The English Church in the Eighteenth Century Part 17

[Footnote 395: Calamy, ii. 243.]

[Footnote 396: _Guardian_, No. 41.]

[Footnote 397: _Spectator_, No. 269.]

[Footnote 398: Hoadly, 'Reasonableness of Conformity.'--_Works_, i.

284.]

[Footnote 399: 'Letter to a Clergyman,' &c.--_Works_, i. 30.]

[Footnote 400: Matthew Henry, in Th.o.r.esby's _Correspondence_, i. 438.]

[Footnote 401: Speech in the House of Lords, 1704.]

[Footnote 402: Burnet's _Life and Times_, 741.]

[Footnote 403: Ibid. 721.]

[Footnote 404: At this date, as White Kennet's biographer remarks, 'the name of Presbyterian was liberally bestowed on one of the archbishops, on several of the most exemplary bishops, as well as on great numbers among the interior clergy.'--_Life of Kennet_, 102.]

[Footnote 405: _Sermon before the Lord Mayor_, &c. November 5, 1709.]

[Footnote 406: _The Church of England free from the Imputation of Popery_, 1683.]

[Footnote 407: Skeats' _History of the Free Churches_, 160.]

[Footnote 408: Id. 346.]

[Footnote 409: Horace Walpole's _Memoirs_, &c. 366.]

[Footnote 410: They are carefully summarised in a series of papers in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1750, vols. xix and xx. It is clear from the correspondence on the subject how much interest they aroused.--See also Nichols' _Lit. An._, vol. 3.]

[Footnote 411: Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, iii. 300.]

[Footnote 412: Blackburne's _Historical View_, &c., Introduction, xx.]

[Footnote 413: Canon 36, -- 3.]

[Footnote 414: 'Strictures on the Articles, Subscriptions, &c.,'

Jortin's _Tracts_, ii. 417.]

[Footnote 415: Quoted in _The Church of England Vindicated_, &c., 1801, p. 2.]

[Footnote 416: Whiston's _Life of Clarke_, &c., 11, 40; _Memoirs_, 157, &c.]

[Footnote 417: Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, 3, 305.]

[Footnote 418: Id. 312.]

[Footnote 419: Paley's _Moral and Political Philosophy_, chap. xxii.]

[Footnote 420: Mr. Buxton, Parl. Speech, June 21, 1865.]

[Footnote 421: _Church of England Vindicated_, &c., 52, 161.]

[Footnote 422: _Works_, vol. i. 35.]

[Footnote 423: Quoted in Jortin's _Tracts_, ii. 423, and Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, ii. 25.]

[Footnote 424: Quoted in Malone's note to Boswell's _Johnson_, ii. 104.]

[Footnote 425: Review of Maizeaux' 'Life of Chillingworth,' _Guardian_, November 30, 1864.]

[Footnote 426: 'Sense of the Articles,' &c. _Works_, vol. xv., 528-33.

'Moral Prognostication,' &c. id. xv., 440.]

[Footnote 427: Answer to Rep. of Con. chap. i. -- 20.--_Works_, ii. 534.]

[Footnote 428: Blackburne's _Historical View_, Introd. x.x.xix.]

[Footnote 429: H. Walpole, _Memoirs of the Reign of George III._ (Doran), i. 7, 8.]

[Footnote 430: _Consideration of the Present State of Religion_, &c.

1801, 11.]

CHAPTER VI.

THE TRINITARIAN CONTROVERSY.

In an age which above all things prided itself upon its reasonableness, it would have been strange indeed if that doctrine of Christianity which is objected to by unbelievers as most repugnant to reason, had not taken a prominent place among the controversies which then abounded in every sphere of theological thought. To the thoughtful Christian, the question of questions must ever be that which forms the subject of this chapter.

It is, if possible, even a more vital question than that which was involved in the Deistical controversy. The very name 'Christian' implies as much. A Christian is a follower of Christ. Who, then, is this Christ?

What relation does He bear to the Great Being whom Christians, Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics alike adore? What do we mean when we say that He is the Son of G.o.d Incarnate? That He is still present with his Church through his Holy Spirit? These are only other forms of putting the question, What is the Trinity? The various answers given to this question in the eighteenth century form an important part of the ecclesiastical history of the period.

The subject carries us back in thought to the earliest days of Christianity. During the first four centuries, the nature of the G.o.dhead, and the relation of the Three Persons of the Trinity to each other, were directly or indirectly the causes of almost all the divisions which rent the Church. They had been matters of discussion before the death of the last surviving Apostle, and the three centuries which followed his decease were fruitful in theories upon the subject.

These theories reappear with but little alteration in the period which comes more immediately under our present consideration. If history ever repeats itself, it might be expected to do so on the revival of this discussion after an abeyance of many centuries. For it is one of those questions on which modern research can throw but little light. The same materials which enabled the inquirer of the eighteenth century to form his conclusion, existed in the fourth century. Moreover, there was a tendency in the discussions of the later period to run in an historical direction; in treating of them, therefore, our attention will constantly be drawn to the views of the earlier thinkers. With regard to these, it will be sufficient to say that their speculations on the mysterious subject of the Trinity group themselves under one or other of these four heads.

1. The view of those who contend for the mere humanity of Christ--a view which, as will be seen presently, is often claimed by Unitarians as the earliest belief of Christendom.

2. The view of those who deny the distinct personality of the Second and Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity. This was held with various modifications by a great variety of thinkers, but it pa.s.ses under the general name of _Sabellianism_.

3. The view of those who hold that Christ was something more than man, but less than G.o.d; less than G.o.d, that is, in the highest, and indeed the only proper, sense of the word G.o.d. This, like the preceding view, was held by a great variety of thinkers, and with great divergences, but it pa.s.ses under the general name of _Arianism_.