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Si non putant aliquâ ratione offici poffe ei quòd Unus Dominus eft, per illud quòd eft Dominus & Chriftus; neque ei quòd Unus eft Bonus, per illud quòd Bonus fit nuncupatus & Chriftus: eâdem ratione intelligant, offici non poffe ab illo quòd Unus eft Deus, éi quòd Deus pronunciatus eft & Chriftus. Eft ergò Deus Pater. Unus Deus &c. De Trinit. c. 30 & 31.

If (faith Novatian). they can understand how there is nevertheless but One Lord, though Chrift alfo be called Lord; and but One Good, though Chrift alfo be filed Good: they may by the fame reafon understand alfo, how there is nevertheless but One God, though Chrift alfo be ftiled God. God the Father therefore is The One God, &c. And Athanafius himself, in the place before-cited: The Father (fays he) does all things, by the Word, and in (or through) the Holy Spirit: And fo the Unity of the Holy Trinity is preJerved: And fo One God is preached in the Church; even He who is above all, and through all, and in all: Above all, as he is the Father, and Original and Fountain of alls Through all, by his Words and in all, in or by his Holy Spirit. And, among Moderns, the learned Dr Payne: "When we fay, The Father is God, "the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and yet there is but One God; If this be faid in the "fame Senfe and confideration, it will be very "hard

Ὁ δὲ πατὴς διὰ τὸ λόγο is oveμatı Tos ázíç Tà wala woîer » “Tws ǹ §νότης τῆς ἁγίας τριάδ oŵélar xj ötws as deùs ¿v Thunλnoia ungú, ¿ πάντων και διά πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν. ἐπὶ πάντων μου, ὡς παλης, ὡς ἀρχὴ καὶ πηγή δια πάντων δε διὰ τὸ λόγο· ἐν πᾶσι δ, ἐν τῷ πνεύματι To dziw. Epift. ad Seτῷ ἁγίῳ. rap. 1.

"hard to get off from the contradiction of affirm"ing and denying the fame thing in the fame * Senfe: But if the Affirmation and Denial be "not in the fame Senfe and Meaning, but in "different; then the Contradiction vanishes, "and is prefently answered. Letter from Dr P. to the Bp of R. in vindication of his Sermon on Trinity-Sunday.

6.

And in this Trinity none is afore or after other, none is greater or less than another:

But the whole Three Perfons are co-eternal together, and co-equal.

If these Words be understood as a description of Three co-ordinate Beings, (or else of Three Denominations only of the fame Individual ;) nothing can poffibly be more directly contrary to the whole Scripture, to the expreffions of the Liturgy cited in the foregoing chapter, and to those paffages of This very Creed, which declare that the Father is of None, but the Son is of the Father, and the Holy Ghoft is of the Father and of the Son, Thefe words therefore, None is afore or after, none is greater or less than another, &c; muft of neceffity be interpreted by the Analogy of Scripture, and by the other expreffions in the Offices of the Church.

None is afore or after other.] Not that Each of them is Self-exiftent, Independent, and Unorigi

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nated

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nated; For This would manifeftly infer a Plurality of Gods: But that the Second and Third Perfons have Always been with the First, being derived from him before all Ages by his ineffable Power and Will; and that there hath been no Time, wherein the Father did not act and govern all things (as he Now does) by his Son and by his Spirit. Of the Neceffity of This Interpretation, the learned Bishop Pearfon was not unaware; when he ufes the following words: [Which (Priority of the Father) being fo generally acknowledged by the Fathers; when we read in the Athanafian Creed, in this Trinity none is afore or after other, we must understand it of the priority of Perfection or Time: For as to Priority in order of Nature, Caufality, and Original Power, the fame Learned Author in the fame place declares, [that the Son must neceffarily be fecond unto the Father, from whom be receiveth his Origination; and the Holy Ghoft unto the Son: that we cannot be thought to want a fufficient Foundation for this Priority of the firft Perfon of the Trinity, if we look upon the numerous Teftimonies of the antient Doctors of the Church, who have not stuck to call the Father the Origin, the Caufe, the Author, the Root, the Fountain, and the Head of the Son: that the Son is from the Father, receiving his Subfiftence by generation from him; the Father is not from the Son, as being what he is from None: that hence the Name of God, taken abfolutely, is often in the Scriptures spoken of the Father: that from hence He (the Father) is filed One God, The True God, The Only True God, The God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift: and that This, as it is most true, and fo fit to be believed, is alfo a moft Neceffary Truth, and therefore to be acknowledged, for the avoiding Multipli

cation and Plurality of Gods; for if there were more than One which were from None, it could not be denied but there were more Gods than One: Pearfon on the Creed, pag. 37,38 and 40.]

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None is greater or less than another.] For the fame reason, These words alfo cannot poffibly be understood of original fupreme Authority: For on the contrary, the Scripture every where teaches, that the Father fends both the Son and Spirit, but is never fent by Either; and the Son Sends the Spirit, but is never fent by him: And our Saviour himself exprefsly declares, that his Father is Greater than He, Joh. 14, 28; Which words are by All the Antients, and by the moft Learned of Modern Divines, understood not only of the humane Nature, but also of the Divine Nature of Chrift; as hath been before fhown at large, Part I, N° 830. The Meaning therefore of these words, (None is greater or less than another,) confiftent with the Doctrine of Scripture, can be no other than This: That, as none is afore or after other, as the Second and Third Perfon are Always with the Firft; fo are they with him alfo Every where: As there has been no Time, fo neither is there any Place, where the Father does not act and govern all things by his Son and by his Spirit.

Thus Irenæus: 'Twas

fum immenfum Patrem Et benè qui dixit, ip

in Filio menfuratum : Menfura enim Patris, Filius; quoniam & capit eum. lib. 4, cap. 8.

well Spoken (faith he) by Him who faid, that the immenfe Father himfelf is measured in the Son; For the Measure of the Father, is the Son; because he does even comprehend him: There is fome Ambiguity in the Words, and in their Con nexion; But they feem to allude to That Text,

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None knoweth the Father but the Son;
nify, that all Revelations of God, at
and in all Places, are made by the Son.
mens Alexandrinus :
There is (faith he) One
Father of the Universe,
and One [Logos, or
Word in the Univerfe,
and One Holy Spirit
which is one and the

fame Everywhere; ac

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and to fig all Times And Cle

Εις μι ὁ ὅλων Πατρ

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cap. 6.

cording to that of St. Paul, 1 Cor. 12; 4, 8, 9,

IO, II. And again: The Word (fays he) penetrates everywhere, and beholds even the minuteft actions of Life; according to that of the Apostle, Chrift (faith he,) is every where with thofe that belong to him, [ac. cording to that of our Saviour, Matt. 18,20; and 28, 20; and with thofe alfo every where, again: According to our Doctrine (faith he,) not only the God and Father of the Univerfe is Great, For be bath communicated even of bis Greatnefs alfo, to the Only-begotten and First born of every every Creature; that, as he

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