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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49188	The scripture-terms of church-union, with respect to the doctrin of the trinity confirmed by the unitarian explications of the beginning of St. John's Gospel; together with the Answers of the Unitarians; to the chief objections made against them: whereby it appears, that men may be unitarians, and sincere and inquisitive, and that they ought not to be excluded out of the church-communion. With a post-script, wherein the divinity of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, according to the generality of the terms of scripture, is shewn, not to be inconsistent with the unitarian systems. Most earnestly and humbly offered to the consideration of those, on whom 'tis most particularly incumbent to examin these matters. By A.L. Author of the Irenicum Magnum, &c.	Lortie, André, d. 1706.	1700 (1700)	Wing L3078A; ESTC R221776	144,344	120

Second Man the last Adam who was formed by God and had God only for his Father has been made a quickning Spirit Power thus having been committed to him to raise the Dead and do all that God doth 1 Cor. 15.45 Do they not in fine know that God will judge the World in righteousness by that Man Acts 17.31 And will the Trinitarians renounce that Man their Saviour and reject their Lord their Judge their Redeemer Will they slight this Man will they not honour him whom God has appointed to reign with himself whom the Angels worship and who because he was Slain has been accounted worthy to receive Power and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing Revel 5.12 If they think it not unfit to honour this Man to reverence this Man to bow the knee to this Man as God has appointed it then they serve a Creature and worship a Creature and consequently use an Inferior religious Worship as well as the Vnitarians Let them not slander the Vnitarians then for thus acting and let them not impute it to them as a fault thus to honour the Man Jesus Christ to the Glory of the Father who could make such an Excellent Creature as this and could so highly Dignify and Exalt that Creature The Children of Israel at the same time Worshipped God and King David and were blameless 1 Chron. 29.20 And shall Christians be blamed for worshiping God and the King whom God has set over the Vniverse when Men every Day fall down before Earthly Kings and ask Petitions of them The Vnitarians worship the Lord Jesus Christ as such a King to the Glory and Religious Service of God not barely as a King but as such a one to whom all Power is given in Heaven and Earth Matt. 28.18 Would you then think it unfit to call upon such a Prince or to ask Grace and Salvation of Him for the sake of his precious Death and Passion Or do you think that He to whom all Power is given and the Spirit without measure and in whom the Father most intimatelydwells is not able to know your Wants and to hear your Requests To worship Christ is then in some measure to worship God since Christ not only is a God or Soveraign the King of Heaven and Earth under God and not only acts most eminently for God so as most eminently to represent God but Christ is the true Schechina the Divine Nature constantly dwells in him and all Power is given unto him He is then hon'red to the Glory of God by God's Order and so God as was said is worshipped in him There is then but one God properly that is religiously worshipped tho' Christ be called God and be worshiped to the Glory of God In all the Dominions of Great Britain and Ireland there is but one Soveraign tho' a Subject in the Isle of Man bears also the Title of Soveraign and tho' the Viceroy in Ireland represents the Soveraign and be honoured as the Soveraign Indeed the Vnitarians that did not Pray at all to Christ when they own'd him to be the Governor of the World under God had not sufficiently weighed the last quoted Text of Mat. 28.18 where all Power is said to have been given to Christ nor had fully consider'd that the Father who dwelleth in Christ can enable him to do all things and that therefore now at least Christ is such an excellent Creature as the Arians hold him to have been from the beginning namely as has himself incomparably more Perfections and Power than all the other Creatures together They needed then no more have doubted that Christ can Know and Supply the Needs of Men in the Rank and Order that He is set than they would have question'd that a Mother can Take care of her Family I know not therefore that there be now any Vnitarian that do not Pray to and Worship the Saviour of the World the Lord of Men Angels the Man Jesus Christ in the manner I have specified namely in a subordinate degree to God honouring him as the King of the Vniverse under God as be that governs disposes all things under God's Direction as well as mediates for Men intercedes with God who is still to be held and ever must necessarily be lookt upon as the Supream Vnitarians then can no more be accounted Idolaters for thus worshipping Christ than Irish-Men can be said to be Rebels for honouring their Viceroy as they do Christ then being thus Call'd upon nothing is ascribed to him that is inconsistent with the Unity of God a Man is not Worshipped as God but as assisted of God and most highly exalted by God and Trust is not put in a mere Creature but in one abundantly assisted of the Divine Nature That is therefore ultimately and properly to put our Trust in the God-head dwelling in Christ. And the Vnitarians account the Worship of Christ a Religious Worship no otherwise than as it is intended and appointed to the Glory of the Father as Christs acts for God at the Helm of the Vniverse and as the Divine Nature assists him dwells in him is as intimately united with him as possble and is made in a manner Part of his Being And is it not thus that the Trinitarians themselves adore God and worship Christ And then where is the Great Difference or the Great Fault and Defect of the Vnitarian System Would they adore God as the Human Nature of Christ Or would they the Trinitarians worship Christ's Human Nature as God The Vnitarians worship or honour the Man Jesus Christ as the most Dignified Creature and as most intimately United to God and God as the Supream Being The Trinitarians cannot reasonably do otherwise And they cannot deny that to honour Christ as has been said the Vnitarians do is to honour God and not to give his Glory to Another Indeed to honour a Being that God has not appointed to be honoured is to dishonour God But incontestably to honour one whom God has commanded us to honour to the Glory of God is to glorify and serve God in that Particular and so to worship God And God dwelling in Christ as he doth as has been shewn is honoured and worshipped in Christ by his own Appointment as already said As to John 5.23 declaring it to be the Will of God That Men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father an Equality of Honour is no more necessarily to be imagined to be intended and required here than an Equality of Perfection in those Words Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Mat. 5 48 or an Equality of Fear and Trembling before mortal and earthly Masters as before the King of Men and Angels in this Text Servants be Obedient to them that are your Masters according to the Flesh with Fear and Trembling in Singleness of your Heart as unto Christ. Ephes 6.5 The Sense of this Verse of the 6th of

sides of which Query the Governors of the Church are humbly desir'd to give their Opinion p. 107. III. That what is in●e●r'd from the Unitarian Arguments remains in force and that it is an indispensible D●●● to pro●●ss and establish the Gospel Terms of Communion and to keep to the seeming Generality of Scripture for Terms of Church Union with relation to this Doctria tho' the Trinitarians and some Unitarians should opine that the Unitarians may with a good Conscience joyn in Communion with the Trinitarians and even tho' there were in God what might truely be called three Persons p. 108. Some Extracts out of Bishop Taylor 's Liberty of Prophesying p. 111. The End of the Table Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World without end Amen The ERRATA And some few ADDITIONS PAGE 14. Line 43. after Mysteries add or designedly intricate Texts which either are sufficiently illustrated elsewhere or the exact and full knowledge whereof in all particulars is not indispensibly necessary P. 24. L. 32. after understanding it add Perhaps by the Divine Word and Spirit many Christians then understood the Influences of two Divine Powers P. 25. L. 33. for those read these P. 31. L 29. f. admited r. admited P. 32. L. 10. f. to be Christ r. to be the Christ. P. 34. L. 33. after implying add as the said Doctors imagined who as was noted in the 26th Page held the Trinity of Plato and that of the Gospel to be the same P. 34. L. 43. after seeming add to them P. 35. L. 10. after peculiarly add and virtually P. 35. L. 19. after and add as was said P. 47. L. 14. f. anther r. another P. 74. L. 2. after things add Whatever Iniquity is committed in the World it is thro' the Suggestion of the Devils Yet there is more Evildone in the World than Good tho' undoubtedly there is a greater Number of good than of bad Angels Then surely at least all the Holy Angels may suffice to suggest the good Motions that are necessary in order to the Good that is done upon Earth P. 83. L. 43. after said add In Summ. If the Scripture says in one Place that Christ is our Mediator and exalted by God and made Lord and in another that his Name is to be called upon is it not evident that joyning those Places together the result thereof is that We are to call upon Christ as upon our Mediator exalted by God and made Lord Acts 2.36 P. 85. L. 18. after observes add many of P. 103. L. 41. after Reason add But if Semi-Arianism be taken to differ essentially from THIS System it will appear to be encumbred with insuperable Difficulties and if it absolutely exacts the Use of the Scholastick Trinitarian Terms it will as much as the Scholastick System be contrary to the Generality of the Terms of Scripture P. 107. L. 32. after c. add Doth it not seem contrary to the due Seriousness of Prayer to address distinctly to the Divine Wisdom as to a distinct Person in these terms O GOD the SON as if the Divine Wisdom were the SON of another Divine Person THE SCRIPTURE-TERMS OF CHURCH-UNION c. CHAPTER I. The Occasion and Design of this Paper THE Apostle's Injunction alone of Proving all things doth Apologize for and Justify the following Undertaking The Design whereof as will appear is not to set up the Socinian or Arian Sentiments but further to Vindicate what on an unshakable Foundation I have heretofore asserted concerning the Necessity of Moderation with respect to these most Intricate Controversies and to confirm the Scripture-Method of Union which I have Pleaded for in the Apology for the Irenicum Magnum No Man can say that there are no Difficulties in the Holy Scriptures or that there are there no Articles obscurely deliver'd For who is he that will pretend he Infallibly understands every thing spoken of in the Bible If any should ask to what purpose the Scripture should make mention of such Matters as are suppos'd so very Obscure and Difficult that it is not safe nor prudent Magisterially to make express Determinations concerning them I have answer'd that probably it is to prove our Sincerity and Industry to try whether we will take the Pains seriously and diligently to consider what Measures in reason are here best to be followed in such Intricate Cases and so to exercise our Humility and our Moderation Undoubtedly these Obscure Matters will be more fully discover'd hereafter and it seems God judgeth it will suffice that we be then most clearly inform'd of them It is an ancient Saying that the Holy Scripture is like a River which a Lamb may wade and wherein Elephants may somtimes be forced to swim That is to say Those that desire no other but to work out their Salvation as the case is with men of ordinary Capacities may compass their design in the use of God's Word for they will find therein very clearly whatsoever is absolutely Necessary for them But the greatest Scholars that would fain know every thing and that are bound to inquire as far as they can will often be at a loss and shall not find themselves able to dive to the bottom of several Particulars tho' they be Men of the sharpest Wit as well as of the deepest Learning witness especially many Passages in the Apocalyps or Revelations Wherefore 't is evident such difficult Matters ought not to be Magisterially determin'd not tho' in their true Sense The taking of them determinately in such a Sense ought not to be impos'd or made part of the Terms of Communion For these things being so very Difficult Sincere and Inquisitive Men may mistake and differ about 'em what seems then sufficiently clear to one sometimes seeming otherwise to another and no one having right to decide Magisterially in such Cases more than another and it is credible if the explicit knowledg and belief of these things had been Indispensibly and Universally necessary God would have reveal'd them more distinctly and expresly The Apostle has this Expression tho I understood all Mysteries Which is an evident Argument that there are Mysteries in Religion which the eminentest Christians may misunderstand or not know how to determine And in the 14th of the Romans the same Apostle shews that good Men may doubt and be of different Sentiments in some Cases Now what do I propose as then fit to be done but what the Apostle there expresly enjoins and is manifestly agreable to the charitable and moderate Temper of Christianity and to the essential and avow'd Principles of Protestants I say that in most abstruse and intricate Points about which sincere and inquisitive Persons may mistake and differ we must not judge and reject one another but must unite in the utmost Generality of the very Expressions of Scripture The Reasonableness and Necessity of which Method of Vnion I have evinced

the Face of Religion but could never be prevail'd with to examin themselves the Merit of the Cause witness Theodosius the Great Thus Prejudice and Inconsideration being arm●d with the utmost or most obstinate Cruelty 't is no wonder if Error spread By the like Means the Truth of the Reformation in these late Ages has been wholly extirpated in Bohemia and Spain and is now at the last gasp in France Nevertheless as Sandius has shewn there have been all along many Vnitarians in several Parts of the World And there are still to this Day many Vnitarian Churches in the Mahometan and Pagan Dominions and some in Transilvania Hungaria Sclavonia and Illyricum The very Nestorian Churches in Asia and Africa are so numerous that it is thought the Nestorians are more in Number than all the Protestants in the World or than all the Members of the Church of Rome Now even the Nestorians are reputed to be a Branch of the Arians or the Ebionites or near akin to them See Sandii Nucl p. 118. 119. and Jurieu's Pastor Let. Vol. 1. p. 157. But particularly see what Sandius notes of the Christians of St. Bartholomew and of those of St. Thomas and of St. James so called because originally converted to Christianity by those Apostles and of the Abyssins the Armenians Maronites Copts c. who are Vnitarians or agree with the Arians and are reck'ned to be in greater Number even than the Nestorians Howbeit these Considerations are not absolutely essential to the Matter in hand For 8. The Prevalency in general of an Opinion is no Argument that it is agreable to Truth and acceptable to God Witness the Universal Prevalency of Heathenism of old and even the great Prevalency of Mahometism Which shews that God will try but not force Men. If you ask then the Vnitarians where are their Churches and where they were in such or such an Age they need not reply otherwise than by asking again these Questions Where were the Churches of the true Religionists in the times of Noah of Thara and his Son Abraham of Elias and of the general Degeneracy of the Children of Israel and all the while that the generality of Christians incontestably and even according to the Sentiment of Protestants were defiled with many Corruptions and Superstitions and Idolatries The true and pure Church of God Protestants must own was at those times in a manner Invisible shut up within the Walls of a few Private Families exiled out of the Places of great Concourse and driven into the Wilderness The People of God then indeed was but a little Flock And why might it not likewise be so when the Vnitarians were oppressed were but few in number and were reduc'd to great extremities A Thousand Years in the sight of God is but as one Day God may think fit to permit the Wicked and Violent to persecute his People for many Days Hereby he tries his Elect he punishes their Sins he trains them up for Heaven thro' the suffering of Affliction and Contempt he blinds a vicious World but at last he will shew that he can draw Light out of Darkness and that the Strength of Hell shall not be able to prevail finally against his Church for God in his own time may call her from her Exile may redeem her from her Captivity and make her shine as the Sun and then the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea And it is certain there is and can be no Prescription against the Truth The Prevalency then of the Trinitarian Sentiment for any of the past Ages since the Apostles can be no Argument against the Vnitarians We read in the Second Chapter of Judges at the 7th 10th 11th and 12th Verses that the People of Israel served the Lord all the Days of Joshuah and all the Days of the Elders who out-lived Joshuah and who had seen all the great Works of the Lord that he did for Israel but that when all that Generation was gathered unto their Fathers the next Generation knew not the Lord and the Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served other Gods and provoked the Lord to anger And why could not a like Defection happen immediately or soon after the Decease of the Apostles Even in the time of the Apostles there were Heresies And we see it is the Complaint of the earliest Doctors that the Apostles were no sooner departed but Christians corrupted themselves apace And if it was so that ought afterwards to be no Prejudice against the Truth As Bishop Taylor well observes in his 22d Sermon When a Truth returns from Banishment by a Pestliminium if it was from the first tho' the holy Fire has been buried or the River ran under ground yet we do not call that new since Newness is not to be accounted of by a proportion to our short lived Memories or to the broken Records and Fragments of Story left after the Inundation of Barbarism and War and Change of Kingdoms and Corruption of Authors but by its relation to the Fountain of our Truths c. Thus it is evident that the Objection of the Trinitarians founded upon the pretended Antiquity and Vniversality of their Sentiment is absolutely Vnreasonable And therefore We must conclude that Controversy with this Consideration Viz. 9. The only Authority that We can and ought to rely upon is that of the Bible As Mr. Chillingworth excellently well says the BIBLE only is the Religion of Protestants I see plainly says he Fathers against Fathers Popes against Popes the same Fathers against themselves Councils against Councils c. What Method then to judge of the Truth can We take but that which even St. Austin proposes Contr. Maxim L. 3. C. 14. We ought not says he to object to one another either the Council of Nice or that of Rimini but We are to consider the Matter by the Scripture it self Dalaeus in the first Chapter of his first Book De usu Patrum quotes a Passage out of St. Cyprian importing that when the Channels or Streams of the Ecclesiastical Tradition seem confuse or broken and corrupted we must have recourse to the Spring or Fountain's Head Every Mans Reason that considers will tell him that there are no other Measures then to be taken there being no later Prescription to be taken against the Truth And God himself expresly sends us thither Isa 8.20 To the Law or the Divine Testimony If they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in them But as for the Fathers it is evident that no stress can be laid on their Authority for as the learned Daleus shews in his Book of the Vse of the Fathers they all had Errors and differed from one another in several weighty Particulars and often differed from their own selves being unsetled and inconstant in their Notions not knowing their own Mind one day holding one thing and another time asserting

is to know them to know the Father will do them for him and to desire them of the Father For tho' it be said that Christ did and is to do most wonderful Works yet the Scripture is very far from saying that he doth them of Himself or by his own Power Himself says the quite contrary John 5.19 The Son can do nothing of himself John 14. ●0 The Father that dwelleth in me He doth the Works Matth. 12.28 I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God And John 11.41 42. Father I thank thee that thou Hearest me always How could Christ have declared more expresly that he doth not the Supernatural Works by his own Power but by the Means which have been said Namely By knowing that the Father will do them for him and By desiring the Father to do them by his Divine Power and by what Means He pleases to use Seeing that the Father has promised our Saviour to hear him always he may truly say that all things which the Father has are his And therefore it is certain that not only there never was such another Prophet as Christ but also that he is the most Excellent and most Dignified Creature that can be But yet we see it doth not follow that because he doth what none but God can do he is therefore hypostatically united with a Divine Person and that distinct from the Father The Scripture shews us How Christ doth all Supernatural Things he himself tells us he desires the Father to do them and the Father always grants his requests and doth what he desires and he desires nothing but what he knows the Father will grant and the Father has promis'd and constantly gives him whatsoever is necessary for the Discharge of his Office Christ then may truly say that as the Father has Life in himself or at his disposal so has he given to the Son to have Life in himself For as the Father doth all things by Willing them so Christ doth all things by Desiring them As God has put Power in the Natural Sun to vivify all Seeds in the Earth so he has in an infinitely more excellent way invested Christ the Sun of Righteousness with Power to quicken the Dead But still the Power of the Lord Jesus is the Divine Power And we see that as we have said God makes Christ to be Partaker thereof So that as the Father has Divine Power in him so has He given to the Son to have Divine Power in him insomuch that when the Father has shewn him a Miraculous Thing the Son can do the same likewise by the Assistance of the Divine Power which dwells in him and which he constantly has the use of by Willing and Asking or affectionately Desiring Thus Christ knows the Hearts by the same Means by the Divine Power that is in him or annexed to him and that reveals them to him See the Brief History of the Vnitarians on John 2.25 and Revel 2.23 So that as Dr. Sherlock himself says at the top of the 196th Page of his last Book the Knowledg of Christ is from the Father's dwelling in him And by that Means Christ Governs the Vniverse and will Judge the World As to Christ's Efficacy in obtaining Forgiveness for all those Sinners whom he persuades and excites to forsake their Sins and to become Obedient and New Creatures it is the strangest thing in the World to imagin that God cannot grant that which is altogether agreable to the Propensions of his own Nature to his most beloved Son even upon that Act and Submission of his which argues the most perfect Obedience and makes the most solemn Reparation to the Divine Justice and Authority As Dr. Whichcot expresses himself upon this Subject Pages 62 d and 63 d of his Select Sermons We are in the hands of him that is Primarily and Originally Good And He will certainly commiserate every Case so far as it is compassionable Now the Case of a Sinner is compassionable if he be Penitent God might then surely accept of Christ's Sacrifice as as sufficient Attonement seeing that it so fully confirms God's Hatred to Sin and his Good Will to those that Obey him and is consequently the powerfullest Motive and the likeliest Means to engage those for whom that Sacrifice is offered and who are not yet incorrigible to forsake their evil Ways to accept the Offers of Grace and to be reconciled to God Christ's Death is the fullest Confirmation of God's Good Will to those that obey him seeing that upon the account of his Son 's perfect Obedience He has exalted him to the highest Glory even of being Partaker of the Divine Nature and Power And it is also the fullest Confirmation of God's absolute Hatred to Sin seeing He would not pardon the Sins of Men without this Consideration Condition that he who was Innocent the most Perfect Excellent Creature pleaded for the Fallen Race of Mankind should as their Advocate suffer in their stead expiate their Sins with his Blood and thus exhibit a most solemn Demonstration of the Demerit of Sin But this no where is represented in Scripture as a perfectly equivalent Satisfaction in the most rigorous sense And neither Scripture nor Reason shew that God can Pardon but upon such Terms See the aforesaid Sermons of Dr. Whichcot Pag. 301 c. on Act. 13.38 As the Bishop of Gloucester observes at the 85th and following Pages of his aforesaid Reflections on the Book of Dr. Sherlock against him Christ's meriting of God the Father cannot be understood in the highest sense of meriting as we may merit of one another that is by doing acts of Kindness and Beneficeace from mere Good Will or no antecedent Obligation to the Person to whom the Kindness is shewn 'T is nothing but the wretched Popish Doctrin of Merit that has made it an offensive word in relation to God But taking Meritum and Mereri in the Fathers sense there is no offence to be taken at it as respecting God For they meant no more than having a right to be rewarded by him from the performance of that Obedience or Service to which he has annexed the reward by a most gracious Promise But as it is impossible to do God Almighty a Kindness or Benefit so I cannot understand how the Son of God himself could in this sense merit of his Father the Redemption of Mankind since he did or suffered by vertue of the Union nothing but what the Will of his Father obliged him unto Lo I come said he to do thy Will O God And his perfectly complying with this Will was his meriting our Redemption of his Father as He willed to make him the Author thereof upon that Condition And therefore Mr. Calvin says well Totum Meritum Christi pendet à Voluntate Divina Now will any Man say that Christ as Man did not thus merit Then by the most wonderful Submission and Self-Resignation of the Man Christ Jesus who was most

fine are not infallible which import that some certain and incontestable Truths are incumbred with any most express and unavoidable Contradictions It is certain that some Truths are above Reason to give an account How they are and those are true Mysteries but it doth not follow that they are contrary to Reason It were indeed the greatest Folly upon any Difficulties to deny any Thing which manifestly appears to be But if the Manner or the Things concerning those Difficulties were rightly stated understood they might appear to be free from Contradictions for real Contradictions cannot be true It is Men's rash Judgment then that concludes a Truth to be attended with Contradictions when really it is not so I doubt not but that those Systems if duly considered may be vindicated from Contradictions which assert that there is no Vacuum that Matter is divisible infinitely that Eternity consists in a perpetual Succession of Moments It is true We are not to lean too much to our own Understandings or to be stiff to our Prepossessions Imaginations without sufficient knowledge of the Cause and without due examination But then on the other hand it is known We are bid in Understanding to be Men to prove all things to the best of our power that is those things especially that concern our eternal Welfare And by that means God tries our Sincerity and our real Concernment for the most momentous Matters We must not then reject the Use of our Reason It is indeed certain and evident those are faulty and criminal who when Religion and Revelation are so well prov'd and credibly attested and confirmed dispute either of them because they do not know how things were created and with what Instruments God made the World as if He needed any or because they do not understand how God can forsee Events and why He permits Evil. No wise Man will agree that these Difficulties expresly imply unavoidable Contradictions And all good Men will grant that the grossest Solution of these Objections renders the Infidels utterly inexcusable Now what considering Christian will say that the said or any the like Objections are absolutely unanswerable The most difficult Objections incontestably are those of Spinoza and Bayle Yet we see them answered the one by the most Reverend Archbishop of Dublin in his Book De Origine Mali and the other by the Famous Dr. Henry More in the Second Part of his Metaphysicks There are some Answers to those Objections which need not take up above two Sheets and to which the Infidels can not reply with the least colour of Reason As to the rest the Reader may be referred to the 12th Chapter of the Apologia pro Irenico Magno which comprises a general Answer to the Objections against the Vse of Reason Yet certainly it is not necessary that all Difficulties against Religion should expresly be answered It is undoubtedly sufficient that it be solidly prov'd and that it appear most rational and credible And when we are assured that God says any thing we may rationally believe it and ought in reason to do so notwithstanding any seeming Difficulties inferior to a stronger and clearer Evidence Howbeit on the other hand that the Inferiority of such Difficulties be most fully evinced the essaying to resolve Difficulties as much as possible ought by no means to be discouraged For if things be duly considered Religion will then be sufficiently vindicated and illustrated and otherwise it may often be sadly misrepresented and corrupted as well as wretchedly exposed to the Calumnies of the Infidels CHAP. XII An Answer to the Second Branch of the Objection 2. THE Vnitarians maintain that none of their Assertions are incredible and that their Interpretations are rational and agreable to the stile and current of Scripture and therefore natural and obvious enough 'T is certain on the one hand the Trinitarian Tenets are most strange and unintelligible and on the other the Stile of Scripture like that of all Eastern Languages is most figurative Now this being duly weighed and it being withal consider'd that Reason is a Divine Light that ought not wholly to be slighted if some constraint is to be made either to some Difficult Expressions that may be taken with the help of a warrantable Figure in an accountable Sense or to the Common Notiont of Mankind that cannot be reconcil'd with the literal or first seeming import of those Expressions what course in this Case is it most pious and rational to take The Trinitarian Objection it self implying that what is incredible is to be rejected decides the Matter The chief Instances of the pretended Remoteness of the Vnitarian Interpretations are particularly concerning the Vnitarian Expositions of Christs Creating all things and in what Sense the Word is said to be God c. Now to the latter the Vnitarians observe that if we will understand that Text aright we must not determine our selves about the Sense of it before we have considered what the Scripture elsewhere teaches as well as Reason concerning this Person that is here called the Word and that if it appear that thereby a Creature is meant as even according to them it evidently doth then there can be no difficulty in explaining the Title of God which is attributed to the Word but we must necessarily take it in an Inferior Signification in which it may be applied and we find it is sometimes in Scripture communicated to a Creature especially our Saviour himself accordingly warning us that some Creatures in Scripture are called Gods John 10.34 35. Angels in the Original are termed Gods Ps 8.5 c. And it was common among the Heathens to give that Title to others beside those whom they accounted the Supreme Gods The giving then of that Title to some Creature in an Inferiour Sense was not at all unintelligible either to Jews or Gentiles Indeed one of the Designs of Christianity was to inform the Pagans that there are not many Gods in the supreme or proper Sense of that word but only One such God to whom alone Divine Worship is due But the Gospel never intended to signify that there are not many in Heaven and Earth that may be termed Gods in an inferior Sense according to the Scripture as well as the Gentile-Stile If St. Thomas directed his Speech to Christ in that exclamation My Lord and My God he might mean no more than if he had said My Prince and My Soveraign The Trinitarians own that by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel is meant Christ Now Reason it self shews us manifestly that we must not take Christ to be the Supreme God For Christ is a Man and was always own'd to be but one Person but God is a distinct Spirit and consequenly a distinct Person for an intelligent Being whether Divine or Human has all that is requisite to the constituting of a Person and so cannot always but be a distinct Person two Spirits then must needs be two Persons