Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors Part 52

"_All_ the Fathers" (before Augustine, fourth and fifth century) "differed from Augustine in attributing freedom of will to man in his present state. Thus Justin: 'Every created being is so const.i.tuted as to be capable of vice or virtue.' Cyril of Jerusalem: 'Know that thou hast a soul possessed of free will; for thou dost not sin by birth (?at? ???es??), nor by fortune, but we sin by free choice.' _All_ the Latin Fathers also maintained that free will was not lost after the fall. The Fathers also denied in part, that man is born infected with Adam's sin. Thus Athenagoras says in his Apology, 'Man is in a good state, not only in respect to his Creator, but also in respect to his natural generation.' "-Wiggers, _Augustinism and Pelagianism_. Translated by Rev. Ralph Emerson, Professor in the Theological Seminary, Andover, Ma.s.s.

90 "Abi ad Jordonum, et Trinitatem disce," was on early notion.

91 Dr. Horace Bushnell, a favorite authority with Dr. Huntington, whom Dr. Huntington quotes largely, and whose views he earnestly recommends, gives us his testimony to this point, thus ("G.o.d in Christ," pp. 130, 131):-

"A very large portion of Christian teachers, together with the general ma.s.s of disciples, undoubtedly hold three real living persons in the interior nature of G.o.d; that is, three consciousnesses, wills, hearts, understandings."

"_A very large portion of Christian teachers_" hold, then, to a belief in three G.o.ds; and with them is joined "_the general ma.s.s of the disciples_." The only Unity held by these teachers is, he goes on to say, "a social Unity." Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are, in their view, socially united only, and preside in that way, as a kind of celestial Tritheocracy, over the world. This heresy, he says, "because of its clear opposition to Unitarianism, is counted safe, and never treated as a heresy." That is, the Christian Church allows the belief in _three G.o.ds_, and will not discipline those who hold that opinion; but, if you believe strictly and only in _one G.o.d_, you cannot be saved!

92 Dr. Bushnell goes on to say (p. 133), "While the Unity is thus confused and lost in the threeness, perhaps I should admit that the threeness sometimes appears to be clouded or obscured by the Unity.

Thus it is sometimes protested, that in the word, 'person' nothing is meant beyond a threefold distinction; though it will always be observed, that nothing is really meant by the protestation; that the protester goes on to speak and to reason of the three, not as being only somewhats or distinctions, but as metaphysical and real persons.... Indeed, it is a somewhat curious fact in theology, that the cla.s.s of teachers who protest over the word 'person,' declaring that they mean only a _threefold distinction_, cannot show that there is really a hair's breadth of difference between their doctrine and the doctrine a.s.serted by many of the later Unitarians."

93 "It has often been a.s.serted _and admitted_," says Tweaten, one of the strongest of modern Trinitarians, "that even the princ.i.p.al notions about which the Church doctrine turns are foreign to the New Testament; as ??s?a and ?p?stas??, t??p?? ?p???e?? and ?p??a???e??, t???? and ????s?a."(Twesten: Dogmatik, vol. ii. p. 281.)

94 "Who will venture to say that any of the definitions heretofore given of personality in the G.o.dhead, in Itself considered,-such definitions as have their basis in the Nicene or Athanasian Creed,-are intelligible and satisfactory to the mind? At least, I can truly say, that I have not been able to find them, if they do in fact exist; nor, so far as I know, has any one been able, by any commentary on them, to make them clear and satisfactory." (Prof.

Stuart, Biblical Repository, April, 1835. See Wilson, Trin. Test., p. 272.)

95 See the creed in Hagenbach (History of Doct., vol. i. p. 208): "Te??

?? Te??, f?? ?? f?t??, Te?? ???????? ?? Te?? ????????."

96 Thus speaks Dr. Bushnell on this head ("G.o.d in Christ," p. 139):-

"Besides, it is another source of mental confusion, connected with this view of three metaphysical persons, that, though they are all declared to be infinite and equal, they really are not so. The proper deity of Christ is not held in this view. He is begotten, sent, supported, directed, by the Father, in such a sense as really annihilates his deity. This has been shown in a truly searching and convincing manner by Schleiermacher, in his historical essay on the Trinity; and, indeed, you will see at it at a glance, that this view of a metaphysical Trinity of persons breaks down in the very point which is commonly regarded as its excellence-its a.s.sertion of the proper deity of Christ."