CONTAINING HIS

Correction of feveral Paffages
in his Commentary on the
NEW TESTAMENT.

To which are added,

Five DISCOURSES.

Published by his exprefs ORDER.

The SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

Printed for JAMES and JOHN KNAPTON, at
the Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard. 1728.

C

THE

PREFACE.

I

T is rightly and truly observed by Juftin Martyr (a) in the Beginning of his Exhortation to the Greeks'; That an exalt Scrutiny into things doth often produce Conviction; that thofe things which we once judged to be right, are after a more diligent Enquiry into Truth, found to be far otherwife.

And truly I am not ashamed to fay, This is my very Cafe. For when I wrote my Commentaries on the New Teftament, I went on (too hastily I own) in the common beaten Road of other reputed Orthodox Divines: Conceiving, firft, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, in one complex Notion, were one and the fame God, by Virtue of the fame individual Effence communicated from the Father. This confufed Notion I am now fully convinced by the Arguments I have offered here, and in the fecond Part my Reply to Dr. Waterland, to be a thing impoffible,

(a) Orat. Cohort. ad Gracos, p. 1.

A 2

and

WO RM 20JUNS

and full of grofs Abfurdities, and Contradictions. And then, as a natural Confequence from this Doctrine, I (fecondly) concluded that thofe Divine Perfons difered only ἐν τρόπῳ ὑπάρξεως, in the manner of their Exiftence. And yet what that can fignifie in the Son, according to this Doctrine, it will not, I think, be very eafy intelligibly to declare.

That the Difference can be only Modal, even Dr. South bath fully demonftrated: And that this was the Opinion generally received from the fourth Century, may be feen in the clofe of my firft Part to Dr. Waterland. And yet the Right Reverend Bishop Bull (a) pofitively affirms, That this is rank Sabellianifm in thefe Words, A Perfon can't be conceived without Ef fence, unless you make a Perfon in Divine Matters to be nothing else but a mere Mode of Existence, which is manifeft Sabellianifm. And the judicious Dr. Cudworth, (b) tells us, That the Orthodox • Anti-Arian Fathers did all of them zealously condemn Sabellianifm, the Doctrine whereof is no other but this, That there is but one Hypoftafis, or fingle individual Effence of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft; and confequently that they were indeed • but three Names, or Notions, or Modes, of one and the felf fame thing. Whence fuch Abfurdities as thefe would follow, That the Father's begetting the Son was nothing but a Name, Notion, or 'Mode of one Deity begetting another; or else the fame Deity under one Notion begetting it felf under another Notion. And when again the Son, or • Word is faid to be incarnate, and to bave fuffered Death for us upon the Cross, that it was nothing

• but

(a) Addo ego, Perfonam fine Effentiâ concipi non poffe, nifi fta ueris Perfonam in Divinis nihil aliud effe quam merum ·TÉT UTÁρksas, quod plane Sabellianum, 1.4.P.439.

(b) Cud. Syftem, ch. 4. p. 605.

• but a mere logical Notion, or Mode of the Deity under one particular Notion or Mode only.

That the Doctrine of the Sabellians was exactly the fame with that of those who ftile themselves the Orthodox, afferting that the Father, and the Son, are numerically one and the fame God, is evident from the Words of Athanafius (a) and Epiphanius; both (b) teftifying, That to say the Father and the Son were μονούσιοι oι ταυλούσιοι, of one and the fame Subftance was Sabellianifm. And furely, of Confequence to contend that this is the Doctrine of the Church of England, is to dishonour our Church, and in Effect to charge her with that Herefy, which was exploded with Scorn by the whole Church of Christ, from the third to this prefent Century.

In a Word, all other Notions of the Word Perfon, befides the plain and obvious one, fignifying a real and intelligent Agent, have been already fo excellently baffled and learnedly confuted that I own I am not able to refift the fhining Evidence of Truth: Nor am I afhamed to confefs my former Miftakes and Errors in thefe Matters after such strong and irresistible Conviction, feeing, Humanum eft errare, all Men are liable to Error. And as upon this Principle, I cannot but think it the most grofs Hypocrify, after fuch Conviction, to perfift in a Mistake; fo without Ques tion, it is the greatest Abuse of Humility and free Thinking, to attribute fuch open and ingenuous Acknowledgements to a wavering Judgment, or levity of Mind.

Neither

(α) Ουτε δ υἱο πάτερα φρονοῦμεν ὡς οι Σαβέλλιοι μονούσιον. Εxpeς. Fidei p. 241.

(6) Καὶ ἐν λέγομεν ταυτούσιον, ἵνα μὴ ἡ λέξις τους τισι λεγομένη Zaßerrig &Texardy. Anomeorum Herefis, 76. N, 7.

See Dr. Clarke, Mr. Jackson, and others.