QUESTION I. 425 of explaining the Trinity, which make the divine nature of Christ to be in any way or manner whatsoever derived or cor municated from the Father, for I must own myself lost in these unsearchables, yet I would not make the necessary proof the di- vinity of Christ to depend on such a notion as in the common language of mankind implies derivation and dependence : andby- this means, I think, I better guard this sacred truth from some of the cavils that have attended it. Now if by this exposition of the nameSon of God, I remove anyof the great impediments out of the way of the Arians or Socinians from believing the true deity of Christ, then I shall account myself to have done service andhonour to that glorious article of our faith. IV. I would do something to take away that anathema and damning sentence which some parties of christians who believe the divinity of Christ have thrown on others, who alsobelieve his divinity, merely for not explaining someparticular scriptures in the same way and manner that they do, or for not using the same arguments to preve his divinity. Since it is made a test for our eternal salvation in some places of scripture, whether we believe Jesus to be the Sonof God, or no ; and since thereare now, and have been in former ages, many christians of great piety and worth who doubt of the consubstan- tial sonship of Christ, and the eternal generation of his person, even though they believe his true and proper godhead, I would not willingly encourage the scripture to be interpreted in such a mistaken sense, as should exclude all these pious and excellent personsfrom salvation, and forbid them the kingdom of heaven. For theymay believe him to be true God, and to be also the Son of God, though they do not believe his godhead to be owing-to his sonship. There are some persons who have been so severeas to pass a condemning sentence on all those who deny Christ theSon, considered as the Son, to be the true God. I hope they have done it merely through inadvertence, or because they thought it to be utterly impossible to maintain the godhead of Christ upon any other foot but that of his co.-eternal and consubstantial son- ship. But whatsoever be their reason for such unjust censure, yet L must confess I do not love to see condemnation and ever- lasting death thrown uponpersons who believe the same scriptu- ral doctrine of the deity ofChrist that we do, but chose to explain it another way. Thus some of my motives to this enquiry are to do justice to the truths of God, and some arise from charity to the souls of men. Nor is my zeal for the honour of my Lord Jesus Christ in the least abated ; for while I believe him in hiscomplex per- son to be both the true and eternal God, and also the only-be- gotten Son of the Father, and while I profess him to be withal the great prophet and teacher, as well as the Saviour of his
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