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a critical study of the Scriptures; ignorant of or inattentive to the just theory of generation; and many of them converts from heathenifm, in which the generation of their gods made a great part of their theology; the fathers injudiciously confounded the Son of God with the divine Word, and applied that generation which gives the Logos a perfonal co-existence only with human nature, to give exiftence to the eternal Logos himself. Hence they proceeded to represent the firft perfon as αρχή, αιτία, πατηρ, principium, auctor, the principle, the efficient caufe; the Father or producer of the fecond; held the fecond to be a Son derived from his Father, and dependent upon him for exiftence, and applied all those inferior characters to the Son, as God, which we have feen the Scriptures affirm of him only as he is God-man. This unhappily paved the way, firft for Arianin, and then for Mahometifm in the firft ages; and this and the scholaftic theory of the Trinity founded upon it, gave birth not only to modern Arianifm, but to Socinianifm itself: from the orthodox acknowledging a generated, Arius and his followers proceeded to give him only a created Deity, though created from eternity; and the Socinians make him only a creature of time.

Yet neither were the private writings of the fathers, nor the public decrees of their councils, unanimous upon this fubject. Several of the fathers gave Chrift an exiftence, as the divine eternal Logos, previous to his more diftinct generation as the Son. The Nicene Creed refted his existence as Son, on his eternal generation by the Father; yet the fymbol afcribed to Athanafius affirms him, as God, to be in all respects co-equal and co-eternal with

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the Father; and that his Sonship commenced fome-how before the world. And the most general Creed, commonly called Apoftolic, taken in its plain connection and meaning, reprefents. this article in the precife light in which we have here placed it, and in which Chrift and his apoftles first declared it. For having affirmed Jefus Chrift to be God's only Son, it represents this Son, as conceived by the power of the Holy, Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, and fubmitting to all thofe fufferings, and exalted to those rewards, which all along characterize this Son of God, as uniting humanity with divinity in the conftitution of his perfon. But it is not the opinions of fallible men, but the revelations of the. God of truth that direct and establish the faith. of a Chriftian, upon this important fubject. If. it have this evidence, it needs no other: if it wants this, none else can fupport it. By not. attending to this unerring rule, every error on this and the other articles of religion have in every period. crept into the church; and it is only by recurring to it, that these errors can be corrected, and genuine Chriftianity restored. By this certain and effectual method, were many erroneous principles in doctrine and practice detected, and difcarded at the late happy Reformation; and by the fame means only, can this fundamental article of our faith be refcued from the imperfect or mistaken notions, which both the later Greek and Latin churches have held of it, and recovered to that juft and natural fenfe in which the Scriptures have placed it. The books. of Philo, and the Targumifts; the writings of the Chriftian fathers, and the decrees of the councils, may fhow what were their fentiments upon this fubject, and in what light they explained

plained the Scriptures relating to it. But thefe are oftentimes different from Scripture, different from each other, and fometimes from themselves; fo that the orthodox and the heretics have both claimed them as on their fide. The infpired writings alone are the foundation and standard of revealed theology, as much fuperior in authority to every human compofure, as the infallible God is to fallible men, and to which every opinion of mankind muft ever be fubject. By this unerring rule, and not by the application of a part, but of the whole of it, we have endeavoured to investigate and afcertain the proper ground of our Saviour's Sonship. The explication we have given of this article, as it has the countenance and fupport of every part of revelation, fo it not a little recommends itfelf to our regards from its perfect confiftency with our Saviour's fupreme divinity, and its natural tendency to establish that great truth, upon its proper foundation, and to banish thofe er roneous and dangerous opinions, as to our Saviour's perfon, with which the Chriftian church hath been long peftered, and which have originated chiefly from a misunderstanding of his Sonfhip. The Athanafians, the fchoolmen, and their followers, holding him God, and the Son of God, by eternal generation, degraded their Saviour from a neceffarily-exiftent to a generated and dependent Deity.. The Arians, holding him Son of God, only as he is a glorious and god like fpirit, created by God before all worlds; and the Socinians, who hold him but a mañ, raised to god-like power and glory, have given up his real divinity altogether, and every juft ground of his being the begotten Son of God; and all of them have moft certainly erred in limiting his Sonship t one of his natures, when all Scripture and every E 6

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rational idea of generation, join in affuring us it includes both. This explication of it reftores this fundamental article of our faith, to that juft light, in which God, and the Son of God, the prophets and apoftles revealed it, and the church received it: and it is attended with none of the abfurdities that attend these unnatural and imperfect expositions of it which latter ages have fallen into, while it has every advantage with which any of them are attended. This holds him to be the Son of God, as he is God, yet without a generated or created, but neceffarily-exiftent divinity, as all true divinity must neceffarily be, and the Son of God too as he is man, yet as he is neither only, but both united by a proper generation, and co-exifting in one complex perfon. This neither infringes his fupreme Deity, by making him a generated God on the one hand, nor weakens the argument from his being the begotten Son of God, that he must be truly God, but greatly ftrengthens both, while his divinity is not derived or dependent, but neceffarily-exiftent and eternal, as the divine eflence in general, and the other perfonal fubfiftences identified with that effence, however diftinguishable from each other, muft neceffarily be. Nor does it exalt a mere creature to the characters and honours of its divine Creator; but unites the divine co-effential, neceffarily-exiftent and eternal Word, by the power of God, with a human nature, conftituting the complex perfon of Immanuel; who is both God and man in one perfon; and who in this compound perfon, begotten or conftituted by his divine Father, and born of his Virgin Mother, is in all propriety of language, and with the full declaration of Scripture, the Son of both. And without va

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nity, I will fay, had this natural and fcriptural view of our Saviour's Sonfhip been properly adhered to, Arianifm and Socinianifm would either never have been broached, or, like the other herefies, would foon have been effectually confuted and banished, as the evidence of Scripture would be fo full and ftrong in fupport of his fupreme Deity; and yet his fupreme divinity be fo confiftent with his Sonship, that thofe unnatural, antifcriptural doctrines would by every judicious Chriftian be difcarded; or if any adhered to them, they muft plainly renounce every regard to divine revelation, by every part of which they are most clearly contradicted.

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