POSTSCRIPT.

THOUGH Dr. Clarke disclaimed the name of Anti-Trinitarian, and, as such, acknowledged the eternity of the SON OF GOD, and of the HOLY SPIRIT, yet his Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, by his mode of treating the subject, contributed not a little to the credit and progress of Arianism in the last century. It may, therefore, be of importance to some readers to point out the failure of his Final Conclusions from the premises of the two main portions of his work. The learning and ability of his opponents (especially of Dr. Waterland) formed a powerful counterbalance against the weight of his name and talents. His own regret, expressed several times to the Chevalier Ramsey* be

*

"Dr. Clarke owned to me some time before his death, "after several conferences that I had with him, how much "he repented that he had ever published his work, the Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity." (Extract from the Chevalier Ramsey's Letter, quoted by Whittaker in his History of Arianism, p. 457).

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lore mis deami, that he had ever published his Scripture Doctrine, may be considered as a reasonable ground of doubt as to the correctness of the views on which he had formed his opinion on the subject. But the remarkable failure (which I do not remember to have seen noticed) of his Final Conclusions from the premises of the two main portions of his elaborate work, appears to me to afford indisputable proof of the error of his general judgment on the subject which he was investigating.

At the close of the first part of his Work, that is, after the enumeration of 1251 passages of the New Testament, he says: "From "all these passages it appears, beyond con"tradiction, that the words [God] and [the Father] not [God] and [the Three Persons]

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are always used in Scripture as synony"mous terms."* This sentence consists of two propositions: (1), That the words God and the Father are always used in Scripture as synonymous terms; (2), That the words God and the Three Persons are not always used in Scripture as synonymous terms.

*

Scripture Doctrine, 3d ed. p. 232. Lond. 1732.

If Dr. Clarke had drawn out his conclusion into its particulars, he would have seen that it not only fails in its general assertion, but in the results which he expected from it. (1), The word God is not in all passages of Scripture synonymous with the Father. It is synonymous with the Son in John i. 1,* Rom. ix. 5, 1 Tim. iii. 16, &c. It is synonymous with the Holy Spirit in Acts v. 4. (2). "The "word God is not always synonymous with "the Three Persons." If it is ever in Scripture synonymous with the Three Persons, or the Three Persons with God, it is sufficient to negative Dr. Clarke's former proposition, and to overthrow his whole theory of a supreme and a subordinate God. The terms are synonymous in 1 John v. 7 (the 1248th of the Scripture passages quoted by Dr. Clarke): "There are three that bear record in heaven; "and these three are one: "† One God,

* The term EOE is peculiarly applicable here to Christ, as the Creator of the world. For oç, in its primary and proper sense, signifies Maker, Creator (from sw, the original of Tin, facio, constituo, condo, &c.), as he is described in v. 3.

+ This Verse, though often disputed, has never been proved to be spurious. See a Vindication of it from Dr. Clarke's Objections below, p. 85.

say the ancient Christian authorities,-the Council of Carthage in the fifth century, Fulgentius and Cassiodorus in the sixth, the Author of the Prologue to the Canonical Epistles in the seventh (if not earlier, for in the ninth century it was ascribed to Jerome, and commented on as his), &c.

So mo

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dern, indeed, is the interpretation, "in testimony or consent," that Mr. Porson challenges Archdeacon Travis to produce a single ancient author, Greek or Latin, who follows that "unorthodox" sense.

As the

That the word God is synonymous with the Three Persons, may be shown from the following considerations of the unity of the Three Divine Persons, arising from the mutual relation and connexion of their infinite attributes. Spirit of the Father is of the same nature with the Father, and the Spirit of the Son of the same nature with the Son, the Spirit of the Father and the Son being one and the same Spirit, all Three must be of the same Divine nature.

Again: as the Son is one with the Father, and the Holy Spirit is one with the Father,