P. 15. P. 15. P. 16. doubt whether be may be call'd a Catholick Writer, and that this is contrary to his own usual Way of speaking: Why then do you quore him in your Letter to me, if he be not of good Authority? Why do you not produce such Passages out of him, as are according to his usual Way of speaking? Those which you have instanced in, are neither fairly nor truly stated by you; nay, what he does say in those Places is directly and expressly againft you, as I come now to shew. At the End of your first Quotation out of Tertullian, adv. Prax. §. 5. you put &c. For before all Things God was alone, &c. Now this &c. is the most extraordinary and unfair that ever I met with, as Mankind will judge by the Words immediately following, and to which your &c. relates. • God was alone: (৭) But therefore alone, because there is no ex• trinfical Thing besides him; but indeed not even then alone, for ' he had with him his Reason: This the Greeks call Logos. Your Second Quotation out of Tertullian I may take notice of, when I come to your Texts of Scripture. In your Third Quotation, why did you not proceed, but stop at the Words, The Lord created me the Beginning of his Ways? for immediately he adds, that he was begotten; and thereupon fays, (r) Hence making him equal to himself, by • proceeding from whom he is made the Son: The first begotten, as being begotten before all Things; and the Only begotten, as • alone begotten out of God. By this 'tis plain, that he, as well as Justin, did not construe the Text in the proverbs as you do; for how could a created Being be equal to God himself? And if Begotten and Created be the fame Thing, as you say, how could he be faid to be the only begotten, as alone begotten? for then he must be not only the Beginning of his Creatures, but the only Crea ture. The last Quotation out of Tertullian ends, He begat me before the Hills. This you mean as a Proof, that the Son of God is a Creature. But why should you put any other Construction upon these Words of Tertullian, when apply'd to the Son, than you will do upon the fame in Pfalm xc. 2. from whence they are taken, and where they are apply'd to the Father, as God from Everlasting to Everlasting; and that Tertullian so meant them; and to (৭) Solus autem quia nihil aliud extrinfecus præter illum, cæterum nè tunc quidem folus, habebat enim fecum rationem _ hanc Græci λόγον dicunt. (r) Exindè tum parem fibi faciens, de quo procedendo fili. us factus eft, primogenitus, ut ante omnia genitus, & unigeni tus up folus ex Deo genitus. express, as well as we are able, what is inconceivable, (and which no Words can express, as Eusebius and Origen declare) viz. the Eternal Generation of the Son of God; he adds in the Words of the Scripture, The Son is the Word, and the Word is God, and I and my Father are one: So that I may say to you, as he concludes this Passage to Hermogenes, §. 19. But he takes • Occafion from some Words, as is the Manner of Hereticks, to distort plain and fimple Things. And that this is expressly Tertullian's Opinion, will be maApolog. nifest by another Passage; viz. (1) • We have learnt, that he adv. Gen• (Chrift) proceeded out of God, and by that Prolation was begotten, and therefore was said to be the Son of God, and God from tes, c. 21. the Unity of Substance. And then he illustrates it by the Sun and its Rays, and says, 'The Substance is not separated, but ex'tended; and then repeats, • What proceeds from God, is God, and the Son of God, and both are one. I come now to your Testimonies out of Origen. The first is taken out of Origen contra Celfum, p. 238. • They are illuminated by that Wisdom, which is the Efflux (or • Splendor) of the Eternal Light. They, who? I guess you were asham'd to tell me. For this is a very extraordinary Paffage, and I wonder you would quote it; for as great Skill and Delight as you have in Aftronomy, I did not imagine you would give any Countenance to the Opinion of Origen, which introduces it; for he says, (4) The Stars in Heaven are Rational Animals, and good, and (thus far of the Passage you omit, and then put &c. and begin They) were enlighten'd with the Light of Knowledge by Wisdom, which is the Efflux of the Eternal Light. 6 This Notion he had from Plato, who indeed carry'd it a litthe further, (in his 12th and 13th Books de Leg.) making the Sun, Moon and Stars not only endued with Reason, but even to be Gods. And if Origen, in some of his Writings, has transplanted any more of Plato's Notions into Divinity, it is no wonder; for he was so good a Proficient in that Philosophy, that when he came into the School of Plotinus, he was offer'd his Desk, as (t) Hunc ex Deo prolatum didicimus, & Prolatione generatum, & idcirco Filium Dei & Deum dictum ex Unitate SubNantiæ Etiam radius ex fole porrigitur, portio ex summâ fed fol erit in radio quia folis est radius, nec feperatur substantia fed extenditur; quod de Deo profectum eft Deus eft, & Dei Filius, & unus ambo. (1) Οι ἐν ὀρανῶ ἀτέρες ζῶα εἰσι λογικά κὶ απεδαῖα κὶ ἐφων τίθεσὰν τὸ φωτι τ γνώσεως ὑπὸ ὁ σοφίας ἥτις όξιν ἀπαύγασμα φωτός αϊδίδο one P. 16. one fitter to read Lectures there, than to be an Auditor of them. But (to say no more of this wild Notion) this Passage will not fupport your Opinion, that the Son of God is a Creature : On the contrary, this Expreffion, the Efflux of the Eternal Light, is us'd by several of the Authors to whom you have referr'd Adv. Gen- me, to denote his Identity in Effence with the Father: So Tertes, c.21. tullian compares his Generation to the Ray of the Sun, which is Shot forth from the Sun, but the Sun is in that Ray, for it is a Ray of it, &c. And Origen here a little after explains himself to the fame Purpose, by citing St. John, (k) God is Light; the Son of God is the true Light, that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World. And he himself says, I am the Light of the World. And that he means the Divinity of our Saviour, is ، plain by his citing this and other Texts expressly to prove it : Comment. (1) I am the Light of the World. 'I am Alpha and Omega, the in Johan. Beginning and the End, the First and the Laft.' And introduces them with faying, 'The greatest and most perfe& Accounts ' of Jesus were referu'd for him, who lay in his Bosom; for none (of the Evangelifts) has so purely and clearly manifested his • Divinity as st. John. p. 5. P. 17. σεως. Contra Your Second Quotation out of Origen contra Celfum, L. 5. p. 257. ends thus: The Sacred Oracles declare him to be the ancientest of all Creatures. What Origen must mean by the first Part of this Passage, πάσης κλί- the Son of God, the First-born of every Creature; and the Conclufion, the ancientest of all Creatures, will be best explain'd by what he himself says in another Place; where, after he had quoted the Text in St. Matth. xi. 17. (m) No Man knoweth the Son, but the Father, &c. he adds, For the Unmade and Firftborn of all created Nature, none can know according to his Dignity, as the Father does, who begat him, nor the Father so as the living Word and his Wisdom and Truth. Celf. 1. 6. p. 287. What I have to say to that Expression, the First-born, &c. I referve till I come to the Text in the Colossians; but at prefent (*) Ὁ Θεὸς φῶς ὅτι, ὁ ὑἱὸς τὸ θεῖ φῶς ἀληθινόν ὅτι ὁ φω τίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἑρχόμῳον εἰς ἢ κόσμον, ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τε κόσμο, (1) Ουδεὶς γδ' ἐκείνων ἀκρατῶς ἐφανέρωσεν αυτό ἢ θεότητα, ὡς Ἰωάννης, παρεσήσας αὐτὸν λέγοντα, ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τῶ κόσμο, κὶ ἐν ἀποκαλύψει, ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ α κὶ τὸ ω, ἡ ἀρχὴ κὶ τὸ τέλο, ὁ πρῶτο κὶ ὁ ἔλαr. ἔτε γ (m) Οὐδεὶς ὁπιγινώσκει ἢ ὑἱὸν, εἰ μὴ ὁ πατὴς. ἢ ἀλύπτον κὶ πάσης γλμητῆς φύσεως προτότοκον καλ' αξίαν εἰδε ναι τις διύαται ὡς ὁ γυνήσας αὐτὸν πατήρ, ὅτε τ πατέρα, ὡς ὁ ἔμψυχο λόγο κὶ σοφία αυτό κ ̓ ἀλήθεια. I muft I must observe, that your Sense of First-born, and the ancienteft of all Creatures, cannot possibly confift with what I have laft cited, in which the Son of God is expressly said to be Unmade (ἀγένης); an Unmade or Uncreated Creature, is Nonsense : And if you will not interpret the Words you have cited by those I have last mention'd, you will make Origen to affert Contradictions; for Unmade and First-born are join'd together. And if you would have added the very next Words to your Quotation, viz. (n) And God the Father said to him, Let Us make Man after Our Image and Likeness; I have already observ'd, that Justin makes this Text an Argument of the Divinity of the Son of God, and hope to shew it by other Authorities when I come to it. . Your next Quotation is out of Origen's Comment on Pfalmi. P. 17. P. 38. Pray to the Father the God of the Universe, thro' our Saviour, as High-Priest, who is the Made God. This you have render'd very perverfly and falsly; and your Reason for fo doing is very obvious, by comparing it with the literal and true Translation of it; viz. Pray to the Father the God of the Universe, (i) thro our Saviour and High-Prieft, the Begotten God. Your next Quotation is also out of the same Book, p. 31. as P. 17. follows: Thou art my Son, this Day have I begotten thee. This This is in ' is said to the Son of God, with whom it is always to-day, his Com' for there is no Evening with God: I do also suppose, that nei- ment on 'ther is there any Morning with him; but that a Time coex- St. John, • tended with his Unmade and Eternal Life is, if I may so say, wherein he • that Day, or to-day, with him in which the Son was made, cites this • the Beginning of his Origin being thus not found neither of this Verse of the 2d Pfalm, Day. This is so full and express against you, that I wonder you p. 31. should quote it; but I perceive you have ventur'd upon it, for the Sake of Two Words in your Tranflation, Made and Origin, which in the Greek are γεγένηται and γενέσεως, the first fignifies was born, and the second his Geniture or Nativity; and both should have been so render'd, as most suitable and agreeable to the Word γεγγύηng, I have begotten thee. I have now done with your Quotations out of Origen, and hope I have fufficiently shewn, that these your Testimonies (if you reckon them among the Principal, which concern this (2) Καὶ τῷ * θεὸν πεὶ ἢ τὰ ἀνθρώπε δημικργιας εἰρηκέναι ποιήσωμβρ ανθρωπον καὶ ̓ εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν. (1) Διὰ τὸ σωτῆς ἡμῶν κὶἀρχιερέως ψητό θεδο impor Contra Celf. 1.6. P. 323. Com. in Johan. р. 8. P. 28, 29. important Question, p. 2.) are of little Use to support youf Opinion, that the Son of God is a Creature. But after all, I believe we shall both agree, that Origen has some Opinions so very strange and heterodox, that we shall concur in rejecting them; and if in this present Question he should be found to have declared different Opinions, surely those are to be rejected, which are founded on his own, scarce Philosophical Notions; and, if he be of any Authority, what he says founded on the Scripture, which he quotes, and supported by the concurrent Testimonies of other Great and Holy Fathers interpreting those Texts, and applying them to the Divinity of the Son of God, ought in Reason to be preferr'd and most valued : And I shall fum up all in his own Words: (*) The God and Father of all is not alone great, for he made the Only-begotten • and First-born of every Creature Partaker of himself, and of • his Greatness, that He being the Image of the Invisible God, • Should keep the Image of the Father even in Greatness; for it * was not possible for him to be the Commensurate and fair Image • of the Invisible God, unless he exhibited the Image also of his • Greatness.' And in another Place he accordingly stiles the Son, (1) the Glorify'd God, the Word. Surely this is more than a Metaphysical Existence, as you impute to the Ancients, p. 14. more than that he was in a sub' til manner, virtually, potentially, or as his Internal Wisdom in ' his Father from all Eternity, p. 26. What I have here tranfcrib'd out of the aforesaid Authors, and what I have observ'd upon them, methinks, may help you out of the Difficulty under which you labour, when you say, How a confessedly (you should have added, necessarily) deriv'd, ' produc'd, and Begotten Being, an Only-begotten Son, should be really Coeternal with his Underiv'd, Unbegotten, and necessa'rily Existing Father, Author and Producer, I cannot possibly • understand. Indeed, if you measure this Mystery by natural Generations here on Earth, 'tis inconceivable how a Son should be Coeval with his Father; it is impossible: But surely our shallow Understandings are not the Measure of Infinity. We own this Mystery is incomprehensible; and so is the Eternity of God. It is hard to conceive, how any Thing can exist without a (*) Ου μόνο ἢ μέγας καθ' ἡμᾶς όζιν ὁ τ ̓ ὅλων θεὸς κι πατήρ, κετέθωκε γδ εαυτό κὶ ὁ μεγαλειότης τις μονεγενεῖ κὶ πρωτοτόκῳ πάσης κτίσεως, ιν', εἰκὼν αὐτο τυςχάνων τὸ ἀο ράτε θεῖ, κὶ ἐν τις μεγέθει στόζη ἢ εἰκόνα το παβός, ὁ γὸ οἷον τῶ ἐ) (ύμμετρον (ἶν ̓ ὅτως ὀνομάσω) κὶ καλιὼ εἰκόνα τε ἀοράτε θες, μὴ κὶ τὸ μεγέθες παριςάσαν ἢ εἰκόνα. (1) 'Αυτὺς ἢ ὁ υἱὸς ὁ δεδόξασμύο θεός λόγΘ. Cause |