Imatges de pàgina
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the same place. It claims and receives the same regard; and those who humbly adhere to it as being the revealed though inexplicable truth of God, could as well dispense with the centre of the solar system, as forego the divinity of the "Sun of righteousness," or seek to raise the structure of a christian hope on a foundation less than that

occasion have arisen for a questioning of the divinity of Christ by the Ebionites, and of his substantial humanity, by the Docete? This ground of opposition is futile in the extreme. It is certain, moreover, that the doctrine of the Trinity was firmly held from Justin Martyr's time downwards; and Tertullian expressly shows, that at that period baptism was administered in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. "Quum sub tribus et testatio fidei et sponsio salutis pignorentur, necessario adjicitur ecclesiæ mentio: quoniam ubi tres, id est, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus, ibi ecclesia, quæ trium corpus establutione delictorum, quam fides impetrat, obsignata in Patre et Filio et Spiritu Sancto. Nam si in tribus stabit omne verbum, quanto magis, dum habemus per benedictionem eosdem arbitros fidei, quos et sponsores salutis, sufficit ad fiduciam spei nostræ etiam numeris nominum divinorum." (De Bap. c. vi.) In Justin Martyr, who was prior to Tertullian, and born soon after the death of St. John, we have a declaration of faith, distinctly mentioning the belief and worship of the three divine Persons of the Godhead. Εκείνον τε (Πατερα) και τον παρ' αυτου Υἱον ελθοντα και διδαξαντα ήμας ταυτα,—Πνευμα τε το προφητικόν, σεβομεθα και προσκυνούμεν. (Apol. I. p. 47.) I will mention one more particular, in proof of what I have stated in the text; and it is this that Hymenæus, bishop of Ælia, and other bishops of the Council of Antioch, declared the doctrine in question to be the faith handed down to their time (A. D. 270,) from the Apostles. Connected with this statement, it may be interesting to the reader to compare with this declaration the creed of the church of Ælia, as contained in the answers of catechumens, preserved in the catecheses of Cyril, bishop of Ælia. ПOTEU εis Eva Oɛov, &c. "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; begotten of the Father before all worlds, very God, by whom all things were made; who was incarnate and made in the likeness of men, crucified and buried; who rose again from the dead on the third day, and sat on the right hand of God, and will come to judge the living and the dead, of whose kingdom

afforded by a triunity in the Godhead. But it is against this fundamental doctrine that the Socinian directs his shafts. He says he cannot comprehend; and he withholds his assent from the doctrine just because he cannot comprehend; while, in regard to matters of an inferior grade, he yields assent to phenomena which he cannot explain, and the

shall be no end; and in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who spake by the prophets; in one baptism of repentance, in the forgiveness of sins, and in one catholic Church, in the resurrection of the body, and in life everlasting." See the Observatio in Symb. Hierosolym. in the Benedictine edition of the works of Cyrillus Hierosol. p. 79, &c.—I have given a translation of this creed at full length, so that, by comparing it with the Nicene Creed, the reader may see how "the faith once delivered to the saints has been preserved in the Church, and held with simplicity from the apostolic times down to the present. The Bishop of St. David's remarks, that it is evident that the above creed was in use before the Nicene Creed, from the absence of the term oμoovosos, and some other terms and titles belonging to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. This is important to be borne in mind. The creed of the church of Ælia was promulgated somewhere about A. D. 270: the Nicene Creed about A. D. 325. Should it still be contended that the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity was a novelty till the time of Justin Martyr, we are not without evidence to satisfy us, that instead of being a novel doctrine, it was held by the Hebrews; at least, whatever views they might entertain, peculiar to themselves, respecting the second person of the Trinity, they certainly admitted and held the idea of a plurality in the Godhead, both before and at the time of Christ's manifestation in the flesh. The inquiring reader may, on this interesting point, profitably consult ALLIX's Judgment of the Jewish Church against the Unitarians, ch. 9-11, 19-21: WITSIUS's Judæus Christianizans, pp. 319, 320; and also his Dissertation De sacrosancta Trinitate ex scriptis et hypothesibus Judæorum, (Utrajecti, 1661): PFEIFFER'S Critica Sacra, cap. viii. ed. 1773; and GROTIUS De Veritate Relig. Christianæ, lib. v. § 21. If the doctrine of the Trinity be a disputable dogma" or a "blind error," as Socinians would have us believe, it is marvellous that, unlike error in general, it should have been preserved from remote antiquity down to the present time, as the revealed truth of God, amidst the assaults and devices of heresy. It is rather too much, at this time, for human pride to exalt itself against a doctrine so founded and so received, just because it is not demonstrable by human ratiocination.

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mysterious nature of which baffles all his penetration. Yet will he not admit that any just charge of inconsistency lies against him.

Although principles of a like complexion with those now held by Socinians, were entertained by a few in the first three centuries of the christian era, yet Socinianism is a plant of comparatively moderate growth. When the sun-light of the Reformation began to dawn upon Christendom, benighted as it had been by papal abominations and errors, Socinianism rose to cast, if it were possible, a shade over its brightness; and daring spirits were not wanting in laborious assiduity to set the dam of fatal error against the broad current of truth as it rolled forward. Various have been their fate and fortunes; and names which might otherwise have been embalmed in honour, and enrolled amidst the armies of the blessed, are now but memorials of human weakness, at which the christian historian gazes, and pauses, and weeps. They are gone to their account; but they have left a savour behind,-a token which many, alas! have received; and Socinianism has become the shadowy creed, in this and other countries, upon which hundreds have ventured to launch their immortal souls; a creed which would rob the Gospel of its good tidings, its Author of his glory, and salvation of the Saviour. Though, Proteuslike, Socinianism, in many of its collateral features, has been given to change with the ebb and flow of human opinion amongst its adherents, yet its daring denial of the divinity of the Son of God has con

tinued to be the centre of the circle of their speculative theology, and the sandy foundation of a structure as impious as Babel, and as perishable. How soon the heaven-directed blow that shall fling it in ruins may descend, is known only to Him whose councils are secret. Whether it is to remain till the coming of the "Just One," and, hand-in-hand with reviving Papacy, to "vex the saints of the Most High," and wage a final warfare with the militant Church of Christ, is yet to be seen. This, to my mind, is the probable view of the matter.*

* Every thing that is not of Christ, is necessarily part of Antichrist-"the man of sin;" and will be allowed to exalt itself against God and his Christ, and the Church militant, to the end, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ. There is a primary spirit of infidelity in the natural heart of man: there is a secondary spirit of infidelity engendered in the corruptions of the church of Rome; and these will ever be ready to coalesce, and form the man of sin to be revealed in the last times. Can Socinianism be less than a member of the man of sin?-In FABER'S Chronology of the Sacred Calendar of Prophecy (a production evincing great accuracy of observation) the author thus ventures to class the fulfilment of prophecy between the years 1815 and 1864. 1815. Political slaughter of Francic emperorship, or seventh head; consequent political death of the Roman beast. (Rev. xvii. 8.)-Sixth Vial. The downfal of the Ottoman empire probably began with the great insurrection in 1821; the kings of the East, perhaps the Jews. Revival of the Francic emperorship will be subsequent to the fall of the Ottoman empire. (Rev. xvii. 8.)-Going forth of the three unclean spirits; the kings of the earth wrought up to fury by the politico-theological agents of the Dragon, the beast and the false prophet; the gathering together of an unseemly mixture of blaspheming infidels and bigoted Romanists.

1864. Expiration of the seven prophetic times, or 2520 years, and of the times of the four great Gentile empires. Viewing unfulfilled prophecy, and human calculations of times and seasons, which are in God's hand, with all necessary and

We of this generation shall, in all probability, be laid with our fathers in the dust, before the vast development of God's final purposes will be made; but we can gather much from steadily watching the signs of the times, much, with the inspired Word for our guide, tending to lead us to sober conclusions. But we have not so much to do with this question, as we have with the present effects of Socinianism. While persuaded in our hearts and consciences of the reality of "the faith once delivered to the saints," our business and our duty, as members of the Church "built upon the apostles and the prophets," and having a glorious "chief corner-stone," should be to furnish the present and the rising generation with armour wherewith to stand against the shocks of error, and the insidious devices of heresy.

The Socinian heresy has been grappled with in the most successful manner by writers of various degrees of eminence, both in and out of the communion of the Church of England; but I do not imagine that their labours have been instrumental to the bringing out of many to a plain and honest confession and rejection of error, and to a reception of the true faith: nor do I suppose that the highlygifted author of the following Letters looked so much to the reclaiming of Socinians, as to the

becoming caution, we cannot but be struck with the present state of the world, as preparing for such a result as Faber alludes to as immediately preceding the year 1864. May God in his great mercy grant, that our highly privileged country be not found with the mark of the beast on her, at the coming of the Lord Jesus!

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