The distinction between real and nominal trinitarians examined and the doctrine of a real Trinity vindicated from the charge of Tritheism : in answer to a late Socinian pamphlet, entituled, The judgment of a disinterested person, concerning the controversie about the Blessed Trinity, depending between Dr. S--th, and Dr. Sherlock. Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1696 Approx. 175 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 45 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A59822 Wing S3294 ESTC R19545 12442486 ocm 12442486 62123 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 . 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Trinity -- Controversial literature. 2003-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-02 Rachel Losh Sampled and proofread 2005-02 Rachel Losh Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN Real and Nominal TRINITARIANS EXAMINED , And the Doctrine of a Real Trinity Vindicated from the Charge of Tritheism . In ANSWER To a late Socinian Pamphlet , ENTITULED , The Judgment of a Disinterested Person , concerning the Controversie about the Blessed Trinity , depending between Dr. S — th , and Dr. Sherlock . LONDON , Printed for William Rogers , at the Sun , over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street , 1696. THE CONTENTS . SECT . I. Concerning Real and Nominal Trinitarians . Page 1 The late Arch-Bishop Tillotson and Dr. Bull owned by him to be Real Trinitarians , p. 3 Dr. Bull 's Learned Defence of the Nicene Faith asserts and proves a Real Trinity , p. 4 SECT . II. This Author's Account of the Doctrine of the Realists and Nominalists , concerning the Holy Trinity . p. 10 The occasion of this Distinction between Real and Nominal Trinitarians and the Use the Socinians make of it , ibid. This Author's Account of the Doctrine of the Realists p. 13 That there are three Minds , Spirits , Substances , in the Trinity , not the Language of all Realists , nor own'd by any of them in his Sense , p. 14. &c. The Difference between an individual and singular Substance , p. 16 His Representation of the Doctrine of the Nominalists , p. 19 The only Difference between them and the Realists , not in Three Substances and One Substance , p. 21 SECT . III. The Authorities ( as ●he calls them ) of the Nominals against a Real Trinity , examined , p. 22 What the Nicene Council meant by the Homoousion , or One Substance of Father and Son , p. 24 Socrates's Account of the Dispute concerning the Word Homoousios , p. 25 This Author's Mistake in making the Arian Homoiousios signifie the same Substance in Sort , or Kind , or Properties , p. 32 The third Council of Constantinople , concerning Two Natural Wills , and Two Operations in Christ , ibid. In what Sense this Council owned but one Will in the Trinity , p. 33 The Doctrine of the Council of Lateran , concerning the Trinity , p. 34 In what Sense they teach that the Divine Essence , neither begets , nor is begotten , nor proceeds , p. 37 Spanhemius's Account of some late Disputes about the Trinity , and the Judgment of the Belgick Synods , p. 38 SECT . IV. His three first Arguments against a Real Trinity , p. 41 All his Arguments oppose a Trinity of subsisting Persons , ibid. One ( Personal ) infinite Mind or Spirit , not the Definition of the One God , p. 43 Concerning three Wills , Understandings , &c. in One God , p. 45 His Argument to prove , that the Second and Third Persons in the Trinity are not Substance and Spirit , but only Properties , or Immanent Acts , ibid. His Argument from the Council of Lyons answered , p. 46 Concerning the Eternal Generation and Procession , p. 48 In what Sense the Son is the Wisdom of the Father , p. 52 What the Fathers meant by that Argument for the Eternity of the Son , that God was never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without his Word , p. 53 The Judgment of Cabassutius about this Argument , p. 54 Concerning Emanatory Causes and Effects , p. 56 SECT . V. The Fourth and Fifth Argument against a Real Trinity answered , p. 59 The Difference between three Divine Persons , [ each of which is true and perfect God , ] and three Gods , p. 63 The Charge of Tritheism founded on an Equivocal use of those Terms , One God , and One Person , p. 67 Whether the Arguments for the Unity of God , prove , that there is but one Person , who is God , p. 69 SECT . VI. The Defence this Author makes for the Nominals against the Objections of the Realists , p. 78 The End of the CONTENTS . ERRATA . PAge 15. Marg. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 49. l. 6. for or r. are . p. 63. l. 12. dele for . p. 75. l. 25. for aclls , r. calls . THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN REAL and NOMINAL TRINITARIANS , CONSIDERED . SECT I. Concerning Real and Nominal Trinitarians . THIS Author calls himself a Presbyter of the Church of England ; and by what I have heard , I fear it is too true : I pray God preserve the Church from such Presbyters , who Eat her Bread , and Betray her Faith. His pretence for Writing this Pamphlet , is , The Controversy between Dr. S — th and Dr. Sherlock , about the B. Trinity . I will say nothing of that matter , let the Animadverter Answer it to God and his own Conscience ; This Author has said enough about it , and I wish he had but used the same Candour throughout , and then there would have been no need of this Answer , but tho' it seems he was Disinterested as to the contending Doctors , he was deeply Interested as to the Cause of Socinianism , to which he promised no small Advantage from this Dispute . And indeed it is too evident , what advantage our Socinian Adversaries have made , and hope still to make of this Controversy . This has occasioned that scandalous Distinction between Real and Nominal Trinitarians ; which is such an open abuse upon the Nominalists , that were I one of those whom he Reproaches with that Title , I could not bear it : For the plain English of it is no more but this ; those who believe a Trinity , and those who believe no Trinity ; for Nominal Trinitarians , as opposed to Real Trinitarians , can signifie nothing more . And could this Author , and his Friends , persuade the World , That the greatest part of our Clergy , nay , the Church of England it self , as he pretends , are but Nominal Trinitarians , their Work were done ; for a Socinian is a much more honourable Name ; and when Men agree in the Faith , it is a vain thing to dispute about Words ; And therefore this Author is equally zealous to oppose the Realists , that is , to overthrow the Doctrine of a Real Trinity , and to persuade the Nominalists , that tho' they differ in some peculiar forms of Speech , yet there is no reason they should Quarrel , for their Faith is the same : And this I thought a sufficient Reason to judge over again , the Iudgment of this Disinterested Person . I shall pass over the Account he gives of the History of this Dispute , only observing , that Dr. Sherlock did not begin it ; He wrote against the Socinians , without suspecting that he should meet with such furious and bitter Assaults from another Quarter , and yet after such great Provocations as might move a very tame man , he has made no return , which unbecomes a true Christian Spirit in such Cases . But there is one thing wherein this Author has done the Dean right , by acquainting the world , That he has not been the first Broacher of this Heresy ( as they call it ) of Three Distinct Infinite Minds and Spirits in the Vnity of the Godhead . He reckons up several others of the same mind , some who appeared before , and some since his Vindication , as Dr. Cudworth , Dr. Bull , the late Archbishop Tillotson , the present Bishop of Glocester , Mr. How , Mr. I. B. Mr. Bingham . And I could tell him of many more , as many as do sincerely believe , That God is a Father , and has a True , Real , Subsisting Son , and Holy Spirit . But yet he himself is sensible , and his Socinian Friends , or rather he himself , in some former Pamphlets , has observed very material differences between the Dean's Hypothesis , and some of these Learned Men : He neither owns the Platonick Inequality of Dr. Cudworth , nor the Sabellian Composition and Union of others , but asserts Three Real , Distinct , Coequal , Coeternal Persons ; not in one singular and solitary , but in one numerical Nature and Essence . But I believe the Dean will heartily thank him for giving him the late Archbishop and Dr. Bull , two such Names as will command Reverence , and shelter him from the Imputation either of Novelty or Heresy , at least as to this Point : And it is worth observing , from the example of these two great Men , at what rate some Persons judge of Men and Doctrines . The good Archbishop , by his Trinitarian Adversaries , is charged with Socinianism , and by his Socinian Adversaries with Tritheism ; and yet he must have very ill luck , if he could stumble upon two such Extremes . As for Dr. Bull , his Learned and Elaborate Defence of the Nicene Faith , was printed at Oxford , and received with Universal Applause , as it highly deserved : None of them to this day have charged him with the least Heresy , and I believe will not yet venture to do it . And yet , as this Writer confesses , and as every unprejudiced Reader must own , the Doctrine of the Defence as to this Point , is the very same with the Dean's Hypothesis , which these very Persons have condemned as Impious and Heretical . So true is it , Duo cùm faciunt idem , non est idem . All that this Socinian intended by bringing Dr. Bull into the Fray , was to follow the Blow which the Animadverter and the Oxford Decree had given to a Trinity of distinct , proper , subsisting , living , intelligent Persons , ( which is all that Dr. Bull , or the Dean assert ) by their Charge of Tritheism ; which he hoped would be a sufficient Answer to that otherwise unanswerable Book , and together with Dr. Bull , would confute all the Fathers at once , on whose Authority he so much relies , and to whom he perpetually appeals ; for no Christian must hearken to those men , whatever their Authority be , did they really ( as they are unjustly charged ) preach Three Gods ; and thus he thinks he has got rid of all Antiquity , and of the Tritheistick Trinity with it . But still this makes well for the Dean , who will be contended to stand and fall with the Catholick Fathers , and will never desire to be thought more Orthodox than they . That Dr. Bull asserts a Real , Substantial Trinity , in as high and express Terms as ever the Dean did , is so plain throughout his Book , that it is needless to prove it . All his Arguments suppose this Hypothesis , and are unintelligible without it ; and therefore I shall take notice but of one or two particular Passages , whereon , as we shall presently see , this whole heavy Charge of Tritheism rests . He tells us , That Hypostasis , both before and in , and after the Nicene Council , was used by the Catholick Fathers for Subsistence , or a particular thing which subsists by it self , which , in intelligent Beings , is the same with Person : That in this sense , they taught Father and Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be two Hypostases ; and Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , to be three Hypostases . And that upon this account Tertullian , to assert the Subsistence of the Son against those who denied him to be a distinct Person from the Father , affirms him to be Substantiam & rem Substantivam , Substance , and a substantial Being . And having by many irrefragable Instances proved this use of the word to be very Catholick , he adds , That probably this word Hypostasis would still have been used in this sense , had not the Arians abused it to countenance their Heresy , expounding it to a more general Notion of Essence , Nature and Substance , and teaching , as the Catholick Fathers did , That the Father and Son were two Hypostases ; but thereby meaning , that they were of a different Nature and Substance , unlike to each other : And that in opposition to them it was , that the Sardican Council taught , Father and Son to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one Hypostasis ; that is , as they themselves expresly affirm , in the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or one Nature and Essence . We may find a great deal more to this purpose in the same place , in his Vindication of Origen from the Objections of Huetius , who charges him with denying the Father and Son to be of the same Essence and Substance , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because he opposes those who denied the Holy Ghost to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Substance of his own , distinct from the Father and the Son : whereas that learned man shews , that Origen by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , meant no more than Hypostasis , in which sense that word is often used among the Ancients ; and therefore in opposition to those Noetian Hereticks , asserts Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , three Hypostases , as Hypostasis signifies Rem singularem & individuam per se subsistentem , quae in iis , quae vita & intellectu gaudent , idem est quod persona : A singular and individual thing , which subsists by it self , which in Beings that have Life and Understanding , signifies a Person : so that Three Hypostases , are Three substantial , self-subsisting , living , intelligent Persons . And tho' the Phrase , of Three Minds , Three Spirits , Three Substances , ought to be used very cautiously , and not without great necessity , when applied to the Holy Trinity , for fear of the Arian Notion of Three Substances , yet it is evident how far this learned man is from thinking such Expressions to be Impious and Heretical : He expounds ▪ Three Hypostases to the very same Sense ; and elsewhere quotes that passage of St. Hilary concerning the Synod at Antioch , as truly Catholick , where in opposition to the Sabellians , they assert the Divine Persons in the Trinity , to be tria in substantia , or tres substantias , three in Substance , or three Substances . Thus when Petavius accuses Methodius for calling Father and Son , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , two Creating and Operative Powers , he answers , That Father and Son might with less offence , and better reason , be called Two Powers by Methodius , than Two Natures and Substances , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 five 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as they are called by other Fathers , who yet were always accounted Catholick ; but such expressions as these must be understood only personally , and then they are Orthodox : So that according to this learned man , Two Personal Natures , Substances , and Powers , are Catholick Expressions ; and this is the very account which Dr. Sherlock in his Defence , if he were the Author of it , gives of Three Minds , and Spirits , that he understood it personally , for Three Divine intelligent Persons ; and therefore is as Orthodox in these very Expressions , as Dr. Bull , and those Catholick Fathers to whom he appeals . In another place , speaking of some Modern Divines , who allow the Son to be of the Father , considered as a Son , but not as God ; that he receives his Person , but not his Essence or Divine Nature of the Father ; he observes that we cannot conceive the Person without the Essence , unless by Person in the Divinity , we mean no more than the meer mode of subsistence , which is plain Sabellianism . So that this Writer has done Dr. Sherlock a greater kindness than he was aware of , and as it will quickly appear , has lost his own Cause by it ; if Dr. Bull have truly represented the sense of the Fathers , as all learned and unprejudiced men must own he has : For here are such a Cloud of Witnesses to the Doctrine of a Real , Substantial , Subsisting Trinity , as no later Authorities , whatever they are , can stand against . What I have now quoted , is only what first came to hand , but there is hardly any thing in the whole Book , but what by immediate and necessary consequence , proves the real dictinction of proper , subsisting Persons in the Trinity ; that each Person is by himself in his own proper Person , as distinguisht from the other Two , Infinite Mind , Substance , Life , Wisdom , Power , and whatever is contained in the Notion and Idea of God. Instead of particular Quotations for the proof of this , I shall only Appeal to the Titles of the several Sections of that learned Work , which I believe no man can make common sense of , without acknowledging a Trinity of proper , substantial , subsisting Persons . The First Section concerns the Preexistence of the Son of God , That he , who afterwards was called Jesus Christ , did subsist before his Incarnation , or Nativity , according to the Flesh of the Blessed Virgin , in another and more excellent Nature than that of Man ; That he appeared to the Holy Men under the Old Testament , as a kind of Anticipation of his-Incarnation ; That he always presided over , and took care of his Church , which he was to Redeem with his own Blood ; That he was present with God his Father before the foundation of the World , and that by him all things were made . This is the Faith of Christians , and this he proves to be the constant Doctrine of all the Catholick Fathers for the first three hundred years , and so it continued to After-ages : Now let any man consider , what a pretty kind of dispute this is , about the Preexistence of the Son , if he have no proper permanent Existence of his own , but considered as a Divine Person , is only another Name for the Father , or an immanent Act , like the transient Thought , or transient Act of Reason in Man. For if the Son be not a distinct Person from the Father , and as proper a subsisting Person as the Father himself is , the Question will amount to no more but this , Whether God the Father had a Being before Jesus Christ was Born of the Virgin , or before the World was made ? Or , Whether he had any immanent Acts of Wisdom or Reason , before he made the World ? Or , Whether he took the Name of Son upon himself , before he made the World , or made any Creature to know him or his Name . The Christian Fathers were Wiser men than to talk at this impertinent rate ; and therefore they did believe , that God had a Son in a true and proper Sense ; a subsisting , living , omnipotent Son , by whom he made the World ; who appeared in his own proper Person to several of the Patriarchs under the Old Testament ; and in the fulness of time , was Incarnate of the substance of the Virgin Mary . The very Question it self necessarily supposes this to make Sense of it ; much more impossible is it to understand what the Fathers say upon this Argument , upon the Sabellian or Socinian Hypothesis . The Second Section concerns the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father ; That the Son of God is not of a created or mutable Essence , but perfectly of the same Divine unchangeable Nature with his Father , and therefore is True God of True God. Now , What Sense can be made of this , if the Son be not as truly and properly Substance in his own Person , as distinguished from the Person of the Father , as the Father is in his own Person ? For , How can the Son be Consubstantial , or of the same Substance with the Father , if he be no Substance at all ? Especially since this Learned man has proved , That the Catholick Fathers rejected the Homoousion in the Sabellian Sense , for one singular Substance of Father and Son , and that they assert , as common Sense would teach us , that nothing is Consubstantial to it self , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one thing is Consubstantial to another . The Third Section concerns the Co-eternal Existence of the Son with the Father : Now for Father and Son to Coexist , necessarily supposes , that they both Exist , and actually subsist by themselves ; for two cannot Exist and Subsist together , unless each of them actually subsist ; For as the Fathers observe , nothing can properly be said to Coexist with it self : For it can admit of no Question , Whether any one has been , as long as he has been : And therefore , since the Co-eternity of the Son has been a very serious Dispute between the Catholicks and the Arians , it is certain , that both of them owned Father and Son to be two distinct Persons , which did distinctly Exist and Subsist . The Fourth Section teaches the Subordination of the Son to the Father ; that tho' the Son be Co-equal with the Father , as having the same Divine Nature with the Father , without any change or diminution ; yet he is Subordinate to the Father , as receiving the Divine Nature from him : That the Father is God of himself ; the Son , God of God. Now if the Son receive the Divine Nature by an eternal Communication from the Father , he must have it in himself , in his own Person , and be a living , subsisting Son , true God of God ; and if he be a true proper Person , and subordinate to the Father , he must be a distinct Person , for no Person can be subordinate to himself . These Questions Dr. Bull has discoursed at large , with great variety of Learning , and acuracy of Judgment ; and it is a Mystery to me , how those , who pretend to admire Dr. Bull , should quarrel with Dr. Sherlock ; or that those who pay any reverence to the Catholick Fathers , should quarrel with either of them . This Socinian , as I observed before , was glad to draw Dr. Bull into the number of Tritheists , but by that means he has drawn in all the Catholick Fathers too , and has now drawn together so many Tritheists , as he will never know how to get rid of again : or to speak more properly , he has unanswerably Confuted the Charge of Tritheism , and discovered the Trick and Mystery of it , by charging the Catholick Faith it self , and all the Catholick Fathers , the most zealous Patrons and Advocates of it , with Tritheism . SECT II. This Author's Account of the Doctrine of the Realists and Nominalists , concerning the Holy Trinity . THE very Name of Socinianism is justly abhorred by all Christians , who place all their hopes of Salvation in the Incarnation , Sacrifice , and Intercession of the Eternal Son of God : For if Christ Jesus , who is the Saviour of Mankind , be not the Eternal Son of God in humane Nature , all those great Assurances , which the Gospel gives us , of God's love to Sinners , in giving his own Eternal Son for us , of the Expiation of our Sins by the Blood of the Son of God , a price of inestimable value , and of all the Blessings which we expect , both in this world and in the next , from the powerful intercession of a Beloved Son , and a meritorious High-Priest ; I say , all these strong Consolations dwindle into no more , than the Word and Promise of a great and extraordinary Prophet , the Death of a Martyr , and the Intercession of a Beloved Creature , and humble Supplicant , who has no inherent Power and Authority to save us . Our Modern Socinians are very sensible , what an invincible prejudice this is ; for few serious Christians will be willing to part with their hopes of Heaven , or to part with greater , infinitely greater hopes for less , or to think so meanly of their Saviour , who is the object of their Faith and Worship , as to thrust him down into the rank and number of meer Creatures . This the Catholick Church would never endure in the Arians , who yet attributed a most excellent Nature and Glory to Christ , next to God himself , superior to the highest Orders of Angels , as being before the World it self , and the Maker of it , but yet not true and perfect God , as not having the same Nature with his Father , nor Eternally begotten by him ; much less would they ever endure the thoughts of the Photinian or Samosatenian Heresy , that is , of Socinianism , which makes Christ but a meer man , who had no Being before he was Born of his Virgin Mother . This , I say , being so invincible a prejudice against them , they have of late tried new Arts , and have taken advantage of some very unhappy Disputes , to impose upon unwary men , and to appear abroad with new Confidence under a less frightful Disguise . The late Controversy about Three infinite Minds and Spirits in the Trinity , has given them the advantage of distinguishing between Real and Nominal Trinitarians , or such Trinitarians as believe a Trinity of Real subsisting Persons ; and those who believe only one Real Person , who is God , with a Trinity of Names , or Offices , or immanent Acts and Powers . The Realists , they call Trithiests , or such Hereticks , as assert Three Gods. The Nominals , they think very Orthodox , and the Church ; and tho' the Nominals and Socinians differ in some forms of Speech , yet they say , and I think very truly , that there is no considerable difference in their Faith , as they state it , and seem well enough inclined to exchange that odious name of Socinians , for the more plausible and popular name of Nominal Trinitarians . And thus they can Dispute as heartily as ever , and with more safety and honour , against the Faith of the Trinity , so they do but call it a Real Trinity ; and may dispute for Socinianism as earnestly as ever , so they do but call it a Nominal Trinity . — En quo discordia cives . Perduxit miseros ! — That this is the whole Artifice of this present Pamphlet , any one who reads it , may see with half an eye ; and I hope some men , if ever they can grow cool , will consider a little better of it : I do not so much intend gravely to Dispute with this Author , as to wash off his Paint , and bring the Controversy back again to its right Owners , those truly opposite Parties of Trinitarians , Sabellians and Socinians . That those whom he calls the Real Trinitarians , are the only men who believe a Christian Trinity , and that the Nominal Trinitarians do not believe a Trinity , is evident in their very Names ; for a Trinity , which is the object of our Faith and Worship , is certainly a Real Trinity , if it be at all ; and one would think , that a Trinity , which is not a Real Trinity , should be no Trinity at all : The Zeal which the Socinians express against a Real Trinity , is a good Argument , That that is the true Christian Trinity which they and their Predecessors have always rejected in contradiction to the Catholick Faith ; and the great fondness they express for a Nominal Trinity , is as good a proof , that it is no Trinity at all . Such a Trinity as is reconcileable with Socinianism , as all these men own a Nominal Trinity to be , can never be the Christian Faith , unless Socinianism be Christianity : Which I hope , those men , whom this and some other late Writers call Nominal Trinitarians , will not yet own ; and yet if Socinianism be a Contradiction to the Christian Faith , that must be the true Catholick Faith of the Trinity , which most directly contradicts Socinianism in the parting Points , and that none but a Real Trinity does : So that it is in vain for them to hope to conceal themselves under some insignificant Names ; let them deal fairly with the world , and Dispute professedly against a Trinity ; for a Real Trinity is neither better nor worse than a Trinity ; and then let them produce their Authorities and Reasons to prove , that the Catholick Church , even the Nicene Council it self , never believed a Trinity , and that the Faith of a Trinity is Tritheism : This becomes men of candour and honesty , let their Opinions be what they will ; but to sneak and sculk like men who have a mind to steal a Cause , and are as much ashamed to appear in open light , as such kind of Traders use to be , is mean and pilfering , and unworthy of their Ancestors , who own'd themselves at Noon-day , and bravely outfaced all the Authority of the Catholick Church , and all the Reason of Mankind . That this is the truth of the Case , and that they themselves look upon this distinction as no more than a jest , is evident from that account this Writer gives of the Doctrine of the Realists and Nominalists concerning the Trinity . As to the Explication , the Party called Realists say , The Holy Trinity , or the Three Divine Persons , are Three distinct infinite Substances , Three Minds , Three Spirits ; they are Three such Persons ; that is , as distinct , and as really subsisting and living , as three Angels , or three Men are . Each Person has his own peculiar individual Substance , his own personal and proper Understanding , Will and Power of Action ; an Omnipotence , Omniscience , and all other Divine Attributes , divers in number from the personal Omnipotence , Omniscience , &c. of the other two Persons . In the Creation , as also in the Government of the world , they are to be considered as distinct Agents , not as one Creator , or one Governor ; but only in this sense , that the Father acts by the Son through the Spirit : of which the meaning is , that the Father , in regard of his Paternal Prerogative , acteth not immediately , but by the Son and Spirit . This Account , as far as it concerns the real Subsistence of Three distinct infinite Persons in the Unity of the God-head , does contain the true Catholick Faith of the Trinity ; and yet he has both imperfectly and falsly represented the Opinion of the Realists . 1. He tells us , They say that the Holy Trinity , or the Three Divine Persons , are Three distinct infinite Substances , Three Minds , Three Spirits . Now any one would hence conclude , That this is the Universal Doctrine of all the Realists , and that this Phrase of Three Substances , Minds , and Spirits , is the Parting point between the Realists and Nominals : That all who believe a Real Trinity , own Three Infinite Minds and Spirits ; and that no man can believe a Real Trinity , who does not own this . Now this is manifestly false , as our late Experience proves . The greatest number of Realists ( as far as I can guess ) who believe a Real Trinity , a Real subsisting Father , a Real subsisting Son , and a Real Subsisting Holy Spirit , do yet reject those Expressions of Three Infinite Minds and Spirits , which are liable to a very Heretical Sense , either Arianism , or Tritheism ; and therefore were very sparingly , and with great Caution used by the Catholick Fathers , tho' they used Three Hypostases in the very same Sense , and did not condemn Three Natures and Substances when personally used , as we have seen above . And therefore the late Dispute about Three Minds , does not in it self divide the contending Parties into Realists and Nominals , as the Socinians too hastily conclude , and think to carry their Cause by it . Very good Catholicks may dispute such expressions , as we know they did the Homoousion it self ; for One Substance is as liable to an Heretical Sense , as Three Substances : for that may be Sabellianism , and the other may be Arianism or Tritheism , and both of them rightly understood may be very Orthodox ; but whether they are or no , must be judged by the Sense in which they are used ; and the Catholick Fathers , like good Christians , have easily yielded to each other in a dispute of words , when it has appeared that the difference has been only in words , not in the Faith. What Athanasius says upon a like occasion , is a very good Rule to maintain Christian Peace and Unity . To corrupt the Faith is always unlawful , tho' we palliate it with the most popular and orthodox forms of speech : but a true and holy Faith does not degenerate into Impiety and Heresy by some new improper expressions , while he who uses such words , has a Pious and Orthodox sense . But to proceed . Tho' all Realists do not agree about the use of those words , Three Minds or Substances ; yet they all do , and all must agree in what follows , viz. They are Three such Persons , that is , as distinct , and as really subsisting and living , as three Angels , or three Men. They are so without doubt , if they be real proper Persons ; for a Person lives and subsists , and Three Persons must be really distinct , or they can't be Three ; that is , the Father's Person is no more the Person of the Son , nor the Person of the Son the Person of the Father , than Peter is John , or John is Peter ; but then they do not subsist dividely , or separately , as Peter and John do . He adds , Each Person has his own peculiar individual Substance , his own personal and proper Vnderstanding , Will , and Power of Action ; an Omnipotence , Omniscience , and all other Divine Attributes , divers in number from the Personal Omnipotence , Omniscience , &c. of the other Two Persons . Now I except against nothing in this , but the Phrases of peculiar and individual substance , and divers in number ; for peculiar and individual , I would say a singular substance . for tho' a singular substance in created Natures is a peculiar and individual substance also , it is not so in the Divinity . The Catholick Fathers always distinguish'd between One Substance , and One singular Substance of the Godhead . To deny One Substance , or the Homoousion , was Arianism : To assert One singular Substance , was Sabellianism ; for One singular Substance is but One Person , which denies a Trinity of Persons : But the Divine Nature and Substance is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , One and Common , and therefore not One singular Substance , which can never be common ; and by the same Reason , a Personal Substance , though it be singular , and appropriate to such a particular Person , and therefore as incommunicable as the Person is , yet it is not peculiar and individual in the common acceptation of those words , but the same One common undivided inseparable Essence of the Divinity , subsisting distinctly and singularly in each Person . Thus for the same Reason , I will not say , that the Personal Omnipotence , &c. of the Father , is divers in number from the Personal Omnipotence of the Son , because it is the same One Omnipotence , as it is the same One Divinity , which subsists distinctly in each Person ; but we may and must say , That the Personal Omnipotence of the Father , is not the Personal Omnipotence of the Son , no more than the Person of the Father , is the Person of the Son. But this disguised Socinian has taken great care in representing the Doctrine of the Realists , to conceal their Faith of the perfect undivided Unity and Identity of the Divine Nature in Three distinct subsisting Persons , which yet he knows they as Sacredly profess , as they do the real distinction of Persons , and is owned in as high terms by Dr. Sherlock himself , as by any of his Adversaries , and is almost the only Pretence of those many Contradictions he is charged with , by such as will not understand a perfect distinction in perfect Unity , which yet is essential to the Catholick Faith of a Trinity in Unity , and Unity in Trinity . But as for this Author , whether he had thought such a Distinction and Unity reconcileable or not , yet when he undertook to represent the Doctrine of the Realists , he ought to have represented it whole and entire , and to have left it to the judgment of the Reader : whereas he is very careful to observe that they say , the Three Persons in the Trinity are Three Substances , Three Minds , and Spirits ; [ which yet only some of them say , ] but takes no notice that these Three distinct Persons have One undivided Nature and Essence , which they all agree in : For this would have spoiled his Objections of Tritheism , and what he immediately adds about Three Creators and Governors of the World , which they never owned , any more than Three Gods ; for tho' there are Three who are Omnipotent , and Three who create , yet they are so inseparably united in Nature , that they are but One Agent , One Omnipotent , and produce but One Effect : As the Catholick Fathers concluded for this Reason , that as the Scripture teaches us , That there is but One God , and yet that the Father is God , the Son God , and the Holy Ghost God ; so it attributes the making and government of the world both to Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , and yet there is but one and the same world which is made and governed ; which proves , that though they act as distinctly as their Persons are distinct , yet there is such an essential Unity of Will and Power , and Operation , from the indivisible Unity of Nature , that they are but one Agent , and produce but one and the same effect . But still as for the main of the Charge , That every distinct Person in the Trinity , has a personal Substance , Life , Will , Understanding , Power , of his own , which is not the personal Substance , Life , Will , Understanding , Power , of either of the other Persons , is what all , who believe a Real Trinity , do and must agree in , whether they will agree to call these Three Substances , Wills , Understandings , &c. or not . Nay , this is all that those very Persons who assert Three Substances , Three Minds and Spirits in the Trinity , ever meant by it . Own but each Person in his own proper Person , to be infinite Substance , Mind , Spirit , and that neither Person is each other , and they will consent to any other form of words , and not dispute the reason or propriety of them ; all that they contend for is a real Trinity of true , real , proper Persons ; and that they are certain cannot be , unless each Person by himself , as distinct from the other Persons , be Substance , Mind , Spirit , Will , Understanding , Power . This is the only Trinity which Socinus , Crellius , Slichtingius , and others of that Party , have hitherto disputed against ; and therefore certainly they did apprehend , that the Christians in their days , even all the Divinity-Chairs of Europe , did assert such a Trinity ; and those Learned Men who opposed them , did believe so too , or there must be very wise doings amongst them : tho' our Modern Socinians have now made a discovery , that these Realists are not the true Catholick Trinitarians , but that the Nominalists are the Church ; and now they are grown Friends with the Church , and Orthodox , beyond their own hopes ; and their business is only to defend the Church against this new Sect of Real Trinitarians . Let it be so : but still they maintain the same Doctrine that Socinus did , and dispute against the same Trinity which he disputed against , and therefore these Real Trinitarians are no new upstart Sect , but their old Adversaries , who will never be cheated by new Names into an accommodation or comprehension with Socinians . The plain state of the Case is this : Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , are the Christian Trinity ; now the question is , whether this be a Real Trinity or not ; that is , whether the Father be an Eternal , Infinite , Living , Omniscient , Omnipotent , subsisting Person , and did truly beget of his own Nature and Substance , a True , Living , Omnipotent , Omniscient , subsisting Son ; and in like manner , whether the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son , a True , Living , Omnipotent , Omniscient , subsisting Spirit . This is the Doctrine of those whom our Modern Socinians call Realists , that is , of True and Orthodox Trinitarians ; and without asserting this , whatever they teach besides , a Trinity is nothing but a name , and therefore such men may properly be called Nominalists ; so that the Realists only are Trinitarians , the meer Nominalists , whatever they are else , are no Trinitarians ; and this new contrivance of opposing these Real Trinitarians , is neither better nor worse than opposing the Doctrine of the Trinity : And let but our People understand this , and we are where we were , and then the Socinians may call themselves Nominalists , or what they please . To proceed : He is as artificial and unsincere in his account of the Nominalists , as of the Realists . We must not conceive of the Divine Persons , say the Nominalists , as we do of created Persons . Very right ! there is an unconceivable difference between them , as all Realists acknowledge , they are perfectly distinct , but yet inseparably One ; they never did , never can subsist apart ; the same One undivided Divinity subsists whole and perfect , and yet distinctly in each of them , and is as perfectly One in Three , as any one thing is one with it self . And thus we allow what he adds to be a very great Truth , and wish he himself would consider better of it : That the conception we ought to have of their Personalities , or what they are as they are Persons , is as different from the Personalities of any created Beings , as the Perfections of the Divinity are paramount to Human or Angelical Perfections . This we are sensible of , and therefore do not presently cry out of Nonsense and Contradiction , when we are forced by Scripture and Reason to attribute such things to the Divine Nature and Persons , as we can find no Images or Idea's of in Created Nature : for we know that Creatures cannot be perfectly like to God , and consequently we ought not to oppose the Idea's of Nature to Revelation . But the present question is not , Whether Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , are such Persons as created Persons , as Angels , or men are ; for it is certain there is an unconceivable difference between them ; but whether they may be called Persons in the true and proper Notion of the word Person ; for one who does really and substantially subsist , live , will , understand , act , according to his Natural Powers : And whether there be Three such subsisting , living , willing , understanding Persons in the Godhead , or only One : Whether as the Father hath life in himself , so the Son hath life in himself ; and as the Father knows the Son , so the Son knows the Father ; and whether the Spirit of life , and the Spirit of Holiness , and Power , and the Spirit that searcheth the deep things of God , be not a subsisting , living , knowing , working Spirit ; and this is the reason , why the Church calls them Three Persons , ( which the Scripture does not call them ) because the Holy Scripture distinctly Attributes life , will , knowledge , power , to these Three , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , which is the Notion all men have of a Person when applied to Creatures ; and to talk of Three Divine Persons , who are not subsisting , living , knowing Persons , destroys the only Reason for calling them Persons . But he adds , as the Doctrine of the Nominalists , That God is but One Being , but One Substance , Mind , or Spirit , with One only will , understanding , energy , or power of action . But is not this , in a true Catholick Sense , the Doctrine of the Realists also , as I observed before ? But this is what this disinterested Person would be at ; to distinguish the Realists and Nominalists by Three Substances and One Substance of the Divinity : And were this the whole Truth , the Realists would certainly be Hereticks , and the Nominalists might be the Orthodox Church : Whereas the Realists , as they own Three real subsisting living Persons , so they as constantly profess the Homoousion , or One undivided Substance and Nature , subsisting and acting distinctly , but indivisibly and inseparably in Three , which is a real perfect subsisting Trinity in perfect Unity : But the Nominalists , truly so called , as they own but One Substance in the Divinity , so but One single Person , which is their One God , and can find a Trinity only in a Trinity of Names , or Properties , or meer immanent Acts. That there are many such Nominalists among us , I fear is too true ; but I must say again , that the bare dispute concerning the use of those words , Three eternal infinite Minds and Spirits , for Three eternal infinite intelligent Persons , no more proves those who reject such expressions , while they own each Person by himself , to be infinite Mind and Spirit , to be meer Nominalists , than the use of such expressions in a qualified Catholick Sense , ( as the Catholick Fathers have formerly used them , or other Terms equivalent to them ) proves those who use them to be Tritheists : And yet this is all our Author pretends to justifie this distinction between Realists and Nominalists , viz. The Controversy depending between Dr. S — th and Dr. Sherlock . But I cannot pass on without making one Remark on this , That Dr. S — th , and those who have espoused that side of the Question , are as much concerned to vindicate themselves from the imputation which this Author has fixed on them , of being meer Nominalists or Sabellians , as Dr. Sherlock and his Friends are , to vindicate themselves from Tritheism ; and I confess , I think , a great deal more ; because in the heat of Dispute , or through Inadvertency , if it be not their settled Principle and Judgment , they have given more just occasion for such a Charge . When One and the same Person , with Three substantial Deaneries , shall be very gravely alledged as a proper Representation of a Trinity in Unity ; when a meer mode of subsistence shall be given as a proper and adequate Definition of a Person , as applied to the Trinity ; when a large Book shall be writ on purpose to demonstrate , That there is and can be but One Person in the Trinity , in the true proper Notion , as it signifies an intelligent Person ; what can the most equal and impartial Judge make of this , but downright Sabellianism ? For , whether it be allowable to say , Three Minds and Spirits or not , I 'm sure without owning Three proper , subsisting , intelligent Persons , each of whom is in his own Person , infinite Mind and Spirit , there can be no Real Trinity . If their Sense be more Orthodox than their Words , I do heartily beg of them for God's sake , and the sake of our common Faith , so to explain their Words , as to remove this scandal , as Dr. Sherlock has done , and not to Charge a Trinity of real , subsisting , intelligent Persons , ( which is all he professes to own , or ever to have intended ) with Tritheism , till they can give us something in the room of it more Orthodox than a Sabellian Trinity , which the Catholick Church has always rejected with Abhorrence . SECT III. The Authorities of the Nominalists against a Real Trinity , briefly Examined . THis Socinian having given such an account as it is , of the Doctrine of the Realists and Nominalists , as disinterested as he pretends to be , he professedly Espouses the side of the Nominalists against the Realists ; that is , under a new Name he follows his old Trade of Disputing against the Trinity ; only with this advantage , that he now pleads the Cause of the Church , of his beloved Church of Nominalists , against these Tritheistick Hereticks , the Realists : But when men consider , who this Advocate is , it will do the Nominalists no Credit , nor any Service to the Cause ; For a Socinian , tho' he change his Name , will be a Socinian still , that is , a professed Enemy to the Catholick Faith of the Trinity , and to the Eternal God head and Incarnation of our Saviour Christ ; and there is very good Reason to believe , that what he opposes is the True Catholick Faith , and what he vindicates and defends is Heresy . What Agreement there is between the Nominalists and Socinians , and what an easie accommodation may be made between them , we shall hear towards the Conclusion ; but this will not satisfie our Author , that the present Orthodox Church ( which to the reproach of the Church , and to the advantage of his own Cause , he will have to be all Nominalists , which is such an abuse as concerned Persons ought to resent ; I say , not satisfied that the present Church ) is on his side ; nothing will serve him less , than to prove , that this was always the Faith of the Catholick Church : A brave and bold Undertaking , but what his wiser Predecessors , Socinus , Crellius , &c. would have laught at ; and which I doubt not but he Laughs at himself , and will have cause to Laugh , if he can meet with any Persons soft and easy enough to believe him . He well and truly observes , that this Question , What has been the Doctrine of the Catholick Church in this point , must be decided by Authorities or Witnesses , and therefore he appeals to Authorities , and those I grant the most venerable Authorities and Witnesses that can be had , even General Councils . I wish he would continue in this good humour , and then I should not doubt but he would quickly change his side : But this is contemptible Hypocrisy in a man , who despises all Authorities , not only human , but sacred , when they contradict his own private Reasonings , to appeal to Authority : I can easily bear with men of weak Understandings , but I hate Knavery ; for Truth needs no Tricks : and how much Socinians value Fathers and Councils is sufficiently known . He begins with the Nicene Council , which brought into the Church the term Homoousios ; by which is meant , that the Divine Persons have the same Substance , or are of One Substance : But then he says , it is disputed between the Nominalists and Realists , in what Sense the Council understood this One Substance ; Whether the same Substance in number , the self-same Substance ? so that there is indeed , but One Divine Substance : Or the same Substance for kind , sort , or nature , namely the same in all Essential Properties — So that in Truth , there are Three distinct ( or numerically different ) Substances , which are the same only in nature and kind . This he makes the Controversy between the Church ( that is , his Nominalists ) and the Realists ; but this is far from being the true state of the Controversy : All whom he calls Realists , own , that Father and Son are but One and the self-same Substance , communicated whole and undivided from Father to Son , so that the Father is Substance , the Son Substance in his own Person , and both the same Substance ; And the like of the Holy Spirit , that as Marius Victorinus says , They are ter una Substantia , Thrice One and the same Substance ; and this is all that those mean , who venture to say , they are Three Substances ; for the Dispute between those Realists , who say there is but one Substance of the Divine Persons , and those who own Three , is not whether the Son be true and real Substance in his own Person , as distinct from the Person of the Father ; for all but Sabellians agree in this ; but whether considering the perfect Unity and Identity of Nature and Substance in Three , it be Orthodox to say , Three Substances , and not rather One Substance , and Three who subsist ; which is a more Orthodox form of speech , and less liable to exception : And thus we allow , That the Nicene Fathers , by the Homoousion , did mean One and the self-same Substance of Father and Son , but so that the Son is a true and proper Son , a real subsisting Person , Substance of his Fathers Substance ; God of God , Light of Light , very God of very God , Begotten not Made , of one Substance with the Father , by whom all things were made ; which so expresly declares the Sense of the Council , that this Author durst not so much as mention , God of God , Light of Light , &c. which can never be reconciled with his Notion of One Substance , which leaves no Substance , nor any real subsistence to the Son distinct from the Father . It is a bold stroke , and worthy of our Author , to make the Nicene Council determine for Sabellianism , in the term Homoousios ; but yet he has a little Story , which he thinks proves it beyond exception , for which he quotes Socrates : That Historian tells us , That there happened a great quarrel in Aegypt about the word Homoousios , which he says was like fighting in the dark , without distinguishing Friends from Enemies ; for neither of them seemed to understand each other , as to those matters for which they reproached one another : This our Author takes no notice of , for it would not serve his purpose ; it appearing from hence , that the Accusations on both sides were causeless , and like dealing blows in the dark : But now our Author begins . Those Fathers of the Council that were against the term Homoousios , ( but those Fathers of the Council are not in Socrates , but only those who declined the term Homoousios ; but the Fathers of the Council served his purpose better , and therefore he makes bold with the Historian ) or of One Substance , ( which the Historian has not added neither ) accused such as were for it , as Sabellians and Montanists , ( but the Historian says , did suppose that those , who received that Term , did introduce the Doctrine of Sabellius and Montanus , that is , that this was their design in using that Term , which as he observed before , was their mistake ) calling them also blasphemous , because they seemed to take away ( by that word ) the real Existence of the Son of God : While on the other hand , they that stood for Homoousios , believed that such as were against it , did introduce more Gods , and therefore detested them , as reviving Paganism . Here our Author leaves off ; but I shall go on with the History . Eustathius Bishop of Antioch , accuses Eusebius Pamphili , as Adulterating the Nicene Faith ; Eusebius denies , That he in the least departed from the Nicene Faith , and accuses Eustathius of Sabellianism : And thus they wrote against each other as Adversaries , and yet both of them Taught , That the Son of God was a true and proper Person , and had a real Subsistence of his own ; and that there was One God in Three Persons : that one would wonder whence it came to pass that they could not agree . From this Story , our Author thus Reasons . This is a deciding-testimony in the Case . For the Realists will never be able to shew , that if by Homoousios the Council intended Three distinct Substances , Three Beings , Minds , or Spirits : How the Fathers of the Council could be accused of Montanism and Sabellianism ; for Three intellectual infinite Substances , Three Divine Beings , Spirits or Minds , was the Doctrine chiefly opposed by Sabellius and Montanus , as all confess : ( Then by his own Confession , his Nominalists are Sabellians , and all those Fathers and Councils which Condemned Sabellius were Realists , and then we have got the Nicene Council again . ) And on the other hand , the Council which contrived and defended Homoousios , could as little Censure those who were against it as introducers of Tritheism and Paganism , if it had not been supposed , that in opposing Homoousios , they professed to believe Three infinite Substances in number , Three Divine Minds , and Spirits ; which is the very Doctrine of the Modern Realists . 1. Now in answer to this , I observe first , That the Historian says all this was an angry mistake , ( as angry men are very apt to mistake , and to reproach each other with their own mistakes ) but neither of these Parties were guilty of the Heresies they were charged with ; neither the one were Sabellians , nor the other Tritheists ; Now this I think proves the direct contrary to what he concludes from it : For if those who were charged with Sabellianism for owning the Homoousion were not Sabellians , then it is certain , that they did not think , that the Nicene Council by the Homoousion , or One Substance , meant One singular Substance , for that is Sabellianism : And when those who professed the Homoousion , and were no Sabellians , charged those who rejected the Homoousion , with Tritheism , they must believe , That the Nicene Homoousion is neither Sabellianism nor Tritheism , but the middle between both ; such a Unity and sameness of Substance , as is neither a Sabellian singularity , nor a Tritheistick diversity and multiplicity of Substances ; that is , where Father and Son are in their own Persons , as distinct from each other , infinite Substance , and yet but one Substance , One of One , God of God , Light of Light. This is the Medium which Socrates tells us they both agreed in ; and therefore wondered how they should come to differ ; That the Son of God was a true and proper Person , and had a real Subsistence of his own ; and that there was One God in Three Persons . 2. But if by Homoousios the Council intended Three distinct Substances , ( that is , according to our Sense , Three , each of which is true and perfect Substance , and yet but One Substance ) How could the Fathers of the Council be accused of Montanism or Sabellianism ? Had he consulted Dr. Bull , he would have learnt the difference between these two ; but let that pass : He Phrases this , as if he would insinuate , That the Council it self was accused of Sabellianism for this Term ; which is false . But this word Homoousios had sometimes been abused to a Sabellian Sense , tho' the Council did not use it in that Sense ; and some men might still conceal their Heresy under the Covert of an Orthodox Word ; For this Reason , some who professed the Nicene Faith , yet disliked the Homoousion ; and when this Dispute had heated them , it was too natural to charge those , who from the Authority of the Nicene Council defended the use of that word , with such secret Heretical Senses as they thought that word chargeable with : And this is the whole Truth of the Case , as Socrates tells us ; and this is a very strange way to prove the Sense of the Council , from the groundless accusations of angry and jealous men . 3. But how could the Council , which contrived and defended Homoousios , censure those who were against it , as introducers of Tritheism and Paganism , which the Historian witnesses that it did with great earnestness ? But Socrates ( his Historian ) says not one word of the Council , but only of these angry . Disputants censuring and accusing each other , and both unjustly ; but he would sain ascribe all this to the Council , because it is not Fathers , but Councils he relies on ; of which more presently . But there may be a very good Reason given , why those who rejected the Sabellian Unity and Singularity of the Divine Essence , might yet charge those with Polytheism who rejected the Homoousion , or Consubstantial ; and there may be two accounts given of it . 1. That they suspected them of Arianism , in opposition to which , the Council taught the Homoousion ; one Sense of which was Such a sameness of Nature , as is between Father and Son , which in Creatures we call a specifick sameness , in contradiction to the Arians , who taught , That the Son was of a different Nature and Substance from the Father , as different from God the Father , as a created and uncreated Nature differ ; and this is downright Polytheism and Paganism ; for this makes the Son and Holy Spirit , how excellent soever their Natures are , but meer Creatures : And for this Reason we know , the Catholick Fathers charged the Arians with Pagan Polytheism and Idolatry ; And the Arians at that time were such zealous opposers of the Homoousion , even while they concealed themselves under some other Catholick forms of Speech , that it was too great a reason to suspect those of Arianism , who denied the Homoousion , whatever they would seem to own besides : and when men are angry , less reasonable suspicions than these , are thought sufficient to form an Accusation ; and this is one fair account of it : Such men were thought secret Arians , and therefore charged with Polytheism . 2. But there was another Notion of the Homoousion , which the Catholick Fathers thought absolutely necessary to the Unity of God , and consequently that the denial of it would introduce three Gods , instead of three Divine subsisting Persons in the Unity of the same Godhead : And that is , That when the Son is said to be Homoousios , or Consubstantial with the Father , the meaning is , that he is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the very Substance of the Father , and not of any other created or uncreated Substance : This St. Basil is positive in , That Two , who are of the same Substance for Kind , are not therefore Consubstantial , as Father and Son , but are rather Brethren , unless one be of the other : But now many true Catholicks very much suspected this Term , because it seemed to imply a Division and Separation of the Father's Substance ; for , How can the Son be of the same Substance with the Father , without a division of the Father's Substance ? The Nicene Fathers answered , That the very Name of Son , and the natural Notion of Generation , did necessarily prove , that the Son must be of the Father's Substance ; but then the absolute purity and simplicity of the Divine Essence , which is a perfect indivisible Monad , proves , That this eternal Generation of the Son , can't be by a division of Substance , as it is in human Generations ; but is whole of whole , in an ineffable and incomprehensible manner , so as no Creature can understand ; which is no great wonder , when we can understand so little of Creature Generations , especially when Creation it self is as perfectly unaccountable as the Eternal Generation ; for we can no more understand , how the World was Created of nothing , than how the Son was Begotten of his Father's Substance , whole and perfect , without any division or separation : That the whole Divine Essence is originally in the Father , and communicated whole to the Son , subsists whole and distinctly in Both , and is One in Both. This is that sense of the Homoousion , which occasioned so many warm Disputes between the Catholicks themselves ; for this reason , that Party which rejected the Homoousion , accused those , who received it , of Sabellianism , because they asserted , That there was but One and the same substance in Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , which was the Heresy of Sabellius ; and the heat of Dispute would not suffer them to see how vastly the Catholick Homoousians and Sabellians differ'd , tho' they both asserted but One Substance : for the Sabellians asserted but One single Substance , which is but One real subsisting Person ; and therefore made Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , but Three Names of the same Person : But the Catholicks asserted Three real subsisting Persons , who were Substance , Substance , and Substance , and yet but One of One , the perfect same of the perfect same : Vna substantia non unus subsistens ; One substance , not one that subsists ; and therefore generally rather called them Three Subsistences , than Three Substances ; not but that they owned each Subsistence to be a Substance , but they were in the common acceptation of the word not Three Substances , but One Substance , really and actually subsisting Thrice , which they allowed to be One , and One , and One , but not Three . On the other hand , those who received the Homoousion , accused those who rejected it , of Polytheism and Tritheism : for in truth , to deny that Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , are so of one substance , that the Son receives his whole substance of the Father , and that the Holy Ghost receives his whole substance of Father and Son , is to make them Three absolute , independent , self-originated substances , which have no relation to each other ; Three such as the Father is , who is of no other but himself , and the Catholick Fathers always accused this of Tritheism : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Three Fathers , was the same to them , as to say Three Gods ; and they vindicated the Doctrine of a real subsisting Trinity , against the Sabellian and Arian Charge of Tritheism , by saying , That they did not own Three Fathers , but only One Father , One Self-originated Divinity , which communicates his own substance to the Son ; and therefore they are not Two Gods , but God of God. But now these good Fathers , tho' they were right in the Notion of Tritheism , and in the Nicene Notion of the Homoousion , yet they wrongfully accused those , who rejected that term , of Tritheism ; for they owned that the Son was of the Father ; that all that the Son was , he was of the Father ; that he was God of God , Light of Light , and therefore not an absolute Self-originated God , but One God with the Father ; but they did not like those terms of Consubstantial , and One Substance , and of the Father's Substance , as having something too material in their conception , and sounding harsh , as if the Son were part of the Father's substance ; which was objected against the Homoousion in the Nicene Council it self , which yet disclaimed all such absurd senses , and received the term as the most infallible Test against Arianism : But tho' the Authority of the Council over-ruled the generality of Christians ; yet some , who were truly Catholick and Orthodox in the Faith , could not digest it ; and this was the true occasion of this dispute , and these mutual fierce accusations ; and let our Author now make the best he can of it ; but instead of doing him service , he will never be able to defend himself against it . After all , our Author was aware of a very terrible Objection against his sense of the Nicene Homoousion , for one single Sabellian substance and person ; viz. that the Catholick Fathers rejected and condemned this sense of it as Heresy , even Sabellianism ; and it is not probable that these Fathers should not understand the sense of the Council ; or that while they contended earnestly for the Nicene Faith , they should condemn the true Nicene Faith for Heresy , as he owns they do . This would have put a modest man out of countenance ; but he takes courage , and huffs at these Fathers and private Doctors : Particular Fathers are but particular Doctors ; 't is from general Councils only we can take the Churches Doctrine . It is very provoking to see a man banter the world at this rate , with the utmost contempt and scorn of his Readers : It is plain how great an Admirer he is of General Councils , and what he thinks of his Readers , whom he hopes to persuade , that the Catholick Fathers , who made up the Council , even Athanassius himself , who had so great a part in it , did either ignorantly mistake the sense of the Council , or wilfully pervert it ; especially when all the Ante-Nicene Fathers owned the same Faith , as he may learn from Dr. Bull ; and those Catholicks , who after the Nicene Council , disputed the use of that term Homoousios , yet agreed in the same Faith , as I have already shewn . What follows is all of a piece . He expounds the Arian Homoiousios , or of a like Substance , to signify the same Substance in sort , or kind , or properties ; that is , specifically the same , but only differing in number , as Father and Son have the same specifick Nature , but are Two Persons : And thence concludes , that the Nicene Homoousios which the Arians at first refused , but afterwards fraudulently subscribed in the sense of Homoiousios , must signify but One singular solitary Substance , but one Person in the Sabellian Sense : But who ever before heard , that the Arian Homoiousion signified a specifick Sameness and Unity of Nature ? Or , that the Arians owned Father and Son to have the same specifick Nature as Adam and Abel had ? The Catholick Fathers themselves , as , Athanasius , Hilary , Basil , the two Gregory's , &c. owned such a likeness of Nature as this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be equivalent to the Homoousion , and to be True Catholick Doctrine ; and this they asserted against the Arians : But it is in vain to dispute with a man , who has either Ignorance or Confidence enough thus to impose upon his Readers . His next Appeal is to the Sixth General Council , which was the Third of Constantinople ; and when I met with this , I was not a little surprized to think what he would make of it . This Council , as he himself tells the Story , determined , That there were two Natural Wills , and two Operations in the Lord Christ ; and the Reason of this was , because they asserted Two Natures in Christ , the Divine and Human Nature ; and that each Nature has a Natural Will of its own ; and therefore as there are Two Natures , there must be Two distinct and natural Wills in Christ. This is a plain proof of the Mystery of the Incarnation ; that the Divine Nature in the Person of the Son was Incarnate ; for there could not be two Wills , unless there were two Natures ( which was the foundation of this Decree ) in Christ : And this Macarius himself in his Confession of Faith profest to own , both in opposition to Nestorius and Eutyches . Now this Catholick Faith of the Incarnation , which is so often and so expresly own'd by this Council , is utterly irreconcileable with this Sabellian Unity of the Divine Nature and Substance , without running into the Patripassian Heresy , that the whole Trinity is Incarnate : For if Christ in One Person hath Two Natures , be truly and really both God and Man , and consequently has Two distinct Wills , a Divine and Humane Will ; either as God , he must be distinct in Nature and Person from the Father and the Holy Ghost ; or if all Three Persons of the Trinity , are but one single solitary Nature , and consequently but One true and proper Person , all Three , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , must be Incarnate , and suffer in the Incarnation and Sufferings of Christ , which the Catholick Church condemned as Heresy . Well! But he tells us , That this Council owned that there is but One Will in the Three Persons of the Trinity , and therefore consequently they can be but one true and proper Person . This we own with the Council , That there is but one essential Will in the Trinity , tho' each Person has a Personal Will : But this he says , cannot be the meaning of the Council , because the question was concerning Natural Wills , or Powers of willing : This is all fallacy . A Natural Will is such a Will as belongs to that Nature , whose Will it is : As a Divine Nature has a Divine Will , and a Humane Nature a Humane Will ; the power of willing is Personal , and signifies a Personal Will : And it is evident , the Council speaks of the first , not of the second : And not to multiply Quotations , I shall give but one plain proof of it . Theophanes askt Macarius and Stephen , Whether Adam had a reasonable Soul ? They answer , Yes . Then he askt them , Whether he had a natural Will ? Stephen the Monk answers , That before the Fall he had a Divine Will , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he Willed together with God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Demetrius calls this Blasphemy ; for if he was a Co-Willer , he was a Co-Creator also with God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and others said , that this made Adam , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Consubstantial with God ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for he , who is a Co-Willer with God , is Consubstantial also : And for this they alledge the Authority of St. Cyril , who tells us of Christ ; That as he is Consubstantial , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so he Wills together with his Father ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and gives this reason for it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that one Nature has but one Will : Now if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies one who Wills with another , then there must be two who Will ; and if these two are One Will , it cannot signify personally , but essentially One : And if they be Consubstantial , have one Substance and one Will in the same Sense , we know what this Council meant by One Substance , no more one personal Substance , than one personal Will. His next Authority is the Council of Lateran , under Pope Innocent III. and though the Christian World is not much beholden to that Council , yet I cannot think , as I find a great many Wise men do , that they have made any alteration in the Substance of our Faith , whatever they have done in the form of Expression . That the Trinity is una summa res , One Supream Being , was the Doctrine of St. Austin , from whom Peter Lombard had it ; and all the Catholick Fathers owned the Trinity to be a most simple Monad , ( which is the same thing ) when at the same time they asserted against the Sabellians , Three real , subsisting , distinct Persons , each of which is the same whole undivided Divinity , communicated whole and perfect from Father to Son , and from Father and Son to the Holy Ghost , without any division or partition of Substance . And this is the Doctrine of the Lateran Council ; That this One supream Thing , is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , veraciter , truly and really , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost ; Three United Persons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , tres simul Personae , and each of them distinct from the others ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ac singulatim quaelibet earum ; And therefore there is only a Trinity , not a Quaternity in God , as Abbot Joachim had objected ; And that each of these Divine Persons is this Divine Substance , Essence , and Nature . All this Athanasius himself would have subscribed , who yet with the other Catholick Fathers rejected the Notion of a singular and solitary Divinity . They add , That this one supreme Nature , Substance , Essence , ( which is Father , Son , and Holy Ghost ) neither begets , nor is begotten , nor proceeds : Nor did ever any Man in his Wits assert , That the Divine Nature and Essence , as common to Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , that is , That the whole Trinity did either Beget , or was Begotten , or did Proceed ; This belongs to Persons , not to Nature formally considered ; as they expresly teach , That the Father Begets , the Son is Begotten , and the Holy Ghost Proceeds , so that there is a distinction of Persons , and Unity of Nature ; That the Father is alius , another , the Son another , the Holy Ghost another ; but not aliud another thing : but what the Father is , and what the Son is , and what the Holy Ghost is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are all perfectly the same ; that according to the Catholick Faith , we may acknowledge them to be Consubstantial ; for the Father from Eternity Begetting the Son , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , gave his own Substance to him , as he himself witnesses . The Father who gave them me is greater than all : Nor can it be said , that the Father gave part of his Substance to his Son , and retained another part himself ; for the Hypostasis or Substance of the Father is indivisible , as being perfectly simple : Nor can we say , That when the Father Begat the Son , he so communicated his own Substance to him , as not to have it himself ; for then he must cease to be an Hypostasis , Substance , and a substantial Person himself . So that it is evident , That the Son , when Begotten , received the Father's Substance without any diminution of the Father ; and thus Father and Son have the same Substance ; and Father and Son and Holy Ghost are , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one and the same supreme Nature and Substance ; which they call , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Unity of Sameness and Identity : This is true Catholick Doctrine , and the very Language of the Nicene Fathers . And if Joachim rejected this Essential Unity of the Trinity , and asserted a meer collective Unity , as many Christians are one Church , as the Council affirms he did , he was very justly Condemned , and the Nicene Fathers themselves would have Condemned him . The only thing which looks like an Innovation in this Decree , is , That whereas the Catholick Fathers allowed of those Expressions , A Begotten Nature , Begotten Substance , Begotten Wisdom , Begotten God ; and that Substance begets Substance , and Wisdom begets Wisdom , &c. This Council denies , That this One supream Divine Essence , Nature , or Substance , which is the Blessed Trinity , does either Beget , or is Begotten , or Proceeds , which some Schoolmen think absolutely condemns those Expressions , That Substance begets Substance ; and Wisdom Wisdom ; That the Son is Deus Genitus , and Natura Genita , Begotten God and Begotten Nature , and Begotten Wisdom ; which is to condemn all the Catholick Fathers , who used these Expressions without any scruple ; nay , who thought that the Mystery of the Divine Generation could not be secured without them . But I confes , I am of Petavius his mind , ( though I find the Learned Doctor Bull dissent from him ) that this Council never intended absolutely to condemn all such Expressions , when Personally used ; For though the Divine Nature in a general Notion , as common to all Three Persons , neither begets , nor is begotten ; yet the Father begets the Son by a true and proper Generation , and a true and proper Son ; and therefore that Learned Jesuit tells us , That the Lateran Council considered the Divine Nature absolutely , and in it self , and as abstracted from the Three Persons , not as subsisting distinctly in each Person ; for so it is very Catholick to say , That the Divine Nature in the Person of the Father begets the Divine Nature in the Person of the Son : For we cannot understand what a Person is without its Essence and Nature ; and it is absurd to say , That the Son receives his Person from the Father , without receiving that without which he cannot be a Person : And the reason he gives , why they rather chose to say , that the Father begets the Son , than that Essence begets Essence , was to avoid the ambiguity of that Expression , which might signify the production of another Essence , as well as the generation of another Person ; whereas this Divine Generation is the communication of the same Eternal Essence which is in the Father to the Son , which gives existence to a second Person , not to a second Nature : This is indeed very subtil , but there is some sense in it ; and while they acknowledge , that the Son by an Eternal Generation receives a true Divine Nature from the Father , and is in his own Person true God , but yet not the Father ; this is the Old Catholick Faith , how new soever the Expressions may be . Thus I have done with his General Councils ; and I hope every one sees how well he understands Councils , or how honestly he deals with them . What concerns the Church of England , needs no answer after what I have already said ; and the Story of Valentinus Gentilis is much to the same purpose ; for he was so far from being a Realist , that he was a down-right Arian . But that he may not think himself and his Nominalists so secure of all the Divinity-Chairs in Europe , I will refer him to the Learned Spanhemius , to learn how it lately fared with some of them in the United Provinces ; who were censured and condemned by various Synods , and by the publick Judgment and Authority of several Universities . The first Proposition condemned was concerning the name of Son , and his Eternal Generation of the Father ; that this is not to be understood properly of a true and proper Generation , as if the Father , who begets , were a true and proper Father ; and the Son , who is begotten , a true and proper Son ; but that these Terms in Scripture only signify , 1. That the Second Person has the same Nature and Essence with the First Person , and did coexist with him from Eternity : Denying the manner of his having the same Nature , by an ineffable Generation , and the Personal Subsistence of the Father , who begets , and the Son , who is begotten , and consequently that true relation between Father , and Son , which the Scripture constantly teaches , which gave just suspicion either of Sabellianism , or Tritheism . 2. That all these Names ( of Father and Son , begetting , and being begotten , &c. ) respect the Oeconomy of the Covenant of Grace , the manifestation of the Second Person in the Flesh , as in the visible Image of God , to execute the Mediatory Office , for which purpose he was given by God the Father : In which sense , to beget , is the same with to manifest ; and to be begotten , to be manifested : This he says is coincident with the Socinians ; and resolved into that Fundamental Error , That the true and proper generation of the Son , though acknowledged ineffable , contradicts those natural Ideas which are imprinted in our minds by God , and are the foundation of all Assent , and all true and certain Knowledge : And that we must not think that God has revealed any thing in his Word , which cannot , and ought not to be examined by men , according to these Ideas ; or that God proposes nothing in his Word to be believed with a certain and firm assent , which a man of a sound Reason cannot clearly and distinctly perceive , according to these Ideas . And now let our Author judge , whose Character this is , and on which side these Belgic Synods and Chairs have given Judgment . SECT IV. The Arguments of the Nominals , against a Real Trinity of proper subsisting Persons , Examined : And the Three First Arguments , Answered . SEcondly , Let us now briefly examine his Reasons , which he thinks so demonstrative , that the ( so much talk'd of ) Mathematical certainty is not superior to them : But I have heard some men brag much of Demonstration , who have had nothing to say , that would amount to a good Probability . Now to make my Answer plain and easy , I observe first , That all his Arguments to prove the Realists to be guilty of Tritheism , and to assert Three Gods , are levelled against a Trinity of distinct , real , subsisting , intelligent Persons , as he himself owns ; for those invidious terms , of Three Substances , Three Minds and Spirits , and Wills , and Understandings , signify no more than Three , each of which in his own proper Person , is Substance , Mind , Spirit , Will , Understanding : So that all these Arguments are against the Catholick Faith of a Real Trinity ; that is , to prove the Doctrine of the Trinity to be Tritheism ; for that which is not a Real Trinity , is no Trinity : And therefore these Arguments do no more concern Dr. Sherlock , and some few others , whom this Author would fain single out from the Body of Catholick Believers , by the Name of Realists , than all other Christians , who heartily Believe in Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , and own Christ Jesus to be the Eternal Son of God , and true and perfect God himself . Secondly , I observe , That all these Arguments are no farther considerable , than as they directly oppose the Catholick Faith in its full Latitude ; that is , a Trinity in Unity , and Unity in Trinity . The Scripture assures us , That there is but one God , but teaches withall , That the Father is God , the Son God ; and the Holy Ghost God ; We believe God concerning himself , and his own Nature and Unity , because he best knows himself , and therefore we believe , that there is but one God , but not that there is but One Person , who is God , for there are Three in the Unity of the same Godhead , and each of them true and perfect God ; so that it is not enough for these Demonstrators to prove , That there is and can be but One Eternal Divinity , or one God ; for we readily own it , and as heartily Believe it as they do ; but we say withall , that this one Divinity subsists distinctly and indivisibly , whole and perfect in Three , and that therefore there is a Trinity in Unity : Nor is it sufficient to prove , That in the Trinity of the Realists , there are Three , each of which is by himself true and perfect God , and therefore that there are Three Gods ; for we own such Three , but say , that these Three are not Three Gods , but subsist inseparably in one Undivided Divinity , and therefore that there is a Vnity in Trinity . But if they would consute either the Trinity or the Unity , they must prove , That there are not , and cannot be , Three real subsisting Persons in One insinite undivided Essence , and then they will effectually Confute the Scripture , and a Trinity with it ; or they must prove , That though Three such Persons should subsist distinctly in one undivided Essence , yet they are not one and the same Divinity , or one God ; and then they will Confute not only Scripture , but common Sense ; That Three , which are One , are not One , or that One Divinity is not One God : Having premised this , let us now consider his Arguments . 1. In the first place , he says , Three infinite Intellectual Substances , or Three Eternal Omnipotent Minds or Spirits , ( or which we have heard is the same thing , Three infinite intelligent Persons ) can never be but One God ; because 't is evident , nay confessed , That One such Spirit , Mind , or Substance , is One ( absolute and most perfect ) God. — If the Definition is multiplied , the thing defined is also therewith multiplied , — Seeing then 't is the definition of One God , that he is One infinite ( intellectual , spiritual ) Substance , One Eternal , Omnipotent , and Omniscient Spirit or Mind ; Therefore if we multiply our definition , by saying , Three Infinite ( intellectual , spiritual ) Substances , &c. we thereby multiply the thing we pretended to Define , namely , GOD ; which is to say , we affirm more Geds , as many Gods as such Substances and Spirits . Here our Demonstrator stumbles at the very Threshold . I grant , That an infinite intellectual spiritual Substance , an Eternal , Omniscient , Omnipotent Mind or Spirit , is the Definition of One , who is God , or of a Divine Person ; but I absolutely deny , That this is the Definition of One God , that he is One Eternal , Omniscient , &c. Personal Mind or Spirit , as he fallaciously and absurdly represents it ; and in so doing , instead of proving what he undertakes , he very modestly and humbly begs the Question . He is to prove , That Three infinite Substances , Minds , or Spirits , are Three Gods : His Argument is , Because One infinite Substance , Mind , or Spirit , is the Definition of One God ; and if you multiply the Definition , you multiply the thing defined , and therefore Three infinite Substances and Minds must be Three Gods ; but how does he prove , that One infinite Substance and Mind ( personally understood as we understand it ) is the Definition of One God ? for this is the thing in dispute , which certainly no Trinitarian will grant him , and therefore ought to be proved . Those who Assert , as all Trinitarians do , That Three infinite intelligent Persons , each of which is infinite Substance , Mind or Spirit , are but One God , will not be so good-natur'd as to grant , That One infinite Substance and Mind ( or One Divine Person ) is the definition of the One God ; this would not be to Dispute , but to beg the Cause on one side , and to give it away on the other . But this may be thought perverseness , to put men upon proving what is self-evident : For , Is not an infinite intelligent Person , Substance , Mind , Spirit , true and perfect God ? Yes , most certainly ; but it is not the Definition of the One God , but only of a Divine Person ; and the Christian Faith teaches us , That Three such Divine Persons are but One God. The Catholick Fathers have given us another Notion of One God , That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , One God is One Divinity ; that is , an Eternal , Immutable , Indivisible , Omnipotent , Omniscient , Life , Being , Essence , Nature : and the Essential , Undivided , Unity , Sameness , Identity , of the Godhead in Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , is the Unity of God : For I take it to be more like a Demonstration , than any I expect to meet with in this Author , That where there is but One Essential undivided Divinity , there is but One God. Now this I think may vindicate those obnoxious Expressions as some think them , of Three infinite Substances , Minds and Spirits , from the Charge of Tritheism ; for since infinite Substance , Mind , and Spirit , is not the definition of One God , but only of a Divine Person , to say , Three infinite Substances , Minds , and Spirits , does not multiply Gods , but only Divine Persons . 2. His second Argument is against Three Wills , Three Vnderstandings , Three Energies , or Principles , or Powers of Action in One God : This he represents as monstrously absurd ; when as in truth , if it be absurd , the only absurdity is , That there should be Three Divine Persons , that is , Three , who have a Personal Will , Understanding , Power , of their own , in the Unity of the same Godhead : Now the absurdity of this I cannot see , nor has he made the least offer to prove it . But the secret of all these monstrous Absurdities , is this . He represents One God , to signifie only One single Person , who is God , and then indeed , Three Wills , Three Understandings , Three Lives , of one single Person , is as Absurd and Monstrous as one would wish ; but before he had charged the Doctrine of a Real Trinity with such Absurdities , he should first have proved , That One God signifies but One single Person , and have exposed the monstrous Absurdities of Three Persons and One God , and then we would have given him leave to have represented Three Personal Wills , Understandings , and Lives , as absurd as he pleases ; but if it be not absurd to own Three Persons , I 'm sure it is very absurd to deny , that there are Three , who Live , and Will , and Understand , that is , in his Language , Three Wills , Understandings , and Lives , in One God. 3. His Third Argument comes nearer the Business ; for he undertakes to prove , That the Second and Third Persons in the Trinity , the Son and the Holy Ghost , are not Substance and Spirit , but only Properties , or immanent Acts , or relative Subsistences in the Notion of the Nominals : And his Argument is made up partly of Authority , and partly of his own Reasoning upon it . His Authority is the Council of Lyons in the year 1274. which Condemns those , who presume to deny , That the Holy Spirit does eternally proceed from the Father and the Son. — He adds , 'T is evident at first sight to any Learned man , who is conversant in these Questions , and in the Writers , who ( in several Ages ) have managed 'em , what the Fathers of this Council meant , and what they aimed at in this Decree or Canon : For because they believed that the Divine Persons are not Minds and Spirits , but relative Subsistences , or what is the same , immanent Acts : Therefore they could not but believe and define , That the Second Person is eternally generated , and therefore called the Son ; That the Third is an Eternal Spiration , and therefore called Spirit . I can't think what to call this , and therefore shall say nothing of it , but only beg my Reader 's Pardon for giving it an Answer . In the first place this Council says nothing of the Eternal Generation of the Son , and therefore this could not be what they aimed at , as he pretends . In the next place , The Eternal Procession of the Holy Ghost was not the thing in question , but his Eternal Procession from Father and Son , which the Latin Church professed , and therefore added the Filioque to their Creed ; but the Greek Church had disputed and condemned it , and that was one great design of this Council to bring the Greeks to consent to this addition : so that it was not the Aeternaliter , but the Filioque which the Council had principal regard to in this Decree ; not the Eternal Procession , but the Procession from the Father and the Son ; so little did they think of what our Author makes their chief design . But there is another Clause in this Decree which he has concealed , which proves , that they thought quite otherwise ; for they do not only condemn those , who deny that the Holy Spirit proceeds Eternally from Father and Son ; but those also , who teach that he proceeds from Father and Son , as from two Principles , and by two Spirations , and not as from one Principle , by one Spiration . Now had they believed the Son to be a meer immanent Act , such an unsubsisting Reason and Wisdom as is in Man , had not this been a very wise Dispute , Whether this immanent Act were a Principle of Spiration , either together with the Father , or distinct from him ? But nothing is to be wondered at in an Author , who will venture to say , That Eternal Generation , and Eternal Procession , is not reconcileable with the real personal subsistence of the Son and Holy Spirit , but proves them to be meer immanent Acts ; and that those , who own such an Eternal Generation and Procession , must consequently believe so : for this is the only Argument he has to prove the Fathers of this Council to have believ'd the Son and Spirit to be meer immanent Acts , because they assert the Eternal Generation and Procession ; whereas on the contrary it is evident , that all the Catholick Fathers , who asserted the Eternal Generation and Procession , did as strenuously assert against the Noetians and Sabellians , the true and proper Personality of the Son and Spirit . But let us hear how he proves , That if the Son and Spirit , The Second and Third Persons , be distinct Substances and Spirits from the First , ( that is , if the Son in his own Person , as distinct from the Person of the Father ; be Substance and Spirit , and so of the Holy Ghost ) it were heinous Nonsense to say , they were Eternally generated , or Eternally proceed . His Argument is this : If the Persons are Substances and Spirits , it must be said , that the Second was compleatly and finally generated from all Eternity ; the like also of the Third Person , else they should be incompleat Substances , unfinisht Spirits . — If they are Spirits or Substances , it can never be said that one is Eternally generated , the other does Eternally proceed : but the former was generated from all Eternity , and the other actually and compleatly proceeded from all Eternity . Now supposing the Reason of this to be unanswerable ; All that it amounts to is no more but this , That the Catholick Fathers , who attested the true and proper Personality of the Son , and Holy Spirit , were very absurd , and guilty of Heinous Nonsense , in saying , That the Son is Eternally generated , and the Spirit Eternally proceeds . These are Nice Speculations , which the Arian Controversy engaged them in ; but the Nicene Fathers contented themselves to affirm no more concerning the Eternal Generation , than that the Son was begotten of his Father before all Worlds , God of God , Light of Light , Very God of Very God. And this Notion of an Eternal Generation our Author has no Objection against , and we do not think our selves bound to answer for all the Subtilties either of the Fathers or Schools ; nor to determine every Curious Question , which Perverse and Heretical Wits can start concerning the Divine Generation and Procession , which is above the Comprehension of Angelical Minds , and which we know no more of , but that the Son is begotten , and the Spirit proceeds . And yet this Reasoning is very absurd , when applied to an Eternal and immutable Nature . Things , which have a beginning , which are made , which are successively and gradually perfected by Art , are incompleat and unfinish'd , while they are a-making , and if they are always a-making , or always incompleat ; but a Generation or Procession , without a Beginning , and without Succession , must always be perfect , and always the same , if it be at all ; here is no new Production , no making any thing , no transient Action ; in which sence the Catholick Fathers denied the Divine Generation to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Action , but only an Essential 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , habitude , relation between Father and Son , who both perfectly and eternally subsist , and co-exist with each other , but so , that the Son is of the Father , and the Holy Spirit of Father and Son : Thus they were without any Beginning , and thus they always are , and this is all they meant by an Eternal Generation and Procession , and this the Immutability of the Divine Nature forc'd them to own ; for though external Acts and Relations make no Change in the Divine Nature , yet what is ad intrà does ; and therefore could we conceive any distinguishable moments in Eternal Duration , when God was no Father , when he begot a Son , and when he ceased to beget , this would make an internal Change in the Divine Nature it self , which is inconsistent with perfect Immutability . But the Son always was and is of the Father , and this is his Eternal Generation , and the Holy Spirit always was and is of Father and Son , and this is his Eternal Procession , and thus the Divine Essence always was and is the same , a Trinity in Unity , and this is the perfect Immutability of God. And yet his Philosophy is very absurd , when he argues from an Eternal Generation and Procession , that therefore the Son and Holy Spirit must be incompleat and unfinish'd ; for this will not be granted him even in created Nature , much less in the Divinity . They are no mean Philosophers , who tell us , that the World may very properly be said to be perpetually created ; that what we call Preservation , or upholding all things in being , is the very same Act and Power which at first gave Being to them ; and such a permanent Act is Creation still , though no new Production of any thing : But these Men would scorn any one who should hence conclude , that there is no compleat or finish'd Substance , no really subsisting substantial World : Much more absurd is it , to conclude this of an Eternal Generation , which produces nothing new , nothing that ever began to be , and is the same that ever it was , without any Succession . And he defends the Nominalists just as wisely and philosophically , as he opposes the Realists , as if his only design were to expose both . He says this Eternal Generation proves the Son and Holy Spirit , to be only immanent Acts in God , reflex Wisdom , or the Wisdom that resulteth from Original Minds Eternal Contemplation and Knowledge of the Divine Nature and Perfections , and the everlasting Spiration of Love that must proceed from the Original and reflex Wisdom of the Deity . And here we have just such a Trinity in the God-head , as there is in every particular Man , his Mind , and the immanent Acts of Wisdom or Reason , and Love , which all Learned Men know to be one kind of Sabellianism . That the Son is the Wisdom and Power of God , and that the peculiar Character of the Holy Spirit is Love , is the language both of Scripture and Fathers ; but not as immanent Acts , but the living subsisting Wisdom of the Father , and living subsisting Love , eternal and infinite Persons , co-eternal and co-equal with the Father : But it is a new Language , unknown to Scriptures and Fathers , to call an immanent Act of Wisdom a Son , and the Minds producing such an Act , its generating or begetting a Son , and to call such an immanent Act in God , the Son of God , and God ; by which Rule , every Thought or Act of Reason in any Man , is Man , and the Son of that Man whose Thought and Act it is . And it as new Philosophy to talk of immanent Acts in God ; for there can be no immanent Acts , but where there are Powers and Faculties , which is the Imperfection of the Creature-State , not incident to the perfect Simplicity of the Divine Nature . But besides this , what does he mean by the Eternal Generation and Spiration of an immanent Act ; an immanent Act ( according to all the Accounts I ever met with of it , and as every Man may feel in himself ) is not an abiding , as he calls it , but a transient Act : it has no permanent stable Nature , no Subsistence of its own , but vanishes and dies assoon as generated , to speak in his language ; which is a necessary Reason to remove all such immanent Acts from God , in whom there is nothing vanishing , nothing successive : but if Men will attribute immanent Acts to God , ( reflex Wisdom , as opposed to a living , subsisting , personal Wisdom ) they must speak of them according to the known Nature of such Acts , and then an Eternal Generation of such an immanent Act , which vanishes , assoon as generated , can signifie no more , than an eternal successive Repetition ( which is a Contradiction ) of the Acts of reflex Wisdom , that as one vanishes , another succeeds ; that though God has always this reflex Wisdom , yet he has not always the same Act of reflex Wisdom , but produces it a-new every moment , which he calls an Eternal Generation : just as it is with Men who may have the same Thought for kind some time together , but yet every moment it is new produced : To talk of such an Eternal Son as this , and such an Eternal Generation , is Heresie in Philosophy , and in common sense , as well as in Christianity , and it would be loss of time to expose it . I must no more omit than he , another surprizing Argument whereby he proves , that the Catholick Church did believe , that the second Person is the reflex Wisdom of God , and the Third Divine Love , because for this reason , as he tells us , this Question has been very warmly debated whether the Son is that Wisdom , wherewith the Father is Wise. Those Fathers , who affirm this Question , usually alledge these two Arguments ; that the Eternity of the Son cannot be otherwise proved , but by this , That he is the Eternal Wisdom of the Father ; and that otherwise we must suppose Two Wisdoms in God , which is so absurd to a late learned Ecclesiastical Historian , that he concludes his Dissertation concerning this Question , with these Words : The Father neither is , nor can be actually Wise , but by the Word or Son. I. Cabassutius Notit . Eccl. p. 120. correct . 119. let the Reader now judge of all the rest by this . That this Question was disputed I own : But he has assign'd a very false and a very absurd Occasion for it ; for had this been the received Faith of the Catholick Church , that the Son is only the immanent Act of reflex Wisdom in God , what Occasion had there been for this Dispute , whether the Son is that Wisdom by which the Father is Wise ? that is , the personal Wisdom of the Father ; for who ever disputed , whether immanent Acts were Personal , or no ? And therefore this very Dispute proves , that they did not believe the Son to be a meer immanent Act. But though they did dispute among themselves , in what Sence Christ is called the Wisdom of God , and the Power of God ; and whether Christ be that Wisdom , wherewith the Father is Wise , and in what Sence the Father may be said to beget his own Wisdom ; and how the Son can be said to be sapientia de sapientia , Wisdom of Wisdom , if the Father in his proper Person be not Wisdom , but only the Begetter of Wisdom , with many other Questions , as we see in St. Austin , lib. VI. de Trin. Yet they never divided upon this Point , but did universally agree , that the Father in his own proper Person is Original Mind , and Wisdom ; and that the Son in his own proper Person is begotten Wisdom , even the Essential Wisdom of God , not that personal Wisdom wherewith the Father is Wise , but Wisdom truly and properly begotten of Original Wisdom ; Living , Subsisting Wisdom ; distinct in Person from the Father , who is Original Wisdom , but perfectly the same one undivided Essence , and therefore not Essentially Two , but One and the same Wisdom , which is the Wisdom of the Father : So that though there was some Dispute about the true Signification of such Expressions , yet here was no Division among the Catholicks , who all agreed on that Side of the Question , which directly contradicts this Author's Catholick Faith of immanent Acts. The true Occasion of this Dispute , as St. Austin tells us in the same Place , was this ; that some of the Fathers , I think he might have said all the Nicene Fathers , in their Disputes with the Arians and Eunomians about the Eternal Generation of the Son , or Word , used this Argument , that God was never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without his Word , or Wisdom : not that they had no other Argument to prove the Eternity of the Son , as this Author represents it , but that they thought this a very good one : Now the Force of this Argument seemed to be this , that God is always Wise ; and therefore that Person , who is the Word and Wisdom of God , must have always been with him , as Eternal as God is : And to make this a good Argument , the necessary Consequence seemed to be , That the Person of the Son , who is the begotten Word , and Wisdom of the Father , is the personal Wisdom of the Father , that Wisdom wherewith the Father is Wise : And the Difficulty of this was , how this begotten Wisdom , which is a distinct Person from the Person of the Father , should be that Wisdom whereby the Person of the Father is Wise : how they justified this Argument , and yet avoided such Absurdities , is too long now to account for ; those who please may consult St. Austin for it ; but I hope every one sees that both the Reason of this Question , the Nature of those Difficulties , it was incumbered with , and their Determination of the Point , are all direct Contradictions to what this Author alledged it for . And now let us hear what our Author 's learned Cabassutius says , but what the World will say of him , when they hear what Cabassutius says , let other guess . This learned Historian takes Notice of this Dispute , and gives the same Account of it which I have now done ; and vindicates that Argument of the Catholick Fathers for the Eternity of the Son , because he is the Wisdom of the Father , that were he not Eternal , the Father could not be always Wise , from the Exception of St. Austin . This he does by a Distinction borrowed from Aquinas ; that those , who taught the Son to be the Wisdom of the Father , are to be understood * , not in a formal , but causal and illative Sence . For though the Son , as a Son , is not that Wisdom , wherewith the Father is Wise ( let out Author first observe that ) yet he is necessarily united with it , and arises from it : So that the Son is not the personal Wisdom of the Father , but is begotten of his Father's Wisdom , and inseparably united to it : and therefore is the Wisdom of God , Wisdom of the Father's Wisdom and inseparable from it ; which are Two , One of One , and indivisibly and inseparably One. But let us hear his Reason for this * : For the Wisdom which is in the Father , is not a Habit , or Faculty , or Power , as it is in created Beings , but a pure and simple Act. What is now become of his immanent Act , by which he tells us Original Mind must be Wise ? for if he believes his learned Historian , Original Mind is a pure simple Act it self , and therefore not Wise by immanent Acts of reflex Wisdom , which suppose Habits and Faculties and Powers , and have no Place in a pure simple Act ; that if the Son be only an Immanent Act of reflex Wisdom , he will never find his second Person in a pure and simple Act. The Historian proceeds † , Every Act of Wisdom and Understanding necessarily includes its Terminus or Effect , and that is what we call Word , or in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which St. Cyril very well understood , where he tells us , that Mind is never without its Word ; and St. Thomas saies , that tho' commonly things receive their Denomination from their Forms , as White from Whiteness , Man from Humanity , yet sometimes they are denominated from their Effects ; as a Tree is called Florid , from the Flowers it produces , though that be not the Form of it ; and thus the Fathers rightly concluded against Arius , that the Father neither was nor could be actually Wise without his Word , and only begotten Son : Our Author renders it , but by the Word or Son , directly Contradictory both to the Argument and Words of Cabassutius : for by signifies the formal Cause , and is so intended by him , that the Father is Wise by the Son , by that immanent Act of reflex Wisdom which he calls the Son ( tho' one would wonder , how Original Mind and Wisdom , should be Wise by reflex Wisdom , which is but a secondary Wisdom , which supposes a first ; and therefore , as one would guess , could not make the first wise ) but Cabassutius only says , that the Father is not actually wise without the Son , that is , as he explains it , without begetting that Eternal Word and Wisdom , which is the Person of the Son. I shall make no Remarks on this , let the World judge of the skill , or the honesty of this Author . What he adds about Emanations , is just to the same Tune : The Eternal Generation of the Substance of the Father , was by the Nicene Council represented by Light of Light , and the Co-eternity of the Son with the Father by the Co-existence of Emanatory Causes and their Effects , as of the Sun and its Rays , which are as old as the Sun. The Author , like other Socinians , thinking of nothing but Body , and bodily and corporeal Emanations , falls presently a demonstrating ; Let A. B. C. be three infinite Substances , if B. and C. ( infinite Substances ) emane from A. an infinite Substance also : it is self-evident , that the two infinite Substances must exhaust , and thereby in the end annihilate one infinite Substance . This is a notable Demonstration as to corporeal Substances ; for if the whole flow out of it self , it is certain , it must cease to be what it was , and become another Whole , if it be not a Contradiction , that the same Whole should flow out of it self , and become another Whole , which in Bodies could make no other Change in a Whole , but a Change of Place , for let a Whole emane , ( if that be not Nonsense , for a corporeal Whole to emane ) and go where it will , it is it self , and the same Whole still . And I think it is no better Sense , to talk of exhausting an infinite Substance ; for nothing can be exhausted , but what is finite , unless what is infinite can have an end : and an exhausting Emanation of an infinite Substance , is no better Sense than the rest ; for it necessarily supposes an infinite Substance with divisible Parts , which may be separated from it self and from each other , which I take to be a Contradiction to the very Notion of Infinity . It is certain , that such Emanations , as exhaust their Subject , can be only bodily Emanations , for Bodies only have divisible and separable Parts , that I defie the most absurd , self-contradicting Trinitarian in the World , to put so many Absurdities and Contradictions into one Sentence , as he has done in this : One infinite Substance ( whether corporeal or incorporeal ) can never eternally supply two infinite Substances : the two infinite Substances by continual Emanations must needs dry up the One , that was their Fountain . To talk of an infinite corporeal Substance ( which he here supposes ) is absurd and unphilosophical , for nothing can be infinite which has Parts ; for what is infinite by Nature can never be finite ; and yet if such a supposed infinite Body were divided in the middle , ( as all Bodies may be divided ) this infinite corporeal Substance would prove two finite Substances , for each of them would have one End , where their Substance was divided : to talk of such Emanations from incorporeal Substances ( which have no divisible Parts ) as can dry up an infinite Fountain , which must be by a Partition and Division of Substances , is another Contradiction ; and to dry up an infinite Fountain , as I observed before , is another ; and to supply infinite Substances by such Emanations , which cannot be infinite , if they want any supply , is a fourth very good one . But allowing this Author to rejoice in such refined Speculations , I would desire to know , who those are who attribute the Eternal Generation of the Son , and Procession of the Holy Spirit , to such eternal , corporeal Effluxes and Emanations , as will endanger the exhausting and drying up the infinite Fountain of the Deity ? If there be any such Men they are arrant Hereticks , I assure him , for the Catholick Fathers abhorred the thoughts of all such Emanations . They did not indeed scruple the use of such Words , as Emanation , Probole , Exition , and the like , whereby they signified that the Son was truly and in a proper sense of his Father's Substance , and a real distinct Person from the Person of the Father , but they expresly rejected all corporeal Effluxes , all Division and Separation of the Father's Substance ; and taught that the Son is begotten whole of whole , perfect God of perfect God , by a real Communication , but not a Transfusion of Substance , not ad extra , without , as Creature-Generations are , but within his Father ; as the Word is inseparable from the Mind , whose Word it is . So that our Author disputes here without any other Adversary , but his own gross Imaginations , and he may triumph securely , and demonstrate these corporeal , exhausting , dying Emanations , out of Countenance , and the Realists no farther concerned , than to look on , and see the Event of the Combate , or to wish him better employed . If he would have effectually baffled these Realists , he should have proved , that God could not communicate his own Nature and Substance to the Son , Whole of Whole , without such an Emanation of his Substance , as divides it from it self , and separates one part of it from another , as it is in bodily Exhalations : This would effectually have confuted a substantial Generation ; for all Men grant , that the Divine Substance can't be divided , and this was the Objection of the Arians against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the Son 's being begotten of the Substance of the Father , but the Catholick Fathers asserted a real substantial Generation , without a Division of Substance , and taught them to distinguish between the Generation of Body and Spirit . And whoever considers , how a finite created Mind can communicate its Thoughts to another , which when perfectly communicated , are perfectly the same , whole and entire in both , and but one and the same Thought , though in two Minds ; may conceive , that an infinite Mind , which is a pure and simple Act , infinitely more simple and indivisible than Thought it self , may be able to communicate its self more perfectly , than a finite Mind can communicate its Thoughts , and if it can , it must communicate it self whole and entire , and as indivisibly as a Thought , and subsist distinctly , perfectly One and the same in Two. SECT . V. The Fourth and Fifth Arguments against a Real Trinity Answered . IV. TO proceed , his next Argument against the Realists is this , That all Explications , by which 't is endeavour'd to shew , how three infinite ( intellectual Substances ) three Almighty Spirits and Minds , may be one God , are manifestly Deficient . Now , suppose this true , that no Man can give a perfect Account of the Unity of the Divine Nature in Three Distinct , Infinite , Divine Persons ; must we therefore deny either the Trinity or Unity ( both which , we say , are expresly taught in Scripture ) because we cannot fully comprehend so Sublime and Venerable a Mystery ? They pay greater Deference than this to the Evidence of Sense ; they will believe their Senses , where their Reason and Philosophy is at a loss , nay , in such Matters , as if they did not see them , they think they could demonstrate absolutely contradictious and impossible : and did Men heartily believe the Scriptures , why should they not as absolutely submit their Reason to the Authority of God , as to the Evidence of Sense ? But let them answer for this . But the whole Strength of this Argument , which he manages with great Triumph and Scorn , dwindles into the old Socinian Sophism , that one God signifies but one only Person , who is God ; and that whatever other Unity you ascribe to three Persons , each of which is by himself true and perfect God , still they are three Gods ; for since each of these Spirits ( or Persons , each of which is an infinite Mind or Spirit ) are said to be infinite , all-perfect , they must be said to be Gods , mutually Conscious , mutually inexisting , and the rest ; but no more one God , than they are one Spirit : and therefore the Realists may as well pretend that by these Devices of theirs , they have contrived three infinite Spirits into one Person , or into one Spirit , as into one God. And that a disinterested Person ( I suppose he means such as himself ) and Philosophers , and Jews and Pagans , he might have added Sabellians , and Socinians , and Mahumatans , will call these three Gods. Now it is no wonder that this disinterested Person thinks all our Explications of the Unity of God insufficient , when we so vastly differ about the Notion of one God : That we are so far from proving three Divine Persons to be one God in his Sense , that we reject his Notion of one God , as Judaism and Heresie ; and herein we have the Authority of the Catholick Church on our side . And here I would desire the Reader to observe , that this Argument is not meerly against that Phrase of three Minds and Spirits and Substances ; but against three Persons , each of which is in his own proper Person , Mind and Spirit and Substance ; for three such Persons , by this Authors Argument , are three Gods , and can no more be contrived ( as he prophanely speaks ) into one God , than into one Personal Spirit . But yet since he graciously owns , that one infinite Almighty Spirit , is one God , what if we should prove these three Infinite Persons , each of which is Mind and Spirit , to be one and the same Infinite Eternal Spirit : And yet this has always been the Faith of the Catholick Church , St. Austin is express in it , The Father is Spirit , and the Son Spirit , and the Holy Ghost Spirit , but not three Spirits , but one Spirit ; that is , not Personally , but Essentially One , they are three Persons , but one Essence , essentially one Spirit : And if God be perfect , pure , simple Essence , the Unity of Essence , is the Unity of God. This was the Doctrine of all the Catholick Fathers , and this we must insist on till our Modern Demonstrators speak more home to this Point , that one Divine Essence , one Self-originated Divinity , though subsisting in three distinct Persons , is but one God. I can't discourse this at large now , that may be done , if there be Occasion for it , another time , but at present I shall only give a brief Account of the Doctrine of the Fathers , as to this Point . They tell us , that there is but one self-originated Divinity , but one Father , and therefore but one God ; that this Eternal Unbegotten Father , begets an Eternal Son of his own Nature and Substance , and in like Manner , that is , in the same Nature and Substance the Holy Spirit Eternally proceeds from Father and Son : So that there being but one Nature , one Divinity , communicated whole and entire and perfectly the same , without Division of Substance , there is but one Divine Nature , but one Divinity distinctly in three : not one meerly as a Species is one ( though they often allude also to a Specific Unity ) but one , as one Individual , though not one Singular , Nature is one : as one which subsists wholly , indivisibly , and perfectly in three , is one ; which is one , and one , and one , by a perfect Sameness , and Identity of Nature , and Substance , but not three . That these three are inseparable from each other , never did subsist a part , never can ; but are in each other , which they call the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Circumincession , which makes the Divinity one simple , indivisible Monad : And here we may allow a Place , ( and he never intended any other Place for it ) to what Dr. Sherlock calls , mutual Consciousness , which is the proper and natural In-being of three , each of which is Mind and Spirit : which is not barely a knowing each other by an external Communication of Thoughts and Counsels , which is far from being an essential natural Unity ; but such an inward vital Sensation , as each Person has of himself ; which after all the Noise and Clamour about it , seems to be a very sensible Representation of the natural In-being and Circumincession of the Divine Persons ; and as natural a Demonstration of the Unity of the Divine Essence , as self-consciousness must be acknowledged to be of the Unity of a Person . It is certain , without this they cannot be one Energy and Power ( wherein the Fathers also place the Unity of the God-Head ) one Agent , one Creator and Governour . But where there is such an inseparable Union , such a mutual conscious Sensation , there can be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Greg. Nyssen speaks , One Motion of the Divine Will , though distinctly and without Confusion in three : And this makes them one Agent , one Essential Will , one Essential Wisdom , one Essential Power ; so that here is in the properest Sence , but one Omniscience , one Omnipotence , one Will , &c. and therefore but one God , though Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , are each of them in their own Persons , Omnipotent , Omniscient , and whatever belongs to the Idea of God. All this , indeed , does not make these three Divine Persons one Person , and therefore not one God , in the Socinian Sense of one God , which is the only Deficiency this Author charges this Account of the Divine Unity with ; and is wisely done of him , because he knows we reject this Notion of the Divine Unity , and therefore here he is safe ; we assert that the Unity of God , is not the Unity of a Person , but the Unity of Nature and Essence ; and to confute this , he gravely proves , that three Persons are not , and cannot be one Person : But if he would have opposed us , he should either have shewn , First , That the Account the Catholick Fathers give ( for for we pretend to give no other ) of the Unity of God , does not prove , the perfect Unity of the Divine Essence in three Persons : or Secondly , that one undivided Divinity is not one God : or Thirdly , that the same Eternal Essence cannot subsist whole and perfect , distinctly and indivisibly in Three ; that is , that God cannot communicate his own Nature and Substance , without Division and Separation , to his Son , and Spirit ; or that God cannot have an Eternal Son , and an Eternal Spirit : if he can do either of these , we will very tamely and humbly follow his Chariot ; in the mean time ( for I believe this will take up some time ) I will shew him the Difference between three Divine Persons , each of which is true and perfect God , and three Gods. 1. First , then one God in the Socinian Notion , is one infinite Mind and Spirit , one Eternal Divinity , in one only Person : So one Person , and one Divinity , that no other Person communicates with it in the same Divinity , in the same one eternal Essence and Substance : Now according to this Notion of one God , three Gods are three such eternal Minds , Substances , Divinities , each of which in his own Person , has a whole , perfect , undivided Essence and Divinity , which is not common to any other Person : So that three Gods are three absolute Substances , Essences , Divinities , which have no Essential Relation to , or Communication with each other . There can be no other Notion of three Gods , if as this Author , and all the Anti-Trinitarians assert , One God is One absolute Divinity in One Person ; for then three Gods must be three absolute Divinities in three Persons : Now every one sees , what a vast difference there is , between three such Gods , and the Catholick Faith of a Trinity of Person , in the Unity of the Divine Essence . Why , you 'll say , is not every Person in the Trinity , by himself , in his own Person , true and perfect God ? Yes , most certainly ; but he is not one absolute , separate Divinity ; he has not a Divinity so peculiarly his own , that no other Person communicates in it ; there is but One undivided Divinity in all Three , and therefore there is a Trinity in Unity . But is not each Person in the Trinity infinite Mind , Spirit , Substance ? Nay , do not some Realists venture to call them three Minds , Spirits , Substances ? and what are such Three , but three Gods , if One infinite Mind and Spirit , be one God ? I answer : An infinite Mind and Spirit , is certainly true and perfect God ; but one Personal infinite Mind and Spirit is not the One God , so as to exclude all other Persons , unless he have one absolute , separate Divinity also , so proper and peculiar to himself , that no other Person does or can communicate in it ; for if more Persons than One can perfectly communicate in the same One Divinity , there must be more Divine Persons than One , and each of them perfect God , but neither of them the One God , in Exclusion of the other Persons , but all of them the One God as the One Divinity . This , I think , the Socinians will grant , That One Divinity is but One God , and that One God is One absolute Divinity ; and the Reason why they assert the One God to be but One Person , is because they think it impossible , that the same undivided Divinity should subsist distinctly and perfectly in Three ; but then before they had charged the Faith of the Trinity with Tritheism , they should have remembred , that the Persons of the Trinity are not three such Persons , as their One Person is , whom they call the One God : and therefore though three such Persons , three such Minds and Substances , as their One Person , and One Spirit is , who is the whole Divinity confined to One single Person , would be Three Gods , this does not prove , that Three such Persons as the Catholick Church owns in the Ever-blessed Trinity , who are all of the same One Substance , and but One Divinity , must therefore be three Gods also . 2. Three such Persons as these , who are three Gods , our Author , and every one else , who understands any thing of these Matters , must acknowledge to be three self-originated Persons ; for God , in the full and adequate Notion of one God , is a self-originated Being ; and those , who assert , that the One God , is but One Person , make him a self-originated Person : now it is evident , that in this Sense the three Persons in the Christian Trinity are not three God's , for they are not three self-originated Persons : The Father alone is un-begotten , or self-originated , but the Son is begotten of his Father's Substance , and the Holy Ghost eternally proceeds from Father and Son ; so that here is but one self-originated Person , with his Eternal Son , and Eternal Spirit . And let this Author try to make three Gods of three , two of which are not self-originated Persons . They might more plausibly dispute against the Divinity of the Son , and the Holy Spirit , from this Topick , that they are not self-originated Persons , than prove them to be a second and third God , by their perfect Communication in a self-originated Nature , which is the Person of the Father . For though a perfect Communication of the Divine Nature makes a true Divine Person , who is true and perfect God , yet no Person can be the One God , who is not self-originated ; and a self-originated Person , who is a Father , cannot be the One God , so as to exclude his Son , who is of the same Nature and Substance with him ; nor the Holy Spirit , who by an Eternal Procession from Father and Son , perfectly communicates in the same Eternal Nature . 3. Three such Persons , as in a strict and proper Notion are three Gods , must be three separate Persons , who have not only distinct , but separate Natures , and Substances , and have no internal Union , or Communication with each other ; and therefore are in a proper Notion three Principles , three Agents , three Wills , three Lives , three Omnipotents , &c. who always act a-part , and can never concur as one Agent , in any one Action ; cannot make and govern the same World ; have no Relation to each other , no Order , no Union , as it is impossible three absolute , independent Divinities should : But the Catholick Faith concerning the three Divine Persons in the Trinity , is directly contrary to this , that as Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , are but One Substance , One Divinity ; so they are so perfectly in each other , that they have but one Essential Will , Omnipotence , Omniscience , are but one Agent , one Creatour and Governour of the World. Let this Author , or any other Adversaries , talk what they please , of the Absurdity , Nonsence , Contradiction , of all this , which is not our present dispute , I stand to it , that they can never make Tritheism of it ; for the three Divine Persons in the Trinity , though each of them be by himself true and perfect God , yet as they are owned by the Catholick Church , and as we have now explain'd it , are not three such Persons , as they themselves must confess , three Persons must be , who are three Gods. What I have now discoursed will help us to give a plain and short Answer to those Fallacies , whereby such disinterested Persons , as this Authour , charge the Catholick Faith of the Trinity with Tritheism ; for they manifestly equivocate both in the Notion of one God , and of one Person . By One God , they understand one who is true and perfect God , and every one , who is true and perfect God , is one , and now instead of all other Demonstrations , they only desire you to number the Persons of the Trinity upon your Fingers , and if you can but tell to three , you will infallibly find three Gods : The Father is true and perfect God ; there , say they , is One God : the Son is true and perfect God ; there are Two Gods ▪ the Holy Ghost is true and perfect God ; there are Three Gods : quod erat demonstrandum . But do they think that all the Catholick Fathers knew not how to find Three in the Trinity , till they taught them to tell three upon their Fingers ? and if they found three , but yet could not find three Gods in the Trinity , they might in Modesty have thought , that something more than Arithmetick , or telling their Fingers , was necessary to make good this Charge , and because they either are , or would seem to be ignorant of this , I will tell them what it is . In that Dispute , whether there be only One God , or more Gods than One ; By One God , in the first place , all Men understand One Divinity , one Infinite , Omnipotent , Essence and Nature ; for all the Arguments relating to the Unity of God directly prove no more than the Unity of the Divine Essence : that God is but One Person , as well as One Divinity , ( as most Men did , and as all Men might reasonably conclude before the Revelation of a Trinity of Divine Persons in the Essential Unity of the God-head ) is not owing to any direct and positive Proof , but to a common Presumption : For since we have no Example in created Nature , of more than one proper Person in one individual inseparable Nature ; most Men hence concluded , naturally enough , that one Divinity was but one Divine Person also . But God , who understands his own Nature best , has revealed to us in Scripture , that there are Three , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , who equally and perfectly communicate in this One infinite and undivided Essence , and therefore that there are Three Divine Persons , and One God. And this has occasioned a Confusion of Terms , on which our Socinian Adversaries have grounded all their noisie Triumphs : for now One God , and One Person , signifie very differently in the Mystery of the Trinity , from what they do in common Acceptation , and must of necessity do so . One God , in natural Religion , before the Revelation of this Sacred Mystery , signified One Divinity , One infinite Nature and Essence , without any Notion of more than One Subsistence , and One Personality ; and then consequently One Person , who is this One God , must signifie One , who has this whole Divinity , perfectly in himself , and exclusively to all other Persons . But in the Christian Mystery ; One God , signifies also One perfect undivided Divinity , but communicable whole and perfect , and indivisibly to more than One , and actually subsisting in three distinct Persons , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost ; and therefore consequently , Person also in this Mystery , signifies One , who has the whole Divine Nature perfectly in himself , and therefore is true and perfect God , but has not the whole Divinity incommunicably in himself , exclusively to all other Persons , and therefore is not the one God , in the Sense of one perfect incommunicable Divinity , peculiar to himself , and communicated to no other Person , nor subsisting in any other . And now let any Man judge of the mean Sophistry of our Adversaries , who from their Notion of One Person and One God , which the Catholick Church with great Reason rejects , charge the Catholick Faith of a real , subsisting , Trinity , with Tritheism , for they do not dispute ad idem , but impose upon Men with an equivocal Use of Words . Three such Divine Persons indeed , as they own , that is , each of which has a whole perfect Divinity in himself , which no other Person communicates , or can communicate in , must be in a proper Notion , three Gods , or three perfect , self-originated , separate , Divinities ; but this does not prove ( and yet in the last Result this is all the Proof they offer at ) that three Persons , who have but one comon Divinity , though distinctly and perfectly subsisting in each of them , are therefore three Gods ; for neither of these Persons is so God , as to exclude the others from the same Divinity , and therefore are not three Divinities , not three self-originated divine Essences , and therefore not three Gods , according to the natural Notion of Tritheism : God , and God , and God , who have the same One Divinity subsisting in them all , are not Three Gods , but One God , because One Divinity . Here it is they should attack us , and if they have any thing to say to this Point , we are ready to join Issue with them . Fifthly , His last Argument , which he places great Confidence in , is very easily answered . It is this . That all the Reasons used by Philosophers , or Divines , to prove that there is but one God , do as certainly and as clearly prove , that there can be but one infinite and all-perfect Spirit . All this still is nothing but the same Equivocation and Fallacy , which I have already sufficiently answered : One infinite and all-perfect Spirit may either signifie one Person , who is infinite Mind or Spirit in his own Person , and here we are ready to joyn Issue with him , that all the Arguments , which prove , that there is but one God , do not prove that there is but one Divine Person , but One , who is this One God : or it may signifie one Divinity , which is Essentially one infinite all-perfect Spirit , but personally three ; and in this Sense we agree with him ; for we assert one undivided Essence Essentially one in three , that is , we believe there is but one God , who is One in Nature and Three in Persons . And this seems a pretty surprizing Undertaking , to prove that the Arguments for one God confute a Trinity of real subsisting Persons in the Unity of the same God-head : It is certain , before he can do this , he must make three Gods of these three Divine Persons ; for if they be but one God , the Arguments for the Unity of God , can never confute a Trinity of Persons ; and here I might reasonably leave this Argument , till he has answered , what I have already said in this Cause . But let us hear his Arguments against Polytheism , and see how he applies them . First , That created Nature has nothing needless or in vain , much less can we suppose , that the uncreated Divine Nature hath ought , that is , superfluous or redundant — But now , is it not a Superfluity , say they , to suppose more Gods , when ( because one is sufficient ) more Gods are needless , and wholly in vain ? I do not remember , that I have met with this Argument in these Terms , in any of the antient Apologists for Christianity : I think , it is a very bad Argument against the being of any thing , but much more so , when applied to the Divine Nature . That Nature does nothing in vain , has been allowed for a Maxim among all Philosophers , who have acknowledged a God , or that all things are made by a wise Cause , the necessary Consequence of which is , that nothing is made in vain , and this is the only Proof , and the only Reason of that Maxim : but , that created Nature has nothing needless , or in vain , is not a self-evident Proposition , but must be proved by an induction of Particulars , and is very hard to be prov'd in this way , because we understand so little of the Designs , and Contrivance and Wisdom of Nature ; that many who begin at this end of the Question , reject a wise Cause and Maker of the World , because they think , they discover many Defects , or many superfluities in Nature , that is , many things which are needless or in vain : and this looks like an unfortunate Beginning thus to mistake his Maxim. But to allow him this : What Philosopher ever pretended to prove by this Argument , that such things either were , or were not , as they apprehended to be either defective , needless , or superfluous ? Whether such things are , or are not , is pure Matter of Fact , and must be proved by such Ways , as the Nature of the Thing admits ; Matters of Sense by Sense , Matters of Revelation by Revelation : and when Men know , that such things are , and what they are , then they judge of them , whether they be vain and needless , defective or superfluous , or wisely made , as they begin at the right or wrong End of this Question . Those who are perswaded , that the World was made by a wise Cause , hence conclude , that all things are wisely made , though there are many things which they do not understand the Reason and Philosophy of : Others presuming upon their own Skill in Nature , pick many Quarrels with it , and find few things , which thoroughly please them , and thence conclude that the World was not made by a wise Cause , because they do not see the Wisdom of it . But whatever Truth or Force , there be in this Argument , it can relate only to created Nature , to such things as are made , and are made to serve some particular End ; for then only a thing is vain and needless , when it is made so in whole , or in Part , as to serve no wise End : but surely we must not dispute at this Rate concerning an eternal , uncreated , self-originated Nature , which was not made by any Cause , and therefore has no end but it self : and yet this his Argument , to prove two or three Gods superfluous , needless , in vain , because one God is sufficient : sufficient for what ? why , to make and govern the World ; Well! Is God then only for the Sake of Creatures ? Can a Being , who was never made , who has no Cause , no Beginning , have any End but it self ? Was one God a superfluous , needless Being , before he made the World ? or was the World from Eternity as well as God ? And does not an Athiest , who can make and govern a World without a God , conclude from this very Argument , that there is none , because he is a superfluous and needless Being ? which shews , what a dangerous Argument this is , when proposed in such loose general Terms . God is indeed the Maker and Governour of the World , and we can prove , that the World could not be made and governed but by God , and that one God can make and govern the World , and there needs no more for this Purpose , and the Unity and Harmony of the World , that is made , proves that there is but one Maker and Governour of it , and therefore but one God : Such Arguments as these , together with the Notion of an absolute perfect Being , which can be but one , were urged by the antient Apologists , against the Pagan Politheism ; but to make God a superfluous or needless Being , any farther than he has a Respect and Relation to Creatures , which this Argument against the plurality of Gods supposes , is very irreverent to God , and liable to very ill Consequences . It was never used in this Sense by any of the antient Fathers , and the first time Petavius observes it is in Abaelardus and Edmundus Cantuariensis : and that more cautiously expressed , and better qualified . Secondly , His Second Argument is much of the same Nature : The multiplicity of Beings , of any sort , arises only from the weakness , imperfection , and unsufficiency ( in some regard or other ) of those Beings ; which is such a wise Reason for the multiplicity of Beings , as I never in my Life before met with . The Reason why any imperfect Beings are , is because they are made , for what is imperfect can't be without a Cause ; and what ever is made must be imperfect , because it must have a finite and limited Nature ; for an infinite Nature is self-existent , and can't be made : and what is finite and limited , may be multiplied ; for there is nothing in its Nature and Idea to hinder it , if it find a Maker ; and the Wise Maker of the World thought fit to make many Creatures of the same Kind : and now he may bring in his Reasons , if he pleases , why God made so many Creatures of the same kind , to supply Mortality , or for mutual Help or Comfort , &c. but all these Reasons relate only to such Beings , as are made , and have a wise Cause , and I perfectly agree with him , that God has none of these Defects , and therefore none of these Reasons can make it necessary that there should be more Gods than one ; but then he should have remembred , that God was not made , and therefore not made for any End ; and this would have made him thought twice before he had added . To suppose more Gods without assigning a final Cause for such a Supposition , is to imploy our Fancy and Invention ( to assign no Cause ) not to exercise our Reason : 't is to amuse our selves with Conceits and Chimera's , not to Philosophize . You imagine more Gods without giving a Reason , whether final or declaratory . You ought to know that the proper Name for this is Whimsie . But I want a Name for this Argument , only I think it is neither Reason nor Philosophy , to talk of assigning a final Cause , why there is a God , either one or more . A final Cause is the Reason and End , for which any thing was made ; but that which was not made , could be made for no end , and therefore it is absurd to talk of the final Cause of a necessary and eternal Being . But though he has managed these two Arguments at such a rate , that no Man has any reason to reverence him as an infallible Dictator , either in Philosophy or Religion , yet we allow him , what he would have , that two Gods are more than we have any need of , and that there is not the same Reason for more Gods than One , that there is for a Number of Creatures , of each kind ; and what then ? What then ? sure that is very evident , that there can no more be three all-perfect , all-sufficient Spirits , than three Gods : Right ! not three such all-perfect , all-sufficient Spirits , as are three Gods ; but what does he think of Three , each of which is an all-perfect , and all-sufficient Spirit , and all Three but one Divinity , one God ? But one Spirit , who is really all-sufficient and all-perfect , is enough to all Purposes and Intents whatsoever : I grant , One Divinity is so ; but if this One Divinity essentially and necessarily subsists in Three , in Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , each of which is an all-perfect , and all-sufficient Spirit , and yet but one whole undivided Divinity , one all-perfect , all-sufficient Being , these Three are not more than enough , not redundant and superfluous in the Divinity : and therefore he should have proved , that by the same Reason , that three absolute , independent , self-originated Divinities are superfluous and needless ; three Divine Persons , of the same one undivided Divinity , are superfluous too . Three Divinities , three separate self-originated Divine Essences and Natures , are superfluous ; but I hope one Divinity , one Divine Nature and Essence is not : and if three Divine Persons are Essential to one undivided and inseparable Divinity , I hope they are not superfluous neither : and this is the Catholick Faith : not three Gods , or three Divinities , but three Persons in one infinite , undivided , Nature and Essence . Three , which never did subsist , never did , never can act a-part , and therefore though three , are but one all-wise omnipotent Agent ; and one omnipotent is not more than enough . But , none of these Imperfections which are the Reasons , why Beings of the same Kind are multiplied , are found in any one of these all-perfect , all-sufficient Spirits . Very true , but the same one whole perfect Divinity is found in them all , and therefore though they are three , the Divinity is not multiplied , but they are One God ; and this is all we are to account for : those who believe but one God , I hope , need not give a Reason , whether final or declaratory , why there are more ; but if he expects a Reason , why there are three living , subsisting , omniscient , omnipotent , Persons in this one undivided God-head , a final Reason I can give none , for I have learnt to give no such Reasons of a necessary and eternal Nature ; a declaratory Reason , as he aclls it , I can give , because our Saviour has assured us , that so it is , and has given Command to his Ministers to baptize in the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost . Thirdly , And this answers his third Argument , that the Works of Creation , though they prove the Being of a God , yet give us not the least Intimation of more Gods than One : We own the Argument against a Plurality of Gods ; but now for the Application : He says , this is as direct a Proof against our professing more Infinite and Almighty mighty Spirits . Of one such Mind or Spirit , the Works of Creation are a clear Demonstration , but they shew us not the least Foot-steps or Track of more such Spirits and Minds . [ Or of three such Divine Almighty Person ; ] and I know not how they should , when as the Realists themselves profess , these three are but one essential Wisdom , Power , and Goodness , and therefore but one Maker and Governour of the World. But he thinks , that if there were more than One such Mind or Spirit , or as we say , infinite Person , who is an infinite and all-mighty Mind , that also would have been made known to us , either by the Works of Creation or Providence , that are visible to all , because all are concerned to know it . But though there were ( as we profess to believe ) three such Divine Persons in the Unity of the God-head , yet he knows according to our Principles , the Works of Creation could give no such Notice of any distinction of Persons in the God-head , because the Father makes all Things by his Word and Spirit , by an undivided and undistinguished Wisdom and Power , and when these Divine Persons have not distinct and separate Parts in the Creation , it is impossible , that this visible Frame of Nature should distinguish them ; and therefore this Distinction cannot be learnt but by Revelation . Nor consequently were all Men concerned to know this , till God thought fit to reveal it : It was sufficient in a meer State of Nature to worship the Maker of the World with an undistinguisht Devotion : but the Redemption of Mankind by the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God , and by the Sanctification of the Spirit , made the Revelation of this Mystery necessary ; and though the Works of Creation did not visibly distinguish the Divine Persons , yet the Work of Redemption does , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , have their distinct Parts and Offices in this Glorious Work , and such as prove each of them to be a distinct Person , and each Person to be true and perfect God ; but this Author will not stand the Trial of Revelation : for he tells us plainly , that the Doctrine of the Trinity ( for that is all he means by three Minds and Spirits ) is a Point of so much Importance , and so general Concernment , that were it true , it must have been found , where all other necessary Parts of Religion are registered ; in the Works of Creation , or the Methods of Providence , or the congenit Notions , which are inseparable from our rational Natures . Here he speakes out , and we thank him for it ; he hath done with all Revelation , excepting where there is the least need of it , viz. such Matters as may be known without a Revelation ; and now he has pulled off his Disguise , it is time for all Christians to have done with him . He has hitherto concealed himself under the Character of a Nominalist , and according to his own Rule he ought to shew us this nominal Trinity registered in the Works of Creation , or the Methods of Providence , or those congenite Notions , which are inseparable from our rational Natures : and when he has done this , we will shew him a Trinity of real proper subsisting Persons . As for what he adds , that our Saviour tells us , God is ( not three Spirits ) but a Spirit , it is like all the rest : Spirit there , as in many other Places , signifies the Nature , not the Person , and therefore these are not contradictory Propositions ; God is a Spirit , and there are Three in the Unity of the God-head , each of which is infinite Mind and Spirit . SECT . VI. The Defence this Author makes for the Nominalists , against the Objections of the Realists . THis Author having , as he thinks , sufficiently exposed the Tritheistick Trinity of the Realists , proceeds to vindicate the Nominalists from those Exceptions , which are made against them : I need say little more to this , than to explain that Defence he makes for them ; and leave the Persons concerned to vindicate themselves from his Vindication , which seems to me a very scandalous one . 1. The first Objection is , That the Explication ( of the Nominalists ) is a bare-fac'd yielding the long-controverted Question of the Trinity , to the Sabellians and Samosatenians , and consequently to the Socinians , who differ in nothing from Noetus , Sabellius , and Paul of Samosata ; ( they are near of Kin indeed , but there is some difference between them . ) The God of the Sabellians and Socinians , and the God ( or pretended ) Verbal Trinity of the Nominals , is perfectly the same : the latter have explained away the Trinity to the former . The three Divine Persons of the Nominals , do all make but one Divine Person of the Socinians and Sabellians . This is certainly true , ( as he explains the Doctrine of the Nominals , which , I hope , they can give a better account of ) but for fear some Men should not believe it , he takes great pains to prove that it is so . Now this is a very formidable Objection : for if the Nominals have revived Sabellianism and Socinianism , they have been condemned many hundred Years since by all those Catholick Fathers and Councils , who condemned Noetus , Sabellius , Photinus , Paulus Samosatenus , and such like Anti-Trinitarian Hereticks . And this justifies the Realists , and undoes all that he has hitherto been doing ; for there is no Medium between a Real and a Nominal Trinity , a Trinity of three real , living , subsisting , Persons , and One living , subsisting Person , with a Trinity of Names , Offices , Modes , or immanent Acts , and therefore as far as the Authority of the Catholick Church reaches , the Condemnation of a Sabellian and Nominal Trinity must justifie a Trinity of real subsisting Persons . And what now does he answer to this ? Why he owns it , and says the Socinians at length see it , and hope to make their Advantage of it : That it is indeed an invidious Objection , and that is the whole strength of it : Invidious , I confess , it is , because all sincere Christians abhor these Names , and it would in a great measure put an end to this Controversie , were our People satisfied , that a Nominal Trinitarian , and Socinian , perfectly agree in renouncing the true Catholick Faith of the Trinity ; though the Nominalist still retains the Name of Trinity and Persons , which the Socinians have hitherto rejected , but are now willing to use them for Peace sake , since they learn from these Men , that they signifie nothing , and that the Church never intended to signifie any thing real by them . This is what he tells us with great Triumph : Our English Socinians claim in their Writings , that they are the Discoverers , that the Feud between the Church and them was ill-grounded . For that , in very deed , both ( the Nominals , whom he calls the Church , and the Socinians ) say the same thing : As they pretend to this Honour , so they are sufficiently paid , in that themselves have the whole Benefit of it : They may enjoy thereby that Peace and Tranquillity , that Ease and Security from the Laws themselves , which they before owed to the Indulgence , or Connivence of Princes and Magistrates . This now is very plain dealing , and I hope will be a fair warning to all serious Christians , how they suffer themselves to be cheated out of their Faith by the loud , groundless Out-cries of Tritheism , or imposed on by the old Catholick Names of Trinity , and Persons , without that Catholick Sense in which the Church always used those Words . And I think those Persons to whom this Author affixes the Name of Nominals , if they be not Sabellians and Socinians , ( which God forbid ) ought to vindicate themselves from this heavy Imputation , and not only deny the Charge , but so explain themselves , as to let us see , wherein their Doctrine concerning the Trinity , differs from the old condemned Heresies of Sabellius , Photinus , and Socinus : And I doubt not but this will produce a much happier Agreement , and put an end to this scandalous Distinction between Real and Nominal Trinitarians . 2. But our Author is much more troubled with the second Objection : That the Predications , or ( as others speak ) Attributions given in Holy Scripture , and by the Catholick Church to the Divine Persons , seem not well to consist , or to be intelligible , on the Hypothesis or Explication of the Nominals . His Instance concerns the Son or second Person in the Trinity , who is called God , and we say he was Incarnate , and all things were made by him : In some places an Omnipresence , in others Omnipotence and Omniscience are ascribed to him . But how can we ( with any tolerable Propriety ) say , that a meer reflex Wisdom is God , created all things , was incarnate , is omnipotent , omniscient , omnipresent ? Or how can any of these things be affirmed of , or applied to our Saviour , in regard of the Incarnate or inhabiting Logos , or reflex Wisdom ? the which also how it should be incarnate , will be another unaccountable , unintelligible Paradox . This is a very notable Objection ; he has brought the Nominals on , let him see how he can bring them off again . Now , in the first place , he is not willing to own , that any such things as these are said of Christ , and therefore tells us , We should do well to consider the Interpretations of the Texts , wherein these things are said , or seem to be said . And here he is at his old Trade of admiring his Critical Interpreters , whom he prefers much before Divines ; and of disparaging those Copies we have of the Scriptures : the Mystery of which is , That some Criticks give up some Texts of Scripture , out of Wantonness and Vanity , which the Catholick Church always thought good Proofs of the Divinity and Incarnation of our Saviour ; and he thinks it a better way to judge of the sense of Scripture , by some new Critical Pointings , or the Mistakes of some old Copies , which may furnish them with various Readings , than by the whole Series of the Discourse , and the Traditional Interpretations of the Catholick Church ; but I shall not dispute this Matter now . He is certainly so far in the right , that the safest way of answering all this , is to deny it all ; and this is what he means , when he says , It were easie to make such an Application of this Reflection , as would ( perhaps ) offend many ; but would ( for all that ) be most true . Now I would only ask the Nominalists , how they like this way of answering these difficulties , by criticizing away all the Proofs of the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ ? This their pretended , but treacherous Friend , says is the best and truest way , and he is a Man of Skill in these Matters , and seems to be ashamed of any other Answer but this , which will unavoidably entangle him in unaccountable and unintelligible Paradoxes . I verily persuade my self , that many of those , whom this Author calls Nominals , abhor the Thoughts of this , and therefore ought freely and openly to declare themselves in this Matter , and not to suffer this bantering Socinian to impose upon the World in their Names . But if this Answer don't please , our Author has another for them , as good to the full : Let us , says he , distinguish the two Natures in Christ , his Divinity and Humanity , and rightly understand the Doctrine of the Incarnation : This looks very promisingly ; for to acknowledge two Natures in Christ , and rightly to understand the Doctrine of the Incarnation , will rectifie all other Mistakes : Let us then hear what he has to say of this . As to the Incarnation , every body knows , that the most Learned Interpreters , do not limit the Incarnation to the Person of the Logos or Son : But they say , the whole Divinity , or as St. Paul speaks , the fulness of the God-head ( was incarnate , or ) dwelt in Christ. Who these most learned Interpreters are , I can't tell , unless he means the Patripassion Hereticks , for all Catholick Christians believe only the Incarnation of the Person of the Son , and that neither the Father , nor the Holy Spirit were incarnate in the Incarnation of Christ. But can we deny , that the whole Divinity , the fulness of the God-head was incarnate , or dwelt in Christ ? I answer , This is meer Fallacy : for the whole Divinity may signifie either Essentially or Personally : The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the One whole Divinity is Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , the same perfect Divinity , subsisting whole and indivisible in each of them , that they are all Three but One Divinity , or One God ; and thus the whole Divinity was not incarnate in Christ : But then , as Christ in his own Person is true and perfect God , so the fulness of the God-head was incarnate in him ; which is all St. Paul means . But will this Author in good earnest allow , that God was incarnate in Christ , and that Christ was in One Person , both God and Man ? Hold there a little : They do not mean , he says , that God was so incarnate , or so dwells in the Humanity of Christ ▪ that he is not also every where else : and whoever said he was ? But is he so incarnate , as to be truly God-Man in One Person , as the Soul and Body are One Man ? No! no! but only thus , Christ is perfect God in respect of God in him ; because , or as God is perfect God in whatsoever Place or Person he is : God is perfect God in the least Point of Space , no less than in never so large a Portion of Extension : And this is all the Mystery of the Incarnation : and thus God , the fulness of the God-head , is as much incarnate in every Man in the World , as he was in Christ ; for God is every where , and is perfect God , where-ever he is . Thus I have endeavoured to unmask this Author , to let the World see , who they are that make their Advantage of these Disputes : His very Expedients for Peace shew how unwilling he is to have this Controversie silenced , which should teach all the sincere Lovers of the Catholick Faith , who heartily believe in Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , Three Persons and One God , not to lose the Faith in a Contention about Words , nor give a handle to our Enemies , to represent our Faith as uncertain , various , or heretical , when under different Forms of Speech , we may , and I hope do mean the very same thing . The Learned Bishop of Worcester , whose Discourse in Vindication of the Trinity I have just now received , has undertaken this Charitable Work , and I hope his Great Judgment , Learning , and Authority , may tend very much , if not to make all Men speak and think alike , yet at least to prevent their charging each other with such Heresies , as they all abhor , and which their Words fairly and candidly expounded , are by no means chargeable with , as that excellent Person thinks , neither Side is , and I wish with all my Heart , he may be in the right : And this would soon qualifie our Differences ; for did it once appear , that we all mean the same thing , the Dispute about Words would die of it self , and our common Adversaries could no longer conceal themselves under a Disguise , but must take their old Name of Socinians again . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A59822-e1440 Denique vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliquoties à priscis Ecclesiae Doctoribus , etiam qui concilium Nicaenum antecesserunt , pro subsistentia , vel pro re singulari per se subsistente , quae in rebus intellectu praeditis idem est quod persona , usurpari multis exemplis constat . Bull. Defens . Fid. Ni●aen . p. 182. Et hoc sensu sine offensione usurpari perseverasset ( ut arbitror ) vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nisi Ariani ipsam abusi fuissent ad propagandam haeresin suam , pro natura & substantia in generaliori significatione accipientes , ac docentes Patrem & Filium duas esse Hypostases , hoc est , naturas ac substantias diversas , à se invicem discrepantes . Ibid. p. 188. P. 190. Page 269. Sed haec omnia Catholicum sensum facile admittunt , adeoque postulant — Ad primum quod attinet , potiori jure Pater & Filius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Methodi● dicuntur , quàm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 five 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ab aliis Patribus appellantur , qui pro Catholicis tamen & Orthodoxis in hoc articulo habiti sunt . Scilicet hae voces omnino personaliter , ut dici solet , accipiuntur ut supra ostendimus . Bull. Defens . p. 274. Addo ego , Personam hic sine essentia concipi non posse , nisi statueris Personam in Divinis nihil aliud esse , quàm merum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quod plane Sabellianum est , p. 439. The judgment of a disinterested person . p. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ath. decret . Syn. Nic. p. 267. P. 13. Considerations concerning the Trinity . Page 14. P. 16. Socr. H. E. l. 1. c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . P. 19. P. 21. Labb . Concil . Tom. 6. p. 760. Concil . T. 11. P. 1. p. 143. Pet. de Trin. l. 6. c. 12. Quippe essentia neque sic gignit essentiam , ut ei absolutam existentiam tribuat , neque sic gignitur , ut existat , sed generare , cùm ad essentiam pertinet , est generando communicare , gigni est communicari . Filius verè & propriè à Patre gignitur ; essentia autem ejus non eodem modo gigni dicitur , sed generatione accipi ; vel gignere est dare substantiam , gigni est datam accipere . P●t . Ibid. Parcimus hoc loco celebribus in Belgio Theologis , quorum scripta nuper censuerunt , & reprobarunt dogmata variae Synodi faederatae Belgicae , sed & Academica judicia , etiam publica Auctoritate expressa . Prior in hoc ordine suit Franckeranus Theologus , Vir acri ingenio , dictione eleganti , cujus scripto non uno , etiam vernaculo hae videntur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Prima nempè , appellationem Filii tributam Secundae Personae S. Trinitatis , ut & Generationem ex Patre , Non intelligendam esse propriè , ut fit ab orthodoxis , de vera aliqua Generatione , aeternâ●ll●â quidem & ineffabili , secundum quam Pater generans sit verè & propriè Pater , & Filius genitus sit verè sic propriè Filius , modo tamen Divinae Naturae convenienti . Nihil autem istis vocibus , Patris & Filii , generantis & geniti , innui aliud in Scripturâ S. quam ; 1. Quod Secunda Persona haebet eandem cum Primâ Personâ Essentiam & Naturam , illique ab aterno coëxtiterit : Negato modo illo habendi per ineffabilem Generationem , & sublatâ Personali illâ subsistentiâ Patris generantis & Filii geniti hinc verâ Relatione qualis perpetuò est , praecipuè in scriptis Novi Testamenti inter Patrem & Filium : Unde vel Sabellianismi , vel Tritheismi cujusdam , oriri possit suspicio . Nec dubia his minùs , fuerit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus Sancti quàm est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filii . 2. Quod respiciant illa ad Oeconomiam Testamenti gratiae , ad manifestationem in carne Secundae Personae , tanquam invisibili Dei Imagine & ad executionem Officii Mediatorii ad quod datus est à Deo Patre : Quo sensu generare sit idem quod manifestare . Gigni idem quod manifestari , patefieri , eitatis locis , Prov. 17. 17. 27. 1. Cant. 8. 5 , &c. quae coincidunt ferè cum exceptionibus Familiae Socini ad Verba , Hodie genui te , omniumque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse videtur : quod repugnet vera illa & propria Generatio Filii ineffabilis licet , Ideis innatis à Deo ipso inditis Menti Humanae quae sint principium omnis assensus , omnis verae ac certae cognitionis : Nec censendum revelasse Deum quicquam in verbo suo quod non ab homine ad Ideas istas exigi possit & debeat , seu nihil proponere Deum in verbo suo credendum assensu certo & fiduciali , quod non clare & distincte ab homine sana ratione uso secundum Ideas innatas percipi possit . Spanhem . Elenchus Controversiarum , p. 670. &c. P. 35. P. 38. Spiritus sanctus aeternaliter ex Patre & Filio , non tanquam ex duobus principiis , sed tanquam ex uno principio , non duabus spirationibus , sed unica spiratione procedit . Damnamus & reprobamus omnes qui negare praesumpserint . Spiritum Sanctum aeternaliter ex Patre & Filio procedere , sive etiam temerario ausu asserere , quòd Spiritus Sanctus ex Patre & Filio , tanquam ex duobus principiis , & non tanquam ex uno , procedat . Conc. Lugdun . Page 41. Page 42. * Veruntamen non est caduca caeterorum , quos nominavimus , Patrum adversus Arium instantia , si debitam adhibeas distinctionem , qualem insinuat praeclarè S. Thomas 1. p. q. 37. art . 2. ut non in formali , sed in causali & illativo , ut ita dicam , sensu sancti Patres intelligantur , quamvis enim filius , quâ silius non sit illa sapientia , quâ pater est sapiens , necessario tamen cum illa conjungitur , ab eâque oritur . * Sapientia quippe quae in Patre est , non est habitus , aut facultas , aut potentia , qualis est in rebus creatis , sed est purus & simplex Actus . † Porro actus omnis sapiendi , intelligendíque ( verbum ) necessariò complectitur omnis intellectionis terminum inevitabilem , sine quo sapiendi aut intelligendi actus ne quidem animo concipi potest . Terminus autem est ipsum verbum Graecè denominatum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut advertit Cyrillus l. 4. in Joan. c. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nunquam enim mens erit sine verbo , quod & in l. 5. Thesauri uberiùs explicat . Et S. Thomas , loco paulò antè allegato , res ait communiter denominari non solùm à suis formis , sicut album ab albedine , homo ab humanitate : Sed etiam à termino , ut cùm arbor dicitur florida à floribus quos produxit , quamquam non sint arboris forma , sed effectus & terminus , atque ita optimè contra Arium , Patrem non fuisse actu sapientem , nec esse potuisse sine verbo ac unigenito Filio , concludunt sancti Patres . Page 44. Page . 45. Page 46. Page 49. Page 52. Page 56. Page 57. Page 58. Page 59.