you; and come to confider the particular Things that you object against the Confeffion of Faith, and confequently in the Prayers of our Liturgy. I find them toward the end of your fecond Letter in these Words; There, fpeaking of the Antichristian Corruptions, you fay, I would fain know how the Confubftantiality and Coequality of the Holy Ghoft to the Father and the Son, on which foon followed his Invocation, which only stands upon one Letter of Pope Liberius or Damafus, can be look'd upon by your Lordship under any other Denomination.To this Demand of yours I fhall give you myAnswer inas few Words as I can.Firft,for the Doctrine of the Confubftantiality and Coequality of the Holy Ghost to the Father and the Son, I take it to be part of the Creed which our bleffed Lord gave us in his Form of Baptifm. He commanded us all to be Baptized, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft God was pleafed, when our Saviour himself was baptized, to make a visible and audible Appearance of three Perfons concern'd in his Baptifm. Our bleffed Saviour gave a plain Intimation of the fame Three, at the Entrance upon his Prophetick Office, Lukeliv. He declared them more than once in his laft Difcourfes to his Difciples; tho' as yet he could fpeak to them no more than their Weakness would bear. John xvi. 12. 25. St. John tells in his Gofpel what he heard our Saviour fay to the Jew's, John x. 30. I and my Father are One, vousy. The fame Apoftle tells us in his Catholick Epiftle, Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, Thefe Three are One, ἱ τρεῖς ἕν εισι. 1 John V. These laft words are quoted by Tertullian, that wrote toward the end of the fecond Century, within an Hundred Years after the Death of that Apoftle. They are quoted alfo by Cyprian that wrote about the (c2) Middle Middle of the Third Century; and after them by many other of the African Fathers. If you doubt whether these were the Words of the Apo ftle, You may fee it prov'd by many Learned Writers, and particularly by Dr. Mills, in his various Readings on that Text. It is evident that not only thofe Fathers themselves did not doubt but that St. John wrote thofe Words, but that neither did thofe that they wrote against queftion it. For thofe Fathers did not only quote thofe Words, but they argued from them; which had been ridiculous if there had been any doubt of the Text. Particularly Tertullian urges it against Praxeas, cap. 25, Qui Tres unum funt, nan unus, as Praxeas would have it. This I take to be a fufficient Proof of the Unity of the Three Perfons in the Divine Nature: and I think there needs no other Proof of their Con fubftantiality and Coequality, For the Invocation of the Holy Ghoft, which you fay only stands on one Letter of Pope Liberius or Damafus, I can't. imagine whence you had this. For I know of no Letter of either of those Popes that has any thing of this Invocation. My ground for it is what I have fhew'd you: The Holy Ghost is God, and therefore he is to be pray'd to. There can be nothing plainer than this. But if you would have Practice for it too, you may fee it in St. Paul the Apoftle; who as he concludes his other Epiftles with a Prayer to our bleffed Saviour, The Grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift be with you all; fo he concludes his fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians with a Prayer to the ever bleffed Trinity, 2 Cor. xiii. 14. The Grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and the Love of God, and the Fel→ lowship of the Holy Ghoft be with you all, Amen. First, the Apoftle applies to our Lord Jesus Chrift, for the Grace of his Redemption and Inc.bыM terceffion. terceffion. Then to our Heavenly Father, for his Love to us, as his Children by Adoption. Then to the Holy Ghost, for his noivin, the communication of his Gifts. I know fome have faid that all this is only fo many Wishes. It is true and fo are commonly the Prayers of Superiors for them that are under their Charge. Such were the Bleffings of Jacob to the Two Sons of Fofeph. Gen. xlviii. 15. 16. Such were the Prieft's Bleffings to the People of Ifrach, Num. vi. 23, 26. They were Bleffings to the People, but they were Prayers to God. That Bleffing of St. Paul to the Corinthians had Three Comma's in it; of which each was a Prayer, fpecifying first the thing that he defir'd, and then the Perfon from whom it was properly to be receiv'd. I have fhew'd this before in a fort of Paraphrafe on the Words, and therefore I think I need not fhew it again more particularly. What Forms of Prayer were us'd in the Church in the Apostles Times we have no Account of: And indeed very little of any that were us'd in thofe Times which you call Genuine Antiquity. You perhaps may expect I fhould ask your Pardon for faying this, after you have told me that the Original Jewish and Gentile Liturgies are contain❜d in the VIIth and VIIIth Books of the Apoftolical Conftitutions. But as to thefe you muft give me leave to be of another Opinion, for Reasons that I fhall fhew you. I do a little wonder indeed why you fhould fo much concern your felf for them; for to me they feem to be plainly against you in this. Point, of the Invocation of the Holy Ghoft. There are in the 8th Book before-mention'd, at leaft a Dozen Doxologies, to all Three Perfens in the Holy and Bleffed Trinity. In every one of thefe Three is exprefly given, to the Father, together ( c 3 ) with -- the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, all Honour, Glory, Praife, Thanksgiving, Worship, and Adoration, as, oxos, as I remember are the Words. Could any one fay this without believing the Confubftantiality and Coequality of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son? I am fure none can reasonably deny Invocation to one to whom thefe Things are due: Therefore they that made thefe Prayers were furely of the Faith that is profefs'd in the Creed of our Communion Service; where we fay, I believe in the Holy Ghost who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorifyed. This Creed in common fpeaking is call'd the Nicene. But that has not the laft claufe that I quote here; for this claufe was added to the Nicene Creed in the Second general Council, that of Conftantinople, A. D. 381.. But for ought I know, that Second Council was Antienter than the Time of making thofe Forms, which you call the Original Jewish and Gentile Liturgies. As for those Liturgies we know no more when they were made, than we know who were the Authors or Compilers of them. Nor do we know any thing more of thofe pretended Apoftolical Conftitutions. Only this we know, that the Makers of these Constitutions, were fuch as made no Confcience of abufing the Names and Authorities of the Apostles of Chrift. I cannot think of it without Indignation; how they made them their Puppets to fay whatfoever they were pleas'd to fay in their Names. Some indeed of the Things they made them fay, were fuch as the Apostles had faid in their Writings. Other Things they faid were agreeable enough to their Writings: Such Things they must take in for their own Credit; but other Things they made them fay, that were very difagreeable, and fome plainly plainly falfe, and inconfiftent with what we have in the Scripture. It is hard to guess what they fhoulddrive at in their writing of fuch Things. But, if it were only to get Money by Publishing fuch Books as they knew all Men would be ready to buy, there was a double Wickedness in it; The abufing those Sacred Names which they affum'd; and the cheating of them that bought their counterfeit Wares. It is plain that the Writers were in hafte to have their Books out, by the Blunders they made in many Places, where they wrote Things only out of Memory, and could not ftay to correct them by turning of Books. It were endless for me to go about to reckon up all the Inftances I could give you of this Kind. But I will lay two or three of them before you; by which you may judge of the reft. My first Inftance fhall be out of Conftit. Apoft. V. 14. There the Impoftor brings in St. John the Apoftle to give an Account what he faw, being pre fent all the Time of the Paffion of Chrift. You rightly obferve of St. John, Harm. 112, 114. How ftudiously and punctually in his Gospel be avoids repeating what was in the other Gofpels; and yet fupplies their Omiffioas and Methodizes their Hiftories. Accordingly in his Hiftory of the Paffion of Christ. John xviii. 13, &c. he tells us diverfe Things which none of the other Evangelifts had written. He tells us how they took our Saviour, led him firft to Annas, who fent him immediately to Caiaphas the High Prieft. He tells us how Pater follow'd him toCaiaphas his House; and fo did John the Apoftle himself, who being acquainted there, got the Door-Keeper to let in Peter. He tells us how this gave Occafion for Peter's thrice de nying of Chrift: after which the Cock crew. All this St. John in his Gofpel accounts for very particularly. He alfo tells us there how the (C4) High 1 |