the Cause of Faith I must beg this Author's leave to say that it is plain Pelagianism 6. This Gentleman asks me several Questions wherein I must take the liberty to tell him that I am not at all concern'd and consequently not oblig'd to answer He argues very smartly against Three Infinite Minds Spirits or Substances thô at the same time I doubt he makes his Adversaries to say more than really they do I leave him and them to dispute it yet one of them I think is a Question by no means to be offer'd and takes off much of the respect due to the Sacred Writings p. 42. This therefore says he is the first Question that I desire Mr. L. to resolve Will he believe a Doctrine that seems to imply manifest and incontestable Contradictions if such Doctrine or Proposition were indeed found in Scripture To this I answer that the Question is unreasonable because the Supposition on which it is grounded is impossible God cannot contradict himself A manifest and uncontestable Contradiction in Scripture is a thing not so much as to be thought of from him who is Light and in whom there is no Darkness at all But I well go farther with this Gentleman and thô I love and honour Reason as much as any Man in the World yet I will affirm that if it were possible that in any undoubted Scripture there should be in clear and express Terms a Proposition or Doctrine which seems to imply a manifest and incontestable Contradiction I ought not to reject it or make my Reason the Judge of God's Veracity But my Duty is humbly to resign my self to him and adore what I cannot understand 7. I know that this Gentleman will take this very ill and will say again as he has already p. 41. that I calumniate Reason the Light set up in us by God himself But that Light is not given us to impeach and reproach our Maker and reject what he commands us to believe or call it a manifest and incontestable Contradiction because it is above its weak Perceptions That Light ought to act in its due measure and proportion if it goes farther it is a Rebellion and an Attempt against the Majesty and Power of God He calumniates Reason who does detract from its Dignity and Energy in those things wherein it ought to be Judge It is an Affront to Reason to be brought below it self But he also calumniates Reason who exalts it more than it deserves as he no less maliciously injures a Man who commends in him Qualities which he has not than he who obscures and denies those which he has There are some General Principles wherein Reason cannot err and which Man ought to be guided by None is more plain and evident than this that he owes his submission and assent to what God proposes Whether it be comprehensible or not comprehensible is no part of the Inquiry Whether God has propos'd it is the true state of the Question Reason has a Right to examine Whether God has propos'd it or no The danger of taking things upon Trust is too great to deny Reason the power of examining But that Point once clear'd to say that we ought not to submit because it is incomprehensible or appears to us manifestly contradictory is an ill and an endless way of arguing 8. This Author cannot digest the Epithets of Narrow and Corrupt which I gave to Reason He complains of it in several places of his small Writing But indeed is not our Reason such Can he who denies this pretend that he ever endeavour'd to know himself I have often wonder'd at the pains which some Men have taken to convince the Opposers of the Doctrine of Original Sin The shortest and easiest Method was to send them to themselves to find there the fatal consequences of the first Transgression I appeal to my ingenious Adversary who thô certainly a great Master of Reason yet upon second Thoughts will agree with me that the Reason of the best Men is very Narrow and Corrupt Whence do proceed so many Mistakes and Errors Misapprehensions and Inadvertencies but from that very Principle Is not this the Spring of so many hot and tedious Disputes And what Reason but this can be given of so many Books and Opinions which have divided Mankind In this the Excellency of Faith appears and for this we ought to praise its Author the Holy Iesus that it has rectify'd and improv'd Reason not only by making it more knowing but also more humble more sincere and more obedient to God I am sure that this is the Method of arguing of the Primitive Fathers in that mighty struggle with the Heathen Philosophers some of whom did so exalt Reason as to pretend to decide of every thing whilst others did so revile it as to be positive that nothing could certainly be known and consecrated that wild and extravagant Saying of Socrates Hoc unum scio nihil scio This I know that I know nothing Both disputed admirably one against another But when the Apologists for Christianity were oblig'd to take in hand the Cause of Religion althô they had the true Notion of Reason Res Dei Ratio says elegantly Tertullian and knew it to be the Light of God in us yet they own'd it to be narrow and corrupted and consequently not Reason but Faith and Revelation to be attended to Thus Justin Martyr Arnobius Tertullian Lactantius St. Austin and others Tertullian de Anima c. 1. Cui enim veritas comperta sine Deo Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu Sancto Cui Spiritus Sanctus accommodatus sine Fidei Sacramento And St. Austin de morib Eccl. Cath. c. 2. A Book never enough to be read who speaks of Reason in Terms which must certainly please those Gentlemen calling it Perspicuitas sanctitas Rationis the Clearness and Sanctity of Reason yet says that it is so much obscur'd by Sin Passion and Prejudice that Saluberrime comparatum est ut in lucem Veritatis aciem titubantem velut ramis humanitatis opacatam inducat authoritas 9. This shews how much this Gentleman is in the wrong when he says p. 42. that I must be content to argue these Questions about the Trinity and Incarnation not from Scripture only but from Reason also nay from Reason chiefly and ultimately As far as Reason is subservient to find the Truth and Certainty of the Revelation I confess that I must argue from Reason and the Chiefly and ultimately is capable of a good Sence because the belief of our Mysteries is at last resolv'd into this most rational Proposition That I must believe what God has reveal'd and that to find that it is so in the sacred and undoubted Scriptures is certainly the Work of Reason But if he means that the Authority of God's Word laid aside we must bring those Mysteries to the Scrutiny of Reason and instead of Divine use only Humane and Philosophical
Fidei nostrae Sacramentum That which the Fathers understood by the answer of a good Conscience towards God that is a solemn Profession Declaration of what Religion obliges us to believe and from which we ought not to depart This is the first Shield of Faith which the Church oppos'd to the early Attempts of those Hereticks who thought to have stifl'd her in her Infancy This Confession of God the Father of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord and of the Holy Spirit which is the Substance of that Creed made unsuccessful the Endeavours of Simon Cerinthus Basilides Menander Carpocrates and the swarm of impure Gnosticks By this every Christian was initiated to Religion gave a reason of the Hope that was in him and became a Member of that Society here on Earth which after perseverance in well doing is to be rewarded in Heaven I know that a Critick of this Age a Person of the first rank in the Common-wealth of Learning has disputed both the Antiquity and Universality of this Creed A Notion too unadvisedly taken up by several Authors who thought that the Socinians took too great an Advantage from the Simplicity of its Articles He made it to be only a Creed of the Latin or Western Church which the Catechumens were taught before their Admission to Baptism He produces two of St. Irenoeus three of Tertullian one of St. Cyril of Jerusalem three of Ruffinus and insists on some difference even between the Fathers who have been the Expositors of this Creed St. Austin Chrysologus Maximus and others But notwithstanding all this whosoever will look into the Creeds of St. Irenoeus and Tertullian for that of St. Cyril was after the Nicene Council and those which Ruffinus has compar'd that is the Roman the Aquileian and the Oriental Creeds will find so mighty an agreement and the variations so minute and inconsiderable as to make impossible any substantial difference And it is certainly a strange Fancy that the Socinians should take an advantage from the Simplicity of these Articles which being but a Compendium of the New Testament are at last resolv'd into it For the Sence of that Creed must be that of the Scriptures of which it is an Epitome And how can they argue against the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit from their not being call'd God in the Creed when the Scriptures are so full in asserting the Unity of God and the Trinity of Persons in that one Adorable and Divine Nature Are we not baptiz'd in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Are there not Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and are not these three one Is not Christ declar'd to be God blessed over all for ever and God manifested in the Flesh Are we not told that the Spirit searches all things even the deep things of God and that to lye to the Holy Spirit is to lye to God This Objection is of that Clearness and Evidence is so far from giving them any Advantage and they have found themselves so press'd by it that they have been forc'd to split on another Rock and say that the Form of Baptism is no part of Scripture and is only an addition to St Matthew That the Place of St. John is another and that the Word God is not to be found in the cited Scriptures Shifts unbecoming learned Men Which even Praxeas and Sabellius would have blush'd at The former oppos'd by Tertullian who tells him that this Rule of Faith is come down to us from the beginning of the Gospel The latter by Dionysius of Alexandria who tells him apud Euseb l. 7. c. 6. That the Persons of the Father Son and Holy spirit are indivisibly united in the same Divine Nature 2 dly The Forms agreed upon in the Primitive Councils at Nice Antioch Sardis Ephesus Constantinople Chalcedon c. are no Additions to but only Explications of the first Form They are still the Form of sound Words It is not in the Power of the Church to make new Forms new Articles of Faith And in this the Church of Rome is inexcusable and guilty of a Schism which she has charg'd others with But to declare and explain the Faith is an essential part of its Power The growing Heresies were the occasion of the Apostolical Creed the first Remedy apply'd to that raging Disease The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vain and noisie Oppositions of a pretended Knowledge oblig'd them to deliver the sacred System of Divine Verities But when the old Hereticks were worn out leaving to the World a sad remembrance of their gross Follies and Immoralities and a new sort sprung up who did attempt to overthrow the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints by Blasphemous Heterodoxies It was high time for the Church to make the Creed more comprehensive than it was at first give a greater extent to its Articles and leave safe to future Ages the Depositum which they had receiv'd And indeed it would have been very happy for the Church if Men keeping to the Plainness and Simplicity of the Revelation had not presum'd to go farther Oh that an humble Faith had stifl'd Curiosity in its first Attempts to inquire into Divine Mysteries with weak Ratiocinations and Philosophy never assum'd to bring Divinity to be try'd at the Bar of humane Reason Then Mercy and Truth would have kiss'd each other and God even our God would have given us his Blessing But Man forgot that scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à Gloria That the bold and daring Searcher into the Majesty of God will be oppress'd and sink under the weight of his Glory He launch'd into a Sea in which the Rocks and Sands on all sides threatn'd a sad and inevitable Ruine God has reveal'd to us his Existence and the Unity of his Nature He has told us that in that one indivisible and inseparable Nature are Father Son and Holy Spirit He has asserted the Father to be God the Son God and the Holy Ghost God He has taught us that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father nor the Holy Ghost Father or Son He has inform'd us that in the Fulness of times he sent his only Son to take our Nature That the Word was made Flesh and offer'd himself a Sacrifice for us In such plain Propositions as these has he commanded us to acquiesce Faith is the Duty of this Intuition and Knowledge the Privilege of another Life The Perceptions of our present State have no proportion with so incomprehensible an Object Had we stay'd there the Church would have been a City at Vnity within it self But Man not contented with this strives to understand that which God has not been pleas'd to reveal that is the Nexus or manner of in being of the Three Persons The How these three can be one The Way of the Union of the two Natures in one adorable Person Christ Jesus and having no other
Literature and who have done for and in a bad Cause as much as Men can do It is an Honour to the Church to have such Adversaries to deal with Truth never appears with more force than when it is most strongly oppos'd In our late Disputes against Popery a small Stock of Learning and Common Sence was enough to shew its Folly In the wrangling War with the Dissenters we have been forc'd to argue with a sort of Writers who scarce understood good Language But in this we meet with a subtil and strong Enemy well fitted with all Materials for War and I look upon it as a Providence of God who turns all things to the good of his Servants that this Controversie will put us of the Clergy upon finer better and more comprehensive Studies But there is another sort of Socinians and they are they who pretend to make a Bustle in the World Men who after a long course of Atheism and Debauchery come at last to think of Religion not because they design to pursue the ends or submit to the Duties of it but because in an Age where so many Religions are allow'd it is not handsome to be without one They live still as they did before with as little care as ever of their Eternal Concerns but think Religion only to consist in talking at randon of Religious Matters These Heroes scorn to fall upon some part of the Discipline and Liturgy of the Church as other Mortals have done but presently impeach its Faith its Articles stare Mankind in the face and with that mouth us'd before to blaspheme and reproach their Maker they dare to deny the Lord that bought them Every Club Coffee-house or Tavern is the Scene of the Tragedy and Religion the most serious and grave business of Man's Life the Exercise of the Church Family or Closer is villainously prostituted over a Dish of Coffee or a Bottle of Wine The way to deal with these is not to dispute An evil heart of Unbelief has turn'd them aside that they cannot say there is a Lye in my right hand They are to be the Object of our Prayers and Tears to God for their Conversion The last Argument that remains is by our good Examples to bring them to some Sence of Morality But against the others we ought to dispute and to write When Error is always ready to speak Truth ought not to be silent We cannot be afraid of a Cause which the Glorious Company of the Apostles has taught the Noble Army of Martyrs maintain'd and the Holy Church throughout all the World so solemnly acknowledg'd But it is diligently to be observ'd that few Reasons and these good Authorities and these not contested an exact and accurate way of writing are the means to stop a Controversie Above all things Heat and Passion ought to claim no part in the Dispute Ill Language is a bad Introduction for the best Argument Either we design to confute instruct and perswade them or we do not If we do not we detain the Truth of God in Hypocrisie and make it subservient to mean and inglorious Ends And if we do we cannot but be sensible that Truth Gravity Exactness and Strength of Reason are strangely obstructed by a sordid and malicious way of writing But if we are to be so just to them without how much more to them within It is one of the Excesses which God reproaches the Wicked with Ps 50.20 to sit and speak against his Brother to slander his own Mother's Son A Sin not allowable in the Jewish much less in the Christian Church not pardonable in a Laick much less in a Clerk It has been observ'd of the old Romans that they scarce ever felt any Convulsion in their State till their victorious Arms were turn'd against themselves and destroy'd in very few years the Prosperity of many Ages It has appear'd all along our Adversaries themselves being Judges that the great Piety mighty Genius vast Parts profound Learning and flowing Eloquence of the Clergy of this Nation has made the Church of England venerable to all the World They have brought the Clamouring Papist to shame and despair of Success They have silenc'd the buzzing Nonconformist No Argument has fallen into their hands but what they have exhausted with an incredible Felicity of Thought and Expression and must we turn those never foil'd Weapons into our own Bowels Is this a time to become the Contrivers of our own ruine whilst the Enemy takes breath and has nothing left to do but to inflame our unhappy Contentions I am not for stifling the Truth God forbid It would be in vain for it is great and it must prevail I would have Zeal to take its course and our mouth to be open and our heart enlarg'd to all Men But at the same time I would have fervent Charity amongst our selves and think it insufferable to bite and devour one another till we are consum'd of one another To avoid so dangerous an Excess let us take leave of our Passions when we begin to speak or write about these Sacred Matters Passion hinders us from taking the real Advantages of an Argument and makes us to administer Poison instead of a Medicine It generally puts us on the wrong side of the Question and the Man does sadly expose the Writer It has the same Effect on him against whom we write It hurries him to a retaliation and between two hot Spirits Truth vanishes and only the wrangling part remains It is that which we abhor in Conversation and is not suffer'd amongst civiliz'd People We wrangle in Print and stamp on Paper the lasting marks of Fury and Prejudice In the mean time the Judicious Reader pities Humane Weakness wants a stock of Patience to read the Book through and leaves us at last to the Judgment of the great Judge But a judicious Reader is somewhat rare The loose witty People swallow greedily the sarcastical and leave the serious part By this Religion is expos'd and cruelly misrepresented This has been the ground of many Canons taken from the grave Admonitions of the Fathers and in particular the 53 of our Church Let us unanimously return to the Form of found Words That which shews the Vanity and Unpracticableness of Explications beyond the Power of Contradiction is that there is none but what is liable to invincible Objections and indeed how can it be otherwise when the Subject transcends all our Apprehensions Man who is scarce acquainted with himself will pretend to decide of the Nature of God! A poor finite and limited Being will become a Judge of Eternity and Immensity One who does not know the least of his Soul 's Operations will presume to understand the several ways of Communication of the Divine Nature Away with this pretended Knowledge which at the bottom is nothing but Noise and Talk Away with that glittering Nonsence which is not worthy to take up a serious Man's leisure For my part I am resolv'd to Adore and to Believe I will give an unfeigned Assent to what is reveal'd and come to God with the Homage and Submission of my Understanding concerning what he is pleas'd to conceal from me I will have mean Thoughts of this present Life since in it we know so little and a mighty desire of that which is to come since in it we shall know so much In the mean time I shall conclude this Discourse with the excellent Prayer of St. Hilary in his 12th Book of the Trinity and doubt not my Reverend Brethren but you will join with me in it Conserva hanc Conscientiae meae vocem ut quod in regenerationis meae symbolo baptizatus in Patre Filio Spiritu Sancto professus sum semper obtineam Preserve in me O Lord that Answer of a good Conscience that I may ever hold fast what I have profess'd at my Regeneration when I was baptiz'd in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit To these Three Co-eternal Co-essential Consubstantial Persons in that one Adorable Indivisible and Incomprehensible Nature To the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth To the only Begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord God of God Light of Light very God of very God To the Holy and Eternal Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son All Honour and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS
L. I hope it will not be taken amiss if I make some Remarks upon it 1. It is very diverting to see a Writing call'd an Answer to the four Letters and not so much as a Page or Line or Tittle of the four Letters touch'd I confess that this is an easie way of answering and that at this rate any Book upon Earth may be answer'd Any Body may have the Pleasure to be an Author But I am not altogether satisfied that this is consistent with that reputation of Learning and Eloquence which these Gentlemen men have so justly acquir'd One or two more such Answers will I am afraid sink or at least endanger a part of it 2. They give a rare reason for not meddling with the four Letters I know not says the Author p. 47. whether we are concern'd in them till I know more certainly in what Sence he holds a Trinity of Divine Persons and the Divinity and Satisfaction of our Saviour I beg leave of these Gentlemen to assert that they know as well as I do my self what is my sence in those Matters Obscurity is none of the many defects which the four Letters may be charg'd with But they were not willing to intangle themselves in the discussion of so many Citations or to make good the weak side of their Writings which they were sensible could not be maintain'd They have found of late a shorter Cut and that is the famous distinction of Real and Nominal Trinitarians They steal away with this on all occasions and still maintain a running Fight It is their last refuge and had it not been for the rare contrivance there had been before this an end of the Socinian Controversie To answer a solid Argument is a hard and generally an unfortunate Task But if they can but bring you right or wrong within the Verge of the fatal Distinction then they have always a large Field for Discourse They act in this like ingenious but whether altogether like conscientious Men I am not willing to determine 3. They are so full of that beloved distinction and so fond of meeting with any thing that looks like it that in what they call an Answer to the Four Letters they have done to themselves and to me a real Injury To themselves by a flat contradiction in the space of four Pages and to me by charging me with that which I never said or thought They make me say that the Divine Persons are Three Infinite Spirits Pag. 43. He says Three Infinite Spirits each of them a God are all of them but One God I averr that there is nothing in the Four Letters which directly or indirectly looks like that It is not the Language of Scripture nor that of the Catholick Church It never was and I hope shall never be mine But this they have contradicted Pag. 47. by desiring to know in what Sence I hold a Trinity of Divine Persons One would be apt to say that this betrays a great deal of Incogitancy 4. The Four Letters then are still sound and safe but the Preface is engag'd and I must endeavour to bring it off Two things in it are excepted against The one that I said That the Consent of the whole Christian World must be a strong Inducement to a modest Socinian to mistrust all his Arguments and that to oppose all that is great and good in the Church of God in a Point of Faith which Word the Author of the Answer has overlook'd is too much for the most presuming Disputant He says to this p. 40. that the case is this one side has Argument the other has Authority and Number And that in a Clash between Argument and Number that whole World and all that is great in it when weigh'd against but one Argument is as if you had put nothing at all into the Scale I say that he absolutely mistakes the Case We maintain that the Church has Reason as well as Authority and Number and that on this very Account a modest Socinian must lose much of his Confidence By all that is great and good I mean the Sacred Councils the Holy and Learned Fathers and the different Societies of Christians all the World over who have been baptiz'd in the Name of that Blessed Trinity and look upon Iesus Christ as the Author and Finisher of their Faith In a Point of Faith and much less in the Foundation God will not suffer the Catholick Church to err Had I said that it had been a Reason to a modest Socinian to mistrust all his Arguments I had said nothing but what is exactly true I confess I was too modest my self in calling it only an Inducement 5. The other Exception is against an Assertion which I thought no Divine in the World would have disputed That Faith and Reason are two different things and consequently that that which is the Object of Faith cannot be the Object of Reason He calls this p. 41. a very rash Proposition He says some lines before That the Apostle teaches Heb. 11.1 not only that the Object of Faith and Reason is the same but that there cannot be Faith without Reason and that Faith is the Product of Reason This Author should have consider'd before he call'd the Proposition rash that it is the Sence of all the Ancient and Modern Divines and that thô sometimes Faith and Reason are conversant about the same Object as for instance in the Existence and Vnity of God which Reason considers as well as Faith yet for all that their Object is different and even in this very case Reason assents to it as it is naturally known and Faith as it is supernaturally reveal'd The place of the Apostle should not have been mention'd at all For what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Evidence of things not seen but a Revelation of those things which Reason cannot reach or penetrate and on this very account are said to be unseen and is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Demonstration which rising from an higher Principle is different from and has a greater Certainty than Reason But what this Author says That there can be no Faith without Reason and that Faith is the Product of Reason shews plainly the misfortune of writing Answers in haste If by the first of these Propositions he means that Faith is always rational and that Reason never wants strong Inducements to believe which the Schools in their rugged Language call Motives of Credibility I say so too But if he means that we cannot believe except we have a clear Notion of what is propos'd to our Belief I say that it is against the Nature of Faith which offers things above Reason and expects the submission of our Judgments to the Authority of the Revelation The second Proposition that Faith is the Product of Reason is capable of a tolerable Sence if by it is meant no more than that Reason is an introductâ—on to Faith But if by it is meant that it is
Guide but his Reason intangles himself in inextricable Difficulties Of this sort were Paul of Samosatum Patriarch of Antioch Photinus Bishop of Syrmium Praxeas Noëtus Sabellius Arrius Apollinaris Nestorius Eutyches and in this very Age Socinus the Reviver of the Samosatenian and Photinian Heresie These have been the Incendiaries of the Church and the great Disturbers of its Peace The Men who have made it necessary to enlarge the Form of sound Words and were the occasion of the Creeds made in the Councils of which they bear the Names Sabellius own'd the Unity of the Divine Nature but struck with the Evidence of those Texts which speak the Son and the Holy Spirit to be God could not deny a Trinity but made it only to consist of meer Names or Denominations as St. Basil expresses it Hom. 27. pag. 602. Or as St. Athanasius has it one only Person the Father acting under different Names A Notion which the present Socinians seem too too willing to embrace Arrius own'd a Trinity of Persons and not of Names He saw that the poor shift of Sabellius was irreconcilable with that Oeconomy which so clearly appears in the Scriptures But by admitting three Principles he destroy'd the Unity of God and was the first Author of the chymerical distinction of a God made and a God unmade of a Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the like but not of the same Substance Apollinaris own'd the Incarnation The Word was made Flesh was an Authority of that Weight and Clearness as gave not the least ground to Primitive Ages for Allegories and little Criticisms so much us'd in this But he destroy'd the Union of the two Natures by denying that Christ had a Soul and leaving the Divinity to inform his Body Nestorius Patriarch of Constantinople own'd the two Natures but deny'd their Union in one Person He would have two Persons as well as two Natures The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Man The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eutyches acknowledged the Incarnation but maintain'd a Singularity of Nature with that of a Person He would have the Humanity to be absorp'd and the God to have annihilated the Man All these the Church of God condemn'd by the Form of sound Words contain'd in the several Creeds The sober Church of England sensible that even in point of Reformation we are apt to out-run the Mark and under pretence of forsaking old Errors really fall into new ones has strenuously aim'd at this not to recede a Jot from the Form of sound Words and stick close not only to the Sence but even to the ways of speaking of the Primitive Church It has made the Apostolical and Catholick Creeds a part of its Liturgy and its very Articles concerning the Blessed Trinity Incarnation and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ are nothing else but a repetition of the Dogms of the Ancient Councils But before I conclude this Particular I must say something of that which tho' no part of the Form of sound Words has yet a very near relation to it and that is the Expressions us'd by the Fathers in their Debates about these Sacred Doctrines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and since adopted by all the Divines and become the Language of the Church Concerning which I must presume to aver 1 st that whosoever will be conversant in those Disputes cannot without these Terms understand any part of them 2 dly That they are proof against all the Subterfuges and Equivocations of Hereticks 3 dly That tho' it is much safer to keep to the Simplicity of the Form and pretend to no Explication of that which we own to be incomprehensible yet if any can be pretended to it is that and that only which results from these Terms But I shall no longer insist on this and come to the second part of this Discourse How dangerous it is to depart from the Form of sound Words I am apt to think that it will give a great Light to what I have to say on this head if I endeavour to shew before-hand which ways we depart from it I conceive that it can be only these two 1 st By rejecting the Article it self which is propos'd to our Belief 2 dly By admitting the Article but using other Words than the Church to express or explain it by The one is absolutely to depart from the sound Words themselves The other from the Form in which they are put The first has been done by the Hereticks already mention'd The unfortunate Attempt has been renew'd by Socinus and his Followers but by none so wholly as by a sort of pretended witty People who asham'd of the inhumane and irrational Profession of unmanly Atheism have under the Name of Deists endeavour'd to explode all reveal'd Religion To these Socinus has lent most of their Arguments From that side who have oppos'd a part of the Revelation these have learn'd to reject the whole And tho' I should think it unjust and uncharitable to think that the present Socinians are Deists or give the Deists any design'd Encouragement yet I will beg leave to assert that taking an exact view of the Deistical and Socinian System there will appear no very vast difference Deism being nothing else but Socinianism improv'd and Socinianism nothing else but Deism contracted The second that is to keep to the Article but put it in other Words has been done by some amongst our selves Whether this has been the Effect of a too much indulg'd Curiosity or of an imprudent Zeal Whether the Heat of the Dispute and the pressing Efforts of the Enemy has driven them from their Anchors Whether they have been too fond of the Offspring of their own Brains or whether a mixture of all these together has been the occasion of it is difficult to judge But it is certain that the Press has groan'd under the burthen of new Discoveries brought forth a swarm of Answers and Replies fuller of Heat than Light and made it necessary for the Peace of the Church that a Curtain should be drawn over abundance of Writings where Learning Modesty and Candor should have had a greater share than really they can pretend to Of the first of these it is easie to shew how dangerous it is to depart from the Form of sound Words For what greater danger can we fall into than to make Shipwrack concerning the Faith A State so much the more dangerous because it destroys the very ground of our hopes For he that believes shall be sav'd He that does not believe is condemn'd already To differ from an Orthodox Church of which we are Members tho in point of Ceremony is very sinful if the difference is carry'd so far as to make a Schism Toleration tho' it secures us from the Laws of Men not acquitting us at all in the sight of God But how much deeper is that Guilt which lays the Ax to the Root
of the Tree and having corrupted our Minds makes us reprobate concerning the Faith An Enormity which the best and earliest Ages shew'd their detestation of by their frequent Anathema's against it But of the second it does not seem so easie to pronounce For if Men in the Fundamental Articles of our Holy Religion keep really and unfeignedly to the truth of what is propos'd as in the Trinity and Incarnation shall we quarrel with them for using such Words as are either unknown to Antiquity or rejected by the Doctors of the present Church May not God reveal to us what the Fathers of Nice or Chalcedon were ignorant of And as long as we own the Substance of the Article as strictly as our strictest Opposers can any Fault be found with any Explication Yet this will prove a wretched piece of Sophistry if the following Inconveniencies are seriously consider'd 1 st That to depart from the Form which the Church has us'd herself to is against her Vnity and Peace 2dly That it is the way to unsettle pious Minds 3dly That it can never be done without giving the Adversaries a mighty Advantage First It is against the Vnity and Peace of the Church Words are the Interpreters of our Thoughts and the only way we have to know one anothers Minds A Communication which Nature has taught Experience improv'd and the mutual Commerce of Mankind rais'd to an absolute necessity But if this is true in relation to the Affairs of this World and is the Foundation of all Arts and Sciences how much more will it hold in respect to Religious Matters where every Error is dangerous and draws along with it so many fatal Consequences Religion the grand Duty of Man is convey'd into the Soul by hearing and comes short of its Energy if the Terms which it is exprest by are unusual and do not in a great measure answer both its Nature and the end which it proposes And Christianity being to be disseminated and the Gospel to sound to the Ends of the World a Happiness to be offer'd to the Jew and Gentile to the Groecian and Barbarians to all Nations Ages Sexes and Capacities it was highly wise to deliver it in as short a compass and in as settled a manner of Expression as the Nature of the thing could bear and the difference of Men's Understandings agree with The Apostles having left us the Form of sound Words it became the Care of the Bishops their Successors to preserve it entire But they saw an utter Impossibility of doing it and a door open to all manner of Schisms if Men were not confin'd to such and such Words as well as such and such a sence And I dare presume to say that this sunk so deeply into these holy and learned Men's Minds that what we call in this Age Heats and Animosities or the Platonick and Aristotelian Philosophy brought into the Church was nothing else but an indefatigable Care and Industry to declare the Faith after such a manner as should in after-Ages be kept inviolate So afraid were the Fathers of new Words new Lights new Expressions new Explications as that which naturally brings in a new Sence that they ever look'd on them with a kind of Jealousie and would never admit them till they were clearly understood and authoriz'd by the common Consent of the Christian World There is an eminent Instance of this in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which tho' the most expressive Words that could be the one in relation to the Unity of the Divine Nature the other in relation to the Subsistencies of the Divine Persons yet met with a vast opposition the one in the Greek the other in the Latin Church till a long canvassing and at last the determination of the Sacred Councils had fix'd both their Use and their Sence Innovation brings in Heresie and Heresie shelters Innovation The Apostle concludes the first to Timothy by charging him pathetically to keep that which is committed to his Trust and to avoid profane and vain Babblings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain and empty Sounds The Latin Interpreter reads more agreeably to the old Copies profanas vocum novitates I say more agreeably to the ancient Copies For St. Basil and St. Chrysostom read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new Sounds new Words which shews that it was so in the Exemplaries us'd by those Fathers Expressions which by being new are both suspicious and dangerous The Fathers of the third Council of Constantinople which is the sixth General and in which Pope Honorius and the Monothelites were condemn'd were so sensible of the Evils occasion'd by this that they concluded their last Action by subjecting to deprivation if they were Bishops or Clerks or to Excommunication if they were Laicks whosoever did bring in any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new Words and new Explications It being the Infirmity of Humane Nature to be strangely affected with Novelty and an Argument seldom wanting them who take the glittering for the solid and weighty part of it But when an Innovator who has catch'd a bright Cloud instead of the Sun comes to be encounter'd by the Orthodox whose Zeal is so much the warmer because it is inflam'd by the Sence of an old Truth then what Devastations what Tragedies what Schisms what Contentions are seen in the Church Secondly It unsettles pious Minds New Explications are like Meteors which set Men on gazing and always portend Ruine to Religion When by an humble and settled Reverence for what God has propos'd to us by the Ministery of his Church we have us'd our selves to a Form of Doctrine whatsoever is foreign to it offers our Minds an incredible Violence Pious Ears are offended at it and they who know better how to feel the Power of Religion than to talk of it are horribly scandaliz'd They have us'd themselves to an awful Belief and Adoration of Mysteries They have acquiesc'd in the receiv'd Expressions of the Universal Church more secure in their rest on the Breasts of their Mother than if all the Guards in the World were plac'd round about them and consequently strangely astonish'd when an Innovator strives to tear them out of their Sanctuary No Answer can be made to this but a pretence of Necessity that the Socinians have made it unavoidable in their Disputes against the blessed Trinity and Incarnation to run on a new Method and that St. Austin has taught us and before him St. Cyprian and of their Words a Canon has been made That Melius est ut scandalum oriatur quam Veritas relinquatur It is more tolerable to give an occasion of scandal than that Truth should be left undefended But where does the Necessity appear Are we not sensible that the Arguments against our Mysteries are neither new nor invincible Were not the Arrians much better Disputants than the Scholars of Socinus who are forc'd to give Socinianism the Face of Arrianism or