a good Answer in the Fathers and shall the same be ill meerly because at another time in another Case it came from an Heretick The Hereticks proposing it you say renders it suspect St. Athanasius and St. Ambrose using it say I and relying upon it too gives it Authority The Hereticks used it not first but only retorted it on the Fathers Wherefore at least admit the Authority of the one to take off the Disadvantage it may sustain from the other and let the Project as you call it stand or fall according to its own naked Merit Only by the way give me leave to add that if what is just and reasonable must be rejected because it has been sometimes used by Hereticks we must oftentimes give over pleading from Scripture and quit a World of Texts therein I must acknowledg I am not able to see why Men should be so averse from the Language of the Holy Ghost either in their Prayers or Creeds The Sum of the Reason alledged is that it is the Sense of Scripture which Pag. 7. is the true Faith and not merely the Words And must we saith Mr. Dean very admirably believe the Words or Sense of the Scripture I may desire him if he can to believe this or that Sense as revealed by God for he cannot know this or that Sense or Proposition as revealed by God without the Words in which it was revealed I demand Do those Words express contain and convey to us this Sense of such or such Point of Faith or do they not If they do not then the Sense insisted on is not the Sense of the Scripture and consequently not Faith If they do why should we not keep those Words by which God hath thought fit to express this Sense Why should we separate what he has joined Are we wiser than he or can we express the Mind of God better than himself But when Hereticks have used their utmost Art to make the Words of Scripture signify what they please is it not necessary to fix their true Sense and to express that in such other Words as Hereticks cannot pervert Yes in the Name of God let us use our utmost Art to vindicate if possible all and every Scripture from Heretical Glosses or Distortions and with all the Light and Evidence we can discover and assert its genuine Sense The natural Explication of Scripture is our immediate Scope in most or in all the Arts and Sciences which as Divines we take in But what do all our Explications effect save a Proof or Discovery that this or that is the Sense contained under such Words of Scripture When therefore we have plainly proved that these Words of Scripture contain this Sense why should we change the Words If they were not plain the Explication supposing it to have done any thing to the purpose has made them plain When they are plain then why may they not be kept They may be undetermined said Mr. Dean and 't is necessary to fix their §. 10. true Sense But this is the Difficulty They may rationally at least probably admit more Senses than one and when you say you have fixed your own true Sense another shall deny the Sense you have fixed to be the true Sense at least assign another equally probable Sense And a third Person it may be a third For Instance the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2. 10 12. God hath revealed the Joys and Glories which he has prepared for those that love him unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God For what Man knoweth the things of Man save the Spirit of Man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God This Text the learned Dr. Sherlock as well as others even Athanasius himself interpret not without Probability of the essential Spirit of God and the Doctor both in his Vindication and Apology endeavours thence to prove the Personality of the Holy Ghost and his mutual Consciousness with the Father and the Son Now I sacredly protest I remember not my self ever to have read any Socinian Author on this Text But I find some others by the word Spirit here understand the spiritual Illumination and inward Perswasion of Mind wrought in the Apostles and other faithful People And this we seem enforced from ver 12. to admit where we read the Apostles to have received the Spirit which cannot be well understood of the Person but of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost This agrees too with the Close of ver 10. The Spirit searcheth all things that is scrutari nos facit This Illumination in their Search leads all such who are endowed therewith into the knowledg and belief of all things necessary to their Salvation even the deepest Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Further this spiritual Gift may be said to know i. e. we by this Illumination know and relish the things of God as feelingly as the Spirit of Man knows the things of a Man because this Gift is so true a Communication from God and as it were somewhat of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. imparted to us But that the Spirit of God here spoken of as knowing the things of God should be a Person distinct from God any more than the Spirit of a Man knowing the things of a Man is a Person distinct from the Man seems unreasonable And it is considerable that amongst others even Calvin and Beza allow by the Spirit here may be understood such Gift of Illumination as spoken of But Grotius referring us to what he had said on Mark 2. 8 c. with great Learning and Probability interprets the Spirit here of the Divine Nature of Christ and tells us it was by Christ as coming from the Bosom of his Father and knowing all his Secrets that these things were revealed to the Apostles and that the Sense here is the same as in John 1. 18. and ch 6. 46 c. and he produces many Authorities both from Scripture and Fathers touching the Divine Nature of our Lord being stiled the Spirit Now who shall determine which is the true and genuine Sense and if any of the two latter should be genuine then has not the Dean evinced hence what he conceived and particularly not the mutual Consciousness of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son for that the Person of the Holy Ghost is not here spoken of It were easy but that it would be tedious to give like Instances in many other Texts of Holy Scripture What shall we do then It were an admirable Expedient indeed could we determine infallibly this or that to be the true Sense of each controverted Text and then express that Sense in such Words as Hereticks cannot pervert But where shall we find
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
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
be a just and modest Reprehension of him and what I am sure the Man will meekly take But to make him black and odious by all Arts and to talk of reforming him out of the Church for his peaceable Desires and Well-meaning is imperious beyond Measure and what another would call Tyrannical nor will he name what Spirit it bespeaks especially when the great Argument or Foundation of all against what he has said is no better than a Petitio Principii or taking for granted the prime Matter in question namely that the Doctrine of the Trinity as Dr. Sherlock has stated and does defend it is a Fundamental of the Christian Faith This the Dean in his Apology has not offered one Word to prove but quitting his Adversaries and shutting both Eyes and Ears against all that has been said against his Novelties on this Subject violently falls upon exposing the peaceable Man which was indeed much the easier Project but whether either Christian or Honourable the World will judg The melancholy Stander-by had asserted in his 7th Page the Doctrine of the Trinity as duly stated to be one of the Fundamentals of Christian Religion And it is most plain by what he propounds as the Medium of Peace that the stating it according to Scripture and in Scripture-Language he esteems the most due stating it the Dean likes not this says it is a Proposal of old Hereticks and not only would have the Philosophical Terms now a long time usual in this Point received for Peace-sake but as Fundamental in Faith Nay and not content herewith he gives new Definitions of or affixes new Notions to these Terms and would have all pass upon us still under the Colour of Fundamentals The melancholy Stander-by to speak the whole Truth neither could nor can admit either of these namely either that Philosophical Terms never used by Scripture and besides of various Use or uncertain Signification should be made Fundamentals of Faith or that the Doctor 's new Explication of them should pass at all and his Reasons may perhaps appear anon But in what he writ he express'd not this his Dissent so as to contest either of these Points Only as he would not enter into the Controversy himself so he desired chiefly by reason of the Mischief he thought he saw arising from thence it might be at present forborn by all and he is still as willing as ever to decline engaging on either Point only in his own Defence against what the Dean has endeavoured to load him with he must now say that if any should join Issue with the Dean upon the first Article of the Nicene Creed I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD c. which is a Fundamental and the true Catholick and Apostolick Faith It will soon appear that Dr. Sherlock has in his Book contradicted and to his Power overthrown that Faith as much as ever Johannes Philoponus or Joachim the * So the Text of the Decretal stiles him Florentine Abbot or as others the Abbot of Floria or Flency the two greatest and most antient Leaders of the Tritheists ordinarily assigned ever did for according to the best Accounts of them neither of these expresly maintained more Gods than one nay they expresly disclaimed such Assertion only they so taught the Nature and Distinction of three Persons as that their Doctrine inferred three Gods from which Charge the Invention of mutual Consciousness will never clear Dr. Sherlock ' s Definition of a Person in the Godhead for such Consciousness whatever he says to the contrary can infer only an Vnity of Accord not of Substance and Nature whereas it is an Unity of Substance and Nature that the Council and Fathers have held but these things require more Words than the present Design admits To make the Sum of my Sentiments or what I would be at plainer §. 3. The holy Scripture states the Trinity under the Notion of Three bearing witness in Heaven for I have much more to say for that exagitated Text than to allow it wanting in any Copies on any other Reason but their Imperfection and affirms these three one but how they are one it determines not And Faith being a Belief of the Witness of God and Baptism a Seal or Badg of Faith when we are baptized we are baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as owning and assenting to or professing and vowing to acquiesce in their Witness touching all the whole Will of God and Method of Salvation published in the Gospel This is Scripture and here the melancholy Stander-by would stop as to Faith in this Point of the Trinity To the Incarnation there is yet no occasion to speak The Fathers in the Council of Nice did not as far as ever I could perceive by any genuine Monuments of theirs vote the Term three Persons the Incarnation of the Son of God or his Divinity though made Man was the Controversy before them rather than the Trinity and the great Product of that Council was the word Homoousion in Assertion of the Son 's being of the same Substance with the Father But the Greek Fathers of that Age did soon use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in this Case is most aptly rendred Subsistence and contend for three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Subsistences Now as to the common Definition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in divinis that is to my best Memory pretended to be taken out of Justin Martyr by Damascen a Father of much latter Age I said to my best Memory for my Condition is such at present and has been such upward of four Years that I am without the Use of the best part of my Books and now near 150 English Miles distant from a Library Yet I thank God I am Master of Justin and Damascen more ways than one be it spoken without Affront to Dr. Sherlock in case of my having read other Books I had read them near two and thirty Years ago But to return to the Definition spoken of as now I take it out of my old perhaps too imperfect Notes runs thus In the Holy Trinity an Hypostasis is an unbegun or if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasâ—en Dialectic cap. ult Word may be pardoned a beginningless manner of the eternal Existence of each that is of Father Son and Holy Ghost So that according to this Author it superadds nothing to the Divine Essence which is one and common to all the three save a bare manner of Existence or Subsistence Only by the way I must note as to the Authority of that Piece in the Works of Justin Martyr whence this Definition comes namely the Expositio rectae fidei it is sufficiently proved by Scultetus Rivet and others to be none of Justin's genuine Works The Latin Fathers which came soon upon the Heels of the Council and of the Greek Fathers above spoken of suspected this Word Hypostasis and St. Jerome particularly contended there
again what he endeavours to expose §. 14. my Desires to all to let this Controversy rest as it was above thirteen hundred Years ago determined by two general Councils And my Reason stands unshaken as far as I can see by the Dean or any else The Improvements which have since been attempted upon it have more embroil'd it than explain'd it and bring us down many times into grosser and more phantastical Conceptions of the Deity than become us As to what the Schools and Dr. Sherlock have done I have already spoke my Sense I could have shewn that Dr. Walls was only the English Author for three Somewhats and have cited a certain Father for tria quaedam but I had rather Mr. Dean should tell the World how ignorant I am of the Fathers than that their Esteem should be lessened by any thing produced by me that may seem to reflect on them Only because the World as if weary of metaphysical Improvements in this and like Subjects begins now to be fond of or expect even in Christian Mysteries some Wonders from Physicks or Mathematicks I shall give an Account of something more copious in this kind than what as far as I know our learned Professor here at home has as yet published There is a Book intituled Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres imprinted at Amsterdam 1685. wherein I find an Account of an Essay called a Memorial Memoire communicated by M. and writ to shew the Habitude or Resemblance Rapport of the three Dimensions of a Body to the three Persons of the Deity in which after a short Preface of the different Natures of a thinking and extense Substance there is drawn a Parallel between La Trinite in one Column and Laquantite in another amounting to no fewer than twenty three Particulars And after somewhat said of the Use of these Parallels wherein he utterly denies the false Idea's as he terms them of the School-men he adds seven more parallel Instances between the Objections Hereticks make against the Trinity and such as may be made against the triple Dimensions of Bodies Then follow ten Axioms out of the Religio rationalis Andreae Vissovatii an Author of whom I can find no Account amongst those Books which I have to consult placed also Column-wise the Trinity on one Side and extense Substance on the other He ends with a Promise if this Essay take of a Parallel between the Incarnation and the sensible World on all which I will only say Real and Physical Quantity exists only in Bodies Mathematical Quantity merely in the Mind or Thoughts of the Artist Now how highly Christianity is likely to be advanced by such Speculations as these what real and what rare spiritual Conceptions and Demonstrations at this rate we shall in some time come to have touching God I leave all considering Men to judg and in the mean while again desire all to stop at the afore-mentioned safe Boundaries of Faith and Peace I must now proceed with Mr. Dean rebuking me as surely intending §. 15. this for no more than a Jest that I would have the Doctrine of the Trinity left upon its old bottom of Authority And here he demands would I myself Pag. 12. believe such absurd Doctrines as some represent the Trinity in Vnity to be meerly upon Church-Authority for his Part he declares he would not And for my part I who adhere to Scripture and plead for such strict Adhesion am press'd with none of these Absurdities or absurd Doctrines but if he will not accept such Terms or Forms of speaking as Homoousion or Consubstantial Conglorified and the like from Councils and Fathers he must which would be a great Fault in me even let them alone I do not know whence else he can or must receive them nor who else coined them and desire him to inform me Perhaps he will say what the great Father in this Controversy did before him these syllabical Words are not indeed in Scripture but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Sense is I answer So I believe the Father-thought and so I believe thought the Generality of the Nicene Fathers for by Mr. Dean's Favour they pretended rather to determine this Point out of Scripture than to deliver any traditionary Sense thereof and agreeable to this Pretence was the placing the Holy Records in the midst of the Council yea admitting what we judg good Consequents out of Scripture to be of the same Truth with Scripture so think I but so do not others think nor will I pretend my self able nor do I see any notwithstanding their mighty Boasts able to convince them Demonstrate to the World this to be the Sense of Scripture and the Controversy is at an end Till that be done if we will be fair we must own this to be the State of our Evidence We have for the Orthodox Side Scripture interpreted by the Tradition of the Church this at length resolves it self mainly into Church-Authority For the traditionary Sense which determines Scripture to signify this not that is of such Authority and therefore is the Dogme thence concluded such also Wherefore I see no Reason to recal that honest Acknowledgment of mine conceived indeed in Terms a little larger After all Authority must define this Controversy Yet haply it might not be amiss to desire my Words may be strictly attended I said indefinitely Authority for I know not whether it can be said single Ecclesiastical Authority did ever effectually define it that is appease the Controversy nor will it I fear ever be able There was some other concurrent Power of which I forbear to speak interposed to temperate the Factious in a certain Council as well as to recommend its Decrees and so must there be amongst us for the ending this Controversy Let but the Forms of Worship which some Mens Consciences cannot bear be made easy that we may unite in the Service of God and 't is no matter how severe the Laws be against any who shall write or speak more in the Controversy I cannot tell but Mr. Dean may have private Reasons which induce him rather to abide by the Arguments or Sentiments of some Fathers than the Authority of the Councils by me insisted on I have not pretended to much Skill in Fathers and Councils and no where imperiously to justify my Pretences within the Space of two or three Pages rattle out over and over the same six or seven Fathers in a Breath without producing a Word out of any of them which some Men may interpret a Pretence to Skill in them but no good Mark whence to discover it However because the Judgment and Authority of Councils is so little in his Esteem and the learned and subtile Disputations of a certain Person in the Nicene Pag. 13. Council of so great Force with him I will take leave notwithstanding my being so little vers'd in these Authors to tell him that though I have â—â—â—ue and profound a Veneration for the
this Point but what is taught in Scripture and then I am sure there will be no fear that any wise Man should reject Scripture for its sake or put strained and unnatural Senses on it to reconcile it to Reason But that three such Persons as he has defined are by Scripture asserted or can be thence concluded to be in the Deity I have denied I do and must ever deny and conceive I have proved contradictious In the next Place having repeated his old Prevarication touching my §. 17. stiling the Socinians the learned Writers of Controversy he is displeased with me for not taking them to task for denying the Divine Nature to be incomprehensible Truly I never heard or read any of the Socinians guilty of such Presumption or Blasphemy But this I take only to be a Consequence drawn by himself from a certain Opinion of theirs and then fastned upon them Of which kind of fair dealing I will say nothing for the present But I do know there are some who deny God's Prescience of future Contigents touching which I had no Occasion to speak no more had he here but that he would hedg in any thing pertinent or impertinent to inodiate an innocent Person which being he has done I will take the Occasion to profess before the Searcher of all Hearts who knows what is in Man that he knows I do believe and in my Soul adore his Prescience that I abhor any Suspicions of it as seeing scarce any of his Perfections more clearly express'd and by a World of Instances verified in Holy Scripture Nay I voluntarily profess I cannot conceive infinite Knowledg without Prescience and though I do confess I cannot comprehend infinite Knowledg because I am very finite yet I bless him who helps my Vnbelief and has as fully possess'd my Heart with the Perswasion thereof as with the Perswasion of his Existence But I cannot so easily believe Mr. Dean's Notions for facilitating I suppose the comprehending the next Divine Attribute which he lugs-in namely Eternity which though he truly says pag. 16. lin 28 29. to be without Beginning and without Succession yet with his usual Attention he explains lin 32. to be a Succession without a Beginning a Second or a Third without a First This Notion I will not accuse him to have taken from the School-Doctors Only I must ask him why he put those Words a God Adequate and Commensurate to our Vnderstandings a little finite comprehensible God in the same Character in which he ordinarily puts the Words he cites or wire-draws from my Paper If he did it with a Design to possess the Reader that I had any such Words or had said any thing from whence such an Inserence could be made I have another Kindness to thank him for of a like Nature to his others I now proceed to account for the last Reason I assigned for the present §. 18. Unreasonableness of some Mens agitating this Controversy which was Hereby that is as both the very Title and the Paper it self expresly assert by some learned Mens present Writings on this Controversy our Church at present and the common Christianity it may be feared will be daily Pag. 18. more and more exposed to atheistical Men they being not likely to overlook the Advantages thus daily given them This Mr. Dean according to his usual way first calumniously perverts to another Sense then for this bold Stroke as he calls it will scarce allow me to be either a Christian or a Divine And lastly falls on catechising me First He calumniously perverts my Sense for says he The Sum of this is that to vindicate the Doctrine of the Trinity against Socinians will make Men Atheists Not so fast good Mr. Dean This Sum agrees not either with your own reckoning or with mine Three times at least in your Paper you said these learned Writers of Controversies by me designed were the Socinians According to which your own Interpretation your Proposition or the Sum explicitely should have been this The Socinians present writing against the Trinity will make Men Atheists Do you then deny that Proposition No you 'l say I believe you thought not of it But you know very well on the other side that amongst the present learned Writers of Controversy your self were more immediately concerned they are your own Words pag. 2. And now the Sum if truly stated will be much different namely this Such Vindications of the Trinity as that writ by Dr. Sherlock tend rather to make Men Atheists than to convert Socinians This Sir was my meaning and this I re-assert For Atheists may confute Tritheism or Polytheism for my Part I see not how either is defensible and having proved such Doctrines in Religion to be false they will be ready to conclude all Religion is so too but they can never overthrow the Doctrine of one God the Father of all and one Saviour the Son of God our Lord Christ Jesus and of one Spirit sanctifying and uniting the whole Body of Christian People or of these three being one And this if you will call it a bold Stroke I stick to it and fear not being exposed though I double it The Substance of two of his Questions is answered already First Do I believe the Doctrine of the Trinity to be desensible or no I do as delivered in Scripture but not upon his novel Definitions and Hypotheses But why do I not defend it better I have partly answered it already and a further Answer to that and to his second Question will come in by and by In the mean time as to his third Whâ—â— are Atheists concerned in the Disputes of the Trinity Very much in such Vindications of it which give such a Notion of the true God as implicates or is inconsistent with it self viz. that the true God adored by all Christian People should be three infinite Minds and yet not three infinite Minds If it be as it is impossible that there should be more infinite Minds than one then will Atheists say it is impossible such a Being should exist as you describe your God to be that is there is no God After these Questions I am to be told a Secret which though in great §. 19. Pag. 19. Modesty I conceal yet possibly I may be privy to viz. that Atheists and Deists Men who are for no Religion are of late very zealous Socinians I easily believe and acknowledg Mr. Dean better acquainted with the Town than I am but if Atheists and Deists be zealous Socinians let him never again object to me my Socinian Friends for I protest I have not to my Knowledg any familiar Acquaintance much less Friendship with any Atheists or Theists in the World I pray as our Church teaches to pray FOR ALL INFIDELS AS WELL AS TVRKS AND JEWS that GOD WOVLD TVRN THEIR HEARTS And in my Sphere as God gives me Opportunity I desire to labour in his Church to that purpose but otherwise I
am so far from espousing the Conversation much less Friendship of any such as that I say with the great Apostle If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha And as for my own part I from my Heart receive every Tittle of the revealed Christian Religion particularly as to those two Magnalia the Trinity and Incarnation Touching the former I have once and again declared my Judgment and Faith and touching the latter this being the meetest Place wherein to profess my Faith of it I do profess sincerely to believe my Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God the Word who was in the Beginning and who was with God and was and is God blessed for ever to have been in fulness of Time made of a Woman and so to have become Flesh or truly taken upon him Flesh and Blood to have been in the World as we are in the World subject to all Infirmities Sin only excepted and that as such having by himself purged our Sins he is sat down on the right Hand of the Majesty on high and as he lives for ever to make Intercession for us so he shall come to judg the World at the last Day Thus do I from my Heart adore and preach him and shall do I trust to my dying Hour I know indeed and have Converse with some who are not in all these Particulars of my Mind yet neither are they licentious Wits nor do they ridicule and scorn this Faith nor do I see how any sober Men dare ridicule it But some vertuous Rationalists having perhaps faln upon bad Books and by that Means lying under strong Prepossessions they misinterpret these Passages of Holy Scripture which I have reported and others like and endeavour to evade their Evidence when applied to that Sense to which we of the Church of England alledg them Now I do not think Stiffness and an immoderate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a winding up the State of each Question still higher and higher and then disputing scornfully and defending all in new Methods or by new Hypotheses to be the way to reclaim these Men but what I conceive to be most serviceable I shall before I have done speak out and submit As to Men that ridicule and scoff at any thing in Religion yea though it be erroneous as long as it is consistent with Holiness and Charity has a fair Claim to Scripture and seems deducible thence I think such Scoffers highly prophane and both these and all such who treat those that are not of their Opinions with Scorn and Haughtiness I judg them to be next door to David's Scorners Psal 1. namely in the highest Class of the Wicked and very near being incorrigible which is all I will say as to this Imputation of my having entertained a Friendship with such Men. Mr. Dean goes on and says I have found out such a Reason to prove §. 20. Pag. 20. the present Danger of disputing the Controversy of the Holy Trinity as he believes was never dream'd of and that is that it is one of the Fundamentals of Christian Religion Now to litigate touching a Fundamental is to turn it into Controversy c. Here I must again complain of soul dealing my Words were The Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity in whose Names we and all Christians are or ought to have been baptized is esteemed as it is if duly stated one of the Fundamentals of Christian Religion It is apparent I did affirm the Doctrine of the Trinity a Fundamental with this Restriction if duly stated He charges it upon me as affirm'd simply and at large I deny it to be a Fundamental or so much a Truth as Dr. Sherlock states it in his Vindication of it viz. that there is a Trinity of infinite Minds c. though with Reverence I acknowledg and believe it to be both a Truth and a Fundamental as the Scripture states it Now for Men to take the Name of a fundamental and revered Truth the Holy Trinity and affix it to a novel and gross Pack of Errors and to go on to dispute for those Errors under the sacred Title of a Fundamental of the Catholick and Apostolick Faith which was plainly enough my Sense this I say and stand to it is of dreadful Danger and may prove of as mischievous Consequence as most Practices assignable For in case the Adversary disprove and expose that Error it is not with the Generality of People the Error that suffers but that great Truth the sacred Name whereof was abused And whereas he demands Is it dangerous to preserve and defend Foundations when Hereticks unsettle them I answer he has truly done neither neither secured nor defended them but very surely has he done a third thing he has to his Power changed them Wherefore to all that dreadful aggravative Discourse which takes up a whole Page and an half spent to render me ridiculous and my Assertion Pag. 20 21. extravagant as if according to what I urge Men might not argue against Atheism I will give no other Answer than that I pray God to forgive him the making this Parallel and grant unto him hereafter better to employ his Time and Parts than in such open and unartificial Exaggerations In the next Page follows a Piece of News which I am truly to thank him for touching a Treatise in the Press from our excellent Primate Pag. 22. Now though this Intimation was intended against the Design of my Paper as an Argument from Authority and the Authority too of such a Person whom should I offer to except against I should most justly expose my Judgment if no more yet so welcome is the Tidings he tells me that here also I forgive both this his ill Intent and the sly Scoff with which he concludes that Paragraph not doubting but when I see that Piece I shall find in it both plain and perspicuous Scripture-Notions clear Reason and genuine Antiquity Besides I must tell the Apologist I look upon his Grace both by his publick Station and personal Qualifications far otherwise capacitated to write on this Subject than a private Doctor such as I suppose Mr. Dean was when he writ what he stiled the Vindication of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity I now come to what he has to say against my last Argument for a temporary §. 21. Forbearance of these Disputes which he thus reports that I say All Controversies are now unseasonable in such a Juncture wherein nothing but an Vnity of Counsels and joining Hands and Hearts can preserve the Reformation and scarce any thing more credit it than an Vnion in Doctrinals This Report of my Argument is according to his wonted Candour and Veracity But my Argument by his Favour stood not so in my Paper it was more carefully express'd had more Parts and those pressing closer I desire it may be considered I was to say as much as I could in a little and however Mr.
to imitate §. 24. my Saviour and answer one captious Question with another 1st He asks Whether I will allow them whom I grant to be in Possession of the Faith of the Trinity and Incarnation to keep Possession of it to teach explain and confirm it to their People And I will ask him Whether he never saw certain Royal Injunctions assigning fit Subjects for Sermons Some in Queen Elizabeth's Time and others since ordinarily transmitted to the Clergy by the Primate of the Kingdom that Preachers shall in their Sermons purely and sincerely declare unto their Hearers the Word of God and in the same exhort them to good Works to Works of Faith as Mercy and Charity that they shall forbear difficult and controversial Points Now although this of the Trinity be not that I remember mentioned yet I am sure there is the same Reason of it as of those that are And by his Favour I will ask him further whether it be not fit to obey such Injunctions or whether the Doctrine of the Trinity be not as difficult and remote from the common Peoples Understanding as is the Doctrine of Predestination and God's Decrees Notwithstanding this I yield In the Name of God let Ministers at due Season as on Trinity-Sunday and the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord preach to their People as they judg it most edifying the Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation only let them do it plainly easily purely and sincerely according to Scripture and not with Innovations of their own His 2d Particular I expected would have been a Question also as he promised but he had either forgot his Promise or changed his Mind and so he puts the Case categorically thus I hope says Mr. Dean he that is the melancholy Stander-by does not propose this Negative Belief as he calls it as a Term of Communion that though we know them to deny the Trinity and Incarnation yet if they will agree not publickly to oppose and contradict this Faith we shall receive them to our Communion Now though he has not proposed this in form of a Question yet I will answer it with a very short one Why not At least as far forth as we know that is as they profess they can in Conscience join with us Nay has not Mr. Dean done it or would he not in the Case I shall now put namely Suppose him or me to be in the Pulpit beginning our Prayer before Sermon either as some do with the Collect Prevent us O Lord c. or with some Form or Conceptions of our own in which notwithstanding is nothing of Controversy intermix'd and to subjoin to our own Prayer that of our Lord's Suppose in like manner after Sermon we should use either that Collect Grant we beseech thee c. or some Prayer of our own and then give the Blessing to the whole Congregation promiscuously Admit now that in the Beginning of our very first Prayer we should have seen a Person whom we know to be a good Liver and professing the common Christianity in other Points but so unhappy as that he cannot be convinced of the Doctrine of three Persons in the Godhead as it is ordinarily taught or of the Incarnation of the second Person though he does from his Heart believe and confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and hold all other the Articles of the Apostles Creed would or should either Mr. Dean or I in such case stop as soon as we saw that Person in the Congregation and bid him go out refusing he should join with us in those Prayers or receive his Share in that Blessing to both which he heartily says Amen that is Shall I not admit him to Communion as far as I know he does consent and desire to communicate with me and other Orthodox Christian People I know the Story of St. John the Evangelist and Cerinthus but Cerinthus was anotherguise Heretick than such Person as in the Character supposed I might animadvert as I pass that in pag. 27. Mr. Dean imputes sundry Points very iniquitously stated to the Socinians which yet they hold not as he states them I am not concerned to defend the Socinian Errors but as I love Truth and Peace I cannot forbear observing that he here wrongs them First as to what he speaks of the Object of Christian Worship if he as some in the World had had personal dealing with the Generality of his Parishioners as to Matters of Conscience he would say that the Ignorance of many Church-People and so the Errors of their Conceptions both touching God and touching the three Persons in the Godhead much more alter as to them the Object of the Christian Worship than do the Errors of the Socinians Again whereas he says the Socinians deny that the Son of God offered himself a Sacrifice to expiate our Sins I do so far depend upon my Memory as to avow they affirm our Lord Jesus to have been Victimam verè expiatoriam a Sacrifice truly expiatory they are the Words of the Author of the short Exposition of the Apostles Creed whether Slicktingius as I rather think or Crellius I cannot now tell having not seen my Book divers Years Nor do they deny the Love of God to Mankind in giving his only Son to be our Prophet and Saviour and Redeemer too nor his Intercession as their High Priest in virtue of his Blood shed as an Atonement for our Sins They differ from us perhaps in explaining the Nature of Expiation and Satisfaction but both an Expiation and a Satisfaction they allow Some Men write against them without understanding them But I forbear further intermeddling in these kinds of Injuries though to use Mr. Dean's Words it were easy to enlarge on this Argument I am not writing a Defence Pag. 28. of the Socinians only I am vindicating a peaceable Design in a Man that is none but loves Godliness Vertue and good Works where-ever he meets with them and who may chance sooner to perswade many Socinians to be silent by making it apparent he would not wrong them however odious others make them by unjust Charges than will those be able who try their Skill and strain their Veracity in fierce and haughty Disputes against them Men may have Wit enough if they have Justice done them to understand when it is fit to be quiet who will scarce sit down silent under publick Calumnies In the next Place Mr. Dean falls upon me for saying very much is done §. 25. namely for present Union by the late Act in Favour of Dissenters and taxes me here again according to his wonted Civility with pretending to give Account of Acts of Parliament as I do of other Books without seeing them A strange kind of Incredulity touching my Reading has possess'd this Gentleman Must I not be believed to have read Books except I produce Witnesses that heard or saw me read them I can produce Witnesses now in London where I bought this