Considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the Trinity by Dr. Wallis, Dr. Sherlock, Dr. S-th, Dr. Cudworth, and Mr. Hooker as also on the account given by those that say the Trinity is an unconceivable and inexplicable mystery / written to a person of quality. Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719. 1693 Approx. 147 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 18 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A52608 Wing N1505B ESTC R32239 12567380 ocm 12567380 63367 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A52608) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 63367) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1022:7) Considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the Trinity by Dr. Wallis, Dr. Sherlock, Dr. S-th, Dr. Cudworth, and Mr. Hooker as also on the account given by those that say the Trinity is an unconceivable and inexplicable mystery / written to a person of quality. Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719. Wallis, John, 1616-1703. Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 35 p. s.n.], [London : MDCXCIII [1693] Attributed to Nye by Wing and NUC pre-1956 imprints. Place of publication suggested by NUC pre-1956 imprints. Incorrectly listed in reel guide as Wing N1505a. Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Trinity -- Early works to 1800. 2003-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-01 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2005-01 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion CONSIDERATIONS ON THE EXPLICATIONS OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY , By Dr. Wallis , Dr. Sherlock , Dr. S — th , Dr. Cudworth , and Mr. Hooker ; as also on the Account given by those that say , the Trinity is an Unconceivable and Inexplicable Mystery . Written to a Person of Quality . Printed in the Year MDCXCIII . CONSIDERATIONS on the Explication of the Doctrine of the Trinity , &c. SIR , 't is the principal Design of both Testaments , by Confession of all Parties , to estabish the Worship and Belief of one only God ; 't was for this that all the Books of the Old Testament were written , and delivered to the Jews ; and for this the New was bestowed on the Gentiles . Of Jews and Gentiles , as the Apostle observes , There were none that understood , none that sought after ( the true ) God : They were all gone out of the way ; they became vain in their Imaginations , and their foolish Heart was darkened : Professing to be wise , they became Fools ; and changed the Truth of God into a Lie , by worshipping the Creature , and doing Service to them who were not by Nature Gods. This was the Condition of both Jews and Gentiles , when first the Law , and then the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ , who is the Image of God , shone out upon them . In the Law , the Jews were charged , Ye shall have no other Gods but ME : and again , Thou shalt know no other God but ME. In the Gospel the Gentiles are taught , There is one God , and there is none other but He : There is no other God but one ; God is one . Exod. 20. 3. Hosea 13. 4. Mark 12. 32. 1 Cor. 8. 5. Gal. 3. 20. These and an hundred more such like , clear and express Declarations of holy Scripture , have been the occasion , that the Unity of God , or that there is but one God , is the first Article of Faith , both with Jews and ( true ) Christians . From the Christians and Jews , it hath been learned and embraced by all the Mahometans , and is now the general Belief even of the Pagan and Idolatrous Nations : for tho these last own and worship many Gods , yet they ( commonly ) own but one who is Supream , Infinite , Almighty and Pre-eternal ; they make the other Deities to be but the Ministers of his Providence and Will , and their Mediators with Him. But that there is an Almighty and All-wise Mind , the Maker of Heaven and Earth , and of all the Creatures and Kinds in them , we discern plainly by the Order , Beauty and Stability of Things ; and more especially , by the admirable Designs in the Whole , and in all the Parts of the Creation : But as this Divine Beauty and Order , and those numberless and most useful Designs , Aims and Ends seen in the Creation , do evince that there is a Thinking , Designing and All-powerful Mind , whom we call GOD ; so they no way intimate to us , that there is more than one Creating and Governing Mind , or GOD. They demonstrate to us ( beyond exception ) that one such Mind there is , but not that there is more than one : therefore we may say , that we can own and worship but one such Mind , or but one God , because we know of no more . Of one we are certain , by the Order and Design of the Parts in the World : of more than one , we have no manner of Proof ; therefore we cannot own , or worship , or but talk , or even think of more . But the Revelation made to us in holy Scripture is Categorical , Apodictical , Express and Direct : there we are told plainly , and in terms , There is no other God but one ; there is one God , and there is none other but He ; the Lord thy God , the Lord is one ; God is one . As this Doctrine is so clearly delivered in Scripture , so good Christians have been always very jealous ; that neither directly nor indirectly , neither in express Words nor in Consequence , any thing should be said or held contrary thereto . They have considered , that Polytheism and Atheism are much the same thing : as 't is much one to acknowledg , and contend for more Kings of England , others besides King William , and to renounce or deny him to be King of England . Both the Covenants , the Old as well as the New , are between Us on the one part , and the one true God on the other part : he covenants to be our God , and our exceeding great Reward ; we covenant to be his People , and his only : this Covenant is manifestly dissolved , and the Premium , or Promise of Eternal Life , annexed to our Faithfulness to this Covenant , is utterly forfeited ; if we take to our selves any other , besides Him with whom we are in covenant , and who alone is true God. The Guilt of Polytheism , or of affirming more than one God , being so very great ; and the Forfeiture thereby made so unspeakable , and the Unity of God being so often and so expresly delivered in holy Scripture ; 't is an amazing Circumstance , that Polytheism is not only found among Christians , but is also the more general and prevailing Belief of Christian States and Kingdoms . It is true , we all agree in the words , There is one God , and there is none other but He : but when we come to explain our selves on these words , the incomparable Majority of Modern Christians are found to affirm three Gods , and not one only . One would have thought that these words , Thou shalt have no other Gods but ME , the Lord thy God is one Lord , thou shalt know no other God but ME , there is none other God but one , God is one : I say , one would have thought these Declarations to be so plain , and so uncontestable , that a Question could never have arose concerning their meaning . But so it is , that there are a great many Senses given of these Words , which Senses are contrary to , and destructive of one another . The Doctrine of the Unitarians concerning God. THe first of these Senses is the Unitarian . For the Unitarians say , there is none other God but one , God is one ; the plain , obvious and indubitable meaning of these words is this , there is but One , who is God , or a God : One God , say they , is to be understood in the same natural , sincere and unsophisticated Sense ; as when we say one Sun , one Earth , one World. When the Scriptures , say they , speak to us of so high an Object as God ; when they tell us , there is one God , and there is none other but He ; when they declare this Faith to be the very first of all God's Charges , or Commandments to Men ; without doubt they speak without Artifice or Querk , they have no double or deceitful meaning ; they don't lay Snares for us , by intending such a meaning as is contrary to the usual , the grammatical and proper Sense of the Words . There is but one God , say the Holy Scriptures ; where can be the Ambiguity of such usual and plain Words ? the meaning of the Terms One and God , is perfectly known to all Men ; Why do we study Subtilties and Finenesses , with which to deceive our selves into Polytheism , and to destroy the Simplicity of the Faith ? When God says in the first Commandment ; Thou shalt have no other God but Me , he speaks to all Men , to the illiterate , to the sincere , and even to Children , as well as to those who are practised in the Arts of deceiving and being deceived , by a Disguise of Words , and by captious Forms of speaking . If his meaning therefore was , there is an Almighty Father , who is God ; he hath an Almighty Son , who also is a God ; and besides these , there is an Almighty Spirit distinct from the other two , and a God no less than either of them : if ( I say ) this was his meaning , would he have couched it in such words as these , There is none other God but one ? or in these , There is one God , and there is none other but He ? or would he have said , Thou shalt have none other God but ME ? Could the Wisdom of God it self find no other words but these , which are so directly contrary to such a meaning , by which to express himself ; and that too to those who were utterly uncapable of apprehending such a Sense in them ? These are the words which God spake upon Mount Sinai , with Thunders that shook the Earth and Heavens , I am the Lord thy God , thou shalt have no other God but ME. They tell us his meaning was , there are three Almighty , All-knowing , and Most good Persons , each of them ( singly and by himself ) God , and all of them jointly Creators of all things : Now who would have thought it , that this should be the meaning of no other God but ME ? Without doubt , the Texts and the meaning are as far from one another , as any the most contradictory Propositions can be : and till they can remove this first Commandment out of the way , it will be impossible for Men of Sense to be of the Trinitarian Perswasion ; I mean , if they be also sincere , if they suffer not themselves to be blinded by the Interests , or awed by the ( vain ) Terrors of the present false World. Our Opposers themselves grant , that when the Israelites first heard this Commandment , they understood it , and could then no otherways understand it , as the Unitarians now do , namely thus , Thou shalt never own any other Person as God , but only Me who now speak to thee . God Almighty suffered this Sense of his Words to pass current for upwards of 1500 Years : But then , say they , he sent our Saviour and his Apostles to give another Sense of them ; nay , a contrary Sense . The Apostles and our Saviour had it in Charge to tell us , that no other God but Me , was as much as to say , God the Father , and God his Son , and God the Holy Ghost , three Divine Persons , each of them Almighty , each of them All-knowing and most Good , and each of them God. But I verily think , had the Apostles indeed pretended this to be the Interpretation of the first Commandment , they would not have found a single Person who would have believed or received them . For these good Men had not ( nor desired ) Penal Laws , Prisons , Confiscations , Deprivations , Exclusions from the common Privileges of the Society , by which to awe Mens Minds , to profess , and even to believe that black is white , and white is black . It would have been told them by all their Hearers , that the Sense of Words is unalterable ; and that even the greatest Miracles cannot authorize an Interpretation evidently contrary to the Text. If the Speaker had been only a Man , yet the Sense of his Words when actually spoken , can never be changed by any Authority whatsoever : If Heaven and Earth were miraculously destroyed to confirm an Interpretation that disagrees with the Natural and Grammatical Sense of the Words , it will ( for all that ) ever remain a false Interpretation . Cardinal Bellarmine is extreamly puzled with this Difficulty ; he saw plainly , that the first Commandment ( and other Texts of the Law ) is conceived in such words , that the Israelites could not think there were three Divine Persons , but only one Divine Person . But the Reason , saith he , of this was , because the Israelites having lived long in a Nation where they owned and worshipp'd many Gods ; if they had been told of three Divine-Persons , ( or of God the Father , God his Son , and God the Holy Ghost ) they would most certainly have apprehended them to be three Gods. This , saith the Cardinal , is the Reason why the Doctrine of the Trinity was reserved to the Times of the New Testament . Bellarm. de Christo , l. 2. c. 6. Notandum est , Deum in vetteri Testamento noluisse proponere Mysterium Triuitatis expresse , quia Judaei incapaces erant , & quia recens exierant de Egypto , ubi colebantur multi Dii , & intraturi erant in terram Chanaan , ubi etiam multi babebantur Dii , ne videlicet putarent , sibi tres Deos proponi colendos● voluisse tamen Deum adumbrare hoc Mysterium ; ut cum in Novo Testamento praedicaretur , non videretur omnino Novum . q. d. The Doctrine of the Trinity was not propounded expresly to the Jews in the Old Testament ; they were uncapable of it , because coming out of Egypt where many Gods were worshipped , and entering into Canaan where also many Gods were acknowledged , the Jews would have thought that three Gods had been propounded to them to be worshipped . Nevertheless it was hinted , or shadowed to them , lest when it came to be preached in the New Testament , it should seem altogether a new thing . In reading the Works of this Cardinal , I have often had this Thought , That provided his Works were but bulky and learned , he never cared what other Property they wanted : no one can deny that his five Books against the Unitarians , intituled by him De Christo , are the most learned of any that have been written against us ; but they have no Wit , and are ( throughout ) most injudicious . What can be more unthought or silly , for instance , than this vain Elusion ? God speaks to the Jews , saith he , as if he were but one Person , because they ( living among People who acknowledged many Gods ) would have mistaken three Divine Persons to be three Gods. How came it to be more safe or seasonable , or less liable to Misinterpretation , to instruct Christians in the Belief of three Divine Persons ; than it would have been to teach the same Belief to the Jews ? The Jews , saith the Cardinal , would have mistaken , they would have thought the Trinity ( an Almighty Father , an Almighty Son , and an Almighty Spirit ) to be three Almighties , and three Gods ; so this Mystery was not preached to them . What a Narrowness of Thought and Consideration is implied in this Answer ; for , was not the whole Christian Church taken from among such Nations , who all worshipped and owned many Gods ? The Reason alledged by the Cardinal , if it were good for any thing , must also have prevented the Revelation of that ( pretended ) Mystery to any of the Christian Nations and Churches . I might also ask the Cardinal , why he hath so much better Thoughts of Athanasius , than of Moses , and the Prophets ? Athanasius knew how to compose a Trinitarian Creed , in the most express and particular manner , that might be delivered out to all the Churches , without the least danger of leading them into any Mistake about it : but Moses and the Prophets , tho inspired by God , wanted this Dexterity . They , poor Men , were forced to speak ( falsly ) of God , as if he were but one Person , not a Trinity of Persons , lest they should commit some dangerous Blunder in the wording of their Doctrine , and so lay an occasion of Polytheism in the way of the Jewish Church ; but Athanasius , and the Nicene Fathers have happily got over this Difficulty , they have blest the Christian Churches with a pair of Creeds , worth an hundred first Commandments . But to be short ; the Unitarian Explication of the Texts , which say there is but one God , is , that there is but one who is God , or but one Divine Person , but one who is Almighty , All-knowing , and perfectly Good. Our very Opposers confess that this was the antient and first Sense of the Words , so the Faithful understood them for 1500 Years together . They confess too , 't is a very Natural and a very Rational Sense ; that it hath no Difficulties , no Mysteries or Monstrosities in it . They are constrained also to own , that the before-mentioned Texts alledged by the Unitarians , are so read in all Copies both of the Hebrew and Greek , and can no other ways be rendred from the Original Text ; or more clearly thus , as to these Texts there is no Variety or Difference in the reading , in the Copies of the Original , nor any Uncertainty in the Translations of those Copies . This is a very great matter , and cannot be said , nor is so much as pretended , for the Texts are urged by Trinitarians ; they have been often challenged to produce but one Text for their Doctrine of the Trinity : but either 't is otherwise read in the most Antient and Eminent Copies of the Greek and Hebrew , or 't is easily and naturally render'd and translated to another Sense ; or 't is given up by their own ( ablest ) Interpreters and Criticks , as wholly impertinent , and no Proof of the Doctrine in question . From these confest and acknowledg'd Premises , we have these two necessary and unavoidable Consequences . 1. That the Account which the Unitarians give of God , and his Unity , is the very Voice of Nature and Reason , supported by such Texts of holy Scripture , as have neither Uncertainty nor Ambiguity . 2. That the Trinitarian Faith is at best but precarious , uncertain and doubtful ; because it is not only disclaimed by Reason , but it hath no other Scripture-Proofs but such , concerning which there is no Certainty , either how they are to be read in the Originals , or how they are to be translated from the Originals into the Modern Languages . No Faith or Doctrine whatsoever can be more certain than the Proofs are on which 't is grounded : if those Proofs are of suspected Authority and Credit , or of uncertain meaning and sense , the Doctrine it self must be altogether uncertain , suspicious and precarious . But because you expect from me a Letter , not a Volume , I will say no more now of the Unitarian Hypothesis , but will briefly ( as I can ) compare and consider the Hypotheses , or Explications advanced by our Opposers . Of the Explication by Dr. J. Wallis . ALL Men know , that the Difference between the Unitarians and their Opposers the Trinitarians , is ( in few words ) this , Whether there be more than one Divine Person , or more than one Person , who is true and most High God ? The Unitarians say there can be but one Divine Person ; because , not to mention the Scripture-Proofs of it , a Divine Person being as much as to say a Divinity , or a God ; if you say , there are more Divine Persons , you therein and thereby say there are more Gods. As three Angelical Persons are three Angels , and three Human Persons are three Men : so three Divine Persons in Grammar and common Sense , are three Divinities ; which ( all grant ) is as much as to say three Gods. So they . But , saith Dr. Wallis , Here 's a reasoning why 't is grounded on this silly Mistake , that a Divine Person is as much as to say a Divinity , or a God ; when indeed a Divine Person is only a Mode , a Respect , or Relation of God to his Creatures . He beareth to his Creatures these three Relations , Modes , or Respects , that he is their Creator , their Redeemer , and their Sanctifier : this is what we mean , and all we mean , when we say God is three Persons ; he hath those three Relations to his Creature , and is thereby no more three Gods , than he was three Gods to the Jews , because he calleth himself the God of Abraham , the God of Isaac , and the God of Jacob. Three Human Persons , say the Socinians , are tres Homines , or three Men , and three Angelical Persons are three Angels ; therefore three Divine Persons are , in Grammar and common Sense , three Divinities , or Gods : Where , I pray , did they learn this Stuff ? Not from Tully ; that learned Orator , and great Master and Director of elegant and proper speaking , would have taught them , that an Human Person is not as much as to say Homo , or a Man , but is a Qualification , a Capacity , a Respect , or Relation of one Man to other Men. n●o unus tres Personas , saith Tully ; i. e. I being but one Man do sustain ( or am ) three Persons , that of my self , that of my Adversary ; and that of a Judg. See here , one Man sustains ( or is ) three Persons , an Advocate , an Accuser , and a Judg , without being three Men : Why should it be thought incredible , or harsh , to say with the Church , three Divine Persons are but one God , when Tully maketh those three other Persons to be but one Man ? This is the Sum of what Dr. Wallis hath said in eight printed Letters , and in three Sermons that were preached to the University of Oxford . Sermons that have been preached to the University , and not censured by them , must be supposed to contain nothing Heretical , no nor Dangerous , Scandalous , or Heterodox . But besides that these Sermons have passed so great a Test , as that of the University of Oxford , the Doctor assureth us , that he hath been thank'd and complemented , in a great number of private Letters , on account of his Sermons and Letters : some of these Letters written to him have been published ; and it doth appear , they were indeed written by able Men. We must also take notice of two other Considerations in favour of these Letters and Sermons of Dr. Wallis : the first is , that Dr. S — th ( Author of the Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock ) having taken particular notice of the Letters written by and to Dr. Wallis , speaks respectfully of the Authors of them , calling them Reverend and very Learned Persons , without making the least Reflection on his Doctrine , as Heretical , or as Heterodox . The second is , Dr. Sherlock himself , tho Dr. Wallis had expresly said in his Answer to W. I. that Dr. Sherlock's Doctrine doth imply Tritheism , and that so much had been proved upon him by W. I. yet does Dr. Sherlock , who is so little wonted to carry Coals , pass by this Affront and Imputation which no Clergy-man ought to bear ; nay he even fawns upon the Oxford Doctor , in his late Answer to the Stander by . But a very surprizing thing hath happened ; Dr. Wallis writes in Defence of the Trinity and the Athanasian Creed ; his Explications are allowed by the University of Oxford , and even applauded by great numbers of Learned Men who profess to be Trinitarians : and yet after all , the Socinians in their Observations on the Letters of Dr. Wallis , profess that they are of his Mind ; they even say , that in Honour of him they are content to be called Wallisians . This is very odd ; for it follows , that either the Socinians are the true Orthodox , and their Opposers Tritheists ; or else , that this good Doctor is a Socinian , and knows it not . Those that say , without doubt the Socinians understand their own Doctrine , are very picquant upon Dr. Wallis ; they pretend themselves very desirous to be informed , what might be in the Doctor 's Mind , to apologize for the Athanasian Creed and the Trinity , and yet to asperse at the same time his own Patriarch Socinus , and his dear and close Friends and Brethren the Unitarians ; especially in such an hainous manner as we see in his third and fourth Letters . They say , either the Man is Wood , or he has written after that fashion , only to give occasion to the Socinians , as in effect it also happened , to appear more bright , by a thorow and unanswerable Vindication of themselves : for so it is , that wronged Innocence and Vertue are rendred more conspicuous and lovely , when injurious Calumnies are wiped off . They say farther , that 't is not to be much regarded that so many have complemented Dr. Wallis for his Letters ; for what Assurance have we that the Writers of them are not secret Socinians , and that they only banter the good Doctor ? As for the University of Oxford , to whom these Sabellian and Unitarian Sermons were preached , 't is very usual for the old Men that preside in that University , to sleep at Sermons , especially at dull ones . But you are not to think , say they , that these Sermons or Letters were ever licensed to the Press by the University ; or that the Doctors there understand so little , as to mistake a disguised Sabellianism or Socinianism , for the Trinity of the Catholick Church . The three Persons , says Dr. Wallis , are but three Relations , Capacities , or Respects of God to his Creatures ; he is their Creator , Redeemer and Sanctifier ; and in this Sense of the word Person , God is three Persons . But then because God hath also the Capacity or Relation of a Judg , and of an Oeconomus , or Provider , and many more ; we must not say that God is only three Persons , he is five at the least , besides I know not how many more . Furthermore , this new-fangled Socinian or Sabellian has introduced a Trinity of Divine Persons ; that were but of yesterday . The Churches Trinity are all of them from all Eternity ; Co-eternal , saith the Athanasian Creed ; before all Worlds , saith the Nicene Creed : but Dr. Wallis his three Divine Persons , the first of them begins with the Creation , and the second is no older than the Crucifixion of our Saviour ; for God was not a Creator before he created any thing ; nor a Redeemer , till those words were spoken by our Saviour on the Cross , It is finished , i. e. The great Work of Redemption is accomplished . The three Divine Persons believed by the Church , begat one another after a wonderful manner : Will Dr. Wallis , being the oldest Divine of England , instruct Novices that are desirous to learn , how his Persons begat one another ? How did Creation beget Redemption , and from all Eternity , that is , before either of them were ; for Creation it self is but Coeval with the World : and how was Sanctification , we must not say begotten , for that 's Heresy when you speak of a third Person ; but how did it proceed from Creation , and from Redemption ? Dr. Wallis , say they , will find it as hard to account for these Difficulties , as to double the Cube , or even to square the Circle , which the most learned Mathematicians think to be impossible . He is not , say they , to think that he is Orthodox , because he hath escaped the heavy cudgelling that hath all fallen on Dr. Sherlock ; 't is not because his Doctrine , but because his Luck hath been better than that Doctor 's . In a word , whereas the Church believes three real subsisting Persons , Dr. Wallis hath taught a Trinity of External Denominations , or Accidental Predications only . Creation , Redemption and Sanctification are Acts of God's free and soveraign Will : he was under no necessity to create , to redeem , or to sanctify ; they are all Effects of his most voluntary and every way free Love : if therefore the Mystery of the Trinity , so much hitherto contested , be nothing else but Almighty God , considered as the Maker , Redeemer and Sanctifier of his Creatures ; 't is a Trinity only of three Denominations or Names , and of Predications purely Accidental ; and besides that , 't is no manner of Mystery , but the most intelligible and obvious thing in the Word ; nor was it ever denied , either by Sabellians or Socinians . Thus it is , Sir , that divers learned Persons speak concerning the Trinity maintained by Dr. Wallis : I , for my part , will add nothing to the Observations I have formerly made on Dr. Wallis his Letters ; only ( I pray ) take notice here with me , how well the Cadmean Brethren agree among themselves . Three Divine Persons , saith Dr. Wallis , are the three Relations of God to his Creatures ; he made , he redeemed , he sanctifies them ; this is the Holy Trinity . Out upon it , saith Dr. Sherlock , 't is Nonsense and Heresy both ; for the Divine Persons are three Beings , three Minds , three Spirits , all of them living , subsisting , and conscious to one another . No , no , that 's as much too much , saith Dr. S — th , 't is neither so nor so , but as I have explained it in my eighth Chapter of Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock . The Explication of the Trinity by Dr. Sherlock , saith Dr. S — th , is a treacherous and a false Defence of that Mystery ; he hath advanced a Notion , that immediately and unavoidably infers three Gods : and if he had lived in the times of the sixth General Council , he would have incurred the Penalty of Deprivation . Pref. p. 2 , 7 , & 8. Well , I hope Dr. S — th hath at length told us the very true Doctrine about the Trinity . Yes , he hath ( without question ) laid down the very Explication of the Schools , the Doctrine or Explication generally received in Universities ; I doubt not it would be approved by most of the Chairs of our European Universities , or Schools of Learning : he hath verily acquitted himself like a Man of Learning and Wit. For all that , Dr. Cudworth , in his Intellectual System , hath largely and clearly proved these two things . 1. That this Trinity of the Schools is quite different from the Trinity held by the Fathers , and that by them it would have been reckoned no other than Sabellianism . 2. That as the first Inventors of it were Peter Lombard and the Schoolmen ; so it hath no other publick Authority , but that of the Fourth Lateran Council , held in the Year 1215. He saith , 't is a gross piece of Nonsense ; that it falleth not under Human Conception ; neither ( saith he ) can it be in Nature . This is the Judgment , which this great Philosopher and Divine maketh , of the Explication propounded and defended in Dr. S — th's Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock . And in very deed , Dr. S — th's Explication can ( fitly and properly ) be called by no other Name , but an absurd Socinianism , or Socinianism turn'd into Ridicule ; as we shall see , when we come to consider it , in particular . Mr. Hooker , the celebrated Author of the Ecclesiastical Polity , giveth yet another Explication of the Trinity ; he descibeth it to be the Divine Essence , distinguished by three Internal and Relative Properties : this Explication differs as much from Dr. Wallis as any of the rest ; for Dr. Wallis's three Persons are all of them External Denominations or Predications . But these Differences , Sir , among our Opposers , will appear to you most clearly , without my needing to point at them ; in the Accounts I am about to give , of their several Explications of their Trinity , and the Observations I shall make on them . Therefore I pass on , to the Explication given us by Dr. Sherlock . Of the Explication by Dr. W. Sherlock . FOR Memory and Method's sake , and because the Division is so just ; we may distinguish the Accounts , or Explications of the Trinity contrived by our Opposers ; after this manner . There is , first , the Trinity according to Tully , or the Ciceronian Trinity ; which maketh the three Divine Persons , to be nothing else but three Conceptions of God ; or God conceived of as the Creator , the Redeemer , and Sanctifier of his Creatures . Dr. Wallis , after many others , hath propounded and asserted this Trinity , in his Letters , and his Sermons to the Patris conscripti at Oxford . He found in Tully , Sustineo unus tres Personas ; of which he mistaketh the meaning to be , I being but one Man , yet AM three Persons : saith the Doctor hereupon ; Why may not God be three Persons ; as well as one Man was three Persons ? The next is the Cartesian Trinity , or the Trinity according to Des Cartes : which maketh three Divine Persons , and three Infinite Minds , Spirits and Beings , to be but one God ; because they are mutually , and internally , and universally conscious to each others Thoughts : Mr. Des Cartes had made this Inventum to be the first Principle and Discovery in Philosophy , Cogito , ergo sum ; I think , therefore I am : and he will have the very Nature of a Mind or Spirit to consist in this , that 't is a thinking Being . Therefore , says Dr. Sherlock , three Persons can be no otherways one God , but by Unity of Thought ; or what will amount to as much , as internal and perfect Consciousness to one anothers Thoughts . Any one may see , that Dr. Sherlock's Mutual Consciousness , by which he pretends to explain his Trinity in Unity , was by him borrowed from the Meditations and Principles of Monsieur Des Cartes : his System was hinted to him , by that unhappy Philosopher who hath razed ( as much as in him lay ) the only Foundation of Religion ; by resolving ( so absurdly , as well as impiously ) the Original of the World and of all Things , not into the Contrivance and Power of an Almighty and All-wise Mind , but into the Natural Tendencies of Bodies , or as he calls them , the Laws of Motion . The Third is the Trinity of Plato , or the Platonick Trinity ; maintained by Dr. Cudworth , in his Intellectual System . This Trinity is of three Divine Co-eternal Persons , whereof the second and third are subordinate or inferior to the first ; in Dignity , Power , and all other Qualities , except only Duration . Yet they are but one God , saith he ; because they are not three Principles , but only one ; the Essence of the Father being the Root , and Fountain of the Son and Spirit : and because the three Persons are gathered together under one Head , even the Father . This , saith Dr. Cudworth , is the Trinity of Plato , and the genuine Platonists ; and is the only true Trinity : all other Trinitarians besides the Platonists , are but Nominal Trinitarians ; and the Trinities they hold , are not Trinities of subsisting Persons , but either of Names and Denominations only , or of partial and inadequate Conceptions . The fourth is the Trinity according to Aristotle , or the Aristotelian or Peripatetick Trinity ; which saith , the Divine Persons are one God , because they have the same Numerical Substance , or one and the self-same Substance , in Number : and tho each of the three Persons is Almighty , All-knowing , and most Good ; yet 't is by one individual and self-same Power , Knowledge and Goodness , in Number . This may be called also the Reformed Trinity , and the Trinity of the Schools ; because the Divines of the middle Ages , reformed the Tritheistick and Platonick Trinity of the Fathers , into this Sabellian Jargonry ; as Dr. Cudworth , often and deservedly , calleth it . This is the Trinity intended by Dr. S — th , in his Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock , especially at chap. 8. The Author or first Contriver of it , was Peter Lombard , Master of the Sentences , and Bishop of Paris , who died in the Year 1164. It never had any other Publick Authority , saith Dr. Cudworth , but that of the fourth Lateran Council ; which is reckoned by the Papists among the General Councils , and was convened in the Year 1215. He might have added , that the Doctrine of P. Lombard was disliked and opposed by divers Learned Men , and censured by Alexander the Third , and other Popes ; till Pope Innocent the Third declared it to be Orthodox . It may be not unprobably said , that an Unitarian was the true Parent of it ; for 't is said , that Peter Lombard took his four Books of Sentences , for so much as concerneth the Trinity , out of a Book of P. Abelardus concerning the same . To this Trinity ( of Aristotle and the Schools ) we must reckon the Trinity of Properties ; which ( we shall see hereafter ) is so variously explained , as to make even divers sorts of Trinities : yet I refer all the Property-Trinities to this fourth Distinction of Trinities , the Trinity according to Aristotle ; because they are all grounded , on the abstracted or Metaphysical and Logical Notions , of that Philosopher ; nor can they be understood , without some Knowledge of his Philosophy . We must add to all these , the Trinity of the Mobile ; or the Trinity held by the common People , and by those ignorant or lazy Doctors , who in Compliance with their Laziness or their Ignorance , tell you in short , that the Trinity is an unconceivable , and therefore an inexplicable Mystery ; and that those are as much in fault , who presume to explain it , as those who oppose it . I have propounded to my self , to discourse briefly on all these Trinities ; I have begun with the Trinity of Marcus Tullius Cicero , or , if he pleases , of Dr. Wallis : I have said of it , as much as is necessary ; the next is the Trinity according to the Philosopher Des Cartes , but the Discoverer of which is Dr. Sherlock . When Dr. Sherlock came out with his Vindication , in Answer to the Brief History of the Unitarians , and the Brief Notes on the Creed of Athanasius : the more ignorant of the Doctors and Rectors , and all the young Fry of Lecturers and Readers about Town , were his Hawkers to cry it about , and cry it up . They questioned not , what such a Master in Polemicks had delivered ; especially with so much Assurance and Confidence , and with so much Keenness , and Contempt of the poor kick'd Note-maker , and Epistler . But the more learned among them , said from the very first ; that indeed Dr. Sherlock meant honestly , and he might have propounded this Explication to his private Friends , to be considered and debated : but it was liable to too many obvious Exceptions , to be published to all the World ; without great Corrections , in the manner of Expression . But the Socinians presently saw their Advantage ; and resolved to make use of it : accordingly , in about four or five Weeks time , out came their Observations on the Vindication of Dr. Sherlock ; which in some Editions of them are prefaced , with the Acts or Gests of Athanasius . Here they tell the Doctor , that he hath published a worse Heresy , than even ours is held to be , by our bitterest Opposers ; in one word , that he hath revived Paganism by such an Explication of the Trinity , as undeniably introduces Tritheism , or three Gods. They show him , that his Error was condemned by the Antients in the Person of Philoponus ; and in the middle Ages in the Person and Writings of Abbat Joachim : but more severely since the Reformation , in the Person of Valentinus Gentilis ; who was condemned at Geneva , and beheaded at Bern , for this very Doctrine . They demonstrate to him , by a great many unexceptionable Arguments , that a Mutual Consciousness of three ( supposed ) Divine Spirits and Minds , having each of them his own peculiar and Personal Understanding , Will and Power of Action , is so far from making three such Spirits to be one God in number ; that 't is the clearest and the certainest Demonstration , that they are three Gods. Mutual-Consciousness maketh them to be a Consult or Council , a Cabal or Senate of Gods , if you will ; but by no means , one Numerical God , or one God in Number . The Observations of the Socinians opened all Mens Eyes , to see and acknowledg , that Dr. Sherlock had greatly overshot the Mark ; and that it was necessary , he should yield his Place to some new Opponent , who ( in these Disputes with the Socinians ) would speak more cautiously . All Endeavours therefore were used by his Friends , to perswade Dr. Sherlock to be quiet : and because such an Example had been made of him , they stopped a while all Sermons and other Tracts , that were going to the Press against the Socinians . The Politicians among them feared the Success of a War , that in its Beginnings had been so unsuccessful : they said to one another , we need not trouble our selves with the Socinians ; because being Masters of all the Pulpits , we can sufficiently dispose the People to the Orthodox Belief , without the help of printed Answers and Replies . 'T is about three Years , since these Observations on Dr. Sherlock's Vindication were made publick ; and all this time , he hath very peaceably taken the Imputations of Heresy , and Paganism ; tho he had said in the Preface to his Vindication , That having dipped his Pen in the Vindication of so glorious a Cause , by the Grace of God he would never desert it , while be could hold a Pen in his Hand . The Socinians did not design to give him any farther Trouble : but Dr. S — th not able to endure , that such Aspersions should lie at the Door of the Church ; could not refrain from declaring to all the World ; that the Church had suffered nothing , in the Defeat of Dr. Sherlock . He professeth , that the Charge drawn up against Dr. Sherlock , by the Socinians , is true ; for he hath in very deed advanced an Explication of the Trinity , saith Dr. S — th , which immediately and unavoidably inferreth three Gods. Pref. p. 2. It not being the Design of Dr. S — th , in his Animadversions , to prove the Truth of the Doctrine of the Trinity ; but only to explain or declare it , that is , to notify in what Sense and manner 't is held by the Church : we must say , that his Performance is an accurate , and learned Work. He concerneth not himself with the Socinians ; but only rescues the received Doctrines of the Church , from the Misrepresentations of them by Dr. Sherlock , who either understood them not , or ventur'd to depart from them . Nor do we concern our selves with Dr. S — th : but whereas he is the only Writer , since the Revival of these Controversies , who has indeed understood what the Church means by a Trinity in Unity ; therefore we must take leave to say , and will also prove it ; that this his true Explication of the Trinity , is ( for all that ) a great Untruth , or rather a great piece of Nonsense . Dr. Sherlock's was a Rational and Intelligible Explication , tho not a true one ; 't is not Orthodox , as Orthodoxy is reckoned since the Lateran Council : Dr. S — th's is a true and Orthodox Explication , of what the Church intends to say ; but 't is neither Rational , nor Intelligible , nor Possible . But of that in its proper place ; for I must next examine the Trinity according to Plato , defended by Dr. Cudworth . Of the Explication by Dr. Cudworth . IT will be necessary , in the first place , to declare Dr. Cudworth's Explication , more largely and clearly , than hath been yet done . In accounting for the Doctrine of the Trinity , he professeth to follow the Platonick Philosophers ; with whom , saith he ( not the Arians , as some suppose , but ) the Orthodox Fathers perfectly agree . These held a Trinity of Divine Persons , Co-eternal indeed ; but not Co-equal : for the Son and Spirit are inferior to the first Person , or the Father , in Dignity , in Authority , and in Power . They are so many distinct Substances ; not one numerical Substance , as hath been taught by the School-Doctors , and the Lateran Council . For tho the Fathers said , that the three Persons have but one and the same Substance , Essence or Nature ; they did not mean thereby one and the self-same Substance or Essence in Number , but the same Essence or Substance for Kind , or Nature . Because each Person of the three , is Spiritual , Eternal , Infinite , a Creator , and necessarily existent , therefore they were said by the Fathers and Platonists , to have the same Nature , Essence or Substance ; and not because their Essences or Substances , Physically or Properly so called , are one and the same Physical Substance in Number . In few words ; saith he , this famous Term Consubstantial ( or of the same Substance ) was never intended by the Platonists , or by the Fathers , to deny ( as the Schools do ) three distinct individual Essences , or to denote one Numerical Substance or Essence ; but only to signify , that the Trinity believed by the Orthodox is not made up of contrary or unlike Natures , ( as the Arian Trinity is ) but of Persons all of them Homogenial , all of them Eternal , Spiritual and Uncreated . They that shall deny this to be the Doctrine of the Fathers , will find themselves obliged to answer to two things , which are indeed ( fairly and truly ) unanswerable : The first is , Why those Fathers who contend for the Homo-ousios ( consubstantial , or of the same Substance ) do yet expresly reject the Tauto-ousios and Mono-ousios , or of the self-same Substance and Essence in Number ? The Tauto-ousios and Mono-ousios ( or of the self-same Essence or Substance , in Number ) is the very Doctrine of the Schools and Moderns ; but is denied by the Fathers , as meer Sabellianism : which invincibly proves , that by one and the same Substance and Essence they meant , not one and the self-same , or one in Number ; but one for Kind , Nature or Properties . Secondly , They must also satisfy the Citations of D. Petavius , and S. Curcellaeus , and these in the Intellectual System ; which do all of them severally ( and much more conjunctly ) clearly show what the Sense of the Fathers was , about Homo-ousios , and consubstantial . It appears by this , and abundance more the like ; that Dr. Cudworth had the same Apprehensions , concerning the three Divine Persons , with Dr. Sherlock : they both apprehend the three Persons to be as distinct and different , and as really three several Intelligent Beings and Substances , as three Angels are , or as Peter , James and John are . Dr. Sherlock saith , they are however called one God , because they are internally conscious to all one anothers Thoughts and Actions : but I do not believe , that Dr. Cudworth would have allowed so much to the Son and Spirit , as to be internally conscious to all the Thoughts and Actions of the first Person ; he always speaketh of them , as every way inferior to the Father : he will not allow them to be Omnipotent in any other respect , but only externally , that is to say , because the Father concurreth Omnipotently to all their external Actions , whether of Creation or Providence . Dr. Cudworth desires to distinguish his Explication , from all others of the Moderns , by this Mark ; that it alloweth not the three Persons to be , in any respect but Duration , Co-equal : for ( saith he ) three distinct Intelligent Natures or Essences , each of them Pre-eternal , Self-existent , and equally Omnipotent ad intra , are of necessity three Gods , nor can we have any other Notion of three Gods ; but if only the first Person be indeed internally Omnipotent , and the other two subordinate in Authority and Power to him , you leave then but one God , only in three Divine Persons . This is Dr. Cudworth's Explication . Every one will readily make this Exception : he thinketh , either that there is one Great God , and two Lesser Ones ; or else only the first is true God , and the other two in Name only . The Doctor foresaw , without doubt , this Objection ; therefore see , how he hath endeavour'd to prevent it . First , he reports some Answers of the Fathers , to this Difficulty ; which Answers he expresly rejecteth . For some of them said , that the three Persons are one God , by their Unity of Will and Affection : Others said , they are one God , as all Men or all Mankind are called Homo , or MAN ; namely because they All have the same Specifick Nature , or Essence , or Substance , even the Rational . For as all Men have the same Specifick Essence or Nature , which is the Rational ; so the Divine Persons also agree in one Nature , namely the Eternal , Spiritual and Self existent . But Dr. Cudworth confesseth , that an Union of Will and Affection is only a Moral Union , not a Physical or real Unity : and as three Human Persons would be three distinct Men , notwithstanding the Moral Union in Affection and Will ; so also the three Divine Persons will be three distinct Gods , notwithstanding such an Union in Will and Affection . As to the other , that the three Persons are but one God , by their having the same Specifick Nature or Essence ; or as some call it Substance , namely because they are all of them Spiritual , Self-existent , and Coeternal ; he calleth it an absurd Paradox , contrary to common Sense , and our common Notions of things : for so all Men will be but one Man , because they have the same Specifick Essence or Nature , namely the Rational ; and all Epicurus his ( Extramundan ) Gods will be but one God. Then , he propoundeth divers other Explications , which he neither approveth , nor expresly rejecteth , tho 't is plain that he disliked them : for the Explication on which he insisteth , and which appears to be his Sense of the matter , is this that follows . The three Divine Persons are one God , because they are not three Principles , but only one ; the Essence of the Father being the Root , and Fountain of the Son and Spirit : and because the three Persons are gathered together under one Head or Chief , even the Father . He adds here expresly , that if the Persons were Co-ordinate , ( i. e. equal in Authority , Dignity , or Power ) they should not be one , but three Gods. This is at large Dr. Cudworth's Opinion : the short of it is ; that the three Persons are as really distinct Beings , Essences , or Substances , as Dr. Sherlock hath imagined them to be . And as their Substances or Natures are not one , but three ; so also must their Understandings , and other Personal Powers and Properties . The Doctors differ only in this ; that Dr. Sherlock maketh the Unity of the three Persons in the Godhead , to consist in the Mutual-Consciousness of the Persons ; But Dr. Cudworth in this , that the Father is both the Principle ( Root or Fountain or Cause ) and also the Head of the other two Persons . They neither of them believe one Numerical , but one Collective God : one God , not who is really one God , but is one God in certain Respects ; as of Mutual Consciousness , or of being the Cause , Principle and Head of all other Beings , and of the second and third Persons . Dr. Cudworth contends by a great number of very Pertinent and Home Quotations ; that his Explication ( I mean , that part of it which makes the three Persons , to be so many distinct Essences or Substances ) is the Doctrine of the Principal , if not of all the Fathers , as well as of the Platonists : and I ( for my own part ) do grant it . For I am perswaded , that no Man hath read the Fathers , with Judgment and Application , but he must discern ; that tho they do not express themselves , in the incautelous , unwary and obnoxious Terms used by Dr. Sherlock , as neither doth Dr. Cudworth ; yet the Fathers as much believed the three Persons are distinct Minds and Spirits , as Dr. Sherlock doth ; all the Difference ( as I said ) is only this , that they and Dr. Cudworth do not use his very Terms . They do not say in express words , three Minds , or three Spirits : but the Comparisons which they use , and their Definitions or Descriptions of what they mean by Persons , are such ; that it cannot be questioned by any , that they apprehended the three Persons , to be three distinct Spirits , Minds and Beings , having each of them his own Understanding , and all other Personal Qualifications . It is indeed apparent Tritheism ; and that was the true Reason , why the Schools advanced a new Explication : but because the Schools durst not find fault with the Fathers , or seem to depart from their Doctrine ; therefore what the Father 's intended of one Specifick Essence , or Nature , or Substance , that the Scools interpreted of one Numerical Substance , Nature or Essence ; but of that hereafter , when we examine their Doctrine in its own place . Dr. Cudworth being so great a Philosopher , as every one knows he was , found himself very hard put to it , what to say ( colourably , and reasonably ) concerning the Persons of the Trinity . He saw , that either he must say , that they are but one self-same Essence or Substance , in Number ; or that they have distinct and several Substances or Essences . To say , that they are ( or they subsist in ) one self-same Substance or Essence in Number , is such Jargonry in Philosophy ; that is to say , in the Nature and Possibilities of Things ; that he never speaks of it , without a just mark of Contempt : 't is Nonsense , saith he , and 't is impossible ; and besides that , 't is Sabellianism , and a Trinity not of Persons , but of Words and Names . Well , shall we say then , that the three Persons are three distinct Substances ; is it not plain Tritheism ? No , saith the Doctor ; for the Persons are not equal : the Father is both the Principle or Original , and the Head of the other two Persons ; and besides that , he only is Omnipotent ad intra . But then , will some say ; indeed this Explication leaveth us but one God , which is the thing we look'd after : but it is , by utterly abolishing the Godhead of the Son and Spirit ; it maketh only the Father to be really God , the other two Persons are so only by a certain Dependance on him , both in Origination and Acting . As bad as this Consequence is , and as clear ; Dr. Cudworth is forced to swallow it , and to sit down contented with it : he thought , it should seem , it is better somewhat to strain the use of Words , than the Natures and Possibilities of Things . 'T is hard indeed , that we must say , one Supream and two Dependent Persons make but one God ; but 't is harder to say , three Persons have but one Substance or Essence in Number . Words are Arbitrary Signs , applied to things according as Men please , and therefore are capable of Alteration in their Use : but the Nature of Things is absolutely unchangeable ; three Persons can never be one Substance , Essence or individual Nature . No Philosophy , but that of Gotham , will allow ; that one Intelligent Substance can be more than one Person : but divers Philosophers , especially the Platonists , have called three Distinct , Intelligent , Divine Substances , one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one Di●inity , or God ; therefore nothing hinders , but that so also may Christians . To this purpose Dr. Cudworth , in divers places of his Intellectual System . But it is now time to make our Observations on this Doctor 's Explication ; which I shall do the more carefully , because I am perswaded , that all the chief Fathers were in his Sentiments , that the three Divine Persons are three distinct individual Substances or Essences in Number ; which by the Schools and all the Moderns , is granted to be Tritheism : and because it is evident by his Intellectual System , that this Doctor understood all the Philosophies , Antient and Modern , in the most perfect manner ; and was himself one of the ablest Philosophers we have known . His Explication hath these Parts . 1. That the Divine Persons are ( one Specifick , but ) three distinct , particular individual Substances or Essences in Number , or in the Reality of Things : and that otherwise , there could not be three Divine Persons , but only one such Person . 2. That three distinct , individual , intelligent Divine Essences or Substances , commonly called Persons , are yet but one God ; because tho they are three in Number , yet they are one in Original ; for the second and third Persons are derived from the Father , as their Fountain and Cause . 3. Tho they are three Persons , yet they are but one God , because they concur to all the same Actions both of Creation and Providence , under one Head , even the Father . The Emphasis of this lies in their concurring to all the same Actions ; but principally in this , that they concur to the same Actions under one Head , which is the Father . 1. That the Divine Persons are three distinct , particular , individual , Intelligent Substances , Essences or Natures ; and that otherways , that is , were there but one self-same Substance or Essence in Number , they should not be three Persons , but only one Person . I have granted , that if there are three Divine Persons ; those Persons are ( of necessity ) three distinct , individual Essences or Substances : so that , as to this first Proposition , the Doctor and the Socinians are perfectly agreed ; all that we deny , is , that three such Essences ( or Persons ) are , or can be but one God. But tho the Socinians allow , that three Persons must be three distinct Substances or Essences , yet all the Modern Trinitarians utterly deny it : the reason is , because they saw plainly , that to say there are three distinct Essences , or Substances , is to grant ( in effect ) to the Socinians what they so much contend for ; namely that the Doctrine of the Trinity doth imply three Gods. Three distinct Divine Persons , saith Dr. Cudworth , are three distinct Divine Essences or Substances ; it is true , say the Socinians , and we grant this to the Doctor : no , say all the Modern Trinitarians , three distinct Divine Essences , are not only three distinct Divine Persons , but they are also three distinct Gods ; if once we grant that the three Divine Persons are three Essences , the Socinians will extort it from us ( as an unavoidable Consequence ) that we teach three Gods. The Truth is , since the Lateran Council , which determined in favour of P. Lombard , against Abbat Joachim and the Fathers , that there is but one only Divine Essence or Substance in Number ; I do not believe , there hath been any Divine of note but Dr. Cudworth and Dr. Sherlock and some few who may have borrowed it from them , who durst ever publish it in Writing , that there are three distinct Divine Substances , Essences or Natures , or that every distinct Person is a distinct Substance . They all saw , that so to say , is to introduce three Gods : for if you say , there are three distinct Intelligent , Almighty , All-knowing and Pre-eternal Substances , Essences or Natures ; you have actually said , there are three Gods , because you can possibly give no fuller nor other Description of three Gods. If one All-knowing , Almighty Essence or Substance , is one perfect God , to whom nothing at all can be added ; 't is no better than fooling , or effrontry , to deny , that three such Essences or Substances are three Gods. This plain and clear Reason hath constrained the School-Divines to depart from the Explication of the Fathers ; and has also obliged all the Moderns , to follow the Schools , and forsake the Fathers . Yet so , as out of good Manners , to deny that the Fathers ever held more than one Divine Essence or Substance : but I have shown before , the Ground of that gross ( and I doubt not , wilful ) Mistake , of the Doctrine of the Fathers . But Dr. Cudworth thought , that he had found an Expedient , how he might keep sincerely to the Fathers , and yet not be guilty of Tritheism : for , saith he , tho there are three distinct Divine Essences or Substances , vulgarly called Persons ; yet the second and third Persons or Essences are derived from the first ; and they all concur to the same Actions , under the same Head or Principal , even the Father . Therefore , 2. To that , the second and third Persons are derived from the Father , as their Fountain and Cause ; therefore they may be reckned as one God with him . Here begins the Controversy , between the Socinians and the Doctor . They grant , that every distinct Person is a distinct and particular Essence or Substance ; but they deny , that three distinct Divine Essences can be understood to be one God : Unity of Original , or that the second and third Persons are derived from the first , will not help the Doctor , no not in the least . The three Divine Essences ( which are called Persons ) are one God , saith this Doctor ; because the second and third are derived from the first : Why doth he not say too , that three Human Essences ( or Persons ) whereof the second and third derive themselves from the first , are one Man ? He may as well say this , and as soon perswade it , as the former : the Son and Grandson derive themselves from a first Human Essence ( or Person ) called the Grandfather ; two Brothers derive themselves from their common Father : Doth this Unity of Original make them all to be but one Man ? If not , neither can Unity of Original make the Son and Spirit one God , with their Fountain and Cause , even the Father . It is a reasoning , altogether unworthy of Dr. Cudworth ; the Son and Spirit are particular Substances or Essences , derived from the Essence of the Father , as their Principle or Cause , therefore they are one God with the Father : for then , all Angels , all Men , nay and all Beasts , shall be one God with the Father , who is their Cause and Principle . Unity of Original is so far from proving , that they are one God with him ; that it even demonstrates the very contrary : for if they are derived from the one true God , they themselves cannot be that one true God ; no more than the Effect can be the Cause , that very Cause whose Effect it is . These Arguments are so clear , and withal so very obvious ; that I wonder much , that Dr. Cudworth foresaw them not : but it may be , he foresaw them ; but thought withal that even all these Consequences are better , than to admit such a Monstrosity in Philosophy , as three Persons having only one self-same Substance in Number . All things , how hard soever , would go down with him , but only that ; but that can never be agreed to , by a Philosopher . 3. His last Subterfuge was this ; the three Divine Essences ( called Persons ) are but one God , because they concur to all the same Actions , of Creation and Providence , under one Head the Father , who only is Almighty ad intra , or really Almighty . How many Rarities hath he boxed up , in a very little compass ? 1. Here is one Almighty , who together with two other Persons , is one God. I would know , how two other Persons can contribute to make him a perfect God , who without them is Almighty ? The Scale is already full , if Almightiness be there ; we need no more Weight : and least of all , the Weight of two Impotents . If the Son and Spirit are not Almighty ad intra , or not really Almighty , but only as the Father Omnipotently concurs with them ; they are Impotent : for every Person and Thing , that is not Almighty , or cannot do all things , is impotent to some things . Dr. Cudworth , being so accurate a Philosopher , saw evidently , that three Almighty Persons are ( of necessity ) three Gods ; therefore he will admit of but one Almighty Person , even the Father . But then , he should have look'd a little further , or closer ; and he would also have seen , that when he had found one Almighty , there was no need to add to him two Impotents , to make him a compleat God ; or ( as he speaks ) to make up the Intireness of the Divinity . 2. 'T is altogether as rare , strange and surprizing ; that the Son and Spirit are one God with the Father , because they are gathered under him , as their Head and Principal . Doth not the Doctor prevaricate ? doth he not say these things , only to establish Unitarianism , so much the more strongly ? For if you say first , that the Father is the Head and Principal , and the Son and Spirit are subjected to him ; and then , therefore they are one God with the Father their Principal and Head : this , in a Man of so great Sense , looks like meer Prevarication ; for 't is plain to all , that he should have inferred the contrary , namely , therefore only the Father is God. We shall see the Weakness of Dr. Cudworth's Reasoning , so soon as ever we apply it to any other Instances . The Son and Spirit are one God with the Father , saith he , because he is their Head and Principal : therefore say I , the Servants and their Master , the Subjects and their Prince , the Children and their Parent , are all one Governour ; because the Subjects , Servants and Children , are gathered under their Prince , their Master and Parent , as their Principal and Head. Will the Doctor allow of this ( last ) Consequence ; if not , he vainly urges , or insists on the other . 3. But the Son and Spirit concur with the Father , to all the same Actions , both of Creation and Providence ; and therefore may be said to be one God with him . If the Doctor could prove , that the Son and Spirit concur to the same Acts , of Providence and Creation , with the Father ; he would thereby prove , that there are three Gods , not that the concurring Persons are one God. Many Carpenters , for instance , concur to make a Ship , under one Head or Principal , the Master-Builder : Many Colonels and Captains concur to the marshaling of an Army under one Principal and Head , their General : Are therefore all these Carpenters , Colonels and Captains , one Master-Builder , and one General ? That there is but one Master-Builder , and but one General , we grant ; but the Captains and Carpenters , concurring with their Master-Builder and General , are not one with the General and Master-Builder . I do not think it necessary to make any further Reflections , on such impotent Reasonings : I will leave it with you , Sir , to judg , Whether Dr. Cudworth hath given any new Strength to the Trinitarian Cause , by reviving an old forsaken Explication ! If we will give a Name to Dr. Cudworth's Explication of the Trinity , we must call it Mollis Arianismus , a moderate Arianism . The Arians were divided into two Parties , the high or rigid Arians , and the Ariani Molles , or the moderate Arians . The former of these ( being the Eunomians and AEtians ) strictly followed Arius ; they believed that the Son was created by the Father , or God , but a little before the Creation of the World ; and that the Spirit was the Work or Creature of the Son : and further , that their Substances or Essences were altogether unlike ; from whence they were also called Heterousians . But the moderate Arians were content to say , that there was no conceivable Duration or Time , between the Being of God or the Father , and the Generation or Creation ( for those are with them equivalent Terms ) of the Son ; the Father made or generated the Son , so early , that there was no conceivable Portion of Time before the Son was ; no more than was absolutely necessary , for giving to the Father the Priority of Existence , and his Title of Father : and as to their Substances , they are Consubstantial ; by which this sort of Arians meant ( and the Church then meant no more ) that their Substances or Essences are alike , or the same for Kind and Properties , tho not in Number ; that is , the Essences of these three Persons are all of them Spiritual , Eternal and Infinite , tho only the Father is Infinite in Power . These moderate Arians were received to Communion by the moderate Trinitarians ; and particularly by Pope Liberius . Dr. Cudworth holdeth their very Doctrine ; he alloweth only the Father to be Omnipotent : and tho he saith , that the Son and Spirit are also Eternal ; yet he cannot deny , that there must be some Priority of the Father , as the Fountain , Principle and Cause , before the Son and Spirit as Effects . In a word , the moderate Arians ascribed as much to the Son as Dr. Cudworth doth . Were Dr. Cudworth alive , it would not be expedient to make this Judgment of his Explication ; but being dead , it cannot hurt him . He is retired to the true Mount Moriah , or Land of Vision ; where he no longer guesses , by prudent and wary Conjectures , but he knows and even sees how these things are . God and Nature , after which he enquired with so much Application and Freedom , are now known to him : and he now rests from his excellent Labours , out of all danger from the Malevolence of the present evil Generation ; with whom 't is a Crime , not to take every thing upon Trust , on the meer Credit of those who have been before us . As if it were the way to Truth ; not to enquire , but to believe ; not to examine , try and judg , but to pre-suppose and take for granted , every thing that has been told us , by Men in Power and Place . This is the Spirit that now prevails in the Church : and on the contrary , an ingenuous Freedom in enquiring and examining , tho it be nothing else indeed but an honest and necessary Sincerity , is now called Heresy , and Schism ; and is , if you 'll believe them , to be punish'd with certain Damnation . We have however , in the mean time , this Satisfaction ; that it is God , who shall at last judg us : He that hath said to us , Try all things , hold fast that which is good . But I pass to the Trinity according to Aristotle , defended by Dr. S — th . Of the Explication by Dr. S — th . I Have already done Right to Dr. S — th , and his Book : if he takes it amiss , that I observe also some Defects in it ; he ought to show his Patent , by which he is constituted the only Animadverter on the Books of others . If he hath received any Personal Wrong , or Affront from Dr. Sherlock ; he is the more excusable , that his Book hath so much more Scurrility , than Argument : but the Injury must have been very great , to excuse him wholly . He has noted some Errors , either of Inadvertency and Haste , or of the Pen ; in some Expressions and Words used by Dr. Sherlock : he imputes all these as faults of meer Ignorance or Dulness to the Doctor . This was somewhat barbarous : nay it was more Barbarity in Point of Morality or Manners , than ever Dr. Sherlock was guilty of , in Grammar or Speech . Dr. S — th will not ( at least has not yet been able to ) perswade many , that Dr. Sherlock wants the Qualifications , or the degree of the Qualifications , for which Dr. S — th hath deserved Esteem : the World thinks , there is a great deal more in Dr. Sherlock to be commended , besides his Preferments ; it is only wished , that both these Doctors had something more of the Tenderness , and Catholick Charity of Genuine Christianity , tho it were accompanied with lesser Abilities or Learning . Dr. Sherlock hath publish'd an Essay , towards vindicating and explaining the Difficulties of the Trinity , and Incarnation ; the Method he hath taken , is wholly new , and is a Mistake , but it was meant well : and I do not think , that setting aside some Authorities or Quotations , Dr. S — th hath said any thing against it , which Dr. Sherlock will much value . The Arguments used by Dr. S — th , are only Metaphysical Reasonings ; easily advanced , and as easily destroyed . Dr. S — th's is the true Explication ; that is to say , as Orthodoxy is reckoned since Peter Lombard , and the Lateran Council : but Dr. Sherlock knew it to be Nonsense , and therefore adventur'd to propose another ; he put forth his Hand , to save the tottering and falling Ark , and 't is made an inexcusable Fault . But I will pass from the too Cynical Doctor , to his Book and Explication . 'T is not till Chap. 8. that he begins to bless us , with the Catholick and Orthodox Account , of his Trinity in Unity : but at length , at Pag. 240. out comes the Secret ; with this Preface to it . The Doctrine of the Church , and of the Schools , concerning the Blessed Trinity ; so far as I can judg , but still with the humblest Submission to the Judgment of the Church of England in the Case , is this . Truly , I am heartily sorry to hear it ; that Dr. S — th , at these Years , has no fixed Religion of his own , no not concerning the Trinity it self : but is ready to turn with the Wind ; is prepared to renounce a Doctrine and Explication , which he believes to be not only true , but Fundamental ; if the Church commands him . Mr. Milbourn makes the same Complement to his good Mother the Church , in his late Book against the Socinians ; as I have noted in my Answer to him : but Mr. Milbourn is somewhat excusable , because he hath not yet received any of the Rewards , due as he thinks to his Industry and Learning ; but Dr. S — th is full , and even overflows with the Blessings of the holy Mother . It should seem Dr. S — th thinketh , he hath not yet enough ; else he would never be so over-mannerly , as to put his Faith it self afloat , and that too with the humblest Submission , at the Command of his Reverend Mother . We may infer however , from these publick Professions of the Writers , that could the Socinians get Mother Church of their side ; all her Champions would also come over to us : for 't is not ( it seems ) the Cause , that they defend ; 't is not the Trinity or Incarnation , that they value ; but our Mother , our Mother the Church . If Dr. S — th makes so light of his own Explication , that he is ready to fling it into the Kennel ; at the first Nod , that the Church shall make : he cannot wonder , that the Socinians will handle it , will look on both sides of it , will view it in a clear Light ; before they bargain for it . Well , see , here it is : The Personalities , by which the Godhead stands diversified into three distinct Persons , are called and accounted Modes . Therefore for understanding the Mystery of the Trinity ; we must declare , what is properly a Mode ( or Manner ) of Being : It is not a Substance , nor an Accident ; which two make indeed the Adequate Division of Real Beings : but a Mode is properly a certain Habitude of some Being , Essence , or Thing : whereby the said Essence or Being is determined to some particular State or Condition , which , barely of it self , it would not have been determined to . And according to this Account , a Mode in things Spiritual and Immaterial hath the like Reference to such Beings , as a Posture hath to a Body ; to which it gives some Difference or Distinction , without superadding any new Entity or Being to it . In a word , a Mode is not properly a Being , whether Substance or Accident ; but a certain Affection cleaving to Being , and determining it , from its common general Nature and Indifference , to something more particular ; as we have just now explained it . As for instance , Dependence is a Mode , determining the general Nature of Being to that particular State and Condition , by virtue of which it proceeds from , and is supported by another : and the like may be said of Mutability , Presence , Absence , Inherence , Adherence , and such like , viz. that they are not Beings , but Modes or Affections of Being ; and inseparable from it so far , that they have no Existence of their own , after a Separation or Division from the Things , or Beings to which they belong . Animadver . p. 240 , 241 , 242. Behold the Birth of the Mountains ! We are kept in suspense seven long Chapters ; at length in the 8th , at p. 240. of his Book , he gives forth this Oracle . That the three Divine Persons , so much talk'd of , are neither Substances , nor Accidents ; and consequently , saith he , no Real Beings . Nay , they have no real Existence of their own ; but are Modes , Habitudes , or Affections of the Divine Substance , or the Substance of God : they are in the Godhead , or in the Substance of God , such as Mutability , Presence , Absence , Inherence , Adherence , and such like , are in the Natures , or Substances to which they belong . Or if you will have a great deal in one single word , the very Iliads in a Nut-shell ; they are Postures : or what amounts to the same thing , they are such in Spiritual and Immaterial Beings , that a Posture is to a Body . I must needs here tell you , Sir , the Story of the Princess Dulcinea del Toboso , Mistress to the Renowned Don Quixot , of the Mancha in Spain . This famous Princess had the Honour to be Mistress of the Affections of the so much celebrated Don Quixot : for her , he traversed Mountains , Deserts , and other dreadful Places ; for her he encountred Giants , Knights-errant , and other formidable Dangers ; and at length for her , to satisfy his amorous Passions towards her , he retired to a place called the poor Rock ; where he spent much time in lamenting the Disdains , the Cruelty and Hard-heartedness of his Mistress towards himself , as is largely related in the History . Don Quixot was waited on in his long Travels and Adventures , by his Esquire Sancho Pancha , who greatly pitied his Master , that he should serve so rigorous a Mistress : but the Esquire had one Scruple in his Mind , Who this Dulcinea del Toboso should be ? But while Don Quixot was tormenting himself , at the poor Rock ; he unluckily happened to drop some words , by which it evidently appeared , that Dulcinea del Toboso was only an imaginary Lady or Princess : and that indeed she was no other Person , but a certain coarse Country Wench , Daughter of the Farmer Alonso Zanchez , and for her Plainness called Joan. Ta , Ta , cries Sancho Pancha , and is the Princess Dulcinea , our Neighbour Joan Zanchez ! By my troth , a sturdy Quean ; well may my Master languish for her , for I am well perswaded , she hath no regard or sense of Love-matters : but 't is a good-natur'd Wench , &c. Methinks , Sir , there can be nothing more pat , or proper for this place , than this Story . For just such a Disappointment do we all meet with , in the Explication for which Dr. S — th hath made us wait so long ; as Sancho Pancha had when he found the Princess Dulcinea , was Joan Zanchez . Dr. S — th had raised the Expectation of his Readers , in no fewer than seven Preliminary Chapters ; in the eighth he promises in the Title of it , the long-lock'd for , the much-desired , Catholick , and Orthodox Explication of a Trinity of Divine Persons , in the Unity of the Godhead : but when all comes to all , he tells us , the three Divine Persons are nothing else but the Substance of God , or the Godhead , diversified into three Postures . Never were Men so bilk'd before as his Readers are , at this News ; 't is the Princess Dulcinea turned into Joan Zanchez ! Was it worth while , to fall upon Dr. Sherlock in that outragious manner , only because he would not call the three Divine Persons , three Postures of the Godhead , or the Substance of God in three Postures ? Dr. Sherlock , poor , sensless , illiterate , Cantabrigian Ignoramus , thought , that these words Father , Son and Spirit implied something that was real . He imagin'd , that the Notion which all Men naturally have of a Father , his Son , and a Spirit distinct from both , must be filled up with something that will honestly and satisfactorily answer to such Names and natural Notions of a Father , a Son , and a Spirit diverse from both : therefore , saith he , seeing these Persons are Spiritual , and Immaterial , and Intelligent ; I call them three Minds , three Spirits , and three Beings . But the Adepti of Oxford will make him know his Mistake ; First , Dr. Wallis tells him , Three Persons and one God , is as much as to say , three Respects of one God to his Creatures ; he is their Creator , Redeemer and Sanctifier , and in this sense is called three Persons , tho he is indeed but one God , and but one Being : but Dr. S — th answers , 't is neither so nor so ; three Divine Persons are the Substance of God , in three Gambals , or Postures ; or in three such I know not what 's , which have the same or like Reference to Things Spiritual and Immaterial , that Postures have to Bodies . The three Personalities are that in the one Substance of God , which Mutability , Presence , Absence , Inherence , Adherence , and such like ( changeable ) Affections and Habitudes , are in the Substances to which they belong . He thinks , it should seem , that the Faithful must put their Trust in three Postures ; and worship Mutability , Presence , Absence , or something which in Spirituals is like to them ; something which is no more in the Deity , than Postures are in Bodies . I fancy Dr. Sherlock will object to him , that it is of the Nature of a meer Habitude or Modality , to be changeable : and that the Personalities in the Divine Nature ( or God ) are not alterable or changeable . He will say too , it may be , that there is no meer Modality but may be away from the Nature , or Substance to which it belongs ; without any damage to the Essential Perfections , of such Nature or Substance : but you cannot take away the Personalities , or the Persons , from the Substance of God , without lessening the Perfections of the Godhead . Therefore we must not say , that the three Divine Persons , are only the Divine Substance with three Modes . The three Divine Persons , he saith , are the one Substance of God diversified in three Postures . But how shall we conceive , that the Substance of God in the first Posture , or in Posture A , begat the same Substance of God ( in Number ) in Posture B ? and how doth the third Posture , or Posture C , proceed ( for under Pain of Damnation we must not say of this third Posture , how was it begotten ) from the Substance of God considered in the Postures A and B ? The Divine Substance , say they in Posture A , or in the first Mode , generated the Divine Substance in the second Mode , or , as Dr. S — th speaks , in Posture B ; and the self-same Divine Substance in the first and second Modes , breathed ( you must well mark that ) the self-same Divine Substance in the third Mode , which is Posture C. Now how shall we understand such Gibberish as this ? may they not as well tell us in plain terms , that to be Trinitarians , 't is necessary that we should renounce at once all good Sense , and content our selves for ever with a Cant without Sense ? The Persons , as distinguished from the Substance of God , are only Personalities ; which is to say , three such Modes , as Posture , Mutability and Dependence ; saith Dr. S — th . They that hear this , will presently say Dr. S — th and the Socinians are very near to an Agreement ; we are like to have this tedious , intricate and dangerous Controversy fairly ended , by the rare and particular Dexterity of Dr. S — th . For he hath taught us , that all the Difference is indeed nothing : both Parties confess one self-same Substance , Essense or Godhead , only the Orthodox contend for three Postures in this Substance ; and the sullen , conceited Socinians hitherto seem unwilling to allow of more than one Mode or Posture ; but under the Institution and Instruction of such a Teacher as Dr. S — th , they will return to the full Acknowledgment of the whole Truth . Dr. Sherlock had said , that there are some who make the three Divine Persons , to be nothing else but three Modes ; and he maketh thereupon this Note , Can any one think that the Father begat only a Mode , and called it ▪ his Son ? Let us see now , how Dr. S — th rates him for this piece of Ignorance . No , good Sir , no ; none that I know of , is in danger of thinking or saying so : no more than that Socrates begat only the Shape and Figure of a Man , and then called it his Son ; or ( to turn your own blunt Weapon against your self ) no more than God the Father begot another Self-consciousness , and called it his Son. Animadv . p. 291. And at p. 241 , 242. and often else-where , he saith , the Personalities , by which the Deity stands diversified into three distinct Persons , are by the generality of Divines , both Antient and Modern , called and accounted Modes . So that in short , let all the Dunces take notice for the time to come , that Dr. S — th , with all the Antients and Moderns at his Heels , saith , pronounceth and declares , in manner and form following ; the Personalities in the Godhead ( not the Persons ) are three Modes , Affections , or Habitudes , of the Divine Substance , Nature , or Essence . Now were I Dr. Sherlock , I would not grant to this arrogant Adversary , the least Tittle of all he contends for . It is certain , there is nothing more common with the Metaphysicians , who follow the Schools ; than to call the three Persons , three Modes ; and sometimes more largely , three Modes of Subsistence of the Divine Substance , or the Substance of God. Dr. Sherlock may well defend it , that neither hath he mistaken the Modalists , nor have they mistaken in what they mean to say . He may say , it is indeed true , that in all other Persons , Human Persons and Angelical Persons , we may be so nice , as to distinguish between the Persons and the Personalities : for Example , the Personalities of Peter , James and John , are only Modes or Properties peculiar to these three Persons , by which they are ultimately distinguish'd from one another , and from all other Persons of the same Specifick Nature , namely the Human ; but the Persons of Peter , James and John , besides those Modes and Properties , take in also three distinct intelligent Substances , in which those Modes suosist . It is true , I say , that Human ( and also Angelical ) Persons may be thus distinguished from their Personalities ; but 't is otherways in the three Divine Persons : the three Divine Persons are properly and truly called only three Modes ; the reason is , It is supposed by the Modalists , that in the Godhead the three Persons have all the self-same individual Substance or Essence in Number ; and that they have also but one self-same Understanding , Will and Energy ( or Power of Action ) in Number ; contrary to what happens in all other Persons , whether Human or Angelical , who all have distinct Substances , distinct Understandings , Wills and Energies , as well as are distinct Persons : this being so , 't is evident , that the very Modes or Personalities in the Godhead , cannot be distinguished from the Persons ; we must say , that the three Divine Persons are three Modes , because they are distinguished from one another by nothing else , as all other Persons are . All other Persons are distinguished by their distinct Substances their distinct and several Understandings , Wills and Energies ; as well as by their peculiar Modes and Properties : but in the Godhead there is no such Distinction ; it has one self-same Substance , Understanding , Will and Energy ; 't is only distinguished by its Modes , and those Modes are distinguished from one another by themselves only . Briefly , Dr. Sherlock may say , that all the Modalists acknowledg no other Distinction between the three Divine Persons , than is between Modes ; they are not distinguished by their Substances , nor by particular Understandings , Wills , or Energies of their own : therefore we , properly enough , call them three Modes . Dr. S — th may wrangle as long as he pleases ; he may ( if it be for his Credit ) write such another Book of Inadversions , as this upon Dr. Sherlock ; but when he has done and said all he can say or do , all Men but himself will perceive that these two Propositions are the same for sense : this of Dr. Sherlock , which he imputes to the Modalists , and which Dr. S — th so much abhors , the three Divine Persons are only three Modes , of Subsistence , in the Substance or Essence of God ; and this , which Dr. S — th owns , and maketh to be the Substance of his whole Book , the three Divine Persons are the Substance or Essence of God , diversified by three Modes of Subsistence . But above all ; I would not have Dr. S — th please himself overmuch in this ; that he hath cited some Passages of the Fathers , which describe the Personalities of the Father , Son and Spirit , by Modes . Justin and Irenaeus have called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Modes of subsisting ; others call them Properties : but by Modes , Properties , Characters , and such like , the Fathers meant quite another thing , than Dr. S — th and the Moderns do ; they meant what Dr. Sherlock and Dr. Cudworth mean. By a Mode and Property they meant that discriminating Character , by which the Individuals of any Specifick Nature are distinguished or differenced , from all the Individuals of the same Species or Nature . For Example , the Individuals of the Specifick Nature of Humanity , are particular Men ; and all these Individuals or particular Men are discriminated , characterized , differenced or modified , each by his ▪ particular Properties : Peter from John , Peter and John from James , by particular Properties , Characters or Modes , both of Body and Mind ; one ( for instance ) is bigger ▪ taller , wiser , or some other the like , than the other . This was what they meant , when they described Personalities by Modes , and when they said there were three Properties , Modes , or Characters in God : they meant not in the least to deny , that each Person is a particular Substance , Essence or Nature , different in Number from all other Substances , Essences or Natures ; or to deny , that each Person is a particular Being : they meant only , that each Individual , or each Person , besides the common Specifick Nature , ( that is , besides the meer Human , Angelical or Divine Nature ) has also some particular Properties or Characters ; which ultimately distinguish him , from all the Individuals or Persons of the same Species , Specifick Nature , or Kind . It is not true therefore , what Dr. S — th pretends , that by Modes of Subsistence the Antients meant no more , than certain such Habitudes or Affections , as Mutability , Presence , Absence , Posture , or such like : they meant real , discretive and characterizing Properties or Qualifications ; and by Person they meant , a particular , individual , intelligent Substance or Essence , and so modefied or characterized . They were far from dreaming , that the three Divine Persons , an Almighty Son , an Almighty Father ; and an Almighty Spirit distinct in Number from both , were only one individual Substance distinguished , or diversified by only three such lank and meagre Affections , as Absence , Posture , Adherence ; or any other that are no more in a Spiritual Substance , than those three are in Bodies ; to which they add no Perfection , and from which they are ( every Moment ) separable . But the Socinians are not concerned , what becomes of the Dispute about Persons and Personalities in God ; whether they are adequately the same , yea or no ; and again , whether the Moderns who follow the Schools , agree with the Antients in their Notion of them : for I will put to Dr. S — th a plain Question , to which if he is disposed to give a clear and Categorical Answer , it will appear to all Men , that either he falls in with Dr. Sherlock , or with the Unitarians ; that is to say , he is either a Tritheist , or ( what , I doubt , he will as much abhor ) a Socinian . He saith , there is one only Divine Substance , Essence or Nature ; and thus far we agree with him : but he adds , this one Substance is so diversified by three Modes , Affections or Habitudes , or something like to them , that we must say ( under pain of Heresy and Damnation ) that this one Substance is three Divine Persons , a Father , his Son , and a Spirit distinct from both . Therefore I ask , have the three ( pretended ) Divine Persons , each his own proper , peculiar and personal Understanding , Will and Energy ; so that there are in the Divine Substance , or in God , three distinct ( All-knowing , Almighty ) Understandings , Wills and Energies , as there are three distinct Persons ; as Dr. Sherlock has affirmed ? Or have the three Persons but one only self-same Understanding , Will and Energy in Number , as there is but one self-same Substance in Number ? If he saith the former , he joins Hands with Dr. Sherlock ; and is guilty of Tritheism , no less than he : for three ( Omniscient and Omnipotent ) Understandings , Wills and Energies , without doubt , are three Gods. If there be three Omnisciencies and Omnipotencies , of necessity there must be three Omniscients and Omnipotents : but that is Tritheism , even in the Judgment of Athanasius himself ; who expresly denies three Almighties , or three All-knowings . And indeed I do not think , Dr. S — th will say , that each Person hath his own proper and personal Understanding , Will or Energy ; so that there are three distinct Understandings , Wills and Energies in what his Party call the Godhead : I see his Book is written with more Judgment and Precaution , than Dr. Sherlock's ; or even than any that I have seen , that have been written in Defence of the Trinitarian Cause . But if he denies , that there are three ( All-knowing , Almighty ) Understandings , Wills and Energies ; he is a Socinian , he has granted to us the Point in Controversy , he grants the whole that we contend for . They will allow him to say , there are three Persons , or three thousand Persons in the Godhead ; so long as he grants but one ( Omnipotent ) Energy and Will , and but one ( All-knowing ) Understanding or Wisdom . If this be granted to us , 't is plain to every one who gives but never so little heed ; that the Question about three Persons , is a meer Strife of Words ; and the Authors of the Brief History , and Brief Notes , are ( tho not in their Words , yet in their Senses ) as Orthodox as Dr. S — th and the Schools . I will affirm , we have no need of our Brief Histories , or Brief Notes ; we need not make an operose Proof of our Doctrine of the Unity of God , from the Holy Scriptures or from Reason : the whole Controversy with the Church is ended , in the Resolution of this short and plain Question ; Is there more than one All-knowing , Almighty Understanding , Will and Energy ? If you say , there is but one such Understanding , Will and Energy , in one self-same Divine Substance ; you may talk of as many Persons , Fathers , Sons , Spirits , Modes , Properties , Respects , Nothings , as you please : we will only peaceably advise you , that these are meer empty Words , that have nothing to answer them in the thing under Consideration . When you have granted to us , that there is but one Divine Substance , and but one Omniscient , Omnipotent Understanding and Energy ; what you add more of Persons , Properties , Thingams , and call them a Trinity , 't is an Addition only of Words and Names ; not of Realities , or Persons that are properly so called . These things being so , and so very evident ▪ I cannot wonder , that so discerning a Philosopher as Dr. Cudworth , never speaks of the Trinity of the Schools ( maintained by Dr. S — th ) without calling it a Nominal Trinity , a Trinity of Names and Words only , a disguised Sabellianism : which is to say , Unitarianism or Socinianism drest up in the absurd Cant of the Schools . But whereas the Schools deform the sincere and easy Notion of the Unity of God , as 't is held by the Socinians and Sabellians , by transforming it into a Fantastick Trinity of Nominal Persons , or of Persons who are Persons only in Name , not in Truth and Reality : therefore Dr. Cudworth saith farther , that this Trinity is Jargonry in Philosophy , a Trinity that falls not under Human Conception , and which cannot be in Nature . Intellect . System , p. 605. Elsewhere he scruples not to name it , the Philosophy of Gotham . These are the just Characters which that great Philosopher and Divine gives of the Scholastick Trinity of Dr. S — th : he giveth his Reasons up and down in the Intellectual System ; but 't is not necessary for me to report them , when every one may see them in the Author himself ; and besides they are too Philosophical , to be put into a Discourse which I design for the Use of the less learned , as well as of the learned . I have done with Dr. S — th's Explication , for this time : If he is angry with me for the Reflections I have made thereupon , I protest 't is without just Cause . I have used no disrespectful Language ; I have acknowledged , and do acknowledg the Worth of the Man , and all other Perfections in his Book , but only this one , that it maintains an unjustifiable Explication . The Method or Structure of his Book is Natural , Elegant and Judicious ; the Words , Expression , or Phrase , is proper , forcible , clean , and well chose : it hath very many agreeable Turns of Wit , which render it pleasant to an ingenious Reader . As this Author hath a great deal of Wit , so he hath known how to govern it in this respect ; that he is witty , without Buffoonry . This is a Conduct , not very usual in those that have much Wit ; commonly they know not how to manage it ; and among other unjudicious Neglects , they forget the Where and When , and other such like Circumstances ; they are so taken with their Talent , as to be always using it , because they know not that everlasting fooling is true and meer fooling . But I wish that Dr. S — th in exercising his Wit , had remembred the who , which he hath utterly forgotten : and that was utterly an oversight , and a very great one . He cannot excuse himself , by pleading the many Contradictions in Dr. Sherlock's Book : a candid Man would not impute them to the Author , but to the extream Obscurity of the Subject ; when the Subject it self is contradictory , there will be many Contradictions committed in defending it . I doubt not that Dr. Sherlock will find many Contradictions in Dr. S-th's second Chapter . Having done to Dr. S — th this Right , he ought not to be out of Humour , that I as a Socinian , have attacked his Explication ; as I have some other Learned Men : I mean no Disrespect thereby to him , or them ; I acknowledg their Personal Merit , but cannot give up to them so sacred a Truth , as the Unity of God , or consent that it be disguised and deformed . Of the Explication by Mr. Hooker , Author of the Ecclesiastical Polity . MR. Hooker , tho he was none of the Fathers of the Catholick Church , is not of less Authority in the particular Church of England , than any one of the Fathers is : and it must be confest he was not only a very good , but a very learned and discerning Man. But it is observed of him , that in speaking of the Trinity , he speaks somewhat incorrectly : this was a Doctrine which he took for granted , there was no Dispute in his time about it ; so he hath delivered himself , not with his usual Precaution and Judgment . He saith , That the Substance of God , with this Property , to be of none , doth make the Person of the the Father . The very self-same Substance in Number , with this Property , to be of the Father , maketh the Person of the Son. The same Substance , having added to it the Property of proceeding from the other two , maketh the Person of the Holy Ghost . So that in every Person there is implied both the Substance of God , which is one ; and also that Property , which causeth the same Person really and truly to differ from the other two . I must observe , in the first place , hereupon , that Mr. Hooker in this matter hath not spoken over critically and correctly ; nay , hardly Orthodoxly : I mean , as Orthodoxy goes among the Learned of his own Parry . He saith that the Substance of God , with these Properties , to be of none , to be of the Father , and to proceed from the other two , make the Persons of the Father , Son and Spirit : now to be of none , to be of the Father , and to proceed from both , are but other Words for this Sense , to beget , to be begotten , and to proceed . But that Father of Modern Orthodoxy , Peter Lombard , whom we have already twice mentioned , denies that these ( before-mentioned ) are Properties in the Substance of God , or that they can belong to it : he saith , Essentia Divina non est genera●● , nec genera●● , nec procedens ; i. e. the Substance of God neither begets , nor is begotten , nor proceeds . 'T is impossible to make this consist with Mr. Hooker , who expresly ascribeth those Properties to the Divine Substance or Essence , and saith , that being in the Divine Substance , they make it to be three Persons . What shall we do here ? Shall we say , Reverend Hooker has mistaken , and missed his Sons ( who are all the Church of England ) into an Error concerning the Trinity ? Hath he ascribed to the Divine Essence , Properties , which he calleth Persons , that are not in it ? To give up Hooker , is to dishonour the Church of England it self ; to part with Father Hooker , is to endanger the very Surplice , and even the Cross in Baptism ; nay , that Book of Books the Common-Prayer . If Mr. Hooker could err about the Trinity ; What will the Fanaticks and Trimmers say ? Will they not be apt to pretend too , he may have erred in his profound Dissertations and Discourses for the Rites and Discipline of the Church ? I am afraid , for all that , we must keep close to Peter Lombard , Master of the Sentences , and of the Modern Divinity : he hath been espoused by all the Popes since Innocent the Third , by the Lateran Council which was General , and by the tacit Approbation of the whole Church ever since . I doubt , it is not much more passible , that Mr. Hooker saith , that the Properties , to be of none , to be of the Father , and to proceed , do ( together with the Substance of God ) make the Persons of the Father , Son and Spirit . It is not true , that those are the Properties which make the Persons : he might say , that they make the Persons to be Father , Son and Spirit , or to have that threefold Relation among themselves ; but they do not make the three Persons to be Persons ; or thus , they do not make ( as he speaks ) the Persons . To be of none maketh the Father ; but I deny , that it maketh ( as Mr. Hooker affirms ) the Person of the Father : the Character , or Property which maketh the Person of the Father , is quite another from the Property or Character that maketh the Father . To beget , to be begotten , and to proceed , are Properties which constitute the Relations of Father , Son and Spirit : but they are other Properties , which make the Persons of the Father , Son and Spirit . Concerning the Properties or Characters which make the Re●●tions , all Learned Trinitarians are agreed ; they acknowledg them to be these three , Active Generation , ( not , as Mr. Hooker mistakes , this meer Negation to be of none ) Eternal Passive Generation , or to be begotten , and Eternal Procession : but concerning the Properties that make the Persons , they are not so well accorded . The Antient Divines said , the Property that maketh the Person of the Father , or the peculiar Property and Character of the first Person , is Monarchy ; the Property of the second Person , is Wisdom ; and of the third is Love. Others said , that the Property of the first Person , is Beatitude and Rest ; the Property of the second is Operation : others had still other Conceits , all of them false . But allowing now the way of speaking , used by Mr. Hooker , what a Riddle has he propounded ? Here is the self-same Substance ( in Number ) unbegotten , and yet begotten : the Divine Substance with the Property to be of none , or to be unbegotten , is ( saith he ) the Person of the Father ; the self same Substance ( in Number ) with the Property to be of the Father , or to be begotten , is ( or makes ) the Person of the Son. Can the self-same Substance ( in Number ) be of none , and yet be of the Father ; be unbegotten , and begotten too ? Are they not contradictory Terms , and therefore not to be applied to the self-same Substance in Number ? They will say , Mr. Hooker doth not affirm , that the self-same Substance is begotten and unbegotten ; this indeed were a ●●t Contradiction : but he saith , that as 't is in the Father , 't is unbegotten ; as in the Son , 't is begotten . But do they reckon they have to deal only with Fools ? What if I should say , my Hand as in my Pocket , is unskalded ; but at in my Glove , 't is skalded : would it not be a Contradiction , for all the Blinds of in the Pocket , and in the Glove ? The self-same Hand in Number , cannot be burnt , and unburnt ; the Place in which it is , will not palliate such a Contradiction : in like manner , the self-same Substance cannot be begotten , and unbegotten ; because you are pleased to pretend , you consider it sometimes in one Subject or Person , sometimes in another . In whatever Person a Substance is , it must either be a begotten Substance , or an unbegotten ; it cannot possibly be both : if it really remains unbegotten , then it never was begotten ; but if in process of time it has been begotten , then it cannot still be unbegotten . Why do our Opposers choose to maintain such extravagant Paradoxes , rather than acknowledg so easy and natural a Truth , as the Unity of God ? Rather than receive the first Commandment , in its natural and obvious sense ; rather than we will sincerely ( and without Disguise or Juggle ) own that there is but one only God : we will choose to make our selves scorned by all sensible Men ; by saying , the self-same Substance ( in Number ) is begotten , and unbegotten ; 't is of the Father , nay 't is of Father and of Son , and yet 't is of none . Let us consider Mr. Hooker's Catch , in three Human Persons . He will say , the Substance of John is begotten , as John is the Son of Peter ; but John's Substance is unbegotten , as John is the Father of James : and yet it is the self-same Substance in Number , that is thus both begotten and unbegotten . Is it so ? but if John's Substance be really begotten , I will ever stand in it , that his Substance is not unbegotten : it was begotten by his Father Peter , therefore 't is a begotten Substance , not an unbegotten . Some one may say , but is not John's Substance unbegotten , in respect of John ' s Son James ; tho it was begotten by Peter ? By no means : for if Peter begot John's Substance , then John's Substance is begotten , tho his Son James begot it not ; and consequently it cannot be said to be an unbegotten Substance , in any respect whatsoever . In short , they would have us to say ; John's Substance is unbegotten , because it was begotten by Peter , and not by John's Son James . I deny , that 't is a proper , or a true way of speaking : for if the Substance has been begotten by any whomsoever ; it must never after be called unbegotten , on this absurd account , that it was not begotten by James , but by Peter . Farther , whereas Mr. Hooker saith , the Substance of God , with this Property to be begotten , or to be of the Father , maketh the Person of the Son : I ask , is then the Substance of God begotten ; I pray , who begat it ? They must answer , the Father ! But did the Father beget the Substance of God ? Do they not say , that the self-same Substance that is in the Father , is also in the Son ? But if so , then if the Father begat the Substance of the Son , or of God , he begat his own Substance . Can any one beget his own Substance ? Is it not a Contradiction , a manifold Contradiction ? Is it not as much as to say , he was before he was ? He that begets his own Substance , begets himself : but he that begets himself , is thereby supposed to have been before he was . I know , it hath been said by some Divines , God is self-originated or self-begotten . But 't is utterly false ; they ought to have said , he is unoriginated or unbegotten . As God is not originated or begotten , by another ; so much less by himself : not by another , for then that other must be before him , at least in order of Nature ; not by himself , because then he must be before he was . But to finish with Mr. Hooker , I will show his Followers , that in pursuance of his Explication , they will be forced to say ; that as the Father begat the Son , so the Son destroys the Father . And I make challenge to them all , to rescue their Master's Explication from that fatal Consequence . Begotten doth always destroy unbegotten ; when once a Person or Thing is begotten , that self-same Thing or Person can be no longer unbegotten . If therefore the Substance of God unbegotten , maketh ( as Mr. Hooker contends ) the Person of the Father ; and the self-same Substance begotten , maketh the Person of the Son : it unavoidably follows , that the Generation of the Son is the Destruction of the Father ; because the Property or Characteristick of the Father , even unbegotten , is destroyed out of the Divine Substance , by the Characteristick of the Son , which is begotten . Unbegotten ( that is to say , the Father ) remains no longer in the Divine Substance ; if begotten ( that is , according to Hooker , the Son ) hath taken place in it . O that our learned Opposers would vouchsafe , to consider these things impartially : that they would not reckon 't is their Glory , to defend received Doctrines , only because they have been long received , and by many ; as if Prescription or Numbers could alter the Nature of Truths and Untruths . Which ( I pray ) is more honourable , to own a clear and necessary Truth ; or to set one's self to darken and to obstruct it ? I confess the latter requires more Wit , especially against an able and dexterous Defendant ; but 't is the other that deserves greater Praise , especially before God , because it argues Sincerity and Justice . But I pass to the last sort of Trinity , the Mystical Trinity . Of the Mystical Trinity , or the Trinity of the Mobile . THE poor common People are first made to believe , by the help of corrupted Copies , and false Translations of the Bible , that 't is a Scripture-Doctrine ; that there is a Trinity of Divine Persons , an Almighty Father , an Almighty Son , and an Almighty Spirit distinct and different ( in Number ) from both Father and Son. But because this ( at the very first sight ) appears contrary to Reason and common Sense ; therefore in the next place they are told , that they must consider this Doctrine , as a Mystery , impossible indeed for us to understand , yet necessary to be believed , because God hath said it . How many things , say these Teachers , are there in the Works of Nature , which we understand not , no more than we can understand the Trinity : and yet we believe them to be , as assuredly ; as if there were no Difficulty , in conceiving how they should be . As , that there are Antipodes , whose Feet are opposite to our Feet , and who walk with their Heads downwards , with respect to our Parts of the World. Again , that a Spirit can move a Body from place to place : tho Reason first assures us , that there can be no Motion without a Resistance ; and then , that a pure Spirit can meet no Resistance , from Matter or Bodies . Also , that the Parts of Matter or Bodies hold together ; tho no Cause can be assigned for it , but what appears immediately to be unsufficient , nay ridiculous . All these are great Truths , and we believe them , even contrary to the Verdict of Reason : how much more ought we to believe the Trinity , which hath been propounded to us , as an Article of Faith , in the Word of God it self , tho our fallible and frail Reason reclaims , and kicks perhaps against it ? When the Socinians , say these Gentlemen , have accounted for all the Mysteries of Nature and Art ; let them begin to object to the Trinity , that 't is a Mystery , and that it hath sundry Contradictions to Reason : but till they do the first , 't is nothing else but a bold Impiety to insist on the other . It must be confessed , Sir , that this is the most plausible Pretence ; the strongest Hold , as well as the last Resort of our Opposers : when we have drove them from all other Posts , here they take Sanctuary . I will therefore take care to remove this Occasion , and Cover of Error . I say , 1. I might leave it wholly to Dr. S — th , to answer this Pretence of some of his Party . At p. 2 , and 3 , &c. of his Animadversions , he shows at large , what is a Mystery ; he saith , that a Mistery is a Truth revealed by God , above the reach of Human Reason to find out , or to comprehend . He vindicateth this Definition , part by part ; he saith , p. 3. first , a Mystery is a Truth ; by which , saith he , I exclude every thing from being a Mystery , which is absurd , or contradictions . Now we desire nothing else of our Oppo●●●● , but that they would abide by this Account of Mystery ; that 't is not something absurd , or contradictory , but only some Secret revealed by God , because it was above Human Capacity to discover it , and sometimes also even to comprehend how it can be . For there is a vast Difference between my not being able to conceive how a thing should be , and a clear Apprehension and Sight that it cannot be . There are ( it may be ) Mysteries , which we cannot comprehend how they should be : but that three Divine Persons , or three distinct Almighty and All-knowing Persons , should be but one Almighty , but one All-knowing , or but one God , a Man ( who considers but with never so little Intention and Sincerity ) clearly sees , that it cannot be . In short , that 't is not a Mystery , but ( as Dr. S — th speaks ) an Absurdity and a Contradiction . In a word , we do not reject the Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation , because they are Mysteries ; but because they are plain Contradictions to Reason and common Sense , and consequently Untruths : for ( without doubt ) Reason and Truth are but two Names , for the same thing ; and clear Reason is no other thing , but clear Truth . 2. I consider , that what will equally serve to excuse all the Nonsense , and impossible Doctrines , that are to be found among Men ; we cannot admit of it , as a Defence of the ( pretended ) Trinity and Incarnation : especially in Opposition to such powerful Proofs , both from Scripture and Reason ; as may be , and actually are alledged against those Doctrines . A Papist , for Example , does ( with equal colour ) alledg this Pretence , for his Transubstantiation . He says , 'T is a Scripture-Doctrine , delivered in these express words , This is my Body : and how many things are there in the Works of Nature , which we comprehend not , no more than we can comprehend the Miracle of the Transubstantiation ; and yet we believe them to be , as assuredly , as if there were no Difficulty in conceiving how they should be , or that they can be . Such as the Antipodes ; and that a pure Spirit can ●●●ve a Body , in which it findeth no Resistance ; and that the Parts of Matter or Bodies are continuos , or hold together : and many the like . Thus do the Papists argue ; and I deny , that this Pretence can be wrested from them , by any Trinitarian : for 't is the same Defence that the Trinitarian makes for his Doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation . Our Opposers will not vouchsafe , so much as to hear Catholicks and Lutherans , when they plead Mystery , for the Transubstantiation or the Consubstantiation : I desire of them therefore , to give me but one Reason , why that Plea is not as good in those Controversies , as in these of the Trinity and Incarnation . The Author of two Dialogues , concerning the Trinity and the Transubstantiation , finding himself pressed with this Difficulty , answers to this effect , that there are a great many more Texts of Holy Scripture for the Trinity , than are pretended for the Transubstantiation . But this is no Solution of the proposed Difficulty : for 't is not at all the Question , which Doctrine hath most Texts alledged for it ; but only , whether the Pretence of Mystery , be not a Plea as rational and allowable , against all the Exceptions made against the Transubstantiation , as an impossible , inconceivable and contradictory Doctrine ; as 't is to the same Exceptions , when urged by the Socinians against the Incarnation or Trinity ? But whereas that Author insists upon an Answer , wholly foreign to this Difficulty ; and is so careful to bring together , from Cardinal Bellarmine , all the Texts alledged for the Trinity : he is desired to name to us so much as one Text for either of those Doctrines ; that is not given up to the Socinians , by some of the most Learned Interpreters and Criticks of his own Party , as indeed no Proof of the Trinity , the Incarnation , or the Divinity of the Son or Spirit . What avails it , for a Man to talk of the great number of Texts , which he can alledg ; when the ablest Persons of his own Party , do ( in the mean time ) ow● the Unsufficiency of every one of them in particular ? If he thinks he has cause to deny , that the Socinians have this great Advantage on their side ; whenever he shall do it publickly , I will bear the Reproach , if I do not justify what I have said , by Citation of particular Authors of the first Note and Rank among our Opposers . 3. Our Opposers urge , that there are ( and the Soci●●●●s themselves believe ) a great many Mys●●●●●s in Nature ; of which no Human Reason can give an Account , nay Reason objects against them , and professedly contradicts them : as that a pure Spirit can move a Body , In which it meets no Resistance ; that Bodies or Matter consist of indiuisible Parts ; and such like . Well , suppose the Socinians should grant these , or other unaccountable Mysteries , which not only are not comprehended , but are contradicted by Reason : What then ? Why , then they are very inconsiderate , to deny ( as they do ) the Trinity and Incarnation ; on this account , that 't is contrary to Reason , or implies Contradictions and Absurdities . But our Opposers should have thought better of this Objection , before they laid so great a Weight on it ; even the Weight of their whole Cause . For tho we should grant , that we believe some Mysteries of Nature or Art , against which Reason objects , and many ways contradicts them ; yet is this no Plea for the Trinity , or the Incarnation . For if we believe Natural or Artificial Mysteries , 't is because we plainly see that so the thing is : we see or we feel , or have some other undeniable Proof of the thing ; some such Proof , as no rational Man will or can resist . Doth any Man believe Misteries , or wonderful Tales , contrary to his Reason , and the Reason of all other Men ; without a most manifest and uncontestable Proof of them ; without some such Proof or Proofs , as undeniably evince the thing so to be ? But will our Opposers pretend , they have any such Proofs for the Incarnation or Trinity ; such manifest , such evident , such uncontestable Proofs , that no sober Man , or no reasonable Man can except against them , or refuse to admit of them ? I do not think they will pretend to it , if it be but for this only Reason , because the Socinians are confest to be a Rational and Learned Party . Are those Evidence or Proofs uncontestable , which are rejected , not without some Scorn , by some of the learnedest , and most unsuspected of their own Party ? Are they uncontestable , that not only may be interpreted to another Sense , but also are either otherways read in the best Copies of the Hebrew and Greek , or may be otherways translated from those Languages ; and all this , by confession of the more ingenious of our Opposers themselves ? Briefly , we say , Mysteries there are ; and it may be such Mysteries , as are even contradicted by Reason ; that is , are in some respects Contradictions to our present ( short-sighted and frail ) Reason : but when we believe there are some such Mysteries , it is because they appear to our Senses ; or are proved to us by some such either Reason or Authority , as no reasonable Man , much less any Number of such Men , does or can deny to be uncontestable . And otherways , all the unwarrantable Nonsense in the World may be imposed on us , under the Pretence and Cloak of Mystery . But now the Doctrine of the Trinity , hath not only no uncontestable Proofs ; but the Pretences for it are so feeble , that none of them can be named , but is not only rejected , but despised by some of the learnedest of our Opposers themselves . They would perswade us to acknowledg a Mistery , full of Contradictions to the clearest Reason , and to indisputable Texts of Holy Scripture ; and supported in the mean time , only by some Texts that may be interpreted to a Rational Sense , that is , to a Sense that hath nothing contrary either to Reason , or to the unquestionable Parts or Texts of the Holy Scripture . For Peace sake , we would do so , if it were some light matter that they urged on us : but when the Question is , about one or more Gods , one or more Divine Persons , we judg it adviseable , not to be too facile in admitting such dangerous Mysteries ; Mysteries that would destroy the Allegiance and Homage that we all owe to the one true God. I have done , Sir , with the Explications of our Opposers . You see what they are : Dr. S — th's Explication is only an absurd Socinianism ; or Unitarianism disguised in a Metaphysical and Logical Cant. Dr. Wallis his Explication is an ingenious Sabellianism ; and in very deed differs from Unitarianism , no more than Dr. S — th's , that is to say , only in the wording . Dr. Sherlock's is such a flat Tritheism , that all the Learned of his own Party confess it to be so ; and Dr. S — th hath written a very accurate Book to prove it so . Dr. Cudworth's is a moderate Arianism ; the Ariani molles ascribed as much to the Son , as this Doctor doth : and he denies as much to the Son , as they did ; even an Equality of Power , and Authority with the Father . Mr. Hooker's is a Trinity , not of Persons , but of Contradictions : and he hath advanced such a Son , as of necessity destroys his Father . What the Mystical Divines teach , cannot be called an Explication ; they deny all Explications : we must say therefore 't is Samaritanism ; for what our Saviour says of the Samaritans , by way of Reproof and Blame , that these Gentlemen profess concerning themselves , that they worship they know not what . These , Sir , are the Doctrines that we oppose ; I shall leave it with you , whether it be without cause . Before I conclude , I beg your Leave to say two words to Mr. Basset , who hath answer'd ( or thinks he has answered ) to the Brief History of the Unitarians : and to Dr. Fulwood and Dr. Edwards , Men of Dignity in the Church ; but who have not thought it below them , to use the very vilest Language , and the basest and most ungrounded Scandals , that their Malice to our Persons , and their Ignorance of the Points in question between us and the Church , could suggest to them . These two Doctors tell their Readers , that the Unitarians deny the Omniscience of God , or that he fore-knoweth contingent Events : that they deny his Omnipresence , making him to be present in all Places , only by his Knowledg , and his Power ; that they ascribe the same degree of Power and Knowledg , and pay the self-same Worship to the Lord Christ , whom they affirm to be a meer Man , which they ascribe or pay to Almighty God ; and hereby , say these Doctors , they are guilty of an Idolatry that is equally evident and abominable . They pretend to prove this Charge out of the Writings of Socinus , Smalcius , and some others of the Party . I say now ; 1. That their Quotations out of Socinus and the rest , are ( for a great pa●● of them ) as false and disingenious as those ●● Dr. Wallis were : as any one will see , who shall take the Pains to consult the Authors themselves . 2. They make it to be a great Heresy in some Socinians , that they deny there is a certain Fore-knowledg of contingent Events : they say 't is a Denial of God's Omniscience . And yet all Men know , that very many of the most Learned Trinitarians , have been of the same Opinion ; Antients as well as Moderns , Protestants as well as Catholicks . Nor have these Doctors so much as offered at an Answer to the Reasons of Socinus and Crellius , concerning a conditional Knowledg in God. 3. That God is Omnipresent , not in his Essence or Person , but by his Knowledg and Power ; is also held by divers Learned Trinitarians : and it must needs have been the Opinion of those Fathers , who either were Anthropomorphites ; or held that God is a Body , not a Spirit . 4. These Doctors have written against the Socinians , by occasion of the English Books , that have been lately published , by those of that Perswasion : they should therefore have attacked the Doctrine of those Books ; they should have described our Opinions out of our own Writings , not from the Books of Foreigners . The English Socinians sincerely believe , that God is truly Omniscient ; that he foreseeth all Events , how contingent soever they may be to us . They believe the real Omnipresence of God ; or that he is present in his Essence or Person in all Places , and not only by his Power , Knowledg or Ministers . They honour , or if we must use that word , they worship the Lord Christ ; neither with the same sort , nor with the same degree of Worship , which is due to God : they worship or honour him , with their Minds , only as one who is highly exalted by God , above all Principality and Power , and every Name that is named ; and to whom God hath given to be Head over all things to the Church . In a word , they neither pay a higher Worship , nor impute a greater Power or Knowledg to the Lord Christ , than the most Learned , and the far greater Number of Trinitarians , impute and pay to the Human Nature ( the meer Human Nature ) of Jesus Christ , in his present State of Exaltation . We have said these things so often in our late Books ; we have defended them so earnestly , that none but Persons of little Honesty , or great Inconsideration , would object to us such Opinions as these before-mentioned . But these Gentlemen had a longing Mind to be Authors ; and who should they signalize themselves upon , so popularly , as upon the Socinians : if they have got Reputation by their Books , that is , by weak Arguments and strong Calumnies ; it is with so very few , that I do not think they will reap an Advantage by it . But one of them urgeth , that Socinus was in this dangerous Heresy , that the Soul of Man , after the Death of his Body , is in a State of Inactivity and Unperception ; in a word , neither perceives nor lives , till the Resurrection of the Body : at which time , it receiveth Immortality , by the meer Grace or Gift of God ; but is not , of its own Nature , immortal . I do acknowledg , that this seems to be the Opinion of F. Socinus ; but , I believe , of very few Unitarians besides . But this Error was common to him , with some of the Fathers : the Learned Monsieur Du Pin has noted , that Justin Martyr , Irenaeus , Minutius Foelix and Arnobius were in this Sentiment . There was no Reason therefore to object this , to Socinus ; as if it were a peculiar Opinion of his ; much less to the English Unitarians , who never defended it ; nor , that I know of , do any of them hold it . As to Mr. Basset , there are two things very remarkable , in his Answer to the Brief History of the Unitarians : the meanness and dulness of the Book it self , it being written with no Vivacity , Wit , or Elevation of Thought ; and the undecent Insolence of the Author . His Book being such as it is , if the Brief History cannot shift for it self , against that Reply to it ; the Historian is resolved it shall take its Fortune : he is perswaded , that when a discerning Man has read Mr. Basset's Answer ; if he again looks over the Brief History , he will ( at least ) as much approve of it , as at first . Mr. Basset has said nothing , that can in the least shake the Reputation of the Brief History ; unless his Reader will believe him , when he charges the Historian with false Quotations of Authors . To this the Historian answers ; that he hath not made one false or mistaken Citation : but Mr. Basset sometimes not understanding the Authors that are quoted , for they are Greek and Latin ; and sometimes mistaking the Sense of the Historian , which he doth very frequently ; it hath happened hereupon , that he hath charged the Historian with his own either Ignorances or Inadvertences . But I am not at leisure to write a Vindication , every time that negligent and ignorant Scriblers mistake my meaning ; or the Sense or the Authors by me alledged . I reckon it to be his Insolence , that a Person who had nothing to offer on these Questions ; but what was very trivial and vulgar ; should yet give disrespectful Language , without any the least Provocation given by the Historian . He saith , for instance , that indeed the Foreign Socinians have been learned and subtile Men ; but he cannot say so concerning the English : but for the Epistler , so he calls the Writer of the Brief History , because 't is written in four Letters ; he saith , Poor Wretch ought to have imploy'd his small Talent to honester Purposes , and not have sought for Reputation only by his Nonsense , his Follies , and his Impieties . This was a Mortification indeed , c●ming ( as it does ) from so great and worthy a Hand : but the Comfort is , we are apt to be more advised , and better'd also by our Humiliations . And yet I am still of Opinion , that as Mr. Basset thought it requisite to answer the Brief History after the great Victory gained over it by Dr. Sherlock : so there will not want many others , who will judg it no less than necessary ; to give other Answers to it , after this Triumph of Mr. Basset . But however that be , I answer to Mr. Basset , as Moses did to Pharaoh , Glory over me ; I am resolved Mr. Basset shall have the Self-satisfaction , that he hath mauled the Epistler for ever . For I will not catch Flies , nor spend my Artillery upon Mud-Walls ; when I happen on some such Second , as Dr. Sherlock found up against the Jesuits , Mr. Basset may hear from me , and not before , I will not ask Pardon , Sir , for the length of this Letter ; for you see to how many it was necessary to make some Answer : but I ought not to forget , to give you my Thanks and Respects , for the Liberalities and Favours , which you have done to your Humble Servant . A LETTER to the Publisher from another Hand . SIR , I Heartily thank you for the perusal of this most learned and judicious Letter , which I return you ; and I congratulate the worthy Author , whom the Divine Wisdom has made an Instrument for the vindicating of his glorious and incommunicable Attribute of Unity , which he has in several Tracts even demonstrated , not only by clear and express Scriptures and obvious Reason , but also now at length from the Confessions of the Trinitarians themselves , the Infringers of it . For whilst each one condemns the several Explications of the rest , as either inconsistent with the Unity , or the Trinity , they do all in their turns bear Witness to the Unitarians , that their Opposition to the Trinitarian Doctrine is well-grounded and reasonable , and consequently their Doctrine of the Unity the Truth of God. For if each one of their Explications does either introduce the Worship of three Gods , or the Heresy of Sabellianism , as they call it , the turning the Son and Holy Ghost into Names and Operations without any real Distinction of Persons , or Things answering those distinct Names , as it plainly appears they do ; then it undeniably follows , there is no such Trinity as they imagine , but a Numerical Unity of Person and Essence in God , as the Unitarians hold ; and as some Trinitarians contend in their Opposition one to another . It remains then that the Trinitarian Worshippers , especially the common People , do seriously and in the Fear of the one most High God , consider , what Notions , Conceptions , or Idea's they have , of an Infinite and Almighty Holy Ghost distinct from the Almighty Father and Producer of them : For they cannot possibly escape the Condemnation of one of the highest Crimes , even the Worship of three Infinite Real Gods , or two Imaginary Ones , or two Names without Notions ; that is , they know not what , as this Author expresses it ; Condemnation I say , not only by the Unitarians ( who worship the Father only as God in the highest and strictest Sense of that Term ) but also by all the Trinitarians , that hold not the same Opinion , or have not the same Notion . I know the Times of Ignorance God winketh at , as well now , as before the preaching of the Gospel ; but after he has made his Unity manifest , and vindicated it from the Scholastick Subtilties and absurd Distinctions , that have been invented to hide the Truth , he then commands all Men , to whom this Evidence comes , to repent . Inconsideration or Negligence will not now excuse . Men must not say or think ( as they commonly do ) this Point is too high for me to determine ; for they have already determined it , whilst they profess to believe in , and to worship three equal ones , a Father , a Son , and a Spirit . Neither can they alledg the Universality of the Trinitarian Faith : For besides ( as this Author observes ) the worshipping of many Gods was formerly , and is now far more universal ; we see that this Opinion and Worship , which soever it be , is condemned by at least four to one of those that go under that common Name of Trinitarians . The rise of these divers and contrary Explications has been this ( as is observed by the Author in that which now obtains ) that Learned Men looking narrowly into former Explications , have found them inconsistent with the Oneness of God , and therefore have devised somewhat either more obscure , that would hide the Contradiction , or somewhat more consistent with the Unity , tho it destroyed the Trinity ; or more consistent with the Trinity , tho it destroys the Unity , as Dr. Sherlock has done . And perhaps others like him may devise other Hypotheses , taking it for granted from the Prejudices of early Education and customary thinking , that the Trinity is a Fundamental of Christianity . But we see here they labour in vain to reconcile manifest Contradictions : and in believing the Son and Holy Spirit to be equally God with the Father , they offend against express Scriptures and clear Reason , upon the account of their own Reasonings upon obscure Texts ; and therein transgress the plain Principles , both of Natural Light and Revelation , which require , 1. That nothing be held for Truth contrary to evident and Fundamental Truth . And , 2. That obscure Passages are to be interpreted by clear Passages , and the Current of Scripture , and not otherwise . The Jews walking contrary to these Principles , was the cause of rejecting Christ and Christianity , and it is indeed the ground of all Error whatever . In vain do Men press a great many Texts ( that have , even in the Opinion of Learned Trinitarians , another meaning ) to prove that the Son and Holy Ghost are God ; till they can reconcile that Inference to plain Scripture and evident Reason . In vain does the Author of The Snare broken ( who could not overcome the Prejudices of his Education and Converse ) perswade Men to lay aside their Philosophy , and wholly to betake themselves to a Scriptural Consideration of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; by which I understand , they must take the words of Scripture without understanding them , or reconciling them to other Scriptures , or even the Current of Scripture or common Reason . Do they think that Scripture is to be interpreted contrary to it self ? Or , that Divine Wisdom has made the Belief of Contradictions necessary to Salvation ? It seems strange that Christians should be very zealous in the Punctilio's of the Worship of God , Ceremonies of Posture , Gesture or Apparel ; Forms of Addresses to God , the wording of Faith to an Iota ; and yet go on in the Worship of one God the Father , and of two distinct from him , God as perfectly as he ; and in which their Worship terminates equally with him . They can love God the Father with all their Hearts and Strengths , and two Persons distinct from him with the same All : they can give all to one , and all to another , and all to a third , and never question the Possibility of it ; as if there were a Trinity in Unity in every Man ; that his own Heart were three Hearts , to be bestowed all and entirely upon each of three Objects , and yet be but one Heart still . But whither am I carried ? This Author needs none of my Notes or Illustrations : and indeed both he and all others that have labour'd in this Controversy , may surcease their Pains henceforth , and leave what they have already said to the Judgment and Conscience of all considerate and sincere Men. I am , Sir , yours , &c.