the Mystery of Iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vehement the subtle the underhand working of the Mystery of Iniquity After a long but blessed be God hitherto vain and fruitless Attack upon our Out-works and incomparable Liturgy we find at last Men at work to Sap the very Foundation of our Church to undermine and subvert the Fundamental Doctrine of a Trinity of Divine Persons in the Vnity of the Divine Essence and so to pull down not only the Church of England but the Holy Catholick Church all at once It must be dangerous to charge my good Lord Bishop of Sarum with having any Hand in this because he is a Peer of the Realm and therefore I here Declare I do not But I hope I may be permitted to ask a civil Question or Two without Offence though some may think I look asquint upon my Lord. What can any Man mean in a State of this Controversy to call the Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons as the Opinion of a Third Party of Men but when he comes to speak of them himself to call 'em the Blessed Three and to assign 'em only such a general Distinction as for what I know will agree to the Hypothesis of any Heretick whatsoever that ever yet appear'd against a Trinity of Divine Persons as believ'd by the Holy Catholick Church What Sabellian Arian Macedonian Socinian Anti-Trinitarian of any Sort will stick to call the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Blessed Three Some will have them to be the Blessed Three but not Three distinct Persons but only Three Names for One and the same God Some will have 'em to be the Blessed Three but not One and the same God And others will have 'em to be Three distinct Gods However such Men as these tell us what they mean and what they would have But what can that Man mean who though he may now and then for Fashion's Sake that is for the Sake of Trimming call 'em Three Persons yet in a Catechetical Decisive Discourse to the Clergy shall plainly affect to call 'em the Blessed Three Why not the Three Blessed Persons according to the constant Language and Faith of the Church * The Reason which the Animadverter on Mr. Hill 's Book gives why the Bishop of Sarum in a late Discourse of his doth not every where make use of the Word Person which is consecrated by so long a Custom in the Church and why he does more frequently say the Blessed Three is because they are not call'd Persons in Scripture and the Arians and Socinians look upon it as Foreign and which the Foreign Doctor himself says needs to be softned to give it a Sense free from Absurdity in the Matter of the Trinity and that it serves only to render the Dispute intricate Vid. Animadversions on Mr. Hill 's Book p. 4 5. Why That my Reverend Brethren may such a Man say is a doubtful disputed Case Call 'em only the Blessed Three and then you are sure then you speak the true Latitudinarian Language then you are sure that is to be on the sunny Side of the Hedge then you are sure to offend none of the Three Parties But that say I is a Mistake my Reverend Brethren For though it may be no Offence to the Jews nor to the Gentiles 1 Cor 10.32 c. Yet a very grievous Offence I am very sure it is to the Church of God to allow Men a Liberty as the Case of the Church now stands to express their Faith in the Trinity at this loose Rate to style the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Blessed Three For that may signifie Three mere Modes or Three Names only Three Somewhats e'en what Men please the Ancient Fathers indeed were pleased universally to call 'em the Three Blessed Persons or something equivalent to the calling them Three Persons which inferr'd a Real Personal Distinction But they too many of them and the Moderns too in their Defence of the Holy Catholick Faith against those they call'd Hereticks have perhaps gone beyond due Bounds nay it may be justly questioned whether by what they have deliver'd down to us concerning this Mystery they have made it better to be understood or more firmly believ'd or whether others have not taken Advantage to represent these Subtilties as Dregs either of Aeones of the Valentinians or of the Platonick Notions And it being long before these Theories were well stated and settled it is no Wonder if many of the Fathers have not only differ'd from One another but even from themselves in speaking upon this Argument When Men go about to explain a thing of which they can have no distinct Idea it is very natural for them to run out into vaust Multiplicity of Words into great Length and much Darkness and Confusion Many impertinent Similes will be urg'd and often impertinent Reasonings will be made use of all which are the unavoidable Consequences of a Man's going about to explain to others what he does not distinctly understand himself And so the Fathers are to be cashier'd not to be regarded in this Matter What Matter is it what a parcel of old doating Doctors say who have gone beyond due Bounds contradicted each other and themselves who use many impertinent Similes run out into a vaust Length and Confusion while they talk of things to others which they understand not themselves Besides too these Fathers were no Latitudinarians They were a Sort of strait-lac'd stiff old Gentlemen who hated what we call Trimming mortally and could never be perswaded for the Sake of Comprehension to sacrifice any part of the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church to the Caprice of Sabellians or Arians Novatians or Donatists or any Hereticks or Schismaticks whatsoever Very agreeably to this out came Animadversions on Mr. Hill's Book Intituled A Vindication of the Primitive Fathers c. In a Letter to a Person of Quality Which Person of Quality as a French Divine in our Neighbourhood reports is my Lord Bishop of Sarum who order'd it to be Translated out of its Original French into English and to be Printed In which Letter these Ignorant Impertinent Self-Contradicting Old Fathers without any Reverence or Regard to their Venerable Grey Hairs are run down and troden under Foot most wofully And the Author of it like a good humble fawning Creature very devoutly Sacrifices the Primitive Fathers to his Maker the Bishop and very impiously gives them up to the Hereticks Dr. Bull he says Animadvers p. 32. and some Learned Men indeed have endeavour'd to give a good Sense to their Expressions and by a long Compass of Consequences to reduce them to the Ordinary Notions But it will not do Notwithstanding all Dr. Bull 's Endeavours to reduce what the Fathers say concerning the Trinity to an Orthodox Sense p. 52. They were certainly Hereticks as bad Hereticks as those they oppos'd for all that For says this prophane Patrum-Mastix p. 51. Most of the Fathers from the middle
Proposition then there must be a Subject and a Predicate and then the Father is predicated of God and that 's impossible unless we will say God is the Father And if the Expression be come to that at last then Mr. J. B. is gone again for then it will not be equivalent to this that God is the Father but identical with it For that is said to be equivalent and it cannot be otherwise which hath the same Sense but not the same Words But that is said to be identical which hath the same Words as well as the same Sence But not to insist upon this I will allow Mr. J. B. if he pleases That it may be inferr'd from this Expression God the Father either that God is the Father or that the Father is God which is as much as in reason he can desire But now how will Mr. J. B. prove that 't is the former Proposition which must be inferr'd and not the latter or that both may be inferr'd If it must follow from this Expression God the Father that God IS the Father that is That the Father is properly and Logically predicated of God then it must be upon this Ground That whenever one Word is put truly in Apposition to another Word as here the Word Father is put in Apposition to the Word God that Word must be truly predicable of the Word to which it is put in Apposition But this is certainly not so For a Species may be and very frequently is put in Apposition to a Genus and an individuum to a Species yet I hope Mr. J. B. will not say That therefore the Species is to be predicated of the Genus and the Individuum of the Species In this Expression a Living Creature Man Man is put in Apposition to a Living Creature doth it therefore follow that a Living Creature is a Man This would be a very good way to prove a Man to be an Horse A Master of Arts and Presbyter of the Church of England Mr. J.B. where Mr. J.B. is put in Apposition to a Master of Arts and Presbyter of the Church of England Doth it therefore follow that this Proposition A Master of Arts and Presbyter of the Church of England is Mr. J. B. is no absurd illogical Proposition If not some arch malicious Sophister or other may prove me to be Mr. J. B. which whatever Mr. J. B's Preferments may be I would not be for Two-pence Unless Mr. J. B. by his mighty Skill in Logick will prove himself not to be the Author of this Preface and the following Book A Thousand Instances of this Nature may be given But it may be sufficient to tell this great Critick That when one Word is put in Apposition to another it is sometimes as Grammarians tell us Restringendae Generalitatis gratiâ to Restrain and Limit the Signification of that Word to which it is put in Apposition as Vrbs Roma Animal Equus And for this Reason I doubt not you 'll allow for this very Reason is the Father in this Expression which Mr. J. B. urges put in Apposition to God to restrain the Word God which is common to all the Three Persons of the ever Blessed most Admirable Trinity to the Signification only of the First Person to signifie that God who sent his Son who gave his only Begotten Son is not to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but personally that 't is God even the Father So that 't is deducible from thence if he will That the Father who sent his Son Jesus who gave his only Begotten Son is God as 't is deducible from our saying the City Rome and the Animal an Horse that Rome is a City and a Horse is an Animal But it will no more follow as I conceive from our saying God the Father that God is the Father than from our saying the City Rome and the Animal an Horse that a City is Rome and an Animal is an Horse But to give Mr. J. B. further Scope still allowing him all that he can possibly desire That from the Expression God the Father this Proposition may be inferr'd God is the Father How will he prove that the Father in that Proposition is the Predicate and the Term God the Subject For that 's the Question betwixt him and the Animadverter If he will mean no more by it than that the Father is God The Animadverter and he are agreed Which I doubt they never will be Hath Mr. J. B. so soon forgot what he told this great Critick the Animadverter in the beginning of this Page That tho' the Subject commonly precedes the Verb or Copula and the Predicate commonly follows yet this Rule is not Vniversal Or shall we find at last that 't is he himself is the Man who cannot yet tell when it fails Truly 't is somewhat suspicious For the Particle The as Mr. Walker hath observ'd in his Treatise of English Particles answers to the Greek Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 't is a Question in Logick an Articulus Graecus semper nolet Propositionis Subjectum Now though it be not universally true that the Greek Article doth denote the Subject of a Proposition yet 't is generally allow'd by Logicians and Grammarians to be a good Rule to correct the Transposition or Translocation of the Terms by attending to the prepositive Article and the Greeks do generally prefix it to the Subject of a Proposition And where it is otherwise as sometimes it may be it is where the Nature of the Term doth forbid it to be a Subject which I am sure the Term Father here in the Case before us doth not To give an Instance or two of this How will M. J. B. construe that of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will he construe it Vnus est Servus Domus Dominus I know what the Dr. will say to one of your School-Boys that should construe it so But the true Education a Boy hath under him will teach him to begin with the last first with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Master is one Servant of the House So is that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Order the Words lie in to be render'd By Nature an uncertain Creature is a Friend Though it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is unquestionably the Subject of the Proposition Mr. J. B. very Soberly and Christianly tells the Animadverter B. ch 7. p. 139. that he is a great Opiniator who has forgot his Bible behind him quite forgot Christ and his Twelve Apostles Against which virulent unchristian Charge I hope I may be secure by adding to Menander and Plato the Authority of the Holy Book of God which I am sure is fully against him in St. John 1.1 where we have the true Divinity of the Holy Jesus thus asserted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to take Notice how some Hereticks have perverted this Proposition concerning which vid. Bp. Pearson on the Creed Art 2. p. 120.
instead of arguing with the Animadverter from Scripture and how like an unlearned Divine and unstable Christian he wrests St. Paul's Words where they are not hard to be understood by every little Novice in Divinity Let us next consider what Reason he hath to swagger and triumph at the rate he doth with his Logicks as he calls it very often in his Book and so 't is more than probable the Critick writ it in his Copy sent to the Press For we may not well suppose that it should be so very often Printed Logicks if he had not very often writ it so in his Copy and therefore I little doubt but that it was at last put amongst the Errata and alter'd in his Preface by the Advice of some wiser Friend Secondly This terrible Man of Logicks then goes on and tells us That had the Animadverter that Skill in Logick he so often upbraids others with the want of he would have understood that if this Proposition be true The Father is God it is by the Rules of Logick capable of a Conversion of putting the Predicate in the place of the Subject and the Subject in the place of the Predicate without any Alteration of the Signa Logica omnis nullus aliquis c. where the Subject and the Predicate are both singular as says he I believe them in this Proposition the Father is God and I have the Consent of the Schools on my Side That is If the Animadverter had understood Logick he would have understood by the Rules of Logick what by the Rules of Logick he cannot and should not understand and what is directly contrary to the Rules of Logick Had this Logical Braggadochio but a little common Sense as well as so much Logicks he would have understood that in this very place Tritheism p. 230 where he says the Animadverter is guilty of downright Blasphemy in noting this for an absurd and illogical Proposition to say that God is the Father the Animadverter immediately subjoins his Reason why according to the Rules of Logick it must be so because says he The Predicate in this Proposition viz. God is the Father is of less Compass than the Subject which where it is not larger ought to be commensurate to it at least Had Mr. J. B. I say but common Sense or had he not scandalously wanted that Skill in Logick which 'tis generally believ'd the Animadverter hath and which I doubt not Mr. J. B. in a short time will feel that he hath he could not but have seen this to be the Animadverter's Reason why he could not understand that this Proposition the Father is God is by the Rules of Logick convertible by a simple Conversion For the Learned Animadverter understands well if Mr. J. B. does not that a good and true Conversion must contain a good Consequence of the Proposition converting to the Proposition converted And that it may do so as the Conimbricenses have stated it according to the Sence of all Logicians it is necessary as they express it Vt Termini non sumantur in unâ latiùs angustiùsve quam in alterâ Logicians are universally agreed that the Subject of a Proposition is always without any Exception that I know of a narrower Compass than the Predicate or at least of an equal but never of a larger And is not the Predicate in this Proposition God is the Father of less Compass than the Subject God is unquestionably predicated of Father Son and Holy Ghost but not so the Father Father Son and Holy Ghost are God is indisputably a true Catholick Proposition but I hope Father Son and Holy Ghost are the Father is not so 'T is the Catholick Faith that the Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and each Proposition is infallibly Logical and true But the Father is not predicated of the Father but identically and to predicate him of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as unquestionably we may God that is to say the Son is the Father as we may say the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is the Father as we may say the Holy Ghost is God is horridly false and damnably Heretical And can any thing then be plainer than that the Term God is of a larger Compass than the Term the Father And if so nothing can be plainer than that this Proposition the Father is God cannot by the Rules of Logick be capable of a simple Conversion of the Transposition of the Predicate into the place of the Subject Salvâ veritate Well but doth the Animadverter understand what Mr. J. B. believes That in this Proposition the Father is God the Subject and Predicate are both singular and that he hath the Consent of the Schools on his Side Yes yes The Animadverter no doubt understands it very well He understands that God is one or singular as well as that the Father is one or singular And therefore he cannot understand three distinct infinite Minds or the Orthodoxy of the admirable Genebrard's Three Gods no more than he can understand that there are three distinct Fathers And the Animadverter understands too That as Mr. J. B. hath the Consent of the Schools on his Side that the Father and God are both singular so the Animadverter hath the same Consent of the Schools on his Side that as the Father is singular Incommunicably so God is singular Communicably The Father is so Singular as to be Incommunicable to the Son and the Holy Ghost and can therefore be predicated of neither God is so Singular as to be Communicable notwithstanding to Father Son and Holy Ghost and can therefore be predicated of all Three Conjunctly and of each of the Three Distinctly Indeed this is a Communication of one singular undivided Essence to Three distinct Persons which is most mysterious peculiar only to the incomprehensible God cannot be adequately exemplify'd in any thing else and can never be fully comprehended But yet so by divine Revelation infallibly it is And if God be not a Terminus Communis to the Three Divine Persons I would fain know how the Term God can be predicated of the Son and the Holy Ghost as well as of the Father I would fain know how this Man denying it can reconcile his Faith with the Athanasian Creed the Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God Whether by it he doth not bring himself under a more unavoidable Dilemma of denying the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost that the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God than the Animadverter doth by denying that God is the Father of denying the Divinity of the Father that the Father is God And whether lastly it be not an Argument of a very Peculiar Forehead or of some very great Defect within it for a Man to deny as this Man does what is so very plain and obvious that every Body of common Sense who believes the Trinity must needs
Faith is not by his own Confession worse than Socinian worse than Nine Parts in Ten of the Objections of the Socinians which saith he Book p. 173. are not levell'd against the Fundamental Truth of this Article the true Divinity of each single Person of the Blessed Trinity If as he says he plainly sees that Nine Parts in Ten of the Objections of the Socinians are not levell'd against this Fundamental Truth he might one would think if he had not wink'd hard have seen as plainly that this Profession of his Faith is directly levell'd against it For is it not most ridiculously absurd a monstrous Contradiction to assert the true Divinity of each single Person of the Blessed Trinity and yet to deny that the Son or the Holy Ghost may be call'd True God But if it be proper and peculiar to the Father alone to be the One God the only True God it is demonstrable that neither the Son nor the Holy Ghost can be so Unless the Father Alone can be the One God and not the One God the only True God and not the only True God And therefore I 'll be bold to challenge this mighty Challenger to clear if he can this Profession of his Faith from being a monstrous Contradiction or a monstrous Heresie It will nothing avail him to say That 't is the Title of One God only True God which he asserts to be the proper personal Prerogative of the Father Alone For if the Father alone be not Revera the One God the only True God it cannot be the proper personal Prerogative of the Father alone to be so call'd unless we will lye for the Father and say that he alone is what alone he is not What is proper and personal in Divinity and common Sense is incommunicable and therefore if to be One God only True God be the proper and personal Title of the Father alone the Father alone must enjoy it Neither Son nor Holy Ghost can have it nor can it be predicated of the whole Trinity unless the Father alone is the whole Trinity It is plain therefore if any thing by Words can be so That this Man according to this his publick Profession of Faith doth deny the Catholick Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity which he falsly and insidiously or ignorantly by the gaudy pompous Title of his Book pretends to defend For he denies the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be One God the only True God For if they the Three Divine Persons be truly and properly One God the only True God no Man living I suppose will deny but that they may truly and properly be so call'd And he denies the true Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost For if the Father alone be One God only True God how can the Son be God and the Holy Ghost be God but improperly and metaphorically True God according to this Man's Principles neither of them can be for the only True God is the Father alone This is this Mans Faith according to the defying publick Profession which he here makes of it And to make himself the more blasphemous more abominable and inexcusable he quotes and brings in with unparallell'd Ignorance and Confidence 1st The Nicene Council 2dly All the Oriental Fathers 3dly Our Blessed Saviour 4thly St. Hilary and 5thly St. Paul to abett and patronize him in it Book p. 85. 1. First As for the Nicene Council which he says appropriates this Title to the Father What can be more false and imposing Credimus in Vnum Deum Patrem Omnipotentem Vnigenitum Filium ejus Jesum Christum Spiritum sanctum Non Tres Deos fed Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum Unum Deum colimus confitemur Non sic Unum Deum quasi Solitarium c. Lamb. Danaei Expos Symb. Apost ex Patrib Orthodox Art 1. p. 6 7. where he may find Authorities enough out of the Fathers against him Credo in Deum Nomen Dei hic sumitur essentialiter pro Deo Patre Filio Spiritu sancto Quia verbum Credo cum Particula in refertur eodem modo ad omnes Tres Personas Deitatis Vrsin in Explicat Catechet Par. 2. Quaest 26. He will not deny I believe that the Term God in the Apostles Creed is taken in the same Sense with that in the Nicene for that Bishop Pearson upon the Creed has observ'd Art 1. p. 23. That this Creed in the Churches of the East before the Council of Nice had that Addition in it I believe in One God that is says Dr. Comber I confess with my Mouth That I believe in my Heart in One God a pure and infinite Spirit distinguished into Three Persons the First of which is God the Father c. Compan to the Temple Part 3 d. S. 5. And therefore says Zanchy most fully and expressly against what this Man asserts to prove from the Creed that 't is the Father alone who is the One God is a mere Fallacia Compositionis which the Hereticks make use of to prove their and this Man's Faith from the Creed Quam scilicet conjungunt in oratione quae sunt distinguenda ut verbi gratia quum probant ideo Solum Patrem esse Deum verum quia in Symbolo legimus Credo in Unum Deum Patrem Hic enim conjungunt Nomen Patris cum Nomine Dei nullamque interponunt distinctionem inter Dei Patris Nomen cùm tamen distinctè ita legendum esse videatur ut primo dicatur in genere Credo in Deum postea vero per Personas quasi per partes explicetur quis sit iste Deus nempe Pater Filius Spiritus sanctus Hi enim Tres Elohim sunt ceu partes non totales fed essentiales 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehovae Hieron Zanch. de Tribus Elohim Par. 2. c. 2. p. 383. I am almost confident that this intolerably bold Man cannot produce so much as one Author who so interprets the Beginning of the Nicene Creed that the Title of One God is appropriated to the Father in Opposition to the Son and the Holy Ghost And as the One God is not appropriated in that Creed to the Father but referrs to all the Three Persons so neither is the Title of only True God But this very Creed which this frontless Man quotes for him is expressly full and decretory against him and not only calls the Second Person the Son God of God but very God of very God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deum verum de Deo vero True God of True God And is it not very likely now that all the Oriental Fathers and our Blessed Saviour should determine for him against the express Words of the Nicene Creed Secondly As for All the Oriental Fathers every one of them no doubt he hath read and understands throughly well we must take his Word that what they say in the Nicene Creed they do not say nor believe These are some of the Fruits of Hasty Births Thirdly
Censure from both the Vniversities Shall the Books of Buchanan and Milton and Goodwin and Baxter and Hunton and Hobbes and Owen c. be justly censur'd and condemn'd to Flames for Blaspheming the King And shall such as these escape for Blaspheming the great God the most adorable Trinity and our most holy Religion Shall Men be allowed to dally and play Stolida Procacitate as Martial's Words are with the most tremendous Mysteries and incomprehensible Things of Faith Shall Men be allow'd with rude and licentious Hands to break down the sacred Inclosures of our Faith that Hedge of Thorns as I remember the Reverend Dean well calls it in his Apology and endeavour with a kind of Sacrilege to dispossess and rob the Church of those Terms and Distinctions she hath been so long in Possession of and with which she hath so long successfully defended her Faith of a Holy Trinity in Vnity and Vnity in Trinity Have these Primitive Terms and Distinctions long before ever the School-men were in Being been always sufficient to encounter with and effectually to baffle and defeat the most numerous and most subtle Hereticks or no If not then it seems that which we call the Catholick Faith in this Article hath been all along till now a baffled indefensible Faith If they have as most certainly they have why are they not as sufficient now as they have been all along What need have we of Self-Consciousness and Mutual Consciousness and Three distinct infinite Minds or Spirits In Reference to the Sacred Articles of Religion saith Mr. J. B. Book p. 65. and it is the best thing said in his whole Book in which I heartily agree with him we ought to have a double Care not only to think but speak inoffensively To take Care that our Words as well as our Opinions be Orthodox and especially ought we to be thus cautious in the mysterious Articles of the Trinity and Incarnation where a Word disorder'd I had almost said a Comma displac'd may render us in the Judgment of the warm contending Parties guilty of no less than Heresie 'T is St. Augustin 's Observation concerning the Mystery of the Trinity That nec Periculosiùs alicubi erratur nec laboriosiùs aliquid quaeritur It is no where more dangerous to err nor more difficult to apprehend than in this mysterious Subject A wise Person will have a great Care to keep the beaten Path to speak in the receiv'd Language of the Church The Learned Calvin gives us his own Experience Expertus pridem sum quidem saepiùs quicunque de verbis pertinaciùs litigant fovere occultum virus That they who obstinately quarrel against the Phrases of the Church are Hereticks in their Hearts I have no hard Thoughts of the Reverend Dean God knows my Heart No Man hath a truer Honour and Veneration for him than my self I only wish he had taken this double Care not only to think but to speak inoffensively I wish he had taken a greater Care to keep the beaten Path to speak in the receiv'd Language of the Church and then who can doubt but that he who hath so admirably well acquitted himself against our Popish Adversaries who hath so baffl'd and triumph'd over our dissenting Adversaries and who hath been such a severe and just Scourge to Protestant Reconcilers Trimmers and Comprehension-Men who can doubt but that he would have had the same Glory and Success against our Socinian Adversaries But to undertake a Defence of the Catholick Faith of a Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity by Self-Consciousness and Mutual Consciousness however ingenious it may be however defensible it may be is going a new and unusual Way to work or at least with new and unusual Terms contrary to a common and good Rule in Divinity Novae Insolitae Locutiones in Mysteriis Fidei non sunt usurpandae But to assert Three distinct infinite Minds or Spirits whatever Genebrard One School-man may say as Learned and a more Orthodox Man than he pronounces Certè Perniciosum Dogma est Tres constituere Spiritus aeternos distinctos Nam Januam aperit non solum ad Arianismum sed Palam Gentilismum sapit Benedict Aretius Loc. Theolog. Loc. 1. p. 4. It is certainly says he a Pernicious Doctrine to constitute Three eternal distinct Spirits For it not only opens a Door to Arianism Vitandi sunt omnes modi loquendi qui Haereticis vel in Speciem favere videntur Qui igitur de Tribus Personis adorandae Trinitatis loquuntur ii uti non debent supradicto loquendi modo dicentes eas esse Tres Substantias ne favere videantur Arianis Macedonianis Valentino Gentili ejus Sectatoribus Rob. Baronii Philof Theol. Ancillans Exercitat 1. Artic. 9. p. 41. but it plainly relishes of Heathenism The Reverend Dean himself as well as Mr. J. B. notwithstanding what his Genebrard says allows it to be new and unusual and therefore be sure to assert it and insist upon it is not as Mr. J. B. gravely advises it is not to have a great Care to keep the beaten Path to speak in the receiv'd Language of the Church which he says a wise Person will do If the Reverend Dean means no more by Three distinct infinite Minds or Spirits than Three distinct infinite Persons why should he alter the constant universal Language of the Church Why should he not be satisfied with asserting a Trinity only of Three Divine Persons which in an ineffable incomprehensible Manner are One infinite Spirit or God Why should Occasion be given to the Enemies of the Tri-Une God and our most Holy Religion to blaspheme Cannot a Trinity of Divine Persons in One infinite undivided Essence be defended unless we assert Three distinct infinite Minds or Spirits How hath it been defended all along hitherto But this is not the worst of it That which I chiefly mean that which calls loudest for a Decretum Oxoniense for a Theological Censure from both the Universities is the foul pernicious Spirit of Latitudinarianism which being transform'd by an infernal Artifice appears much abroad like an Angel of Light like the only Complaisant Sober Moderate Peaceable Healing Angel But Sheep's Clothing is such a common Disguise and worn so very thin that we can easily look through it and see the ravening Wolf under If the false Prophets will be playing their juggling Tricks we need not be deceiv'd by them unless we will our selves Our Blessed Saviour who would have us enter in at the strait Gate Matt. 7.13 15 16. and to go the narrow Way which leadeth unto Life and to avoid as we would Death the wide Gate and the Latitudinarian Way which he saith leadeth to Destruction hath commanded us to beware of false Prophets and that we may know them he hath given us a certain infallible Direction by their Fruits that is as the Word Fruits is certainly here to be understood by their Designs and Doctrine Behold then the working of
Primitive Fathers which God knows they never wanted more had treated the Bishop of Sarum with more Regard to his great Character and had better consider'd that Michael the Arch-Angel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the Body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing Accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee †Jude 9. And more heartily do I wish with you That the unquestionably Ingenious and Learned Animadverter if he must be exercising his Satyr had kept it all for Oliver Cromwell all Regicides Rebels Fanaticks and the like Sinners upon whom he hath bestow'd it plentifully and perhaps plausibly enough and had treated the Reverend Dean more humanely and christianly with a more due Regard to his Former Meritorious Services for our Church and Religion and to that Character which he deservedly hath in the Church and I hope will have a greater And if the Animadverter had done so I am apt to think that his Arguments against the Dean had gone a great deal further and that therefore he may take his ill Language the better and thank him for 't But now as for this Mr. J. B. what must we say to use his own Words Book p. 133. when a Person shall set up for a Critick in the most mysterious Article of our Religion and himself understands not the First Elements of Divinity When such a Person shall undertake after an insolent Manner to Chastize the Animadverter and through his whole Preface and Book shall be perpetually insulting over and vilifying a Man for understanding nothing of Logick or Divinity who let him be what he will else hath been a long while celebrated for a zealous always stedfast Son of the Church of England and for a Man of great Parts and Learning which he I 'll engage never will When such a Person shall be so unsufferably conceited and vain as to think himself not only an Over-Match for the Animadverter but for St. Augustin the Master of the Sentences and all the School-men and Moderns who are their Followers Who after he hath singl'd out the Acute and Learned St. Augustin as he calls him p. 58. for a confuted baffled Man by him and exposed him and mock'd him as a bold ignorant shuffling Father and run down despis'd and ridicul'd the Subtilties of the Schools which 't is certain he hath not Brains to understand though others have shall expose and ridicule the Holy Scriptures themselves and ignorantly pervert them to Senses which 't is certain were never intended by them and shall undertake to publish such a Profession of his Faith as is utterly inconsistent with the Catholick and under a Pretence of defending the Trinity shall ignorantly or treacherously betray it and as St. Peter says shall privily bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought him 2 Pet. 2.1 What shall we say Shall such a Person be complemented Was soft Language ever created for such a Man Who then can deserve to be rebuk'd sharply Tit. 1.3 I do not I am sure I cannot expose and chastize him as he deserves or as the Reverend Dean did the Protestant Reconciler in his Excellent Vindication of the Rights of Ecclesiastical Authority and therefore I hope I shall not fall under your Displeasure for borrowing this Man's hard Words and applying them upon Occasion more suitably to himself and justly lashing him my Equal with his own Rod with which he so irreverently and unjustly presumes to correct in all Respects his Superiour in Vindication of the Rights of Heaven of the Holy and Eternal Jesus and the Ever-Blessed Spirit of God who with the Father according to the Catholick Faith are adequately and convertibly predicated of the One True God which he in Terminis blasphemously denies and impiously says that the Scriptures confute I am Sir most sincerely Your very Affectionate very Humble Servant T. H. A POSTSCRIPT to the READER I Had written a great Part of this Letter to my reverend Friend Mr. R.E. without any the least Thoughts God knows of making it publick But upon a Serious Post-Consideration that it may be a means which I am sure will be a good Piece of Service to our Church and Religion to divert Mr. J. B. from any further Prosecution of a Design which I think I have fully prov'd and satisfy'd you and I hope Mr. J. B. himself he is altogether unfit and unqualify'd for and to oblige him for Shame not to think of Publishing his Threaten'd Second Part of the Vnity of God or at least to be more cautious in it that the Church may not be scandaliz'd and pester'd with any more of his Hasty Births I Resolv'd to let it go abroad with This Protestation That I have no manner of Knowledge of this Mr. J.B. but by his Book That therefore what I have said of or against him is not out of any personal Pique Grudge or Ill-will I bear him but what I beg the candid Reader in his Christian Charity to me to believe purely out of an honest sincere Zeal for the Glory of the Holy and Eternal Trinity AS 't is reveal'd to us in the Holy Bible according to the constant Sense and Interpretation of the Holy Catholick Church from the Holy Apostles Days to our own And particularly of our Holy Mother the Church of England in the First Article of her Religion and in her incomparable Liturgy which I beseech God of his infinite Mercy to preserve intire to us from All clandestine Designs and Practices and All open Assaults and Violations of All fickle new-fangled Teachers and Reformers To which I am sure every true zealous stedfast Son of the Church of England will most heartily and devoutly say with me Amen Amen FINIS
if Men will be Partakers of this Eternal Life beside the Knowledge of the Father the only True God they must embrace Christ and acknowledge him as the only True God also for which he quotes 1 Joh. 5.20 where the same beloved Disciple who records these Words of our Blessed Saviour expressly determines to the Shame and Confusion of all wicked Hereticks and idle ignorant forward Considerers who must needs be making of new Creeds and appropriate the Title of One God only True God to the Father Alone That this his Son Jesus Christ is the True God and Eternal Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE True God Hic agitur non solum de vero Deo fed de illo Vno vero Deo ut Articulus in graeco additus indicat Catech. Rac. And says the extraordinary Bishop Pearson upon these Words I can conclude no less than that our Saviour is the True God so styl'd in the Scriptures by way of Eminency with an Article prefix'd as the first Christian Writers which immediately follow'd the Apostles did both speak and write Expos Creed Art 2. p. 132. 4thly St. Hilary he says expressly asserts this the Title of only True God to be debitum Honorem Patri No doubt but St. Hilary may But what 's this to his Purpose No Body will deny it to be an Honour due to the Father But the Question is whether it be an Honour due to the Father only or alone exclusively of the Son and the Holy Ghost Let him produce St. Hilary saying that and then One St. Hilary may be allow'd to speak for him 'Till then we may be satisfy'd that St. Hilary Patronizes this Appropriation no more than as he says St. Paul does which is 5. His 5th and last Argument St. Paul he says has Patroniz'd this Appropriation Ephes 4.6 To us there is One God and Father What he means by adding to us to the Text There is One God and Father I cannot tell and I do verily believe that he cannot tell himself But this I can tell and am very sure of that this is an Invincible Proof of his more than ordinary scandalous ignorance If his adding to us signifies any thing it must be directly against himself It must be to restrain the Relation of God's being a Father to us his Creatures or to us Men in particular to us his Children by Creation or by Adoption in Opposition to or by way of Distinction from his Son Christ Jesus his Son by Nature by a strictly proper true Generation And in truth in this Sense is the Term Father here most certainly to be taken Not for the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ but for the Father of all things of all Men or of the Elect at least for such a Father as we invoke in our Pater Noster such a Father as the Son himself and the Holy Ghost himself is Not for the Father the First Person of the Ever-Blessed Trinity as distinct from the Second Person and the Third the Son and the Holy Ghost but for the Father who is all Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost And let him produce me one Author if he can who is accounted Orthodox who doth not take the Term Father here in this Sense that is That the Title here of Father given by St. Paul to God is not Personal but Essential ratione ad extra And if so as most certainly so it is then this Appropriation which he says St. Paul here patronizes it is certain St. Paul here doth not patronize but directly contrary to that which he contends for and asserts and cites St. Paul for St. Paul here gives the Title of One God to God the Son and God the Holy Ghost as well as to God the Father that is to Father Son and Holy Ghost not taken distinctly but conjunctly And if this Man had but attended a little to common Sense and to the Words which immediately follow those which he quotes he could not but have seen this * Dicitur autem Pater on nium quia on nium Creatâ—… Gubernatoâ— est Tam Fâ—…lius autem Crâ—ator est Spâ—ritus sanctus quam Pater ut ante ostensum est Et sic saepè apud Prophetas accipitur sic etiam ad Ephes 4. Vnus De Pater omnium qui est super omnia Suo scilicet absoluto summo Imperio At etiam Filiâ— super omnia Jo. 3.31 Et per omnia Sua scilicet Universali Providentia per omnia diffusâ—… Rom. 9.5 At etiam Christus omnia agit Heb. 1.3 Et in omnibus vobis Conjunctione Iâ—habitatione per suum Spiritum Est autem in nobis etiam Filius cum Patre Jo. 14.23 〈◊〉 apparet hoc dictum Apostoli ad Solam Patris Personam non posse Restringi Hi. Zanch. de Tribus Eâ—…bim Par. 2. Lib. 5. c. 6. p. 539. There is says St. Paul One God and Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of All of all Things or of all Men who is above All and through All and in you All. Above all by his absolute supream Power and Dominion So also is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity God the Son said to be above All St. John 3.31 And through All that is by his universal fatherly Care and good Providence diffus'd through all things So also is the Person of the Son who by this Apostle St. Paul Rom. 9.5 is said to be over All God Blessed for ever Amen And Heb. 1.3 that he upholds All things by his Power And in you All that is by his gracious Conjunction with us and Inhabitation in us by his Holy Spirit So also is God the Son in us as well as God the Father as our Blessed Lord himself tells us St. Joh. 14.23 And Jesus answer'd and said unto him if a Man love me he will keep my Words And my Father will love him and WE will come unto him and make OUR abode with him And thus it appears says the Learned Zanchy That this Saying of the Apostle there is One God and Father cannot be restrain'd to the Person of the Father alone And is not this then an admirable Proof that St. Paul patronizes this Appropriation That the Title of One God is the proper personal Prerogative of the Father alone That is That the First Person of the Ever-Blessed Trinity the Father alone of our Lord Jesus Christ is One God because Father Son and Holy Ghost are so That is That the Father Alone is so because the Father alone is not so 'T is like Mr. J. B's Way of arguing Now Sir I appeal to you nay I think I may to all the Orthodox World whether if Mr. J. B. will not be Orthodox with the Animadverter and Bellarmin he may not be esteem'd an Heretick Arian and Macedonian without our Saviour 〈◊〉 p. 86. St. Paul St. Hilary and all the Oriental Fathers Whether such Books as these do not call loud for a Decretum Oxoniense for a Theological