SECT. III.

GOD, THE FATHER, THE ONLY PERSON OR BEING WHO IS UNDERIVED OR SELF-EXISTENT AND SUPREME.

How immeasurably exalted must the Father be above the Son and Spirit, if he is the ground or cause of their being, the fons et principium of Godhead itself! — MOSE STUART.

By the gift of eternal generation, Christ hath received of the Father one and in number the self-same substance, which the Father hath of himself unreceived from any other. For every beginning is a Father unto that which cometh of it, and every offspring is a Son unto that out of which it groweth. Seeing, therefore, the Father alone is originally that Deity which Christ originally is not (for Christ is God by being of God, Light by issuing out of Light), it followeth hereupon, that whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with his heavenly Father, the same of necessity must be given him, but naturally and eternally given. RICHARD HOOKER: Ecclesiastical Polity, book v.

chap. liv. 2; in Works, vol. i. pp. 395-6.

According to the second section of the present chapter (pp. 381-91), nature and revelation proclaim the existence of only one God, of only one Being who is self-originated, absolutely perfect, and unequalled by any other intelligence in heaven or on earth. Here it is admitted by HooKER, though in terms and with notions which are taken from the creed of a metaphysical age, but which, to do justice to the main idea, may be put in the simpler language of the New Testament, that that Being is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This holy Son of God, however divine may have been his nature and however great his powers, is obviously different from and inferior to Him who is the one God, the Parent of his existence, and the Giver of "whatsoever Christ hath." His nature and his powers, not less than those of the humblest and most obscure of the human family, were alike derived from the Infinite Source of life and light.

As I am assured that there is an infinite and independent Being, which we call a God, and that it is impossible there should be more infinities than one; so I assure myself that this one God is the Father of all things, especially of all men and angels, so far as the mere act of creation may be styled generation; that he is, farther yet, and in a more peculiar manner, the Father of all those whom he regenerated by his Spirit, whom he adopteth in his Son, as heirs and coheirs with him. . . . But beyond and far above all this, ... I believe him the Father, in a more eminent and transcendent manner, of one singular

and proper Son, his own, his beloved, his only-begotten Son; whom he hath not only begotten of the blessed Virgin, by the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the overshadowing of his power; not only sent with special authority as the King of Israel; not only raised from the dead, and made heir of all things in his house; but, antecedently to all this, hath begotten him by way of eternal generation in the same Divinity and Majesty with himself: by which paternity, co-eval to the Deity, I acknowledge him always Father, as much as always God. And, in this relation, I profess that eminency and priority, that as he is the original Cause of all things as created by him, so is he the Fountain of the Son begotten of him, and of the Holy Ghost proceeding from him. - BISHOP PEARSON: Exposition of the Creed, Art. I. pp. 58–9.

See another passage from this learned writer, quoted in the present work, p. 265.

If the human mind is capable of entertaining the dogma, that two persons who received their essence, all that they are, and all that they have, from another Being that was prior to them and is pre-eminent over them, are either co-equal and co-eternal in power and glory with their Paternal Benefactor, or are one and the same Being, with the self-same consciousness, as he, or are both equal to and identical with him, there seems to be no good reason for supposing, that it may not also entertain any notion, however gross, absurd, or contradictory, which, under the name or the plea of a holy mystery, may be presented for its belief.

Not only the name and title of God, but the most incommunicable properties and perfections of the Deity, are in Scripture frequently ascribed to the Son and the Holy Ghost; one property only excepted, which is peculiar to the Father, as he is the Principle and Fountain of the Deity, that he is of himself, and of no other; which is not, nor can be, said of the Son and Holy Ghost. - ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON: Sermon 44; in Works, vol. iii. pp. 215–16.

According to this excellent prelate, the Son and the Holy Ghost are devoid of at least one of the properties or perfections of Deity, - underived existence. The Father, therefore, is alone God; for he only has this perfection; he only is absolutely perfect. To use the words of the same writer, in his forty-eighth Sermon: "Absolute perfection, which we ascribe to God as the most essential notion which mankind hath always had concerning him, does necessarily suppose Unity; because this is essential to the notion of a Being that is absolutely perfect, that all perfection meets and is united in such a Being. But to imagine more Gods, and some perfections to be in one, and some in another, does destroy the most essential notion which men have of God; namely, that he is a Being absolutely perfect, that is, as per fect as possible."

The Father is the first person in the following respects: 1st, In the order of subsistence. The hypostasis is ascribed to the Father. The Son is called "the express image of his person," the character of his hypostasis. The Father, therefore, is the archetype; the Son, the resemblance: but the archetype is prior to that which is conformed to it... Whilst [however], &c. . . . . . . 2dly, In the order of operation. Since the Father works by the Son, it necessarily follows, that, in relation to the other persons, he works originally and from himself, and has in himself the principle of operation, as well personally as essentially. HERMAN WITSIUS: Dissertations on the Apostles' Creed, Diss. vii. 6, 7.

When the Son is called second to the Father, or a minister to the Father, this denotes the subordination of persons, inasmuch as the one derives his origin from the other, but does not imply any inequality of nature in these divine persons. The Father, as the Father, is the first person in the Holy Trinity; the Son, the second after the Father. In all divine operations, the Son is the minister of the Father, inasmuch as he ever operates from the Father, who is the Source and Origin of all his divine operations as well as of his being, and God the Father operates through him; but the Father is never said to operate from the Son, or the Son through the Father. BISHOP BULL: Defensio

Fidei Nicena, sect. iv. cap. 2, § 2.

This extract is quoted and approved by W. D. CONYBEARE in his Theological Lectures, pp. 457-8.

Notwithstanding the learned bishop's attempt to evade the consequences resulting from his own sentiments, when he says that the Son's derivation from the Father "does not imply any inequality of nature," we have no hesitation in affirming that no Unitarian could frame language more plainly expressive of the infinite disparity and the unqualified distinction which exist between the Supreme Being, or universal Parent, and his best-beloved Son. The First of all fathers and of all intelligences, here unscripturally called "the first person in the Holy Trinity," is, according to Bishop BULL, and in perfect agreement with the declarations of the New Testament, the "Source and Origin of all the divine operations of the Son, as well as of his being." In proof of this position, we would refer to the numerous texts quoted in the first part of "Scripture Proofs and Scriptural Illustrations of Unitarianism."

God the Father alone is, in reference to his manner of existence, an absolutely perfect Being, because he alone is self-existent. He alone, consequently, is absolutely perfect in reference to those perfections which do presuppose self-existence. Those perfections are

absolute independence, and being the first Original of all other beings; in which the Son and the Holy Ghost are comprehended. . . . It It is, therefore, a flat contradiction to say that the second and third persons are self-existent; and therefore it is alike contradictious to affirm them to be beings absolutely perfect in reference to their manner of existence, and to say that they have the perfections of absolute independence, and of being the first Originals of all things. Since the Father alone is a Being of the most absolute perfection, he having those perfections which the other two persons are uncapable of having, he alone is God in the absolutely highest sense. EDWARD FOWLER, Bishop of Gloucester: Certain Propositions, pp. 3-5, Lond. 1719.

These sentiments yield up, in the clearest manner, the great principle for which Unitarians have always contended; but that they were not penned by a Unitarian is evident from the fact, that, in the same small pamphlet, the writer professes to oppose both Arianism and Socinianism, by asserting that the Son and Holy Spirit have all the perfections of the Godhead, such as eternal existence and unlimited power, with the exception of those that must of necessity be peculiar to the Father, and "that there is an unconceivably close and inseparable union both in will and nature between them" and the Father. (See pp. 7-10.) A defender of the Nicene fathers, and an admirer, if not a disciple, of CUDWORTH and BULL, he only carries out their principles to a more legitimate extent.

The Father is, as it were, the top of Unity, the Head and Fountain of all. He is first in our conception of God; and therefore, whether we speak of the Almighty God, or the eternal God, or the all-knowing God (and the reason is the same for the only God, unity being an attribute of the Godhead, like omnipotence, eternity, &c.), we primarily and principally mean the Father, tacitly including the other two persons. . . . ..... It is very certain that the Son has his knowledge, and every other perfection, from the Father, in the same sense as he hath also his nature or substance from the Father. -DR. DANIEL WATERLAND: Eight Sermons, pp. 141, 267.

But this writer adds, that the Son's knowledge is one and the same, in extent and degree, with the Father's.

In those verses [of the Athanasian Creed], the Father is asserted to be the Fountain and Origin of Divinity, and of course the Fountain and Origin of all divine power. The Nicene Creed, which corresponds with the creed under consideration, intimates the same, when it styles our Lord "God of, i. e. from God, Light of Light, very God of very God." And the most learned writer on this subject [Bishop BULL]

has shown that the primitive Christians before the Council of Nice, as well as after that council, held this doctrine. Uno ore docuerunt are his words, "they taught it with one voice," so unanimous were they in this opinion. BISHOP HUNTINGFORD: Thoughts on the Trinity ; in Theological Works, p. 90.

The whole doctrine of the Scriptures . . . holds forth to us an establishment of divine wisdom, righteousness, and goodness, for the recovery of lapsed mankind to holiness and happiness. In this constitution, the Almighty Father is the First Cause and the Supreme Object of the whole, sustaining the legislative honors of the divine character: and therefore he is peculiarly denominated God, " of whom are all things,” in the creation and sustentation of the universe, and in the redemption and salvation of the church, "and we to him," as our highest end; "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ;" also "the one God," ," "the only God," and "the true God," in opposition to the fictitious deities of the world. On the other hand, the Son of God is the Mediator, Saviour, Redeemer, and Lord, in the actual execution of the eternal and gracious purposes, by his humiliation in assuming our nature, by his exaltation in that nature and in his official capacity, and by the works of his Holy Spirit. Thus the Father is glorified in the Son, the Spirit of Truth glorifies the Lord Jesus, and God is all in all. DR. J. P. SMITH: Scripture Testimony, vol. ii. p. 392.

See LIMBORCH and HOLDEN, as quoted in p. 266; with remarks by CALVIN, LE CLERC, and STUART, on this mode of explaining the Trinity in Unity, pp. 266-8. See also STUART and Dr. D. W. CLARK on eternal generation and procession, pp. 274-6.

With the exception of such Trinitarians as believe in a nominal or relative Trinity of persons in the Godhead, and those who deny the eternal generation of the Son and the procession of the Holy Ghost, whose opi

nions, when definitely explained, are, as we before observed, either a kind of obscure Unitarianism, or an unconscious Tritheism, — perhaps a great majority of those who are professedly orthodox on the subject agree with the eminent writers from whom we have made extracts in this section. The sentiments here propounded, however, when separated from the antiscriptural dogmas with which they are combined, are evidently nothing else than Unitarianism; namely, that God the Father is the only Being who is self-existent or unoriginated and independent; that the Son, and the Holy Spirit (as signifying a person distinct from the Father), received their existence, their capacities, and their powers from Him who is called "the. Fountain of Deity;" or, in other words, that Jesus Christ, and every other person or being in the universe, are infinitely subordinate or inferior to the one Supreme God, the Almighty Father.