Chillingworth, the learned Bishop Bull, and the difcerning Dr. Cudworth. The Opinion of Mr. Chillingworth is to be found in a Letter of his to a Friend, who defired to know what Judgment might be made of Arianifm, from the Senfe of Antiquity. In answer to which Mr. Chillingworth wrote the following Letter: "I was mistaken in my directing you to Eufebius for the "Matter you wott of. You fhall find it in <c a Witness much farther from Exception "herein than Eufebius; even Athanafius "himself, the greatest Adversary of that "Doctrine; and Hilary, who was his Se"cond. See the first in Ep. de Synodis "Arim. & Seleuc. p. 917. D. Tom. 1. Edit. "Par. 1627. See the fecond, De Synodis,

cr

fol. 97. In the first you shall find that

"the Eighty Fathers, which condemned Samosatenus, affirmed exprefsly-That the "the Son is not of the fame Effence of the "s Father. Which is to contradict formal

ly the Council of Nice, which decreed the "Son coeffential to the Father. In the "Second you fhall find thefe Words, to "the fame Purpose: - Octoginta Epif "copi olim refpuerunt rò Homooufion. See "alfo, if you pleafe, Juft. cont. Tryph.

" p. 283,

p. 283, 356, 357; Tertullian against "Praxeas, cap. ix; Novat, de Trin. in fine, "who is joined with Tertul. Athanaf. Ep. "de fide div. Alex. tom.i. p. 551; Bafil, " tom. ii. p. 802, 803. Ed. Par. 1618. See "St. Hierom. Apol. ii. contra Ruff. tom, ii. p. "329. Par. 1579. See Petav. upon Epiph. "his Panar, ad Hæref. 69. qua eft Arii p.

285. And confider well how he clears "Lucian the Martyr, from Arianism, and "what he there confeffes of all the ancient "Fathers.

"If you could understand French, I "would refer you to Perron, p. 633, of his

Reply to King James; where you should " find thefe Words: If a Man fhould de"mand of an Arian, if he would fubmit to "the Judgment of the Church of the Ages

precedent to that of Conftantine, he would "make no Difficulty of it; but would prefs

himself that the Controverfy might be de"cided by that little which remains to us "of the Authors of that Time. For an A"rian would find in Irenæus, Tertullian, " and others which remain of thofe Ages, "that the Son is the Inftrument of the Fa"ther; that the Father commanded the Son

"in the Works of Creation; that the Fa"ther and the Son are ALIUD ET ALIUD,

which Things he that should now bold, "now when the Language of the Church is "more examined, would be efteemed a very "Arian.

"If you read Bellarmine touching this "Matter, you should find that he is trou"bled exceedingly to find any tolerable "Gloffes for the Speeches of the Fathers "before the Council of Nice, which are

against him; and yet he conceals the

strongest of them, and to counterpoife "them, cites Authors that have indeed anci"ent Names, but fuch as he himself has ftigmatized for fpurious or doubtful in his "Book De Script. Ecclef.

"Were I at Leifure, and had a little longer Time, I could refer you to fome "that acknowledge Origen's Judgment to "be also against them in this Matter. And

Fisher, in his Answer to Dr. White's Nine Questions, has a Place almoft parallel to "the above cited out of Perron.

"In a word, whofoever fhall freely and impartially confider of this Thing, and "how, on the other Side, the ancient Fa"thers Weapons against the Arians are in "a Manner only Places of Scripture, (and "those now for the most part discarded as

impertinent and unconcluding) and how, "in the Argument drawn from the Autho"rity of the ancient Fathers, they are almost

always Defendants, and fcarce ever Op

ponents; he fhall not choose, but confess,

or at least be very inclinable to believe, "that the Doctrine of Arius is either a

Truth, or at least no damnable Herefy [7]."

The Words of Bishop Bull, when speaking of the Sentiments of Origen upon this Subject, are these: "I conclude thus with "myself, that Origen, who hath been fo

feverely cenfured by Divines, both anci"ent and modern, was really Catholick in "the Article of the facred Trinity; al

though, in the Manner of explaining that "Article, he fometimes fpeaks otherwife,

[7] See the Life of Mr. Chillingworth, written by Des Maizeaux, p. 51.

"than the Catholics do; [8] which is no "more than almost all the Fathers did "who lived before the Council of Nice." As for Dr. Cudworth, he does not only give up the primitive Fathers, in their Expreffions, but also in their Meaning. For, as he undoubtedly thought him felf to be in the Right, he imagined thofe Fathers to have been in an Error; and makes ufe of this univerfal Confent of the ancient Fathers, of the Three first Centuries, in afferting the Dependence and Subjection of the Son to the Father, as an Argument in Proof of the Fallibility of the primitive Fathers of the Chriftian Church. For, fays he, [9]

Though it be true, that Athanafius, "writing against the Arians, does appeal

to the Tradition of the ancient Church, "and, among others, cites Origen's Tefti"mony; yet was this only for the Eter

nity and Divinity of the Son of God, but "not at all for fuch an abfolute Coequality "of him with the Father, as would ex

[8] Quod ipfi cum reliquis fere omnibus Patribus, qui Concilium Nicænum antecefferunt, commune fuit. Bulli Def. Fid. Nic. Sect. xi. c. 9. § 22.

[9] Cud. Intell. Syft. 1. i. c. 4. p. 595.

«clude