Carglitanus, and several others were fent into Banishment. This is the Council, which as our Author tells us, confifted of Three hundred Bishops, but the Emperor was more than all the reft, and it was he, that extorted the Condemnation of Athanafius; and let him make his best of this.

The like Violence was used in other Synods, as in that of Syrmium, Anno 357, where a Confeffion of Faith was drawn up, which Hoftus of Corduba was forced to fubscribe, and as fome fay, to condemn Athanafius. Anno 359, was his other great Council at Ariminum, of Five hundred and fifty Bishops, where they were fo managed by the fubtilty and importunity of fome few Arian Bishops, and fo wearied out by Taurus the Prefect, and that by the Command of the Emperor, that they generally yielded, several of them being even starved into compliance: and this is the time of which St. Jerom fpeaks, that the whole World wondered to fee itself Arian: By fuch Councils, and by fuch Arts as thefe Athanafius was condemned, though he was never accused nor condemned for his Faith: and that Veneration the whole Chriftian World has had ever fince for the Name of Athanafius, is a fufficient Vindication of his Person and Faith, notwithstanding the ill usage he met with under an Arian Emperor.

As for his next Paragraph, wherein he appeals to the late Arian Hiftorian, Chr. Sandius, I fhall only refer the Reader to Dr. Bull's Anfwer, and I think I ám more than even with him; and whoever will read and confider what that learned Man has irrefragably proved, that thofe Fathers, who lived before the Council of Nice, were yet of the fame Faith with the Nicene Fathers as to the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity,

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Trinity, will fee, that a very modest Man

may call this the Catholick Faith, even in his sense of the word Catholick, as it fignifies the common Faith of Chriftians in all Ages, fince the Preaching of the Gospel in the World: And that it requires both Forehead and Forgery to deny it. And if in that Age Athanafius were the only Man who durft openly and boldly defend the Catholick Faith, against a prevailing Faction, fupported by a Court Intereft, and grown formidable by Lies and Calurnnies, and the most barbarous Cruelties, it is for his immortal Honour, and will always be thought fo by the Churches of Chrift.

And now I come to answer his terrible Objections against the feveral Articles of this Creed, which he has endeavoured to ridicule; and when I have done fo, I hope he will think it time to confider, what it is to ridicule the Christian Faith: A modeft Man would not affront the general Faith of Chriftians, at least of that Church in which he lives; and a cautious Man, whatever his private Opinion were, would not ridicule fo venerable a Mystery, left it should prove true; which is the fame Argument we use to make Atheists modeft, not to laugh at the Notion of a God, left he fhould find the God, whom he has fo impudently affronted, when he comes into the other World.

SECT.

SECT. IV.

The Catholick Doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, and Vnity in Trinity explained, and vindicated from all pretended Abfurdities and Contradictions.

T

Notes.

HE Catholick Faith is this, that we worship Creed. One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. "He means here, that we muft fo worship the "One true God, as to remember he is Three Per"fons; and fo worship the Three Perfons, as to bear "in mind, they are but One Substance, or Godhead, "or God: So the Author explains himself in the "Three next Articles, which are these :

Neither confounding the Perfons, nor dividing the Substance: for there is One Perfon of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost: but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all One. "Therefore all thefe Articles "make indeed but One Article, which is this: The "One true God is Three diftinct Perfons, and Three "diftinct Perfons (Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft) are "the One true God.

Thus far I agree with this Author; and indeed this is Answer.› the whole of the Creed, as far as relates to the Doctrine of the Trinity, that there are Three Perfons and One God, all the rest being only a more particular explication of this; and therefore I would defire the Reader to obferve, for the understanding this Creed, what belongs to the Perfons, and what to the One Eternal undivided Substance or Godhead, which will answer all

the

Notes.

Answer.

the feeming Contradictions which are charged on this Doctrine. But he proceeds:

"Plainly as if a Man fhould fay, Peter, James, "and John, being Three Perfons, are One Man ; "and One Man is thefe Three Perfons, Peter, James, "and John. Is it not now a ridiculous attempt, as "well as a barbarous Indignity, to go about thus to "make Affes of all Mankind, under a pretence of "teaching them a Creed, and Things Divine, to de"fpoil them of their Reason, the Image of God, and "the Character of our Nature? But let us in two " words, examine the Parts of this monstrous Propofition, as 'tis laid down in the Creed itself.

Neither confounding the Perfons, nor dividing the Substance.

"But how can we not but confound the Persons, "that have (fay they) but One numerical Substance; " and how can we but divide the Substance, which "we find in Three distinct divided Perfons.

Our Author fhould have kept to Athanafius's Creed, which he undertook to expose, and then we had not heard of this Objection: for the Creed does not fay, that there are Three Perfons in One numerical Substance, but in One undivided Substance; nor does it fay, that there are Three divided Perfons in this One undivided Subftance, but Three Perfons, which may be Three, and yet not divided, but intimately united to each other in one undivided Subftance: Now tho' we should grant it unconceivable, how Three diftinct Perfons fhould have One numeri

cal

cal Effence, that the Effence of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft fhould be numerically the fame, and yet their Perfons diftinct; for it is not easie to distinguish the Effence or Substance from the Perfon, and therefore not eafie to tell, how there fhould be but One Substance and Three Perfons, yet it is no Abfurdity or Contradiction to fay, that Three real fubftantial Perfons fhould fubfift in One undivided Substance, and then there is no neceffity either to confound the Perfons, or divide the Substance. We must allow the Divine Perfons to be real fubftantial Beings, if we allow each Perfon to be God, unlefs we will call any thing a God, which has no real Being, as that has not, which has not a real Nature and Effence, whereas all Men grant there are no Ac- An. Shh. p 284 cidents, or Qualities, or Modes in God, but a pure and fimple Effence, or pure Act; and therefore the Three Divine Perfons are fubftantially diftinct, though in One undivided Subftance: Which fhews, that to fay, That the One true God is Three diftinct Perfons, and Three distinct Perfons are the One true God, is not plainly, as if a Man fhould fay, That Peter, James, and John, being Three Perfons are One Man, and One Man is Three diftinct Perfons, Peter, James, and John: Because Peter, James, and John, are not only diftinct, but divided and separate Perfons, which have Three divided and separate Subftances, which therefore cannot be One Man, as Three diftinct Perfons in One undivided Subftance are One God..

8

This is fufficient to vindicate the Athanafian Creed, which only afferts Three diftin&t Perfons in One undivided Subftance, which has nothing abfurd or contradictious in it; but because this Author founds his Objection upon One numerical Substance, let us briefy

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