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tum. Chrysostomus ac Theophylactus utrumque tribuunt Christo, et item Hieronymus, exultantes adversus Arianos, ceu victores, cum sermo plane sit anceps: imo magis pro illis facere videatur quàm pro nobis. Primum negari non potest quin Sermo Græcus sit ambiguus, et ex æquo pertinens ad sensum utrumlibet. Quid autem agas adversus hæreticum ex loco prorsus ancipiti? Quod si illos urgeas interpretum consensu, certe Ambrosius vir summus et Episcopus orthodoxus" (this great Bishop is, however, no other than the poor Deacon whom we have seen Dr. Mill treating so contemptuously) "divisim accipit, ut magni Dei referatur ad Patrem, Servatoris ad Christum. Ipsius verba subscribam. Hanc esse, &c. as before, to hæredes esse possimus. An non hic palam dicit Patrem revelaturum gloriam suam, judice Christo?-At adventus in sacris litteris non tribuitur Patri, sed Filio? Nec hic simpliciter nominatur adventus Patris, sed adventus gloriæ, quam interim expectamus in humilitate constituti. Tum apparebit majestas nostra, cum aperietur gloria magni Dei Patris, et servatoris nostri Jesu Christi. Quid autem hic metuimus Arianos, quum tot locis Paulus Dei vocabulum tribuat Patri, Filium appellans Dominum? Si Filius Dei, tantum in principio Evangelii Joannis adeo clare pronunciatus esset Deus, nonne sufficeret adversus universos Arianos? Postremo Ariani quidam hunc quoque locum accipiunt de Filio, et tamen non credunt quod nos credimus. Magnum enim Deum fatentur, verum negant; et hæc est illorum impietas. Quanquam omissus articulus in libris Græcis facit nonnihil pro diversa sententia. Evidentius

distinxisset

distinxisset personas, si dixisset naι TOU OWTYGOS.

Miror quid secutus Scholiastes ille magnum Deum interpretetur Spiritum sanctum. Fortasse locum captabat in quo Spiritus sanctus manifeste diceretur Deus." (Vol. vi. part 2. p. 699.)

The passage which Erasmus alludes to here, is (No. 6, above) from a short Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, published with the works of Jerome, but ascribed usually to Pelagius, or some Pelagian. It deserved to have been transcribed by Erasmus, or Wetstein, to increase the number of their authorities. For, if there be any other place in all the writings of antiquity, which does not interpret the words Tou peyzhou cou, or "magni Dei," of του μεγάλου Θεου, the Son, this I believe to be the very passage. Was it that they dreaded the "din of war," when Hilarius and Pelagius, after overturning all the other authorities, must still have to fight out the battle by themselves?

But, Sir, whatever may be the event, let our principle be strict Justice. Hear therefore Pelagius:

"Et adventum gloriæ magni Dei, et Salvatoris nostri, Jesu Christi. Spiritum dicit magnum Deum quia ipsius expectamus adventum.

It would be almost a pity to suggest, that the original reading here, instead of Spiritum, perhaps was Christum, (Compare above, Nos. 12, 33, 37, and 56.)

63. Let

63. Let us now see Grotius's note, and then we shall have had before us a tolerably compleat view of all that has ever been said in favour of that interpretation. Suc ceeding commentators have faithfully trodden in the steps of those writers.

"KATα TV εTICavalav Illa apparitio dicitur non Christi tantum futura, sed et Dei; quia Deus majestatem illam Christo tribuit, ideo dicitur Christus venturus εν τη δόξα του Πατρός (Mat. xvi. 27. Marc. viii. 38.). Ita hunc locum recte accepit Ambrosius. Qui putant TOU σwTngos dici debuisse, si hæc distinxisset Apostolus, Apostolus, norint in his libris 72 agoga sæpe poni, ubi opus non est, et sape omitti ubi ex usu ponerentur. εδωκεν ἑαυτον, &c.

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Now, Sir, as to what is said here about the Article, I believe, that, exclusively of the few passages where you wish to reform the common version;-I am willing to exclude them, as yet in debate-but I say, exclusively of them, I fully believe, that there is no one exception to your first rule in the whole New Testament: and the assertion might be extended infinitely further. But, in all the other places, (whatever it may be in those concerning which we are particularly interested) having, under your guidance, examined them, I am persuaded that the idiom is not "anceps," not " ambiguum." Nay, may I not venture to add, that the Greek must be a strange language, if such a thing were possible?

With

With respect to the other part of this argument, that of authority, I have already said, I fear, more than enough.

I am, Sir, &c.

LETTER

LETTER VI..

'SIR,

IN our last example we abounded in authorities I fear,

even to weariness. In what follows, our complaint must be changed. My materials become very scanty.

The mere Commentators on St. Paul are numerous: and therefore, he who should seek for the opinion of antiquity respecting any passage of that writer, would seldom be entirely disappointed, even though he were not to extend his researches beyond the Commentators. But, besides them, all the remains of Ecclesiastical antiquity abound in quotations from St. Paul's writings,

Not so with respect to the Catholic Epistles. Of them manuscripts were comparatively never numerous. Accordingly quotations also are rare. Chrysostom, for instance, in all his writings, has not a word either from the second Epistle of St. Peter, or that of St. Jude, And the following Commentators, who have written on St. Paul, all desert us here, viz. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Damascenus, Theophylact; besides the different Latin

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