478 AN ESSAY ON THE DOCTRINE or THE TÁINITY. to treat his brothers so; according to that universal rule ; What ye would that men should do unto you, that do ye also to them ; Mat. vii. 12: Now to apply these things to the present case : Suppose, for instance, Timon and Pithus both believe Christ to be the true God: but Timon supposes him not to be self -existent, because he saith, he is a Son, derived from the Father by an eternal generation. On the other hand, Pithus believes him to be self-existent because he is God. Now has Pithus reason to say, that because Timon dòth not believe the self-existence of Christ, therefore by consequence he does not believe his divinity ? Or, should Timon bepermitted to conclude, that because Pithus believes the self-existence of Christ, there- foreby consequence he does not believe his sonship ? Would it be agreeable either to the reason of a man, or to the charity of a christian, that these two men should anathematize one another, or seclude each other from christian communion because of the consequences of their opinions, while they both profess to main- tain that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and has such commu- nion in and with the eternal godhead, as thatboth of them pro- fess him to be true God, and both pay him divine worship. Now what I would infer from hence is this, that since the different explications of the doctrine of the Trinity may be so abused to give such occasions for contest, where christians are not wise and charitable, I would rather excludeall the particular . modes of explication from the terms of christian communion, than I would exclude one christian from the church of Christ. Where a man professes that there is but one God, and yet that Father, Son and Spirit, have such a distinction from each other, and such a communion in and with this one godhead as renders them all- sufficient for the characters and offices which they sus- tain in the gospel, and pays proper honours to them accordingly, I would never constrain him to determine any farther upon these difficult points of the union and distinction of the sacred three; of the self-existence, the eternal generation, or eternal proces- sion of the Son and holy Spirit. Nor whether they are three natures united in one godhead, or whether one individual na- ture only. To sum up the whole, it is evident to me, that the holy. scripture itself, as I have already proved elsewhere, lays the . stress of our salvationupon a belief that Christ is the Messiah, the appointed all- sufficient Saviour, á trust in the proper atone nient or sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, a depen. deuce on his grace and Spirit for light and holiness, and a sub-. mission,to his government, much more than it does upon any precise and exact notions or hypotheses concerning his divine and Lis human nature ; even though the union of the divine and the human nature in him are in my judgment necessary to render
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