fo as it is rightly faid, illis temporibus ingeniofa res "fuit effe Chriftianum." Farther; it is certain the great doctrine of the Trinity hath been sometimes dishonoured, if not weakened, by puerile illustrations, and playfulness of diftinction. According to T. Aquinas, Trinitas eft quafi trium unitas. It is fomewhere obferved likewise by this famous Doctor, that the Father is the beginning, but not the cause of the Son. And fays a learned fyftematical writer, I think, with a levity one should not expect in him, aliud eft Trinus, aliud eft Triplex. Trinum eft quod effentia unum, tres habet fubfiftendi modos: triplex, quod ex tribus rebus eft compofitum. Deum trinum dicimus, non triplicem ; et Trinitatem non Triplicitatem. To which is very fenfibly fubjoined the following caution; cum judicio legendi funt Patres, qui non raro fententiis diffident in ufu vocum, Subftantiæ, Hypoftafews, &c. The fame author cites, and at the fame time justly cenfures a chimerical diftinction of the Schoolmen betwixt generation and proceffion. Differunt Generatio et Proceffio; fed quodnam eft difcrimen, tutius ignoratur quam quæritur. Sholaftici dicunt Generationem Filii fieri per modum INTELLECTUS, unde X-2 dicitur as, dicitur Dei fapientia; Proceffionem per modum VoTUNTATIS, unde Spiritus dicitur amor et charitas. You have Mr. Boyle's fentiments on this subject in his Confidera. on the style of Scripture, p. 41. Bp. BULL de fubord. Fil. Sect. 4. p. 225. Defen. Fid. Nice. cap. 10. Sect. 3. p. 206, &c. PEARSON on the Creed, P, 34, 134. Fiddes, vol. 1. 384. HookER'S Ecclef. Pol. p. 296, &c. STEPHENS's Sermon the eternal Gen. p. 51. WATERLAND'S Defence of bis Queft. p. 134. FOGG's Theol. Spec. p. 89, 109. WATERLAND'S Sermons. p. 141. RANDOLPH'S Vindica. of the Doctrine of the Trinity. Part 2. p. 10. Page 32. (b) the everlasting Father.] Whatever we are precisely to understand by this expreffion, it is certain the proper title of Jesus Christ, confidered as the fecond Perfon in the Trinity, is that of Son of God; Son in a transcendent and incomprehenfible fenfe. We are informed by St. John, that the Jews fought the more to kill our Saviour, not only because he had broken the Sabbath, but faid alfo that God was his Father, thereby making bimfelf equal with God. It is worth observing, that this tranflation by no means does juftice to the original; or any thing like fo forcibly imports the equality in queftion: πατερα ιδιον έλεγε τον θεον ; be called God his own Father, as Dr. Whitby and Dr. Hammond render it, bis PROPER Father, his Father axgoras, (as Nonnus explains the words in the beginning, John i. 1.) his Father in a peculiar fenfe, in a fenfe a fenfe neceffarily implying the fame nature in both. The omiffion here is the more remarkable, as our tranflators attended to the same emphatical word in the only place befides where it occurs, and where its fignificance is not fo obvious: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, bow fhall be not with him alfo freely give us all things? (Rom. viii. 32.) The Socinian evasion of the paffage in St. John is inexpreffibly ridiculous, and reduces it almoft to nonfenfe. He made himself equal with God, by afferting, that he did the works of his Father! See. WEBSTER on John. 1. 2. See WHITBY and HAMMOND on John v. 18. See Dr. W. LowTH'S Commen. on Ifai. 9. 6. Page 46. (i) of Divine Providence.] The notion that by the feven Spirits here mentioned are to be understood Seven angels, who are the principal miniftring Spirits of the Deity, is countenanced by a no less refpectable authority than that of Dr. Hammond and Mr. Mede. But this is rejected by Grotius, and by the anonymous writer whom I follow, though under a different idea, and purely from a general furvey of the matter. The writer I mean lays much ftrefs on the number feven, which in Hebrew denotes perfection; but his reasonings from this circumftance appear to me too weak a foundation for the fupport of a theory. * See Catcott's Serm. I. p. 14. Dr. A Dr. Gill without the leaft hesitation understands by the Seven Spirits the third Perfon in the bleffed Trinity. He has adopted the above idea, and enlarged upon it. "By these seven Spirits," says this very fenfible writer, " are intended the Holy Spirit "of God, who is one in his Perfon, but his gifts "and graces are various; and therefore he is fig"nified by this number because of the fulness and perfection of them; and with refpect to the seven Churches, over whom he prefided, whom he in"fluenced and fanctified, &c.". The Ethiopic verfion, this author obferves, reads from the Seven Spirits which are before the throne of ·Jefus Christ. It is farther a remark of the fame author, that the fecond Perfon is laft mentioned in the benediction before us, "because many things were to be "faid of him; he is defcribed in all his offices, &c." Bp. Newton fays, in effect, the very fame thing. According to him, Jefus Chrift is mentioned last "because the fubfequent difcourfe more immedi"ately relates to him." ** MEDE Difc. 10. B. 1. p. 42. See HAM MOND and GILL in loc. NEWTON on Prophecy. Vol. 3. p. 12. Page 60. (k) when St. John wrote.] Some have fuppofed, as an ingenious writer obferves, that detached pieces of the hiftory of Chrift, written by Apoftles, or under their infpection, were extant in the Church before any Gofpel was published. Opinions Opinions are far from being concurrent with refpect to the publication of the Gospels in general; but this is a diverfity which does not in the least affect our argument. + Cofmas of Alexandria, it feems, dates St. Matthew's Gospel from the martyrdom of St. Stephen; and is generally thought to be as wide of the mark as Ifidore of Seville; according to whom, it was not written before the reign of Caligula. Perhaps the common opinion is the trueft, that it was wrote about eight years after our Lord's Afcenfion. It appears from the teftimony of feveral old ecclefiaftical writers, that St. John wrote his Gospel by the defire of the Bifhops of Afia. Is cum effet in Afia, fays St. Jerome, et jam tunc hæreticorum femina pullularent, Cerinthi, Ebionis, et cæterorum, qui negant Chriftum in carne veniffe, coactus eft ab omnibus pene tum Afiæ epifcopis, et multarum ecclefiarum legationibus, de DIVINITATE Salvatoris ALTIUS fcribere. How far the notion of Theophylact, and, I believe, of fome others, that St. John was particularly qualified to conceive, and to teach evangelical myfteries, by his perfonal purity, &c; how far fuch a notion was well-grounded, or ought to be regarded as a mere fantasy, I undertake not to determine. In Hermannus Frank's treatise entitled, Christ the Sum, &c, of all the Scriptures, &c. there is an anecdote concerning a Francifcus Junius, who was con + See Bp. Percy's Key to the New Test. p. 47, &c. X 4 verted |