P. 15. P. IS. P. 15. doubt whether he may be call'd a Catholick Writer, and that this is contrary to his own usual Way of speaking: Why then do you quote him in your Letter to me, if he be not of good Authority? Why do you not produce fuch Paffages out of him, as are according to his ufual Way of speaking? Those which you have inftanced in, are neither fairly nor truly ftated by you; nay, what he does fay in thofe Places is directly and exprefsly against you, as I come now to fhew. At the End of your firft Quotation out of Tertullian, adv. Prax. §. 5. you put &c. For before all Things God was alone, &c. Now this &c. is the most extraordinary and unfair that ever I met with, as Mankind will judge by the Words immediately following, and to which your c. relates. • God was alone: (9) But therefore alone, because there is no ex• trinsical Thing befides him; but indeed not even then alone, for • he had with him his Reason: This the Greeks call Logos. Your Second Quotation out of Tertullian I may take notice of, when I come to your Texts of Scripture. In your Third Quotation, why did you not proceed, but ftop at the Words, The Lord created me the Beginning of his Ways? for immediately he adds, that he was begotten; and thereupon fays, (r) Hence making him equal to himself, by proceeding from whom he is made the Son: The first begotten, " as being begotten before all Things; and the Only begotten, as alone begotten out of God. By this 'tis plain, that he, as well as Juftin, did not conftrue the Text in the Proverbs as you do; for how could a created Being be equal to God himself? And if Begotten and Created be the fame Thing, as you fay, how could he be faid to be the only begotten, as alone begotten? for then he must be not only the Beginning of his Creatures, but the only Crea ture. The laft Quotation out of Tertullian ends, He begat me before the Hills. This you mean as a Proof, that the Son of God is a Creature. But why should you put any other Conftruction upon these Words of Tertullian, when apply'd to the Son, than you will do upon the fame in Pfalm xc. 2. from whence they are taken, and where they are apply'd to the Father, as God from Everlafting to Everlasting; and that Tertullian fo meant them; and to (4) Solus autem quia nihil aliud extrinfecus præter illum, cæterùm nè tunc quidem folus, habebat enim fecum rationem hanc Græci aóv dicunt. (*) Exindè tum parem fibi faciens, de quo procedendo filius factus eft, primogenitus, ut ante omnia genitus, & unigenitus up folus ex Deo genitus. ex exprefs, as well as we are able, what is inconceivable, (and which no words can exprefs, as Eufebius and Origen declare) viz. the Eternal Generation of the Son of God; he adds in the Words of the Scripture, The Son is the Word, and the Word is God, and I and my Father are one: So that I may fay to you, as he concludes this Paffage to Hermogenes, §. 19. But he takes Occafion from fome Words, as is the Manner of Hereticks, to diftort plain and fimple Things. tes, c. 21. And that this is exprefsly Tertullian's Opinion, will be maApolog. nifeft by another Paffage; viz. () We have learnt, that he adv. Gen(Chrift) proceeded out of God, and by that Prolation was begotten, and therefore was said to be the Son of God, and God from the Unity of Subftance.' And then he illuftrates it by the Sun and its Rays, and fays, The Subftance is not separated, but extended,' and then repeats, What proceeds from God, is God, and the Son of God, and both are one. I come now to your Teftimonies out of Origen. They, who? I guess you were afham'd to tell me. For this is a very extraordinary Paffage, and I wonder you would quote it, for as great Skill and Delight as you have in Aftronomy, I did not imagine you would give any Countenance to the Opinion of Origen, which introduces it; for he fays, (") The Stars in Heaven are Rational Animals, and good, and (thus far of the Paffage you omit, and then put &c. and begin They) were enlighten'd with the Light of Knowledge by Wisdom, which is the Efflux of the Eternal Light. This Notion he had from Plato, who indeed carry'd it a little further, in his 12th and 13th Books de Leg.) making the Sun, Moon and Stars not only endued with Reafon, but even to be Gods. And if Origen, in fome of his Writings, has transplanted any more of Plato's Notions into Divinity, it is no wonder ; for he was fo good a Proficient in that Philofophy, that when he came into the School of Plotinus, he was offer'd his Desk, as (t) Hunc ex Deo prolatum didicimus, & Prolatione generatum, & idcirco Filium Dei & Deum dictum ex Unitate Subftantiæ Etiam radius ex fole porrigitur, portio ex fummâ fed fol erit in radio quia folis eft radius, nec feperatur fubftantia fed extenditur ; quod de Deo profectum eft Deus eft, & Dei Filius, & unus ambo. (*) Οι ἐν ἐρανῷ αςέρες ζῶα εἰσι λογικά και σπεδαία και έφω τίθεσαν τω φωτί ή γνώσεως ὑπὸ τὰ σοφίας ἥτις ὅτιν ἀπαύγασμα φωτές αϊδίο. one P. 16. one fitter to read Lectures there, than to be an Auditor of them. But (to fay no more of this wild Notion) this Paffage will not fupport your Opinion, that the Son of God is a Creature: On the contrary, this Expreffion, the Efflux of the Eternal Light, is us'd by feveral of the Authors to whom you have referr'd Adv. Gen- me, to denote his Identity in Effence with the Father: So Tertes, c. 21. tullian compares his Generation to the Ray of the Sun, which is hot forth from the Sun; but the Sun is in that Ray, for it is a Ray of it, &c. And Origen here a little after explains himself to the fame Purpofe, by citing St. John, (k) God is Light; the Son of God is the true Light, that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World. And he himself fays, I am the Light of the World. And that he means the Divinity of our Saviour, is plain by his citing this and other Texts expressly to prove it: Comment. () I am the Light of the World. I am Alpha and Omega, the in Johan. Beginning and the End, the First and the Laft.' And introduces them with faying, The greatest and most perfe& Accounts of Jefus were referv'd for him, who lay in his Bofom; for none (of the Evangelifts) has fo purely and clearly manifefted his Divinity as St. John. P. 5. P. 17. σεως. Contra Celf. 1. 6. ، Your Second Quotation out of Origen contra Celfum, L. 5. p. 257. ends thus: The Sacred Oracles declare him to be the ancienteft of all Creatures. What Origen muft mean by the firft Part of this Paffage, dons xli- the Son of God, the First-born of every Creature; and the Conclufion, the ancienteft of all Creatures, will be beft explain'd by what he himself fays in another Place; where, after he had quoted the Text in St. Matth. xi. 17. (m) No Man knoweth the Son, but the Father, c. he adds, For the Unmade and Firftborn of all created Nature, none can know according to his Dignity, as the Father does, who begat him, nor the Father fo as the living Word and his Wisdom and Truth. p. 287. What I have to fay to that Expreffion, the Firft-born, &c. I referve till I come to the Text in the Coloffians; but at prefent (*) Ὁ Θεὸς φῶς ὅτι, ὁ υἱὸς τὸ θεὸ φῶς ἀληθινόν ὅτι ὁ φω ζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμρον εἰς ἢ κόσμον, ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς το κόσμο. (1) Ουδεὶς τὸ ἐκείνων ἀκρατῶς ἐφανέρωσεν αυτά ἢ θεότητα, ως Ιωάννης, παρεσήσας αὐτὸν λέγοντα, ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τῇ κόσμο, ἐν ἀποκαλύψει, ἐγώ εἰμὶ τὸ α καὶ τὸ ω, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλΘ, ὁ WEST & YogaTO. 2 (m) ουδείς επιγινώσκει ἢ ὑπὸν, εἰ μὴ ὁ πατὴρ ἔτε 28 * αγχόητον καὶ πάσης γγυητής φύσεως πρωτότοκον κατ' αξίαν εἰδε και τις διώαται ως ὁ γυνήσας αὐτὸν πατὴρ, ἔτε τ πατέρα, ως ἔμψυχΘ λόγΘ καὶ σοφία αυτό καὶ ἀλήθεια, I must I muft obferve, that your Senfe of Firft-born, and the ancienteft of all Creatures, cannot poffibly confift with what I have laft cited, in which the Son of God is exprefsly faid to be Unmade (azén); an Unmade or Uncreated Creature, is Nonfense : And if you will not interpret the Words you have cited by thofe I have laft mention'd, you will make Origen to affert Contradictions; for Unmade and Firft-born are join'd together. And if you would have added the very next Words to your Quotation, viz. (1) And God the Father faid to him, Let Us make Man after Our Image and Likeness; I have already obferv'd, that Juftin makes this Text an Argument of the Divinity of the Son of God, and hope to fhew it by other Authorities when I come to it. Your next Quotation is out of Origen's Comment on Pfalmi. P. 17. P. 38. Pray to the Father the God of the Univerfe, thro' our Saviour, as High-Prieft, who is the Made God. This you have render'd very perverfly and falfly; and your Reafon for fo doing is very obvious, by comparing it with the literal and true Tranflation of it; viz. Pray to the Father the God of the Universe, (i) thro' our Saviour and High-Prieft, the Begotten God. Your next Quotation is alfo out of the fame Book, p. 31. aș P. 17. follows: Thou art my Son, this Day have I begotten thee. This This is in is faid to the Son of God, with whom it is always to-day, his Comfor there is no Evening with God: I do alfo fuppofe, that nei- ment on ther is there any Morning with him; but that a Time coex- St. John, • tended with his Unmade and Eternal Life is, if I may so say, wherein he that Day, or to-day, with him in which the Son was mide, cites this ⚫ the Beginning of his Origin being thus not found neither of this Verfe of the Day. 2d Pfalm, This is fo full and exprefs against you, that I wonder you p. 31. fhould quote it, but I perceive you have ventur'd upon it, for the Sake of Two Words in your Tranflation, Made and Origin, which in the Greek are yvna and wise, the firft fignifies was born, and the fecond his Geniture or Nativity; and both fhould have been fo render'd, as most suitable and agreeable to the Word ng, I have begotten thee. I have now done with your Quotations out of Origen, and hope I have fufficiently fhewn, that thefe your Teftimonies (if you reckon them among the Principal, which concern this (*) Καὶ αυτῷ ἢ θεὸν τὸ ἢ τὸ ἀνθρώπε δημιουργίας εἰρηκέναι, ποιήσωμο ανθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν. (1) Δια το σωτής Θ ἡμῶν καὶ ἀρχιερέως γνωστό θέλο impor Contra Com. in Johan. p. 9. P. 28, 29. important Queftion, p. 2.) are of little Ufe to fupport your Opinion, that the Son of God is a Creature. But after all, I believe we shall both agree, that Origen has fome Opinions fo very strange and heterodox, that we fhall concur in rejecting them; and if in this prefent Queftion he should be found to have declared different Opinions, furely thofe are to be rejected, which are founded on his own, fcarce Philofophical Notions; and, if he be of any Authority, what he fays founded on the Scripture, which he quotes, and fupported by the concurrent Teftimonies of other Great and Holy Fathers interpreting those Texts, and applying them to the Divinity of the Son of God, ought in Reafon to be preferr'd and moft valued: And I fhall fum up all in his own Words: (k) The God and Father of all is not alone great, for he made the Only-begotten • and First-born of every Creature Partaker of himself, and of bis Greatness, that He being the Image of the Invisible God, fhould keep the Image of the Father even in Greatnels; for it was not poffible for him to be the Commenfurate and fair Image of the Invifible God, unless he exhibited the Image also of his Greatnefs. And in another Place he accordingly ftiles the Son, () the Glorify'd God, the Word. ، Surely this is more than a Metaphyfical Exiftence, as you impute to the Ancients, p. 14. more than that he was in a Sub⚫ til manner, virtually, potentially, or as his Internal Wisdom in his Father from all Eternity, p. 26. What I have here tranfcrib'd out of the aforefaid Authors, and what I have obferv'd upon them, methinks, may help you out of the Difficulty under which you labour, when you fay, How a confeff:dly (you should have added, neceffarily) deriv'd, produc'd, and Begotten Being, an Only-begotten Son, should be really Coeternal with his Underiv'd, Unbegotten, and neceffarily Exifting Father, Author and Producer, I cannot possibly • understand. Indeed, if you measure this Mystery by natural Generations here on Earth, 'tis inconceivable how a Son fhould be Coeval with his Father, it is impoffible: But furely our fhallow Understandings are not the Measure of Infinity. We own this Myftery is incomprehenfible; and fo is the Eternity of God. It is hard to conceive, how any Thing can exift without a (*) Ου μόνΘ ἢ μέγας καθ ̓ ἡμᾶς ὅταν ὁ “ ὅλων θεὸς πατὴρ, μετέδωκε γδ εαυτό και το μεγαλειότητα των μονεγενεί πρωτοτόκῳ πάσης κτίσεως, ἵν', εἰκὼν αὐτα τυγχάνων τὸ αι κάτω θεῖς, καὶ ἐν πν μεγέθει στη Η εικόνα τὸ παρὸς, ο δ' οἷον των σύμμετρον (ἵν ̓ ὅτως ονομάσω) καὶ καλῶ εἰκόνα το αοράτε θεῖο, μὴ καὶ τὰ μεγέθες παριςάσαν 7 εἰκόνα. (1) Αυτός ο ὁ υἱὸς ὁ δεδοξασμψο θεός λόγΘ. Caufe |