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A70687
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Doctor Wallis's letter touching the doctrine of the blessed Trinity answer'd by his friend.
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Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing N1506A; ESTC R211864
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15,046
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16
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Doctor Wallis's LETTER Touching the DOCTRINE OF THE Blessed Trinity Answer'd by his FRIEND Honoured SIR I Read your Letter touching the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity you were pleas'd to send me with a great deal of Attention and Satisfaction and thereupon went to visit a Neighbour of mine one that is reputed a modest Gentleman but one that is also reputed an Vnitarian or Socinian I shew'd him your Letter and made no question but it would Convince him as it had done me that they who denied the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Three distinct Persons to be each of them God in the most perfect Sense of that Term and yet but One God were in a very dangerous and palpable Errour But I found my self greatly mistaken for be presently told me that you had unfairly represented them charging them with an Opinion which they abhor to wit That how clear soever the Expressions of Scripture be or can be to this purpose they will not believe it as being inconsistent with Natural Reason And therefore though they do not think fit to give us a bare-fac'd Rejection of Scripture yet they do and must they tell us put such a forc'd Sense on the words of it be they never so plain as to make them signifie somewhat else He told me he did very much wonder and was sorry for your sake that a Man of such Reputation for Learning and Piety should be guilty of so much uncharitable rashness against a Party of Men which even some of their Adversaries being Judges are both Learned and Pious though Erroneous If it were not their hearty Zeal for one of the great and clear Attributes of God! the God and Father of our Lord Jesus his Unity What saith he to me with a most compassionate Concern should make them expose themselves to all manner of Obloquy Reproach and Detestation of almost all that go under the Name of Christians in these Parts to the utmost of Injuries and Perfections the loss of their Imployments Estates Liberties Countries and some of them of Life it self by the violent Death of Hereticks Neither do they this from an Enthusiastic Heat nor yet upon the account of some indifferent or next to indifferent things in the Worship and Discipline of the Church it 's no less than the Incommunicable Nature of the only Potentate King of Kings and Lord of Lords that they suffer for hoping for their Reward through the Faith of those Promises revealed by Christ our Lord and recorded only in the Holy Scriptures The Authority whereof none have maintained with stronger Reasonings nor are more diligent in searching out the true Sense of them nor are more ready to submit to their Dictates He said moreover That it was too common for even Learned Men to charge die Vnitarians under the Name of Socinians with such Sayings as their Adversaries charge them with by Consequences without reading their Books Nay it is well known at Oxford that one in an Act there disputing for his Degree in Divinity took a Thesis to maintain to the very same purpose with that which your Friend avers against the Socinians but his Learned Opponent having read their Books did so baffle him that it appeared the Respondent had not read them but took his Testimonies from their Adversaries I would fain think otherwise of Dr. Wallis but he gives me here too much cause to suspect him I will appeal to you saith he whether he does not Then he fetch'd me Socinus de Authoritate S. Script and read in pag. 16. Quod enim ad Rationes attinet haec nimis fallax via est in re quae ex Divina patefaction pendeat qualis est Christiana Religion For as to Reasons this is too fallible a way in a Matter which depends on Divine Revelations such as Christian Religion is Next he brought Sclichtingius another eminent Writer that followed Socinus He in his Book Adv. Meifn de SS Trin. p. 68. His Adversary had said That Holy Scripture only is the most perfect Rule of Faith and Life To which Sclichtingius answers That if de rebus clarissimis verbis in Scriptura consignatis c. it be touching Points exprest in Scripture in most clear words so that no Man of a sound Mind can doubt of the Sense of them then he grants it and that chiefly because it is most certain That the Scripture contains nothing that is repugnant to manifest Reason or that implies a real Contradiction But if it treat of obscure Matters every one sees that it cannot be determin'd without Reason which yet is not to be setch'd in as if it could be opposed to Scripture affirming or denying any thing but only to declare whether such a thing be contained in Scripture or not If it appear to be contain'd in it whatsoever Reason may still say in Contradiction it must of necessity be deceived This says my Gentleman is a clear Account of the Socinians Judgment in this Point and is a direct Confutation of what you have read me out of your Doctor 's Letter He added yet another of their great Men Smalcius contr Frant Disp 4. p. 137. Nulla enim est Christianae Religionis particular c. There is not the least part of Christian Religion which doth not accord with Reason and that Opinion which doth not agree with Reason can have no place in Divinity As a small Light to a great one so Reason is not contrary to Holy Scripture Let Frantzius or any body else tells us of any one Sentence of Holy Scripture that is repugnant to Reason and then let Reason be silent in the Church Religion and Holy Scripture hath many things above Reason and therein it highly commends it self but nothing which is contrary to Reason Of these two last Passages the learned and candid Dr. Tennison takes notice in his Book The Difference betwixt the Protestant and Socinian Methods in Abatement of his Charge against some Socinians for exalting Reason too much Perhaps saith he your Friend Dr. Wallis had read that Book but took no notice of the Quotations in the Margin And if he were put to 't to maintain his Charge viz. That they do and must they tell us put such a farced Sense on the words of it the Scripture be they never so plain as to make them signify somewhat else I am perswaded he would acquit himself no better than the Candidate in Divinity I told you of He was much concerned at the Injuriousness of this Imputation and said He thought there was no sort of Protestants of different Sentiments from the Publick that were so inhumanly dealt with as the Vnitarians for they are so far from denying there are Three Persons in One God and asserting only One in opposition to the plainest Scriptures that they are thorowly perswaded the whole Scripture wherever it is plain is on their side For does not every Text in the whole Bible that speaks clearly of the most High God speak of
People at least if the Athanasian Doctrine be true Divinity Hear O Israel the Lord our God is One Lord And Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all Thine Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Might Deut. 6.4 5. But how shall we do to love each of Three Persons that are equal with all our Hearts All the poor Labourers with their Wives in the Country and all the Tankard-bearers of London must go to School to Dr. Wallis and he will teach them Metaphysicks and Mathematicks and read a Lecture to them upon the Three Dimensions Long Broad and Tall of One Cube They must love God the Father who is the Length of the Cube with all their Hearts and then God the Son who is the Breadth with all their Hearts too and God the Holy Ghost in the same manner too And if we measure this Cube with the Infallible Rule of Scripture we find that this Long Cube the Father sent this Broad Cube the Son on a Message as far as from Heaven to Earth John 6.38 and anon after sent this tall or deep Cube the Holy Ghost after him Matth. 3.16 in the mean time he abode in Heaven himself Moreover this broad Cube the Son is not commensurable with this long Cube the Father neither Northward nor Southward in Knowledg Mark 13.32 or Power John 14.28 In like manner this tall Cube the Holy Ghost receives of this long and broad Cube to make him taller and deeper John 16.14 I fancy the poor People would apprehend it better by such a Resemblance as this Suppose one Woman Mary to be married to Three Men at once Peter James and John I Mary take thee Peter James and John to be my wedded Husband c. Here are indeed Three Persons but only One Husband the Husbandhood is but One though the Persons are Three each of which is Husband to Mary and Mary is obliged by the Contract of Marriage to pay Conjugal Affection and Duty to each of them Methinks this is a more familiar parallel than that of a Cube I do the rather make use of this Similitude because the Learned and Famous Dr. Sherlock in his Vindication of the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tells us We must allow the Divine Persons to be real substantial Beings Pag. 47. And in Pag. 67. he saith The Father feels himself to be the Father and not the Son nor the Holy Ghost The Son in like manner feels himself to be the Son and not the Father nor Holy Ghost and so the Holy Ghost As James feels himself to be James and not Peter nor John which proves them to be distinst Persons Thus Dr. Wallis may see that his Notions concerning the Trinity are old fashion'd Dr. Sherlock's are of the new Mode But if he desires to hare his Resemblances further displayed I am told he may find them sufficiently expos'd in a Book written in French titled Le Nouveau Visionaire against M. Jurieu Here I did confess indeed that Dr. Sherlock's Explanation of the Distinction of Persons was far more clear and full than yours But I had thought the Orthodox would not hare granted so much and so it seems did you too By this time we came near the end of your Letter in which he said there were still the same Calumnies over and over Only he took notice of one Text of Scripture you insert which you had not before namely John 1.1 14. The Word was God and The Word was made Flesh This saith he I confess were to the purpose if by the term The Word could be meant nothing else but a Pre-existing Person and by the term God nothing but God Almighty the Creator of Heaven and Earth and if taking those terms in those Senses did not make St. John write Nonsense and if by Flesh could be meant nothing but a Man how excellent soever and not a Mortal Man subject to Infirmities But all these things are otherwise For 1. The Ancient Orthodox Sense at the Council of Nice and afterwards for some Centuries was this In the beginning of the World or before all Worlds the Son of God did exist and that Son was with God his Father and that Son was very God of very God not numerically but specifically as Peter and Paul are of the same Substance Now this Opinion was rejected by the Schoolmen as introducing two Gods And the Modern Orthodox understand it thus In the beginning before all Worlds or from Eternity the Son a distinct Person did exist and that Son was with God his Father and the Son was that God with whom he was But if they be tied to take the terms in the sense of their Opinion they must expound thus The Son was with God that is with the Father himself and the Holy Ghost and the Son was the Father Son and Holy Ghost Or according to Dr. Wallis the Breadth of the Cube was with the Length Breadth and Depth of the same Cube and the Breadth was the Cube And for the fourteenth Verse they say not the Word or Son was made Flesh but God the Son by the Holy Ghost coming upon the blessed Virgin and the Power of the most High overshadowing her was united to a Human Body and Soul The Arian Sense you may see in a late Tract entituled A Vindication of the Vnitarians That God first made a Super-Angelical Being call'd the Son and through that Son and by the Holy Ghost fram'd this World and Man within it This Being was with God and was an Angelical God and this Son call'd The Word became Incarnate The Socinian Sense was thus In the beginning of the Gospel Mark 1.1 was Jesus called the Word because he was the prime and chief Expounder and Minister of the Gospel and this Word was with God ascended into Heaven John 3.13 and descended thence and being anointed with the Holy Ghost and Power being thus sanctified and sew into the World was far more deservedly called the Son of God and God then those among the Jews to whom the Word of God came who yet were called Gods John 10.35 36. or than that Angel who appeared to Manoch Judg. 13.22 And the Evangelist having said in Vers 12. that this true Light as well as Word or Light-Bringer gave Power to those that believed in him to be the Sons of God he says in Vers 14. that He the Word was himself as well as they a Mortal and Frail Man The Sense of Paul Bishop of Antioch An. 262. as I have read somewhere in Melancthon and the Sense of some in our Days was That this term Beginning must be taken for the beginning of the World and the term The Word being the Subject of the History in the very Front of it must be taken properly and by way of eminence for the Gospel Word But a Word according to Aristotle being twofold Internal in the Mind and External in the Speech the Word here spoken of must mean the Internal Word of God by way