2. According to the common Sense and Notion, we have of created Beings, whatever is made may be unmade. Can the Son of God be annihilated? If this be too harth Blasphemy to be afferted, as surely it is, then there is a Creature, (who tho' P. 23. you say, he is govern'd by God as his God, yet) is in this respect Matth. too hard for his Creator, who by giving all Power in Heaven and xxviii. 18. in Earth to the Son, must consequently remain himself not onmnipotent: Or, if he does, the Son is omnipotent too; and then if the Son be a diftinct Being, there are Two Omnipotents, which is absurd and contradictious: For you say in your Quo- P. 15. cation out of Clemens Alexandrinus, 'The Son cannot be ever ob• Structed, as being Lord of all. The Addition of, especially while • he ministers to the Will of his good and heavenly Father, (which most certainly he always does, tho' especially seems to imply that sometimes he does not so) is not given as the Reason of this his Irresistibility; but the Foundation of it is, as being Lord of all; that is, God, and as fuch he does always do the Will of his Father, for they have but one and the fame Will.

But I must not let pass, without observing, how unfairly you have translated this Passage in Clemens Alexandrinus, as will appear by the true rendring of it; viz.

(d) Neither can He (the Son) ever be obstructed by any other, being Lord of all, and chiefly, or most of all, most perfectly miniString to the Will of the good and heavenly Father.

And in the very next Line, he is said to be (e) begotten without a Beginning; which fully denotes his intimate Union with the Father, and consequently that he will not, cannot ever be obstructed by him; for, as I said, they have one and the fame Will.

3. In another of the Quotations 'tis said, 'That the Son is de P. 17. • riv'd from the Substance of the Father; and yet there is added, • that he is a made God, created by the Father. How are these consistent? For if the Substance of the Father be uncreated, whatever is of that Substance must be so too; but to be created, and yet to be of an uncreated Substance, a created uncreated is a Contradiction.

4. I presume you do agree, that our Lord Jesus was a true, proper, and meritorious, expiatory Sacrifice, and made full Satisfaction to the Justice of his Father for the Sins of Mankind, according to this new Covenant of Grace. I ask then, How can a Creature (as you affert him to be) have such a Degree of Merit, as to deserve the Pardon of other Men's Sins? Can any

(4) ἐθ' ὑφ ἑτέρα κωλυθείη πόλ ̓ ἂν ὁ πάντων κύριθ κὶ μάλιςα Εξυπηρετῷ τῷ τὸ ἀγαθῶ κὶ παντοκρατπιρθ θελήματι παβός.

(*) ̓Ανάρχως γλυόμλιθο

Crea

Creature do more than what is his Duty to do? And the greater the Perfections are, with which any Creature is endued, in the fame Proportion the greater is his Duty too, so that he can have no Merit: And it may be truly said of the highest Luke xvii. created Beings, as our Saviour teaches us to say, that we are unprofitable Servants, and add nothing to the essential Glory of God, who was infinitely happy before there were any created Beings, and needed not the Service of any Creatures.

10.

17.

Cor. xv.

P. 35.

If you will fay, that Almighty God was pleased nevertheless to accept this Sacrifice, you may better say, that infinite Goodness might have pardon'd us without any Sacrifice to his Justice for our Sins, and with the Socinians deny the Merit and Satisfaction of Chrift; and then, I am afraid, I may say, (as St. Paul fays, if Christ be not risen) our Faith is vain, we are yet in our Sins.

But again; if he be a Creature, the Socinians seem to be in the right: For 'tis hard to reconcile to the Justice of God the Jaying upon an innocent Person, an only begotten Son, in whom he was well pleas'd, the Sins and the Iniquities of us all, and the Punifunent of them too; nay, tho' his voluntary Undertaking of this for us, and his coming into the World for this Purpose, may, in fome Sort, answer the Objection to the Justice of God, yet it may be too great a Presumption in a Creature, to offer himself as a Satisfaction to the Juftice of God against us Sinners, because it implies such an Opinion of his own Merit, as would not become a Creature, who (as I faid before) can have none.

5. By your Quotation out of Ireneus you agree, that Gen. i. 26. Let us make Man after our Image, was spoken to the Son and Holy Ghost; which is one of the Texts which have, been urg'd for the Proof of the Trinity: But if the Son be a Creature, and the Holy Ghost the Creature of that Creature, how strange would it be, and unbecoming the Majesty of the Mighty God, (who hath spoken and called the World from the rifing of the Sun unto the going down thereof) to take Counsel, as you express it out of Hermas, of his Creatures, in the glorious Rom.i. 20. Work of the Creation; which was a full Evidence to the HeaRom. xi. then of his eternal Power and Godhead. Who hath been his Counfellor, faith St. Paul? Or being his Counsellor, bath taught him, faith Ifaiah?

Pfal. 1. 1.

P. 11.

34. Ma.xl. 13.

Somewhere I have read of a Philosopher, who, reading the first Chapter of Genesis, was in Admiration of ir, faying, It was the noblest and most proper Account, and best fuited to the Majesty and Omnipotence of the Supreme God; that (to ufe the Pfalmift's Expression) could form the Heavens by his Pf. xxxiii. Word, and all the Host of them by the Breath of his Mouth. Thus much the Light of Nature and common Sense could teach: And has Revelation extinguish'd this Light? No fure; for whom

6.

whom they not knowing worshipp'd, this has declar'd to us: We ὃν ἀγνοῖνdo not doubt but that all Things were made by the Word; but τες. then we say too, that therefore the Word was God: For, He, that Acts xvii. built all Things, is God. This Doctrine answers all Difficulties, 23. and 'tis much easier to believe a Mystery, which has been re- John i. veal'd by the Spirit of Truth, tho' it surpasses our Comprehen- v. I, 2. fion, than to reconcile to our Understanding, common Sense, Heb. iii. 4. and the Light of Nature, how a Creature can be omnipotent, P. 13, 14, or be made a God, or was made God, (as you and your Authors, 16, 17 36. as You Cite them, affert) by that God, who says, Is there a God Ila. xliv.8. befides me? Yea, there is no God, I know not any. xlv. 22.

Matt. 1.20.

6. If the Holy Ghost be the Creature of Jesus Christ, as you affert; and if Jesus Christ took the Manhood into God, as we say, or into that excellent Being made by God, as you fay; for I presume we both agree he was truly Man, and that all together he was upon Earth One Person; how is it reconcilable to common Sense, that the Creature should form any Part of him, by whom he himself was created? For the Holy Ghost overshadow'd the Blessed Virgin, and that which was conceiv'd in her, was of the Holy Ghoft. Did he, who at first made Luk.1.35. Man, and could raise his own Body from the Dead, want the Help of his Creature to form a Body for himself in the Virgin's Womb? Again it is faid, God giveth not the Spirit by Mea- John iii. fure to him; Did he want his own Creature to affift him in his 34. miraculous Works here on Earth? Could he make him, and yet not have him without the special Gift of God? Could he send John xvi. him to his Disciples (as he says, I will send him to you) and could 7. he not take him to himself. But the Belief of Three Persons in the Godhead (tho' the Scriptures mention them as the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier of Mankind) frees us from the inconfiftent Difficulties of your Scheme, because they concur as one God, in the Creation of the World, and the Redemption of Mankind.

These Things may be sufficient to shew, how much better, Pí. cxxxi. and safer it is for us not 'to exercise our selves in Things too 1. high and wonderful for us, nor to seek Things too hard for us, Eccl.xxx. leaning to our own Understanding, lest we be wise in our own Con- 21, σι. ceits, and incur the Cenfure, which one Man after God's own Rom. xi. Heart, and another the wifest Man, have fix'd upon such bold 25. Attempts.

Pí. cxxxi.

And this will appear to be the more our Duty, by confider- 1. ing the Consequences which such Doctrines have had, and may Prov.xxvi. still have upon the Minds of Men. For,

1. I am confident that the Doctrine of Arius, which spread it felf so largely and chiefly in Afia and Africa, may be truly faid to have laid the Foundation of Mahometanism, which that Impostor built upon it: For when that Heretick Arius had afferted the Unity of the Godhead in fuch Terms as to exclude

4

the

12.

the Son and Holy Ghost, making our Lord Jesus Chrift to be no more than a Creature, which any Prophet is, tho' one be suppos'd the older and more excellent Creature of the Two ; it became easy for Mahomet to perfuade the Minds of Men, so prepar'd to receive his Doctrine, (which in a great Measure agreed with that of Arius) and himself as a Prophet, who shew'd them ftill a more excellent Way: And it was a just JudgThes. ii. ment from Heaven to send them a strong Delusion, that they should 11, 12. believe a Lye, because they received not the Love of the Truth or rather, when they had receiv'd it, put from them the Word of God, and by so doing had judg'd themselves unworthy of everlasting Life.

Acts xiii. 46.

I Cor. i.

23.

John xii. 34

P. 30.

John viii,

53.

John ix.

28, 29.

2. It must also have as ill an Effect upon the Jews, by hardening them in their Infidelity and Blafphemy: For as the Crucifixion of Christ was at first a Stumbling-Block to them, who had heard out of their Law, and expected that their MefSiah should abide for ever; so it must be no less a Stumblingblock to be told, that their Meffiah is a mere Creature, if they have an Opinion that he is to be the Son of God, God equal to God; as, I shall shew by and by, was the Notion and Eelief of their Forefathers; and therefore, not This Doctrine, as you say, but Yours will appear a strange Doctrine to the Jews; and if Christ be no more than a Prophet, they will hardly be induced to believe that he was greater than their Father Abraham, or than Mofes, whose Disciples they are, and who know that God spake to him..

3.

Confider what Advantage you give to the Scepticks of this Age, who deny all reveal'd Religion: For they will think they have as much Right to the Light of Nature and common Senfe as your self; for this is the most equally divided of any Thing in the World, because every Man thinks he has enough of it; tho that very Thought is a full Proof that he has not fo. Now very probably you may confirm them, by the Authorities you have so confidently cited, in the Disbelief of the Religion into which they were baptized; because all Men are apt to believe those in the Right who favour their own Opinions or Wishes; but I cannot think they will be convinced by those Authorities to embrace your Scheme of Religion; and then they will recur to the Sufficiency of their own common Sense; and I hope I have shewn, that your Scheme is not to be supported by common Senfe; and I hope to thew, that it is not to be supported by Scripture neither; which is wrested by you to a Sense very different from the plain Meaning of the Texts themselves, which you quote, and of many other Places I Cor. xv. both of the Old and New Testament, exprefly afferting the Doctrine, which St. Paul and the Apostles so preachd, and fo we believe; being affur'd that the World by Wisdom cannoc know God; that is, so know as he is reveal'd to us by the

I Cor. i.

21.

I

Gofpel, Gospel, not in the Words which Man's Wisdom teacheth, bat which I Cor. ii. the Holy Ghost teacheth. For the natural Man receiveth not the 13. Things of the Spirit of God, for they are Foolishness to him; neither Ver. 14. can be know them, because they are spiritually discern'd.

I come now to your Texts and Testimonies, of which I have some few Things to observe :

1. You say; These, which you have cited, are the principal P. 24. * Original Texts and Testimonies, which concern the important Sub* jet before us, viz. The voluntary Generation and Creation of the P. 29. Son of God, and against his Coeternity with the Father.

And yet you have quoted but Six Texts out of the Bible, and Two of them are out of the Apocrypha, which is indeed allow'd by the Papifts, but not by Proteftants, as a fufficient Ground for establishing any Article of Faith. But however, 6th Aric. these and the others I shall examine by and by. of the 39.

2. As for your Testimonies; I cannot pretend to so much Learning, as to discuss them with you, as I ought. But I am aftonish'd that you have dared to a appeal to so many great P. 40. * Men of our Church, as you have named, for the Truth and Fairness of your Quotations and Assertions: For I make no Doubt, but I my self shall be able to shew that they are neither fair nor

true.

And when you have made good your Claim to the Antenicene Fathers, by confuting what the Reverend Bishop Bull has publish'd of their Sense, and when you or any Man else has given a just Answer to the excellent Tracts writ by Dr. WaterLand, in Vindication of Christ's Divinity; then, and not till then, will it be proper or decent to triumph as you do, That * the Testimonies for our Doctrine are few and uncertain; and then * also there will be no need of those very many and pregnant ones, • which, you say, are against it: Besides, should they prove to be such as you have cited in your Letter to me, which it seems are the best you can produce, they will be like Arrows shot up towards Heaven, they will fall upon your own Head, but do your Adversary no Harm.

Among your Testimonies, I find Two taken from Jews, who furely are very improper Evidences against the Divinity of our Saviour, tho' they may be very good Witnesses to prove the Divinity of the Messiah, when they exprefly affert it, or fay what necessarily tends to it, as I hope to shew.

But as you sum up your Evidence, so you also give me a Summary of your Faith, as before-mention'd; but I am furpriz'd to find it deduced from Authors, who in the Places you

P. 38

d Archbishop Wake, Bishop Hooper, Bishop Smalridge, Bishop P.40.

Potter, &c.