of Chrift. The table, the fhew-bread, &c. were all emblematical, and fignificative of the properties, &c. of Jefus Chrift, dwelling in a tabernacle of flesh. The table e.g. was compounded of two forts of materials, wood and gold, and it was a piece of furniture which exhibited a compound perfon, &c; it was a type of that perfon who should be compounded of Jehovah and Adam, God and Man. In Mr. Bates's Faith of the antient Jews, the right ear is made to ftand for obedience; the thumb of the right hand for actions; the great toe of the right foot for ways; fhoulder for confent, &c. For farther fatisfaction the reader may confult, if he pleafes, LESLEY's Truth of Chriftian. Sett. 13. POTTER on Ch. Gov. p. 50. ALLIX's Reflect. p. 232, and vol. 2. p. 182. PEARSON on the Cr. p. 76. BARRow on the Cr. p. 107. 205. See MEDE. B. 1. Disc. 44. p. 249. LIGHTFOOT. See LANGHORN's Let. between Theo. and Conft. p. 93. TERTUL. de Spectal. c. 26. &c. &c.

Page 124. (p) minor authority.] The Epiftles from which the extracts are made, (if we except the last,) have ever been held by the Church in general in the highest estimation. They were written by men who, it is well known, were intimately acquainted with the Apoftles. Polycarp was a difciple of St. John; and his Epiftle to the Philippians, with the first of St. Clement to the Corinthians, were for several centuries publickly read in the

Churches

Churches of Afia. Their authority therefore is little inferior to Apoftolical.

I will transcribe a paffage or two from the ante-nicene fathers, and leave the weight of the whole with the reader. Εκείνον, και τον παρ' αυτε ον, πνευμα τε το προφητικον σεβόμεθα, &c, fays fuftin Martyr: Apol. I. c. 6. Προς αυτ8, και δι' αυτε παντα εγενετο, fays Athenagoras, ενός οντος τε πατρος και τε ᾧδ. οντος ἧς ἐν πατρι, και πατρος εν ύω, ενοτητι Suvaμes wreuμatos. Legatio pro Chrif. p. 10. Nothing can be more exprefs, fimple, and unequivocal than thefe declarations.

και

And again, in contempt of, or rather in astonishment at the charge of Atheism, which the heathens brought against the first Christians, the fame father alks, τις εν εκ αν απορησαί, λεγοντας Θεον Πατέρα, και 4ον Θεόν, και πνευμα αγιον, δεικνύντας αυτών και την εν τη ενωσει δυναμιν, και την εν τη τάξει διαίρεσιν, ακέσας αθεός καλεμενες ; Ibid. p. 11.

Tertullian calls the Holy Ghost tertium numen Divinitatis, and tertium gradum majeftatis. Irenæus calls the Word Dei æternum verbum, † and, according to him, Jefus Chrift is Filius Dei exiftens Jemper apud Patrem.

It may be proper to take notice in this place, that the equality we are contending for is not in

See CH. 10. of WAKE'S DISCOURSE prefixed to his Tranflation of thefe Epiftles.

+ See STEPHENS's Ser. on the Eter. Genera. who illuftrates this doctrine by a multitude of teftimonies from p. 44. to p. 50.

Y 2

the

the left difturbed by the difagreement betwixt the Greek and Latin Church, with respect to the proceffion of the Holy Ghoft. The doctrine of the former was, that the Holy Ghoft proceeds from the Father by the Son, and is the Spirit of the Son; non ex Filio, fed fpiritum Filii esse dicimus, et Patris per Filium. This doctrine is erroneous indeed, but innocently fo. For, as Archbp. Laud,* and many others have obferved, the queftion, whether the Holy Ghoft proceeds a Filio, or per Filium, is but a question in modo loquendi; a mere difference in words, and affects not the faith. And therefore I cannot think Bp. Taylor argues candidly, or logically, in the following paffage. "The proceffion "of the Holy Ghost from the Son, which is an ar"ticle the Greek Church difavows, derives from "the Tradition Apoftolical, as it is pretended; and

yet before St. Auftin we hear nothing of it very "clearly or certainly, forafmuch as that whole myf"tery concerning the bleffed Spirit was fo little "explicated in Scripture, and fo little derived to "them by tradition, that till the Council of Nice, "you fhall hardly find any form of worship, or perfonal address of devotion to the Holy Spirit, "as Erafmus obferves, and I think the contrary "will very hardly be verified." The Holy Ghoft

*See Laud against Fisher. p. 24.

Bp. TAYLOR on Lib. of Pro. Sect. 5. p. 90.

is exprefsly ftyled by St. Peter the Spirit of Chrift which, in the next fentence, is faid to have been sent down from heaven; 1 Pet. i. v. 10, 12. and I take it to be fully as prefumeable that the article of the proceffion in queftion was grounded in the construction which this paffage naturally admits, as that it derived from tradition Apoftolical;" notwithstanding the immaterial disagreement above-mentioned. But whether this difference with respect to the mode of proceffion took its rife from different conftruction, or from diferent tradition, the faith both of the Greek and Latin Church in the third Perfon of the Trinity was still built on a fure foundation. Eternity of generation, and proceffion, and existence, is equally inexplicable; and though nothing was, or, in the nature of things, could be "explicated in

Scripture" in refpect of the whole mystery, yet, I apprehend, enough was revealed. Even if the first Christians had not addreffed the bleffed Spirit

in any form of devotion at all, this could not have been owing to their want of comprehenfion of the mode of proceffion, but to their disbelief of his perfonality, and eternal existence. But that the primitive Chriftians, and the ante-nicene fathers believed the personality and eternal existence of the Spirit, and confequently his coequality with the Father and the Son, fufficiently, I trust, appears from the testimonies produced; and therefore admitting

Y 3

mitting that most of the prayers of the Church were addressed to the Father, and few only to the Son, and fewer to the Holy Ghoft, (which is far from being a matter unaccountable,) we have ample proofs that Chriftians worshipped "one God in "Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." Erafmus does not venture to affert, that no addreffes were made to the Holy Ghoft; and, if he had, we might confront him with the above cited declaration of Justin Martyr; which at least supposes this Divine Person to have been included, and frequently named in the fupplications of the frft Chriftians. Εκείνον, και τον παρ' αυτό ον, πνευμα τε, &c.

But we are by no means deftitute of antient teftimonies to the fame effect. The accounts of the martyrdom of Ignatius and Polycarp conclude with afcriptions of glory, &c. to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. The relation of the fufferings of the former clofes with these words; “who trod under foot the Devil, and perfected "the course he had piously desired, in Christ Jefus "our Lord; by whom, and with whom, all glory "and power be to the Father, with the bleffed Spirit, "for ever and ever." The Epistle of the Church of Smyrna to the Church of Philadelphia, concerning the Martyrdom of Polycarp, concludes as follows: "We wish you, brethren, all happiness by

See WAKE'S Relation of thefe Martyrdoms. p. 137, 152.

« living