DISCOURSE III.

MARK xii. 32. 34.

And the Scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the Truth: For there is one God, and there is none other but he. And when Fefus saw that he answered dif creetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God.

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ROM these Words it is, first; obfervable, that when the Scribe faith, there is but one God, his Meaning must be this, that there

was only one who was the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and is so stiled throughout the Old and New Testament: For this was the only one God mentioned in the Words cited by our Saviour, as the God of the Ifraelites, who own'd no other God but the Creator of the World; and so the Scribe could fpeak of no other God. Secondly, observe, that

that our Lord owns, that this Scribe, in faying this, answer'd νενεχώς, as a Man of a good and right Understanding in the Matter. Whereas had it been necessary to be believ'd, that he himself, and the Holy Ghost, were the fame God, as to numerical Effence, with the Father, or the Sovereign Creator of all things, our Lord could not have given him this Testimony of his right Understanding in this Matter: Seeing his Faith, according to that Doctrine, must have been deficient in two Objects of it, as neceffary to be believed, as was the Article of God the Father and Creator of all Things. And St. James (*) writes to the fame Jews thus, Thou believest ὅτι θεὸς εἶς ἐσιν, that God is one, Thou dost well, without giving us the least hint of a Distinction between the Godhead, and the Person. See also, Gal. iii.

20.

I therefore shall attempt to shew in what Sense it is a certain Truth, that there is but one God, and that there is no other but He." And confequentially in what Sense it is, and may be owned, that Jesus Christ is also God.

As, therefore, the Word, God, fignifies that self-exiftent Being, who alone has all Perfections, and all Dominion, absolutely in, and of himself, original, underived, and independent on any, in this Sense, certain it is, that there is but one God alone. And that our Lord Jefus

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(*) James ii. 19.

fus Christ is not God, in this Senfe, is, and must be own'd by all the Orthodox, who profess him to be the Son of God, God of God, proceeding from the Father by Generation; and Communication of Substance to him; and fo not Self-existent, not ungenerated, nor underived, and not having all his Excellencies from himself, and from no other, but only by Derivation of them from him, who is the Self-exiftent Being, or, as the Schools say, Ens a fe, God of himself.

So that we seem all agreed in this, that there is but one Self-existent Being. And the Question now seems chiefly to be this, whether one and the same numerical Effence can be Self-exiftent, and not Self-existent, God of God, and yet God of none, having all his Perfections in, and of himself, and yet all derived from another? Or, in short, whether the Word, God, signifies three Persons in one Effence, or only one Person?

Now that God is one, εἷς μόνος, one only, all the wifer Heathens, constantly have owned.

And hence the Primitive Greek Fathers, Juf tin M. Athenagoras, Theophilus Antiochenus, and Tatian, in their Apologies to the Heathen Emperors, plead for the fame Freedom for the Christians, which they had granted to the Philosophers, because they also did, (α) τὸ θεῖον ἐις μονάδα τατακλέιειν, declare their

(a) Athenag. p. 6,

God

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In this Sense did the

God to be one only. Jews believe God to be only one, they owning no other Person to be God befides the Creator of all things; as fully appears, from the Dialogue of Trypho with Justin M. And St. Paul faith of all Christians, We know that there is no other God but one, 1 Cor. viii. 4. and v. 6. that this one God, is God the Father.

And that this was the constant Doctrine of all Christians even from the Beginning, will be fully proved from the concurrent Testimonies of almost all the Ante-Nicene Fathers. For first.

Hermas (a) speaks thus; first of all believe that there is one God, who created all things, consummated all things, and made all things out of nothing.

And this Ireneus (b) represents as, Dictamen Scripturæ, The Dictate of the Scrip

ture.

Clemens Romanus (c) faith of the fame one God, that, ' He is, the only true God, as he ' had learnt from the Mouth of Christ, speak

ing to his Father thus, This is Life eternal ' to know thee τὸν μόνον ἀληθινὸν Θεὸν, to be : the only true God; to wit, in that Senfe,

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in

(a) Primum omnium crede, quod unus eft Deus, qui om nia creavit, & confummavit, & ex nihilo omnia fecit. 1. 2. P. 44. Mandat I.

(b) Advers. Har. 1. 4. C. 37. P. 330.

(c) Μόνος ἀληθινὸς θεὸς, Ζ, τὸν μόνον ἀληθείὸν θεὸν. Clem. Rom, Sect. 43.

in which Christ stiles himself to be the true Bread that came down from Heaven ; and, to be the true Vine: that is, in the most excellent, and highest Senfe, and being so originally, and from no other. And of this Clemens, Ireneus, (a) faith, that he did, from the Apoftolical Tradition, declare one Omnipotent God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, and the Former of Man.

And Justin, (b) in his Cohortation to the Greeks, afferts, 'That the Christian Religion • had its Beginning from the Prophets, who

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taught that there was one God, besides ' whom there was no other.'

Ireneus (c) gives us the Apoftolical Tradition of the Church in these Words, 'There ' is one Omnipotent God, the Maker of Hea' ven and Earth, and then adds, 'That the • Church declar'd him to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ:' and, faith he, 'Polycarp taught these things, which he had learnt from the Apostles, and delivered to < the Church as the only Truth.'

And

(a) Annunciare unum deum omnipotentem, factorem cæli & terræ, plafmatorem hominis, 1. 3. Cap. 3. (b) P. 34.

(c) Unum deum Omnipotentem, factorem Cæli & Terræ, hunc Patrem Domini Noftri Jefu Chrifti ab Ecclefiis annunciari. Irenaus, Advers. Hareses. 1. 3. C. 3. Et Polycar pus, inquit, hæc docuit femper quæ ab Apoftolis didifcerat, & quæ Ecclefiæ tradidit, & fola funt vera, ibid.