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the creed of many of the General Baptists in the principality of Wales. The Swedenborgians, also, have lately been charged with Sabellianism; and I am not yet aware that they have effectually repelled the charge..

DISTINGUISHING TENET.-Sabellius taught, that there is but one person in the Godhead; and, in confirmation of this doctrine, he made use of this comparison:-as man, though composed of body and soul, is but one person, so God, though he is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is but one person. Hence the Sabellians reduced the three persons in the Trinity to three characters or relations, and maintained, that the Word and Holy Spirit are only virtues, emanations, or functions, of the Deity;-that he who is in heaven is the Father of all things ;-that he descended into the Virgin, became a child, and was born of her as a Son;-and that, having accomplished the mystery of our redemption, he diffused himself upon the apostles in tongues of fire, and was then denominated the Holy Ghost. This they explained by resembling God to the sun, the illuminative virtue or quality of which was the Word, and its warming virtue the Holy Spirit. The word, according to their doctrine, was darted, like a divine ray, to accomplish the work of redemption; and, having re-ascended to heaven, the influences of the Father were communicated, after a like manner, to the apostles.

They also attempted to illustrate this mystery

by one light kindled by another;-by the fountain and stream, and by the stock and branch.

Such are the sentiments that have been maintained by the Sabellians;-with regard to those of Sabellius himself, the accounts are various. Ac cording to some, he taught, that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, were one subsistence, and one per son, with three names; and that, in the Old Testa ment, the Deity delivered the law as Father; in the New Testament dwelt among men as the Son and descended on the apostles as the Holy Spirit. and this is said to be the opinion which gains ground among the Baptists in Wales. According to Mos heim, his sentiments differed from those of Noëtus in this, that the latter was of opinion, that the per son of the Father had assumed the human nature o Christ; whereas Sabellius maintained, "that a cer tain energy only proceeded from the Supreme Pa rent, or a certain portion of the divine nature, wa united to the Son of God, the man Jesus; and h considered, in the same manner, the Holy Ghost as portion of the everlasting Father."*

Others, again, represent his sentiments in different light; yet all seem to agree, that bot he and his followers confounded the three per sons of the ever blessed Trinity. And here i

* Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Vol. I. p. 305. Hence, as D Mosheim observes, the Sabellians could not justly be cal ed Patripassians, in the same sense that the Noetians wer so called.

may be remarked, in general, that the accounts which are given us of heretics and sectarists, both ancient and modern, should be received with great caution, unless strongly authenticated; and particularly when the representations are transmitted to us by their adversaries, which, in regard to the ancient heretics, is generally the case. Yet, when history furnishes no better materials, it cannot be unfair to exhibit all that we know of them, constantly keeping this caution in our view.

AUTHORS FOR AND AGAINST SABELLIANISM.-Almost all the historians, who give accounts of the ancient heresies, have made particular mention of Sabellius;-Dionysius, Athanasius, and Epiphanius, wrote against him and his doctrine;* and all the passages of the ancient authors, relating to him, are collected by the learned Christopher Wormius, in his Hist. Sabelliana, 8vo. Francfort and Leipsick, 1696.

In modern times, and on the other hand, Dr. Watts is supposed to have become a Sabellian,

* Vide Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. 5.; Athanas. Lib. De Sententia Dionysii; ejusdem Orat. contra Sabellii Gregales; Epiphan. Hares. 62. ›

Lucian the Martyr is said to have drawn up a creed in opposition to the Sabellians; and Ruffinus observes, that the words invisible and impassible were added to the creed of Aquileia, in opposition to the Sabellians, who asserted, that the Father was visible and passible in human flesh.RUFFIN. Expos. in Symbol. sect. 7.

towards the close of his life, and to have then written several pieces in defence of it.

His sentiments, in regard to the Trinity, appear to Mr. Evans to have been, that "the Godhead, the Deity itself, personally distinguished as the Father, was united to the man Christ Jesus; in consequence of which union, or indwelling of the Godhead, he became properly God."-This indwelling scheme, which has, no doubt, some appearance of Sabellianism, is chiefly founded on Colossians, ii. 9., where St. Paul, speaking of Christ, says,-" In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

"Mr. Palmer, in his useful edition of Johnson's Life of Watts, observes, that Dr. W. conceived this union to have subsisted before the Saviour's appearance in the flesh; and that the human soul of Christ existed with the Father from before the foundation of the world: on which ground he maintains the real descent of Christ from heaven to earth, and the whole scene of his humiliation, which he thought incompatible with the common opinion concerning him. Dr. Doddridge is supposed to have been of these sentiments, and also Mr. Benjamin Fawcet, of Kidderminster, who published a valuable piece, entitled, Candid Reflections concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity."*

Mr. Evans's Sketch, who refers his readers to Dr. Watts' Last Thoughts on the Trinity, in a pamphlet, printed by the Dr. in 1745, i. e. only three years before his death, and republished by the Reverend Gabriel Watts, now of Chichester.

In proving the Divinity and Personality of the Son and Holy Ghost, against the Sabellians, &c. Trinitarians argue thus:-there is nothing more certain, than that the Christians have always adored Jesus Christ as their God. This is evident from the Apologies, the Acts of the Martyrs, and the testimonies of the heathens themselves, as Pliny's Letter to Trajan, and the objections of Celsus, and Julian the Apostate.

It is moreover certain, that the Christians never worshipped but one God only; so that Jesus Christ is the same God with the Father who created the universe. But it is further certain, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and the same cannot be Father and Son, with respect to himself, as Tertullian very well demonstrates against Praxeas; for in this case, what Jesus Christ says of himself, as that he proceeds from the Father,-that the Father has sent him, and that he and the Father are one, would be wild and absurd. It were in effect to say, I proceed from myself,-have sent myself,and I and I are one. Nor can sound reason admit any other interpretation of these, and such like expressions, than that which owns Jesus Christ as a person distinct from the Father, though he be the same God.

Again, it is no less certain, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, and is sent by the Father as well as the Son, but distinct from the Son, since it is no where said that he is the Son, or begotten.

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