the Communion of the regular establish'd Church which yet he is far from contemning or censuring Suppose I say a Person to be of such Character and Circumstances shall we dare to say this Man's Faith is not sufficient to his Salvation because we our selves perhaps have more Faith and are justly perswaded more is necessary to our own Salvation In all Likelihood he endangers himself to be excluded from Heaven who takes upon him to exclude such I am far from denying that Men ought to grow up to Perfection in all Faith and Knowledg that is to endeavour to comprehend and believe as near as they are able all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven or all revealed Truths built upon that one Foundation Jesus Christ and him crucified But we know how vastly the Superstructure is increased the Compass of Scripture even of the New Testament is large the Difficulty of understanding it at this Distance great the Lights which we have by Fathers and Doctors various and by their Variety many times dazling and confounding one another nay even whole Churches in Doctrinals very contrary to one another and at least one and that the greatest of them all for the maintaining her Grandeur has designedly with all the Arts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4. 14. and Methods of Deceit new modell'd the whole Frame of Christian Doctrine and not stuck in a sort to corrupt even Scripture it self by imposing on the World her corrupt Translation and in many Points corrupter Sense of it for infallible Truth and the only sure way to Heaven in which Impositions of hers all Protestants agree many Points to be fallacious and destructive Now these being and having been the Circumstances of the present Age and indeed of many late Ages is it not the constant Doctrine of all Reformed Churches that every Person should with Prayer Humility and Study of the Truth proposing unto himself the Holy Scripture for his Rule judg for himself And must not every Man believe what is the Result of his Judgment or what in Conscience according to Scripture he judgeth Truth Now perhaps sundry Points which particular Doctors yea which Churches have differently determined and which some of them pretend to be of Faith an honest inquisitive Man cannot perceive the Holy Ghost to have determined at all nor does he find them in the Apostles Creed the old Standard or Leiger-Roll of Fundamentals Nay further examining them according to the Analogy or Proportion of Faith that is comparing them with undoubted Fundamentals he cannot resolve which Opinion bears most Proportion or is most certain In this Case what shall the Man do For my own part I can see nothing more proper and safe than to take the Matter in that Latitude wherein the Scripture delivered it Had not learned Men differently interpreted and imbroiled the Text perhaps I should never have perceived any more than one Sense of it even that in which I now take it But having seen their Glosses I am sensible the Text will admit several Interpretations and which of them was designed by the Holy Ghost I know not I disbelieve none of them nor will I as far as able in my Practice act contrary to what either or any of them enforces I submit intirely to the Authority of God in all Here 's my negative Belief I will not divide the Christian Church nor take Part with them that do divide it but hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace maintain Christian Charity with all Christian People and esteem all them to be Christians who are content to walk or who without the Contradiction of a disorderly Life profess to walk by that Rule which I own namely Holy Scripture This is the Latitude I plead for and from which I think I never shall be driven But there being but one Faith there can be no more Latitude in Faith §. 12. than there is in an Vnit This is a Subtilty indeed and no doubt a stabbing Argument against the People of the long Name as some are pleased to stile many conformable moderate Persons But are there not as many sorts of Vnits as there are of Vnities And did Mr. Dean never hear in Philosophy of an Vnity of Composition which is so far from excluding Parts that it supposes them Or in Arithmetick did he never hear of Integrals and what minute Parts thereof Artists can make No Latitude in an Unit Yes and in the one Faith too especially as by the one Faith we understand what Churches and Doctors have now made it Have we not whole Systems of Opinions now adays made up into Confessions of Faith Certainly all controverted Points in Christian Doctrine can no more be maturely determined and the stated Truth distinctly be believed by all Men than all Christian Perfection be by all equally attained There are those to whom it is given in an ampler and more peculiar measure to know the Mystery of the Kingdom Though all may have the same Scripture or Body of revealed Religion all have not the same natural Sagacity and Judgment the same Education and Advantages of Improvement the same Leisure and Opportunity for Search and Application of Mind Some and that far the greatest Numbers of Christians can only understand the common Christianity repent of their Sins and in Well-doing depend upon God's Mercy in Christ Jesus for Life everlasting Others leaving that is not stopping at those the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ the alone true Foundation go on unto Perfection So that there is a measure of Faith as well as of other Christian Perfections And God is doubly the Author of a Latitude in Faith 1 In revealing his Truth in such Terms as admit of a Latitude of Conception 2 In giving to Men as he sees fit such measures of Knowledg and Perswasion as leaves them in an higher or lower Degree of Faith and even of Holiness And accordingly in our Father's House there are many Mansions Nor can any Man with Reason gainsay these things Now though this be far from thinking it indifferent what Men believe Pag. 9. or whether they believe any thing or not yea faralso from believing what we please yet I confess it is believing as by Grace we are able I must conceive as I can and judg as I can and believe as I can too And neither I nor any Man alive who believes any thing can believe all that dictating Men will impose upon them The Authority of the Church it is true is of great Weight and will go very far to the determining any sober Man's Judgment in a case where Evidences on both sides are perfectly equal that is alike probable or alike uncertain But the Faith we owe to the Church and that we owe to God are very different All the Churches or Councils in the World can never make that an Article of Faith which God has not made so He who alone can bestow Salvation has alone
possess'd of another's Will by being conscious to him what his Will is much less should have the Power of another because he knows as well as he what he can do is in my Apprehension impossible For it makes Understanding Will and Power to be the same thing And it is plain mutual Consciousness in Propriety of Speech implies only mutual Knowledg I may know another's Will yet not be able to bring mine to it I may know what another is able to do yet not arrive at his Power Much more might be said to shew the Insufficiency of mutual Consciousness for salving the Unity of three such Persons as he has supposed in one Nature any otherwise than as three Individuals are united in one special Nature which will not serve his turn but I had rather make an end Before he concludes he must clothe me as he has been used to do others §. 28. and as the Heathen did the Primitive Christians that Beasts might sooner seize them or as the Inquisitors do Hereticks before their Execution in some monstrous Shape that the World at least the Church may abhor me Accordingly in an insulting Mood as thinking himself to have run me down he puts the Question And can any Man tell what Opinion this Pag. 30. melancholy Stander-by has of the Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation And he answers it himself that I dare not speak out but I give very broad Signs what I would be at But can any Man tell how the Doctrine of the Incarnation comes in here My Paper had not so much as named it Only we must know the Doctor had writ on it and he could not give me Load enough except he possess the World that I dissent from him in a Doctrine wherein perhaps he is more Orthodox as well as in that wherein he is Heterodox I said perhaps he is more Orthodox in the Doctrine of the Incarnation but admitting the necessary and immediate Consequence of one Branch of his Hypothesis he is not so For if Self-consciousness alone distinguish one Mind whether finite or infinite from another then inasmuch as all must allow there is no more essential Property of the rational Soul than to be conscious to it self it will follow that there are two Persons in Christ viz. the second Person of the Godhead and the Man Christ Jesus which I think is Nestorianism Else he must deny the Son of God did take a rational Soul or became truly Man utrum horum But forasmuch as this is only a Consectary of his Doctrine and not expresly delivered by him I affix it not to him However I must complain he has done me wrong here fliely and beyond the present Cue to put the World upon a Jealousy of my Orthodoxy in Point of the Incarnation and for a Farewell having by corrupting dismembring and misplacing my Words fastned upon me divers extravagant things as said by me which I never said as will appear by inspecting my Paper to expose me as the greatest Applauder of the Socinians to take off my Sheeps Clothing as he calls it and put me on the Wolves In Conclusion devoutly praying God to preserve his Church from such as me But if I may have Liberty to answer his Question I will satisfy the World what Opinion I have both of all the Controversies on Foot amongst English Protestants for others I meddle not with and particularly of those of the Trinity and Incarnation First As to all Controversies amongst English Protestants I had in my Paper express'd my Opinion and Affection too p. 12. perhaps with so much Moderation and Justice that Mr. Dean thought not fit to take any notice of that Part. A happy Page of mine that which alone as far as I can perceive escaped his good-natured Pen. Now the Sum of what I there said and suggested in other Places of my Paper is this that being we are all agreed in the common Christianity thereby I mean the Apostles Creed and the Evangelical Law which is the Sum of Holy Scripture therefore both all private Doctors except in the Schools and all other private Persons of what Party soever should let Controversy alone and keep their Minds to themselves refrain from exposing one another and treasuring up to one another Wrath against an evil Day and should bend all their Studies to reform their own and others Lives worshipping God sincerely according to their Consciences and blessing him for their present Liberty and studying to be quiet and to do their own Business This is my Sense for the present as to all Controversies amongst us Protestants in general Then as to the two particular Doctrines by him mentioned I have sufficiently declared my Judgment already in this Paper And I will add thereto only thus much that my Opinion as to the Controversy betwixt Dr. Sherlock and me as more fully I have set it forth in this Paper is not by me newly taken up For above one and thirty Years ago being then a Preacher in Oxford I publickly averr'd what I still judg to be Truth and what was not then taxed as Heretical That he that shall affirm there are three Persons in the Godhead taking the word Person properly or strictly as we do in ordinary Cases is guilty of a more grievous Error than he who altogether denies three Persons That both then I had and since have subscribed several times to the Church-Articles which are plain enough in these Points That otherwise according to Law as required I have given Assurance of my Orthodoxy and Conformity nor have I done or writ any thing by which I have retracted such Subscription or Conformity and therefore I fear no Man's good Will as to reforming me out of the Church But in Sum I think it no Point of Nonconformity to desire and in my Sphere endeavour promote or perswade the reforming of such things in our Church as keep many good Men out of it And therefore notwithstanding my Engagements to the Church and Adherence thereto I declare it as my Judgment that the Church is bound upon her Faith that is upon her Promise often and on several Occasions given especially upon the Profession she has made in time of her Adversity to reform her Liturgy in divers Points and to relax the Conditions of her Communion as soon as a convenient State of Affairs offers it self of which I do not pretend to be a competent Judg but am of opinion much Delay will be dangerous And in case when a fit Season offers it self the Church should not reform or relax as abovesaid I fear she will forfeit much of her Credit and scarce be believed again in a Day of Tribulation if it should happen to her which God forbid Mr. Dean concludes with a Promise that having vindicated the antient Pag. 32. Rights and Liberties of the Church to defend the truly Catholick and Apostolick Faith from the Assaults of Hereticks he shall apply himself as his leisure serves to the Defence of his Vindication c. Alas good Man Who ever went about any-wise to infringe those Liberties Is intreating Men a while to forbear dangerous Disputes and those too so managed as to expose both themselves the Truth and the Church an Invasion of their Liberties nay and of the Rights of the Church too Verily if the Doctrine of three infinite Minds their Self-consciousness and mutual Consciousness be not either censured by our Church or generally disowned by the Divines of it it will soon be thought the Churches Doctrine And this being about a Fundamental perhaps some shortly will put the Question not where was your Church and Faith before Luther but where before Dr. Sherlock till he wrote you were not clear in Fundamentals For my Part I have admired to see first such an Explication of the Trinity and then such a Reassertion of it reviling and menacing an humble Man for Moderation and dissenting from Novelties and Heterodoxies come forth with publick Licence But to return to the Need there was of the Dean's vindicating the antient Rights and Liberties of the Church The Case is just the same as if a Stranger in a time of War accidentally finding a Friend of his engaged in a private hazardous Rencounter against experienced Duelists and trusting to some new little Slights he had got should cry out to them all to hold their Hands and by all means that he could use should perswade them to desist telling them they had more need to be at their Prayers for Publick Peace and to reserve themselves Strength and Skill against the Common Enemy Now it would be a pleasant thing in such a Juncture to hear this Stranger 's Friend exclaim against the kind Stranger for attempting or infringing therein his and the publick Rights and Liberties of Mankind given forsooth to all by the Law of Nature to defend themselves Even just so much Occasion and Reason had Mr. Dean to undertake a Vindication of the antient Rights and Liberties of the Church against me He will now apply himself he says as his leisure serves to the Defence of his Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and Incarnation Now I must beg his Pardon to say I can conceive but two ways in the World he has to vindicate it the one and that the most honourable is to write such a Piece as the Great St. Austin did in his latter Years and which is commonly put in the Beginning of his first Tome called his Retractations The other such a shift as some Men now and then have been put to to buy up or get into his Hands if it were possible all the Copies of his Book and destroy them that so his beloved Hypothesis may die away By either of these Means he may effectually vindicate his Vindication But if he be above this honest Advice I cannot help it Invitum qui servat idem facit occidenti I'shall not God willing trouble either the World or him any more with animadverting upon his Writings FINIS
Which my Author says is contrary to the Doctrine of Greg. Naz. the great Divine Niceph. Callist Hist lib. 18. cap. 48. Philoponus I must confess I know not what is I do not say the Dean believes three Gods God forbid I should but I do avow he has said what necessarily infers three Gods I hope therefore according to his Promise p. 11. he will thankfully correct this Absurdity and not blush to recant an Error § 4. After this my general Vindication I am now to descend to the Particulars I am charged with And first he charges me in Effect in his Title-page but more expresly in Pag. 2. and in other Places that I desired no Body would write against Socinians Whatsoever my Intent was of which I think he wants the Gift of discerning Spirits to capacitate him for being a Judg I am sure he can never prove this Charge from my Paper in which the only Controversy mentioned was that of the Trinity and possibly some of its Subdivisions Now it is notorious 1 That the Socinians are not the only Persons Heterodox in these Points 2 That these are not the only Points in which they are Heterodox There are also divers others in which I believe in my Conscience they grievously err The Doctor then might have written against the Socinians and not meddle with the Doctrine of the Trinity Therefore when I desired the Controversy of the Trinity might for the present be sorborn I did not desire that no Body should write against the Socinians The next Touch at me which I will remark is if I am a Divine of Apol. pag. 2. the Church of England why should I profess he means stile my self a Stander-by I answer perhaps I was not so conceited of my Skill at the Weapon as others are But admit I had been must every one that thinks he has found out some new Pass or Guard draw presently upon the next Man he meets begirt with a Sword Should all of the Doctor 's Degree or mine have written on that Subject where had been the End of Books I was therefore on this Account as well as in the Sense before mentioned a Stander-by and on how many Scores melancholy it is too long and too sad to recount I heartily pray neither Mr. Dean nor any other Christian may have like Reason But he is always very jealous of Men who are so tender of the wrong Side It is evident indeed to any who reads my Paper I have express'd therein a Tenderness 1 For the Church of England and the Nicene Faith 2 For the Credit of the Reformation 3 For Peace and Holiness Is any or are all these the wrong Side As to his Observation which he tells us he has made and which he subjoins touching Mens Tenderness being due to their Inclinations he may keep these his profound politick Notes for better Purpose I own my Inclination to the three Points mentioned and wish the same both in him and in all Members of our Church As to his perverting my peaceable Assertions and making them what he pleases by odious That is's in the two next Paragraphs and a multitude of other Places These are such open disingenuous Arts that I will only note them and having told my Reader that this is his common way of dealing with me to the end he may cast Reproach and a publick Hate upon me I will concern my self to answer only to the more material Points or to the Gross of the Res substrata which he imputes to me I confess my self an Enemy to such open Disputes between Protestants §. 5. as only publish to the common Enemies the Divisions of the Protestants Nor do I find the Reformers to have been whatever Mr. Dean says for such Disputings nor that the voluntary Disputings of unauthorized Persons have ever suppressed but rather revived old Heresies How I would have those who should write in this Controversy authorized I will anon set down In the mean time I come to that Latitude and Simplicity wherein I suppose Christian Faith was delivered and wherein I would have Pag. 3 c. it left which Mr. Dean will not understand And first he would gladly know what I mean by the Latitude of Faith Now because he seems to be at a great deal of Pains here to mistake me another Man would have said to blunder I will tell him that Latitude here is a metaphorical Term and I will not be so exact as to suppose it translated to our purpose either from Astronomy or Geography but taking it meerly for one of the triple Dimensions of Bodies apply it by way of Similitude to that Extent of Signification which Terms of any Proposition may naturally both in themselves and in their Dependance on Precedents and Subsequents admit All Men who have read and considered do know that the same Words may carry with them different Notions and that the Compass of those different Notions though it be bounded by the common Import of the Words yet does often times include divers Specialties in it And this I affirm as to the Propositions of Faith both in Holy Scripture and even in the Apostles Creed it self As to the latter I instance in that Clause He descended into Hell our Divines have told us it admits three or four Though it be a Christian's Duty to believe every Article of this Creed I conceive the agreeing upon some one Sense wherein to interpret every Article of it is not so absolutely necessary but that some one of them may be taken in a LATITVDE and either not determined to any one Interpretation or resolved to be capable of more Practic Cat. lib. 5. §. 2. Senses Dr. Hammond himself allows two and whosoever understands and believes it in either of those Senses though he should haply doubt or distrust the other of them is not guilty either of Heresy or Unbelief No nor supposing that by Contention he divide not the Church or himself from it is he to be taxed with Schism Now to leave Faith in the Latitude in which it was delivered is to impose no Determinations of such Words or Expressions as necessary to Salvation but to allow each Person to believe the Matter propounded in one of those Senses whatever it be which the Words naturally bear and which in his Conscience he judges the truest And this Allowance I particularly demand as to the Point in hand as set down 1 John 5. 7. And such Allowance in this as well as in other disputed Points would I say soon reduce Controversies amongst Protestants to a very small Compass at least the Heats in managing them would cease Then as to what I mean by Simplicity he says I leave it to guess Is this then a Word of Difficulty or is this Phrase the Simplicity of Faith unusual and uncertain But when no Exception else could be found Nodus in scirpo must be pretended Take then good Mr. Dean the Simplicity of Faith in what
Sense your good Nature can yea should you take it even for Foolishness it self which none can think I intended the first Chapter of the first to the Corinthians would in a sort justify the Expression But by Simplicity I meant here as all who are not wilfully blind will understand me Plainness Vnmixedness Purity I would not have so much of Philosophy vamp'd into Faith And I am not of the Mind of that Cardinal that we should have been to seek for sundry Articles of our Faith had it not been for Aristotle and though I love him much better I will add for Plato either But here I must answer once for all as to my Displeasure with the §. 6. Pag. 4. School-Doctors Pray what Hurt have they done says Mr. Dean I could give a certain Reason for which I might say perhaps they have done him little But I will rather give him two other Answers one I hope he will not except against because it is his own They sometimes mistake the Fathers Sense whom they pretend to follow or clog it with some peculiar Niceties of their own by which Means this Mystery has been confounded Vind. p. 138. And again p. 139. Though I do not think it impossible to give a tolerable Account of the School-terms and Distinctions yet that is a Work of greater Difficulty â—â—an Vse This we must take for a fair Specimen of Mr. Dean's great Skill and Reading in the School-Doctors But my own Answer is the Writings of the School-men or rather that Vein of Study and Dispute which they have brought into the Church of God turning the whole Body of Christianity into nice and too curious many times idle Questions and resolving these in the difficultest Philosophical Terms and so running all to thin Metaphysical Distinctions has made Religion mostly a Business of Speculation and Wit The Endeavour of Subtilty has very much eaten out the Heart and Vitals of Christianity raised fruitless Contentions bitter Envyings endless Schisms and Parties in the Church destroyed in a great measure the Love of God and all good Affection and debauch'd Faith it self for the main into Opinion or Scepticism This is my Answer further I do aver the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is dishonoured and exposed by their Questions and Disputes of it And particularly as to the Master of the Sentences with whom the Dean will not allow me to be intimately acquainted I Pag. 17. say that had I used severer Language touching him than that what Stuff has he in his first Book made of this Doctrine by too much Subtilty and too nice Enquiries the Matter would justly have born it And for a Proof hereof If I should run through all I must transcribe in a manner his whole first Book Let it therefore suffice of such Stuff as I justly called it to give only a Taste Methinks these that follow are not seemly Questions to be put inquired into or disputed touching the infinite incomprehensible Majesty Creator and Lord of all I will not therefore turn them into English Vtrum Pater voluntate genuerit filium Distinct VI. an necessitate an volens vel nolens sit Deus And it is resolved that the Word of God is the Son of God by Nature and not by his Will Therefore it should seem without his Will and so the Father God and a Father unwillingly The Unsoundness of this Resolution see in Danaeâ—â—'s Censure on it The next Question is no more reverent An Pater potuerit Dist VII vel voluerit gignere filium Et an hoc sit aliqua potentia quae sit in filio And if the Father always had such Power and such Will he had a Power and a Will to do something which the Son had not and consequently the Son must not be of equal Power with the Father nor have like Will The Sum of the Resolution is Filius potuit gignere sed non oportuit Again An filius sit sapiens à seipso vel per seipsum And he resolves it Non est sapiens a se sed de Patre à Patre Dist 32. E. Again That may seem a little better touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost Vtrum Spiritus sanctus priùs vel pleniùs procedat à Patre quam à Filio Dist XII And An plenius vel magis processerit à Patre quam à Filio Now though he resolved it in the Negative yet ne te perturbaret lest this should offend any he tells us that the Holy Ghost proceeds principally from the Father but he is found also to proceed from the Son Sed hoc quâ—que illi Pater dedit non jam existenti nondam habenti Had I been Author of such a Saying as this last what should I have heard But who pleases may read more on the same Subject I will conclude all this as the Master does a certain Section in one of the cited Distinctions Sub silâ—ntio potiùs esset praetereundum nisi me super hoc aliquid loqui cogeret instantia quaerentium which I will be content to english I would not have discovered the Master's Shame could I have in the Judgment of some escaped otherwise without the Brand of an ignorant impudent and false Accuser But though I will add no more of these grating Places yet I will desire of Mr. Dean because he professes to be able to give a tolerable Account of these Mens Terms and Distinctions to shew if he pleases his Skill in any useful Explication of the following Passages Eadem est Potentia Dist VII G. Patris quâ potest esse Pater Filii quâ potest esse Filius Yet he doubts not to affirm Filii originem esse ab initio at non ipsum esse ab initio sed ab initiabili And touching the Trinity and the Holy Ghost In Trinitate Dist XXXII Ae. est Dilectio quae est Trinitas tamen Spiritus sanctus est Dilectio quae non est Trinitaâ— nec ideo duae sunt Dilectiones Take these Assertions either singly and apart by themselves as I designed them or imagine that being all from one Hand they ought to be consistent with one another and what pretty Employment will it be to make useful Divinity I had almost said even Sense of them I might add hundreds more either on this or other Subjects out of the same Author but I fear it should be said they are hard Shells without a Kernel and truly so I long thought them and a great deal more of other Mens Writings on this Controversy Nor can I forbear observing by the way that the learned pious holy and orthodox Dr. Hammond could not or did not find room so much as for one Section nay that I remember not one Question and Answer for this whole Controversy in his Practical Catechism which yet excellently instructs us in many other Controversies wherein Holiness and Christian Devotion is concerned But in all likelihood he judged what
the Sentences the Master's Piece by me challenged and especially Prolegom V. will find both there and more fully in the Book the Master distinctly convicted to be 1 A false Witness 2 A pernicious Writer And 3 A ridiculous one He will find also an explicit Collection of his Frauds and Falsifications to which the Author subjoins he has not pick'd out Passages to cavil at but rather challenges any to produce what is faultless I might say much more but let this suffice as to my Defence in whatsoever Reflections I made on the Master of the Sentences in this Point I hope it appears I gave not that Touch upon him which I did without Reason and knowledg of his Accomplishments But for all this the more general Cause of my being so angry with the §. 7. Pag. 5. School-Doctors is because I have not Industry enough to read or understand them I thank Mr. Dean for this Ornament and will take hence only an Occasion of a little publick Penance before God and the World confessing with hearty Sorrow and Shame that I have not been so industrious as I ought to have been I cannot before an all-seeing Eye acquit my self of some kind of Idleness but beseech my good God to pardon what cannot be recalled and to quicken me for the future to double Diligence Yet I may adventure to plead that amongst them who have known the Variety of my Labours since I came out into the World and I believe also amongst all those now alive who either had the Tuition of me or were Associates of my Studies in my Education there is none will say I was in any measure ever noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a scandalous Ideler Then as to my reading and understanding the School-men in particular I will only add that many Years ago as soon as Master of Arts I set my self to read and study those of best Note amongst them and spent no inconsiderable Time and Pains therein as much at least as a Life otherwise laborious would permit that about ten or eleven Years ago having some Leisure and Opportunity I resumed those Studies with particular Purpose to refresh my Memory and rectify if I could my Judgment both in and by them that I think when I read them I generally do understand them I said generally for I am of Opinion that sometimes they understood not themselves that is they disputed themselves into uncertain obscure and confused Notions but I confess I never read these Doctors with such Relish Savour and Delight with such Warmth good Affection and Holy Advantage as I did and daily do read the sacred Scriptures O the infinite Disproportion of them Even in moral Notions in which notwithstanding divers of the School-Doctors excel themselves comparatively to their other Writings How much more Force is there sometimes in one Word or Glance of the Holy Ghost than in the acutest Definitions of the Doctors How far sharper and more piercing are the Divine Oracles even dividing asunder the Soul and Spirit and discerning of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart Further I acknowledg my Memory has not such a retentive Faculty of the nice Distinctions and Divisions which these Wits run nor after all do I see the Vse of them as to promoting Peace Holiness or in divers Cases sound Judgment in the Church of God How many School-Notions were not yet two Ages ago made Points of Faith as far as the usurping Power of what stiled it self an Oecumenical Council could make them And has Christianity received so much Improvement by those Sanctions as that we should be fond of the Fountains whence they derived those Waters of Meribah or at this Day pretend that these spinose and crabbed Doctors have only guarded Christianity with a Hedg of Thorns c. I pity those who for a shist betake themselves to such Assertions and I list not to pursue this thence only for a final Trial of my Insight into those Authors I appeal to every judicious Reader whether I did not deliver in my Paper p. 13. the Doctrine of the Trinity and Unity more conformably to the Doctrine of the Schools than Dr. Sherlock did in his Vindication notwithstanding his pretended greater Conversation in them I transcribed it not indeed either out of the School-men or Canonists de summâ Trinit from whom Mr. Hooker seems to have almost translated in this Point nor yet from St. Austin from whom they all have taken it though I was ignorant of none of those but from a Master of the Temple because I took that to the Master of the Temple to be more an Argument ad Hominem Now if I faithfully reported the Doctrine of the Schools 't is very probable I was not so unacquainted with them as Mr. Dean's Candour would represent me My next Accusation is that I have said The first Reformers complained §. 8. Pag. 5. of this namely the corrupt Divinity of the Schools and desired a purer and more scriptural he instead thereof puts spiritual sort of Divinity I did indeed say this but not without due Authority My Words were very nearly as nearly as I could remember the English of a Passage of the great Melancthon which having not then my Note-books at hand I could not perfectly Tantum Labyrinthorum falsarum opinionum est in Thomâ Scoto similibus qui dediti Aristotelis Doctrinae transformare Ecclesiae Doctrinam in Philosophiam coeperunt ut semper saniores Theologi desideraverint aliud genus Doctrinae plenius purius And a little before Haec aetas non tantum coenum sed insuper venena id est opiniones probantes manifesta idola in fontes evangelicos invexit Philip. Melancthon in Praefat. ad Luther Tom. 2. report but will now in the Margin transcribe the Text by which it may appear I was favourable in my Censure and spoke not the full of what my Author would have warranted And if this which is said in the Margin satisfy not that the Doctrine of the School-men is full of Labyrinths and Falsities of Dirt and Poison so as to have infected the very Fountains of the Gospel-Doctrine which yet is more than I said let Persons of Leisure and Advantages consult the second Tome of Melancthon's own Works where they may find some little Tracts designed to make good this Charge particularly Oratio Thomae Didymi a personated Name no doubt pro M. Luther And Philippi Melancthonis pro Luth. Apologia adversus furiosorum Parisiensium Decretum c. I could have said much to the same Effect out of Luther himself in divers Places but I feared it might have been said he was too fiery Nor are like Passages at all infrequent in Calvin but perhaps by some Men as much might have been said of him as of me that he had not read or understood whom he censured Melancthon's Authority I thought I might more safely speak upon he being a Person whose Learning and Moderation might
that Infallibility or those Words Some have maintained whatever their Judgment is now I know not nor must concern my self if they use to contradict themselves Some I say have maintained that there is no infallible Judg on Earth nor any need of one being we have as far as is necessary to Salvation an infallible Rule the Scriptures of Truth Suppose then as to the forementioned Place we should take some such ample wide or large Sense as this The Joys and Glories of Heaven the good things which God has prepared for them that love him we could never have known without Divine Revelation nor should ever have had a Sense Relish and Perswasion of without a Work of Illumination and Conviction upon our Minds or more generally without other Aids and Assistances of Grace This well enough sutes with the Text and thus much is sufficient to conclude hence for Salvation or to any Intent of holy Life and this all Protestants will acquiesce in at least none will contradict Why may not we stop then here in this general This restraining of the Word of God from that LATITVDE and Generality and the Vnderstandings of Men from that Liberty wherein Christ and the Apostles left them is and has been the only Foundation of all the Schisms in the Church and that which makes them immortal Mr. Chilling worth Ch. IV. n. 16. Sense without affixing any of those particular Senses to the Text that is Is it not best to leave it in its full Latitude without restraining the word Spirit Further I would be clearly for expressing some fixed true Sense of all controverted Texts in such Words as Hereticks cannot pervert but for two or three Reasons one already mentioned namely that I cannot always be sure which Sense is most truly affix'd and being I am not or cannot be so a second Reason will be that by expressing such Sense in such Words and fixing it to Scripture so that now such Sense should become the Sense of Scripture it being as we know the Sense of Scripture which is the true Faith not meerly the Pag. 7. Words I should fear by this means Mens changing Faith or which is much the same changing Scripture And a third Reason which is as urgent as all the rest is I do not know nor does it appear that any Man knows no nor that any Church or Council ever have known where to find such Words which Hereticks cannot pervert I could assign many Words from time to time pitch'd upon to prick the Fingers of Hereticks and guard the Faith but I will content my self Pag. 5. with two neither of which Mr. Dean can pretend to be unacquainted with they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Personae These we know have been long thought fit Terms to fix the Sense of Scriptures But are they Words which Hereticks cannot pervert or are they not more equivocal and so more pervertable than most of the usual Terms in Scripture The first indeed is several times used singularly in the Greek of the New Testament and rendred constantly by the old Interpreter Substantia but by many Moderns and particularly by our Translators two or three ways Three times that now occur to me by Confidence 2 Cor. 9. 4. and ch 11. 17. Heb. 3. 14. yet in the first of these Places Beza tells us it might have been rendred in hoc fundamento gloriationis which is near the first and natural Import of the Word And Castellio renders it in hâc materiâ Erasmus in hoc argumento which we may fitly english in this Subject of Boasting Once viz. Heb. 11. 1. by Substance which is its Philosophical Acceptation And once by Person which I may call the Ecclesiastical or Scholastical Acceptation of the Word affixed to this Place by Theophilact as it is said by Authority of Gregory Nissen but I have neither by me to consult After all notwithstanding we no where read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture though frequently in the Fathers Suppose then we take this Term Three Hypostases to fix the Sense of that Text There are three that bear Witness in Heaven c. Are there now no more Homonymies of it that yet we have seen Yes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Budaeus is almost the same as Existence and Evil has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for both which he gives good Authority Again Nicephorus Callistus tells us The Word is scarce in use amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist lib. 10. cap. 15. in Sentent lib. 1. Dist 23. Antients in any certain Signification but the Moderns have frequently used it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per totam secularium scholam are the same says Estius Now all the World knows that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although used ordinarily by Aristotle for his Predicament of Substance yet more properly signifies Essence or Nature Three Hypostases then may be interpreted three Essences or Natures and under this Term may Tritheism it self in its worse Sense lurk Nor are there wanting those who tell us this very Term led Philoponus into his Heresy Further Bellarmine will have it that Hypostasis properly signifies Substantiam primam which In Controv. de Christo is not necessarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Person but may be any meaner Animate or even an Inanimate individual I could add yet two or three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niceph. ubi supr more Significations of this Word out of the above-mentioned Nicephorus Callistus who vouches good Authority for the meanest of them which I will not here set down lest the Dean should say I teach People to ridicule the Trinity in their Prayers when I only report the Words of approved Authors to caution others against unadvised and obnoxious Terms But it is plain from what I have said this Term is further from fixing the Sense of Scripture than the Terms of Scripture Next as to the word Persona though that Word be now upon the Authority above-mentioned by Beza brought in and justly too into our modern Translations yet it was true in Aquinas's time and since that too that it was neither in Old nor New Testament used touching God Nomen persona in Scripturis veteris vel novi Testamenti non invenitur dictum de Deo 1. q. 29. â— 3. And when used plurally as the former it must be acknowledged an Ecclesiastical or Scholastical Word sound out as the other for â—ixing if possible the Sense of Scripture to use the Dean's Phrase and does it do it The Dean no doubt knows what Laurentius Valla a Critick but no Socinian says of its Congruity in this Point And it is too trite a Subject to reckon up all its Homonymies I will only remind that it is taken in one Sense in humanis for a single Substance separate and by it self in another in divinis for such a
Substance distinct but not separate Now upon the whole have either of these Words fix'd the Sense of the Scripture so that Hereticks cannot pervert it and have a private Sense of their own touching it May not a Man 1 Own three Hypostases or three Persons that is profess Faith in or under the two most Orthodox Terms that have been found out and none but God and himself know what he means Nay may he not hold to the Words and yet hold Heresy yea Blasphemy and that in divers particular Senses which I have named and which I have declined to name for that the Subject is so tender Again 2 May not a Man use the Words quite contrary to the Forms in which the Fathers generally use them and yet speak Orthodox Truth Did not if Theodoret say Truth the Council of Sardis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodor. Hist lib. 2. cap. 8. say This Catholick Tradition and Confession have we received and taught this do we hold that there is but one Hypostasis meaning thereby one Substance of the Deity Nay lastly must it not be acknowledged that at least one of these Words viz. Hypostasis has given occasion to the Tritheites Heresy as any Man may see who pleases to consult what Photius what Leontius the Byzantine Advocate and what Nicephorus Callistus report of Thiloponus too long here to be inserted Were it not better then to keep to Scripture-Words in which all agree than to take up new ones of humane Invention and contend and damn one another about them when yet it is apparent we may use these however artificial refined Terms and be as far from agreeing in Sense as ever we were nay much further than if we had kept to Scripture-Language Hereticks may here conceal themselves under a larger Latitude of Expression Pag. 8. and spread their Heresies with a traditionary Sense and Comment of their own more exactly and poisonously than the Purity and Simplicity of the Holy Text would have permitted But if any be still fond of the Litigious Ecclesiastical or Scholastical Terms in their Confessions and Articles let them stand for me In the Orthodox Sense and for Peace sake they may be subscribed to only in our Prayers at least wherein a most intire Assent and Consent without doubting or doubling is to be ingaged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us have Scripture and speak to God as he has revealed himself to us What then must we reform the Doctrine of the Trinity out of our Prayers as in his good-natured Fit Mr. Dean expresses it No but put it in there only as God has put it in our Bibles And my Hopes and Desires of seeing this done I take to be no foul Imputation nor at all Pag. 5. likely to cast an ill Reflection on any Design of excellent Persons whatsoever But I must return with my Apologist to the Latitude of Faith which §. 11. he again to use his own Term tragically complains of me for pleading for and demands whether there be any more than one true Christian Faith Pag. 8. and whether Christ and his Apostles intended to teach any more Or whether they did not intend that all Christians should be obliged to believe this one Faith Here are Questions enow and Fallacy enough in them I answer briefly and plainly Faith as Truth can be but one And every Truth which Christ and his Apostles taught ought if it can be without Scruple understood without Scruple to be believed All Christians are obliged to believe to the utmost of their Understandings each Truth by Christ and his Apostles taught But whether a determinate explicite Belief of all the Truths which Christ and his Apostles taught be absolutely necessary to the Salvation of every private Christian or even of every Christian Doctor I take to be a Question worthy of the Dean's Consideration For mine own part I dare not affirm it but judg a Latitude must be allowed and in such Determinations as exceed most Mens Understanding some such Temper as my Notion of a Negative Belief must be admitted Which Term by his good Favour has no more Impropriety or Contradiction in it than that more usual one amongst Divines of a Negative Righteousness whence I trans-sumed it thinking it for a Reason which he may guess at more palatable to some People than an implicite Faith and I having so fully and perspicuously defin'd it it was poor and pedantic in him to carp at the Term. In a word we are to reject nothing as false nor esteem any thing as mean superfluous or unprofitable which our Lord or his Apostles have taught We are to give Diligence to understand and as we can understand explicitely to believe all but there are many Points in Divinity that is in the whole Body of what our Lord and his Apostles have taught whereof perhaps we may not have so clear and determinate a Sense as that we can say this or that is it which our Lord and his Apostles intended to oblige us to believe And here we must either totally suspend our Faith till we can better satisfy our selves in the mean while not contradicting or else we must believe though not without some Tenderness what to us appears the more probable of the several Points in Scruple Now the Belief of the more probable Side cannot be stiled Faith but in a certain Latitude of the Name 'T is sure our Lord and his Apostles full well knew they both spoke and writ to People of very different Capacities and Circumstances and no doubt accordingly accommodated their Doctrine What was necessary to the Salvation of all is by them delivered very plain and I will add 't is short Certa semper sunt in paucis says Tertullian And all learned Protestant Divines have been ever very tender in defining the Number of Fundamentals or what things are necessary by all to be believed to their Salvation Here the Minumum quod sic as we commonly speak is a difficult Point to determine and Dr. Hammond in his Book of Fundamentals has amply shewn there must be as to the Number of them a Latitude allowed according to different States or Circumstances of Men. But his Authority is infinitely greater who said Vnto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required Consequently of him who knew not or giving honest Diligence to know understood not what is revealed a less measure of Faith shall be expected So that even here I stand to it is a Latitude Suppose a Man to have been baptized to understand competently the Apostles Creed and the common Rules of Christian Duty to profess the Belief hereof to shew his Love to God and Christ by good Works and a Life savouring of Heaven to live in the Communion of such a Church or Society of Christians as will allow such a Person for a Member of Christ though perhaps he may not be admittted for want of great Knowledg and a Faith of deeper Mysteries into
Power to enact the Conditions of it and make Articles of Faith But in Controversies the Church may declare her Sense and we are bound so far peaceably to submit and accept it as not to contradict or teach contrary under Penalty of her Censures And this I would be content to conceive the whole of what our Church requires as to those things which are meerly her Determinations For in truth it is to no purpose for her to require such Approbation and Consent which whether paid or no she can never come to have Knowledg of which sort is Belief and inward Approbation To exact this may breed Hypocrisy it cannot be a Seed of Charity and true Christian Concord And thus as to that Latitude Simplicity and negative Belief which have so much offended the Apologist though I am well satisfied that had I imbraced his Definitions and Hypotheses he would have allowed me as great a Latitude in deceding from the Churches Doctrine as he has taken himself And now passing by many Favours so I call divers scornful Expressions §. 13. by the way which Mr. Dean is pleased to bestow upon me I come next to profess that notwithstanding any thing which he hath said to the contrary I am clearly of the Mind still that it is Opposition chiefly which keeps many Heterodox Opinions and Pamphlets alive But it is better such Pamphlets should be in an hundred Hands with an Pag. 10. Answer than in sive without one Not to tell him he takes Care by the rate he receives for every Sheet he publishes that such Pieces of his as the Vindication of the Trinity shall not be in the Hands of one Person in an hundred I am sure at least on a certain time I could not spare Money to buy it I will only say 't is hard to determine which more subverts the Orthodox Doctrine the Adversaries Impugnations or his Vindication I have heard that the wicked Vanninus so writ in Proof of the Being of a God as to increase the Suspition of Atheists that there was none And I do avow that Dr. Sherlock has so vindicated the Trinity that he has to his Power made the Unity asserted by the Fathers utterly impossible and run into the very Absurdity whereto the Adversaries would reduce us For if his Definitions and Hypotheses be true there must unavoidably be three Gods as has been shewn and there may be as well three thousand or as many as Varro says the Romans ever had No these three are one says Mr. Dean one by mutual Consciousness I answer besides that this amounts to no more than to an Unity of Accord which as has been said is not the Unity that the Church and Fathers ever held and which we have seen the Council of Sardis avowed to be the Catholick Faith ever taught received and delivered down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Substance or an Unity of Substance besides this I say three thousand Minds or Spirits may be as well conceived mutually conscious as three and so we may defend Polytheism or maintain all the Gods of the Heathen to have been but one Indeed I never read any Christian Writer to go so near in express Terms asserting a Plurality of Gods ad the Dean of St. Pauls has done a God and a God and a God as has been shewn And if this kind of speaking be not direct or full enough what is wanting in express Terms is abundantly made up in his Hypothesis which unavoidably infers three Gods and those no more or otherwise one than even an infinite Number could there be such a Number of Minds might be one which two Points though I was content to stile only the Absurdities to which our Adversaries would reduce us yet I know what Names other People would have given them could they have been found in any Writings of mine Further it is to be considered Dr. Sherlock's Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity an august and glorious Title vastly raising the Expectation of all who read or hear it came out with the Solemnity of a Publick I had almost said Canonical Licence in its Front affixed thereto by an Ecclesiastical Reverend Person authorized by Law for such Purpose So did his Apology also This at first Sight represents the Doctrine contained in them not as the Sentiments of a private Doctor but as Doctrine approved by our Church for there are at least three Doctors of the Church to avouch for it And some will say If it be thus authorized by the Chaplains are not certain other much greater Persons concerned for it What Advantage now may the Enemy take every way thence Plainly forasmuch as other Doctors and Bishops of the Church cannot but disapprove and disclaim this Explication or Notion of the three Persons or of the Trinity and only of such an Unity as there asserted it will and must be said we are neither agreed amongst our selves as to Trinity nor Unity Shall therefore the melancholy Stander by be thought an Enemy to the Church for desiring such Writings as these may be forborn Again Mr. Dean tells us that Dr. Wallis when he called the three Persons Pag. 9. three Somewhats thereby only meant that the true Notion of a Person he did not know And hereto by the way Mr. Dean according to his wonted Ingenuity or Care subjoins I commended this No Sir that which I commended was what I wish had been to be found in you Dr. Wallis's Orthodoxy in the Acceptation of the word Persons in divinis set down by me in the Doctor 's own Words for something analogous to Persons and not signifying just the same But to commend Dr. Wallis or any one who worships three Persons for saying he does not know what a Person is is so far from me that I say Mr. Dean in imputing the Saying to Dr. Wallis and the commending it to me has wronged us both egregiously the Doctor in exposing him and Multitudes in him as liable to this unavoidable Consequence that they worship they know not what and me in telling the World I commend them that do so I delight not to search further into much less to exaggerate the Advantages Dr. Sherlock's Books on this Subject have given our Adversaries of all kinds By these Touches it is plain more may be assigned But as to those two above-named Particulars which I only stiled Absurdities the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or original Grounds of all the rest having now shewn them expresly enough I must mind Mr. Dean of his Promise that he will correct them and it may be a fit Subject for some of those few short Treatises which he has told us he will publish on this Argument as he has leisure whether he correct them thankfully or no I value not much provided Pag. 11. he sincerely or expresly recant them which in case of Errors he has said he will not blush to do However I will not blush to press
Dean thinks fit to deal with me I am not ashamed of any Part of what I said My Argument then stood thus As indeed all Controversies amongst Protestants are most unseasonable in such a Juncture wherein under God nothing but an Union of Counsels and joining Hands and Hearts can preserve the Reformation and scarce any thing more credit and justify it than an Union in Doctrinals so above all other Controversies none can well be thought of worse tim'd than this Of which ill timing it I gave a very particular Proof too warm it seems for him to touch upon and therefore he slipp'd it away between his Fingers as if it had not been But how answers he my Argument First he disjoints it then answers to what Parts of it he pleases and to those Parts in what Order he pleases And finally never considers the Parts as connected and together adding Strength to the main Conclusion Indeed such dealing as this with some Scorn interlaced is his usual way of confuting What he says worth notice I shall reflect upon The first Member of my Argument he thinks fit to ampliate and will say a little more that they i. e. all Controversies amongst Protestants which was the Subject of my Proposition are always unseasonable for there is no Juncture seasonable to broach Heresies and oppose Truth But may there be no Controversies especially amongst Protestants which broach not Heresies The Denial of the Trinity duly stated I allow to be Heresy But we in the first Member of the Argument speak of all Controversies amongst Protestants Now do all Dissensions amongst Protestants arise to Heresy on one side or other God forbid Again in times of publick Peace may there not be very seasonably amicable Conferences and Arguings between those who dissent from one another in order to clearing Difficulties and so to brotherly Accord Even those Treaties are certainly some kind of Controversies though some Men may be very unfit for them and therefore have little Kindness for them and those I stand to it ought to be held in due Season But at present I did not think even these kind of Arguings seasonable but would have them also suspended and was of Opinion that as things stand all Protestants suffering each other to worship God in his own way according to the Conscience of each should join against a common Enemy What I said may be Truth and advisable and as far as I yet see is so What Mr. Dean adds is not true and his Proof of it is very insufficient to say no worse For he would prove all Controversies to be always unseasonable because some are so I will not tell him that even Heresies may be and daily are in University-Disputations and like Theological Exercises strongly argued for and Truth opposed not only for exercising and ripening Scholars but that all the Strength Heresies have may be detected and enervated and the weaker Side of Truth secured so that thus also all Controversies asserting Heresy and opposing Truth are not always unseasonable So great a Disputant as Mr. Dean ought not to have advanced so universal a Proposition without more Caution As to his defending Fundamental Truths I have already spoken However seasonable the defending them may always be I say in a word the changing of them can be never so Next he repeats two other Members of my Argument and begins with carping at the last thus Is the Vnion in Doctrinals ever the greater that Socinians boldly and publickly affront the Faith of the Church and no body appears to defend it I answer that I am not for any Affronts in what Cause soever for I seldom see they do good but most of all am I against Affronts to the publick Faith of the Church The Socinians I am informed were silent some while upon my Paper till others blew the Coals afresh It is utterly against my Mind and grieves my Soul if they do affront the establish'd Church and 't is more than I know God forbid I should excuse them for it I would have them and all Men to be peaceable meek and humble But in case of such Affronts the Church God be blessed has better Ways to vindicate the Faith and her own Honour than the Fancies and new Notions of private Doctors who consult her not but run perfectly upon their own Heads and advance their own Principles being busy and intermeddling in every Controversy that is moved I boldly aver less would be said against the Truth did not such Persons appearing for it by their pretended Defences of it and by the haughty Stile and Manner of penning them give new Matter to the Adversary Those daily fresh Provocations and the Effects of them are what I did in part and must still insist upon as one main Reason for my Suit for Forbearance But will the World think that we are all of one Mind because there is §. 22. disputing but on one side Then they will think us all Socinians c. I answer Let us go on in Conformity to our Church-Doctrine and especially in an holy humble peaceable obliging Conversation and touching our Judgment in Doctrinals the World will sooner credit our Practice and the Articles or Confession the Liturgy Catechism Homilies Constitutions and such publick Acts of our Church than twenty little Vindications of private Doctors And as for the Pamphlets of some obscure and anonymous Persons I still say again 't is Opposition for the main that gives them Celebrity and Life Heresies have from Age to Age still been transmitted to Posterity by sundry Consutations they have received Had we had only the Holy Scripture and our Creed with a few practical and devotional Books delivered down to us we should have been united in a plain Faith in Charity and Holiness built thereupon and the very Names as well as the Errors of the antient Hereticks had been long since buried and unknown Whereas every Age now by what has been writ against Heresies know how to refine and new vamp them What further are in my poor Opinion the meetest Ways to provide against Socinianism as well as all the other isms or dissenting Parties I shall speak perhaps anon In the mean time I must not let pass a very signal Favour of Mr. Dean's to render me if he could obnoxious to the Government in making me privy to a very dangerous Secret or great Truth fit for all Governments to Pag. 23. consider truly their Majesties Chaplain in ordinary ought to admonish the Government of their Oversights a Truth he says which I have unwarily confess'd and he is in the right of it for I thought not of it nay I neither before knew nor do I now believe it to be generally a Truth that every Schism in the Church is a new Party and Faction in the State which are always troublesom to Government when it wants their Help This may be true of every vast or multitudinous Schism when the Number infected come to