Chap. VI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 49 



conceivable that one being ihould be produced by another, and yet be 

 co-exiPtent with him from all eternity. It is not, therefore, I think, 

 to be wondered that there fl\ould be fuch a herefy in the church as 

 Arianifrn, or that it ihould have been once fo prevalent. Now, 

 the dodrine of Arius was, that, as the Son, or Second Perfon of the 

 Trinity, was produced, (or btgotteii, as it is exprefied in Scripture,) 

 by the Father, he muft have been in exiftence pofterior to him ; 

 and then he muft have exifted in time, and not from all eternity, as 

 the Father exifted; and, accordingly, Arius maintained that there was 

 a time when he was not : His exprcfTion was, \,v ^ovi ojk. ^r,v. But 

 antient learning v/ill explain this myftery, as well as the myftery of 

 the Trinity, and fhow that one thing may proceed from another as 

 its caufe and yet be coeval with it. This may be explained by an 

 example which eveiy man, who has learned the elements of geome- 

 try, will readily underftand. It is this, that every corollary of a 

 propofition is a truth eternal as well as the propofition itfelf ; and 

 yet it is derived from the propofition as its caufe, and could not 

 have exifted if the propofition had not been an eternal truth. 



What has led Arius and his followers into the error of fuppcffing 

 that the Son, being produced by the Father, could not be co-eternal 

 with him, but muft have exifted in time, is what w^e obferve of the 

 produdion of things on this earth, where the produftion is always 

 pofterior in its exiftence to the caufe producing it. But this is only 

 true of things material, which have no permanent exiftence, but are 

 conftantly changing, being never the fame thing for two moments 

 together j fo that they cannot be faid properly to exift, but are al- 

 ways in the ftate of becoming fomething different from what they 

 are; \vk \(rji aKXcc 'yincTai, as it is exprefled in Greek : Whereas 

 Beings divine have a real exiftence, and are the \x cvrug 'ovrot, ; and 

 the fame is true of all immaterial Beings. Now, the Theorems of 

 fcience are certainly not Beings material but immaterial. 



Vol. VI. G But,, 



