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DISCOURSE III.

MARK xii. 32. 34.

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

F

ROM thefe 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 fo ftiled throughout the Old and New Teftament: 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 fo the Scribe could fpeak of no other God. Secondly, obferve,

that

that our Lord owns, that this Scribe, in faying this, anfwer'd vevex@s, as a Man of a good and right Understanding in the Matter. Whereas had it been neceffary to be believ'd, that he himself, and the Holy Ghoft, 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 Teftimony of his right Understanding in this Matter: Seeing his Faith, according to that Doctrine, must have been deficient in two Objc&s of it, as necessary 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 believe ὅτι θεὸς εἷς ἐσιν, that God is one, Thou doft well, without giving us the leaft hint of a Diftinction between the Godhead, and the Perfon. See also, Gal. iii.

20.

I therefore fhall attempt to fhew 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 Senfe it is, and may be owned, that Jefus Chrift is also God.

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

fus

(*) James ii. 19.

fus Chrift is not God, in this Senfe, is, and must be own'd by all the Orthodox, who profefs him to be the Son of God, God of God, proceeding from the Father by Generation, and Communication of Subftance to him; and fo not Self-exiftent, 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 fay, Ens a fe, God of himself.

So that we feem all agreed in this, that there is but one Self-existent Being. And the Queftion now feems chiefly to be this, whether one and the fame numerical Effence can be Self-existent, and not Self-exiftent, God of God, and yet God of none, having all his Perfections in, and of himself, and yet all derived from another"? Or, in fhort, whether the Word, God, fignifies three Persons in one Esfence, or only one Perfon?

Now that God is one, eîs povos, one only, all the wifer Heathens, conftantly 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 Chriftians, which they had granted to the Philofophers, because they also did, (α) τὸ θεῖον ἐις μονάδα τατακλέιειν, declare their God

(a) Athenag. p. 6,

In this Senfe did the

God to be one only. Jews believe God to be only one, they owning no other Perfon to be God befides the Creator of all things; as fully appears, from the Dialógue of Trypho with Justin M. And St. Paul faith of all Chriftians, 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 áll Chriftians even from the Beginning, will be fully proved from the concurrent Teftimonies of almost all the Ante-Nicene Fathers. For firft.

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

And this Irenæus (b) reprefents 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 Chrift, fpeaking to his Father thus, This is Life eternal i to know thee τὸν μόνον ἀληθινόν Θεόν, to be the only true God;' to wit, in that Senfe,

K

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) Adverf. Har. 1. 4. c. 37. P. 330.

(c) Μόνος ἀληθινὸς θεὸς, δ, τὸν μόνον ἀληθεὸν θεὸν. Clems. Roms, Se&t. 43:

in which Chrift ftiles himself to be the true Bread that came down from Heaven; and, to be the true Vine: that is, in the moft excellent, and higheft Senfe, and being fo originally, and from no other. And of this Clemens, Irenæus, (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 Chriftian Religion had its Beginning from the Prophets, who taught that there was one God, befides 'whom there was no other.

Irenæus (c) gives us the Apoftolical Tradition of the Church in thefe Words, ‹ There is one Omnipotent God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth; ' and then adds, That the Church declar'd him to be the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift:' and, faith he, Polycarp taught thefe things, which he had learnt from the Apoftles, 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, Adverf. Harefes. 1. 3. c. 3. Et Polycar pus, inquit, hæc docuit femper quæ ab Apoftolis didifcerat, & quæ Ecclefiæ tradidit, & fola funt vera, ibid.