The English Church in the Eighteenth CenturyAbbey, Charles J. (Charles John)
History
The English Church in the Eighteenth Century
Abbey, Charles J. (Charles John)
Church of England -- History -- 18th century
3. The view of those who hold that Christ was something more than man,
but less than God; less than God, that is, in the highest, and indeed
the only proper, sense of the word God. This, like the preceding view,
was held by a great variety of thinkers, and with great divergences, but
it passes under the general name of _Arianism_.
4. The view of those who hold that 'there is but one living and true
God,' but that 'in the Unity of this Godhead there are three Persons, of
one substance, power, and eternity--the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost.' This view is called by its advocates _Catholicism_, for they
hold that it is, and ever has been, the doctrine of the Universal Church
of Christ; but, inasmuch as the admission of such a name would be
tantamount to giving up the whole point in question, it is refused by
its opponents, who give it the name of _Athanasianism_.
In England, the Trinitarian question began to be agitated in the later
half of the seventeenth century. Possibly the interest in the subject
may have been stimulated by the migration into England of many
anti-Trinitarians from Poland, who had been banished from the country by
an Order of Council in 1660. At any rate, the date synchronises with the
re-opening of the question in this country. It is probable, however,
that under any circumstances the discussion would have arisen.
Before the publication of Bishop Bull's first great work in 1685, no
controversial treatise on either side of the question--none, at least,
of any importance--was published in this country, though there had of
course been individual anti-Trinitarians in England long before that
time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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