And necessary to be believed for Salvation. Faith in the Holy Trinity required in all ages, p. 44...required after the 1st. Sentence of Excommunication was passed by the Antenicenes upon all who rejected the doctrine of a consubstantial Trinity, p. 48...Theodotus, Artemon, Beryllus of Bostra, and others, p. 46. 2nd. The Creeds of the Antenicene Church were known symbols of a consubstantial Trinity, p. 49...many of them asserted the consub- stantial nature of the Trinity as strongly as the Nicene Form, p. 51... e. g., Gregor. Thaumaturgus, p. 51...Origen, p. 52...Lucian Martyr, p. 52...baptismal Creed of Eusebius, p. 53...The Creed in the Apos- 3rd. Baptism was considered by the Antenicenes to be null and void without Faith in a Consubstantial Trinity, p. 59... Testimonies of Justin Martyr, p. 60...Tertullian, p. 61...Origen, p. 61...Hippolytus, p. 64... Cyprian, THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. THE Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as it is explained by the Postnicene Church, acknowledges that there are Three distinct Persons united in one common Essence. The Persons are declared to be Three, because they are supposed to be numerically Three; each being different and distinct from each other by office, by relationship, and by a particular mode of subsistence. The Substance which unites the Three Persons is declared to be One, not by reason of number, as if 1 εν It is in this sense that St. Basil speaks of the Unity of the Divine Substance: “ Πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἐπηρεάζοντας ἡμῖν τὸ τρίθεον, ἐκεῖνο λεγέσθω, ὅτι περ ἡμεῖς ἕνα Θεὸν, οὐ τῷ ἀριθμῷ, ἀλλὰ τῇ φύσει ὁμολογοῦμεν, πᾶν γὰρ ὃ ἓν αριθμῷ λέγεται, τουτο οὐχ ὄντως, οὐδε ἁπλοῦν τῇ φύσει ἐστίν· ὅ δὲ Θεὸς ἁπλοῦς καὶ ἀσύνθετος παρὰ πᾶσιν ὁμολογεῖται. οὐκ ἄρα εἷς ἀριθμῷ ἐστὶν ὁ Θεὸς· ὁ δὲ λέγω τοιοῦτον ἐστὶν· ἓν ἀριθμῷ τὸν κόσμον εἶναι φαμὲν, ἀλλ ̓ οὐχ ἕνα τῇ φύσει, ἀλλ ̓ οὐδ ̓ ἁπλοῦν τινὰ τοῦτον· τέμνομεν γὰρ αὐτὸν, εἰς τὰ ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε στοιχεῖα, εἰς πῦρ καὶ ὕδωρ, καὶ ἀέρα καὶ γῆν πάλιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἷς ἀριθμῷ ὀνομάζεται· ἕνα γᾶρ ἄνθρωπον B it were the aggregate of certain numerical parts, but one in the strictest sense possible, being always perfect and entire in itself, and incapable of any separation whatever. The Church, in her formularies of Faith, has stated the Doctrine in the following words: "There is but one living and true God . . . and in unity of this Godhead there be Three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” It will be the object of this Dissertation, to prove that the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as it is thus taught in the Articles and Creeds of the Church of England is Scriptural, Catholic, and Necessary to be believed in order to salvation. Whether the Jews, anterior to the birth of our Lord, had any definitive notions of the Triune God, πολλάκις λέγομεν· ἀλλ' οὐχ ἁπλους τις ὄντος ἐστὶν, ἐκ σώματος, καὶ ψύχης συνεστώς· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἄγγελον, ἕνα ἀριθμῷ ἔροῦμεν, ἀλλ' ουχ ἕνα τῇ φύσει, οὐδὲ ἁπλοῦν· οὐσίαν γὰρ μεθ ̓ ἁγιασμοῦ τὴν τοῦ ἀγγέλου ὑπόστασιν ἐννοοῦμεν· ἐι τοίνυν πᾶν τὸ ἓν ἀριθμῷ ἐν τῇ φύσει οὐκ ἔστι, καὶ τὸ ἓν τῇ φύσει καὶ ἁπλοῦν, ἓν αριθμῷ οὐκ ἔστι, ἡμεῖς δὲ λέγομεν ἕνα τῇ φύσει Θεὸν, πῶς ἐπεισάγουσιν ἡμῖν τὸν ἀριθμὸν, αὐτὸν πάντῃ ἡμῶν ἐξοριζόντων τῆς μακαρίας ἐκείνης καὶ νοητῆς φύσεως ; ὁ γὰρ ἀριθμὸς ἔστι τοῦ πόσου· τὸ δὲ πόσον τῇ σωματικῇ φύσει συνέζευκται, ὁ γοῦν ἀριθμὸς τῆς σωματικῆς φύσεως· σωμάτων δὲ δημιουργὸν τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν εἶναι πεπιστεύκαμεν. διὸ καὶ πᾶς ἀριθμὸς ἐκεῖνα σημαίνει τὰ ἔνυλον καὶ περιγραπτὴν ἔχειν λαχόντα τὴν φύσιν· ἡ δὲ μονὰς και ἑνὰς τῆς ἁπλῆς καὶ ἀπεριλήπτου οὐσίας ἐστὶ σημαντική.”Basil, tom. iii. Epist. viii. 2. fol. Paris, 1730. 1 Art. 1, is a question that has not been very clearly determined. 1 Most probably the subject was only seen by them as through a glass darkly." 66 But though the ancient Jews may not have attained unto the knowledge of the Trinity, it does not follow that their volume was destitute of evidence. It may, on the contrary, be found, through the medium of a subsequent revelation, to be replete with that doctrine. Many passages of the New Testament are in themselves dark and obscure; but through the medium of the Old Testament they suddenly become clear and perspicuous; and in like manner many things which were doubtlessly hidden from the Jew, we, by help of the New, readily perceive. We need not therefore be surprised, if the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, like other doctrines, was not clearly perceived by the Jew, who had not the assistance of the New Testament. 1 I have here stated my impression, after a diligent perusal of "Dr. Allix's Judgment of the Jewish Church." The extreme caution that is necessary in admitting the paraphrases and targums of the ancient Rabbins, and the conclusive evidence that may be furnished that Philo wrote after the birth of Christ, renders, in my opinion, any greater concession than is here made hazardous and questionable. In "Bryant's Sentiments of Philo concerning the Logos," published at Cambridge, 1797, the reader will find, from p. 30 to p. 221, a perfect refutation of the arguments which Dr. Allix, Mangey, and Basnage, have advanced in support of the antiquity of Philo's writings, as well as some very clear proofs that Philo had seen some of the writings of the Evangelists, and was well acquainted with the doctrines of Christianity. On comparing the writings of the Old Testament with those of the New, it may now be seen that the doctrine of the Trinity was written in very legible characters on the page of Moses. It appears that the dealings of God in the Old Testament were as unquestionably set forth by Moses to be the dealings of the Triune God, as those in the New are described to be so by the Evangelists. And it will be no inconsiderable argument in proof of the eternal and determinate counsel of God to reveal to mankind the mystery of the Trinity in Unity, if I shew, by comparing the two Covenants together, that as nearly as the two dispensations resemble each other, i. e., as the Old Testament is the exact type of the New, so nearly does the relation which Moses has given of the Trinity in Unity coincide with that which has been given by the Evangelists.1 In both Testaments the First Article of Faith is represented to be belief in the Unity of the Divine Essence. "The first of all commandments," says our Saviour, quoting the words of Moses, is, "Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord." 2 'Daniel Zuicker, a Prussian Socinian, asserted that the Platonic school was the founder of the Doctrine of the Trinity. It is my object to shew, by a comparison of the Old and New Testaments, that the doctrine claims a more ancient founder than Plato, and that Plato rather borrowed from Moses than the early Trinitarians from Plato. 2 Mark xii. 29; Deut. vi. 4. |