Serle - BT590 N2 S47 1776

76 Though this Point, one might have thought, would have been fettled beyondDifpute, before fo late an Age; yet even now we have Objectors, who rake up all the Filth of more ancient Heretics, without anfwering what has been written againft them. They have a plain Rea- fon; the Arguments were unanfwerable. Out of many which might be cited, we will produce one Argu- relent from Sc. 1uftin, which we might dare the whole Tribe of thefe petulant Men to folve, and indeed (if it were necefrary) might venture to rest the Iffue of the Controverfy upon it. His Words are to the following Purport. " CHRIST, by whom all things are made, cannot be made himfelf: And, if Chrift be not made, then He is not a Creature. But, if he be not a Creature; He muff beof thefame Subfance with the FATHER (the Creator) : For all Substance or Being, which is not GOD, is ne- cefl'arily aCreature ; and what a Creature is not, That GOD is. Now, if the Sox is not of the fame Sub- fiance, of which the FATHER is; He muft inevitably be a created Substance : And if He be a created Sub- fiance, then all things could not be made by Him. But all things were made by Him : Therefore, He is of the fame Substance with the Father; and confequently is not only GOD, but the -true GOD.*" The Arians and others may anfwer this fcriptural Reafoning at their Leifure. The Abufe of this Doétrine by the earlieft Heathens demonftrates, that it muft have been known before their Time, and have been better underftood" fomewhere. We are told by `Tertullien and Laftantius, j- that trifine- etas and the Sybils had obtained a Tradition, that GOD created all things by his coömnipotent SON; and the Greeks (the Chriftian Greeks) called Chrift emphatically the Logos; meaning, by the Term, both Speech and Rea- fon, becaufe he is the Voice and Wifdom ofGOD. Lac- tantius particularly obferves, that the Philofophers had me Attu. de rrinitate. I. i. t TsRT. adv. Gent. LACT:1, iii. C. 6 & 9,

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