Equivocations and Evafions taking them in a different Senfe from what the Catholicks took them in.

And therefore, as I faid before, this is the beft Guard or Fence we have of the Chriftian Faith, as it was believed and professed in the primitive Church. And hence it is, that our modern Arians and Socinians fo much decry this Creed, and labour to throw it out of our publick Confeffions of Faith: because if this was once laid afide, they could fubfcribe to the other, and hold their Preferments with a great deal of Eafe and Pleasure, and undermine Christianity and the Church, at the fame Time they enjoy thofe Privileges and Advantages, which the State has been pleased to appoint for the Support of both amongst us. But where then is their Integrity!

This was, Sir, compofed chiefly to hinder the ill Effects, and oppose the Evasions of the Arian, Sabellian, Macedonian, and Apollinarian Herefies and therefore it chiefly regards the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation of our bleffed Saviour. It would take up too much Time, and I fhould trespass too much upon your Patience, if I fhould run through every Propofition in it, and fhew what HeLefy it was defigned to obviate: At present I C 2

fhall

shall confine myself to the Equality of the Son with the Father, which was the chief Subject of our late Discourse, being ready to give what fatisfaction I can to you, Sir, or to any other Perfon in Respect of any other Doctrine.contain'd in it.

But before I enter upon the direct Proof of the Equality of the Son with the Father, as touching his Godhead: In order to fet before you in a clearer Light the Excellency of this Creed, I must begin at the third Verse of it, where it is declared, what the Catholick Faith is, viz, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. This our Church does in many Places of our admirable Liturgy, in Conformity to primitive Antiquity. She does it in her Doxologies, Hymns, Creeds, in her fmaller Litany, as well as in the Beginning and the End of her larger; in fome of these we celebrate the Praises of, in others profess our Belief in, or invocate the Holy Trinity, befides what is faid in the Conclufion of many of our Collects. Our fmaller Litany, Lord, bave Mercy upon us, &c. was antiently used both in the Eastern and Western Churches, having been order'd by an old Council to be ufed every Day in the publick Service. But what I would chiefly here obferve, is that the

Trifagium or Thrice-Holy, expreffive of the Trinity in Unity, was taken by Chriftians. of the firft Ages of the Church into their Offices for the Holy Sacrament, and is of divine Original, being taken from Ifaiah 6. 3. and Revel. 4. 8. for as the Thrice-Holy is expreffive of a Trinity of Perfons, fo is Lord God of Hofts of the Unity of their Nature. So conformable is our excellent Church to the Practice of the Primitive! So well has the guarded the Doctrine of the ever-bleffed Trinity, and fenced it on every Side! And fo weak or wicked are fuch of our Diffenters, as reject publick Forms of Prayer as fuch, feeing they were always in ufe, and are the best Prefervatives of the Doc+ trines of the Church, and confequently of the Gospel! Por

The fourth and fifth Verses of this Creed are level'd against the Sabellians and Arians, neither confounding the three Perfons in the Unity of one God, as the Sabellians confounded the Son and the Holy Ghoft with the Fas ther, making the three Perfons but one Perfon: Nor dividing the Subftance, by making fo many different Subftances or Natures, as there are different Perfons, as the Arians did. In Oppofition to the former, we profefs in the fifth Verse to believe, that there is one Perfon

of

of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghoft: and that this Distinction is not nominal only but real, will afterwards appear in the 21, 22, and 23 Verfes. But then in oppofition to the latter, viz. the Arians, we also profess to believe, as is expressed in the 6th Verse, that the Godhead or divine Substance of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is all one, both in Kind and Number, by an unfpeakable Union; for the divine Nature cannot be multiply'd nor divided. And fo the Glory of each Perfon is equal to the Glory of either of the other two, and the Majesty of all the Three is co-eternal, i. e. having no Beginning, and will have no End; for the Nature being one and the fame undivided in all, the Glory and Majefty must be fo too. And hence it is, that all the effential Attributes of the Divine Nature are common to all the Three Perfons, as it follows in Verfe the 7th, and it may very eafily be proved from Scripture, that the Son and the Holy Ghost are equally with the Father Eternal, and equally infinite in Power, Dominion, Wisdom, and Knowledge, &c. Inftances of thefe effential Attributes are given in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 15th, and 17th Verfes, which belong to all the three diftinct. Perfons: And yet their

Unity or Non-divifion is fufficiently guarded by the 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th, and 18th Verses, which is also evident from Deut. 6.4. Mark 12. 29. 1 Corinth. 8. 4. and many more Texts, which it would be as unneceffary, as tedious to mention here. And though we are taught in Scripture to acknowledge every Perfon diftinctly and by himself to be God and Lord: yet are we forbidden by the fame Scripture to fay, there be three Gods or three Lords, Verses 19th, 20th. But ftill though this Unity of the Divine Nature is thus clear and manifeft, and the three Perfons have the fame common effential Attributes; yet have they efpecial Properties, by which they are really distinguish'd from one another. One Perfon is not another, and they are not one Perfon but three Persons, being diftinguish'd by their perfonal Properties, as expreffed in the 21ft, 22d, and 23d Verfes. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten; the Son is not made nor created, but begotten of the Father alone from all Eternity, and not in Time as the Arians maintained; for the Father was always Father, and the Son always Son, and did not become either of them fo, in any Time, with respect to each other, as in Matt. ́3. 17. John 1. 1, 2. 14. 18. and in many more

Places :