hand the Books whether they be Answers or Attacks of the Men of superiour Learning and Wit as his Lordship compliments himself and Friends at p. 45. of his Preface bless me how like old German Monastries or Inquisition-Prisons do they look such is the Intricacy of the Subject How dusky dim and dark are the Rooms and Passages Between Obscurity and Ruggedness a Man cannot forbear to hug himself so soon as he is got out and while he is within he can discern nothing or however not with ease to himself or Satisfaction in the thing I cannot but complain that his Lordship's Vindication is somewhat of this Nature for tho it has much of that same superiour Learning and Wit yet when he argues or answers but especially when he explains I do not take his meaning under two or three Readings And when I have strained my Jaws and hazarded my Teeth to break the Shell most commonly it proves nothing but a Shell that I am tempted to renounce Nuts for ever As to the Contents of his Book he shows that neither Antiquity nor Reason nor Scripture is at all for us they are all against us He has up and down some Offers at an Explication of the Trinity the which we throughly approve We judg him to be as Catholick and Orthodox in that matter as any of our own number Tho he has called us as many Names and imputed as many bad things to us as Dr. Wallis himself whether in his Letters or Vindication did he is for all that no more our Enemy in Doctrine than Father Wallis himself is or than our Brother S th Farther he takes up the Quarrel between Dr. S th and Dean Sherlock he shows that they are both of 'em good Catholicks the one in Intention the other in Reality and sober Sadness 'T is a very reconcilable Difference according to his Lordship whether it be said namely in words only while the Intent is Orthodox and Catholick that there are three Divine Persons who are three eternal Spirits three All-perfect Minds three infinite Substances with so many distinct Understandings Wills and Omnipotencies which is the Doctrine of Dean Sherlock or whether it be said there are three Divine Persons in the Metaphysical and Critical Sense of the Term Persons that is which are but one infinite All-perfect Spirit with one only Understanding Will and Omnipotence one self-same infinite Substance or Essence with the three Properties to be of none to be begotten and to proceed I will go over these parts of the Vindication in the order I have proposed them Of Antiquity OF Antiquity we claim in the first place the vast Period from Adam to our Saviour being a Tract of 4000 Years That is two parts in three of all Time The Patriarchs are ours the Prophets ours Adam Seth Enoch Noah Sem Abraham Moses David ours so ours that they are yielded to us on all hands 't is not so much as pretended that these believed otherwise than the Unitarians do concerning God 'T is an Argument of our Opposers themselves that if Adam or the Antediluvian Patriarchs bad believed or known the Trinity understand here of the Realists namely three Almighty Eternal Spirits it would have descended to Noah to Sem and from Sem to Abraham from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob and their Posterity the Jewish Church especially to Moses But it appears clearly by Scripture that Moses or the Church of the Jews knew it not therefore neither did the afore-mentioned Patriarchs whether Antediluvians or Postdiluvians But Dr. Bull and the Bp. of Worcester fearing that such an Advantage as the whole Old Testament-time on the side of the Vnitarians should furnish them with unanswerable Arguments and Considerations for the Doctrine they maintain answer That tho the Trinity does not appear to have been known to the Patriarchs or the Jews by any of the Books of the Old Testament it is to be remembred that the Jews had also a Kabbala or Oral Tradition derived to them from Moses and from God and the Trinity was a part of this Kabbala Where is Conscience or is Religion nothing but a Name Do the Bp. and Dr. Bull believe the Kabbala that 't is derived from Moses and from God No more than they believe the Alchoran that it was given by Angels as the Impostor the Author of it pretends They contend for the Trinity and the Kabbala 't is certain that they believe not the latter how then will they now perswade any Man that they believe inwardly the former They dare to set up a Fiction of the Pharisees and which one cannot imagine but they believe to be a Fiction as of Divine Original and as the unwritten Word of God after such a Prevarication who shall take their Words for what they pretend to believe or not to believe I scorn to argue with 'em about the Truth of the Kabbala for which they have nothing to alledg and the Credit of which is eternally overthrown by the Author of the Answer to Dr. Bull I shall only mind 'em that if they are Jews or rather if they are Pharisees for the sounder part of the Jews the Karaites disclaim the Kabbala they disown their being Protestants for 't is a Fundamental Article of Protestantism that there is no other Word of God but only his written Word Well but supposing the Kabbala doth it say any thing of a Trinity or an eternal Son of God Not the least Word Why then is it alledged Because the Chaldee Paraphrases speak of the WORD as God and how should those Paraphrases come to know the WORD or speak of him as God but out of the Kabbala But if the Kabbala has nothing of the Trinity or the WORD how should the Paraphrases take what they say of the WORD from the Kabbala But after all what is it that the Paraphrases say of the WORD do they call him God or speak of him as a Person Of the Places produced by the Bp. at p. 128 129. not one of them does so much as seem to the purpose but only the first They speak either of the Ten Commandments or of the Law or of the Command or Order of God to Moses or of the Power of God which in the Books of the Old Testament is expressed by the Word or Mandate of God because God effects whatsoever he wills by only willing commanding or saying that it shall be But the first Text alledged by his Lordship I know not what to say of it for he quotes Gen. 20.21 when there are but 18 Verses in that whole Chapter nor is there any thing in the whole Chapter that bears the least Resemblance to what he quotes out of it Therefore so much for Chaldee and Kabbala despised by all Learned Men Jews as well as Christians and never used but when the People are to be gull'd with noisy Nothings The next is the important Period from our Saviour's beginning to preach to the taking of Jerusalem by the
THE AGREEMENT OF THE Unitarians WITH THE Catholick Church BEING ALSO A full Answer to the Infamations of Mr. Edwards and the needless Exceptions of my Lords the Bishops of Chichester Worcester and Sarum and of Monsieur De Luzancy PART I. In Answer to Mr. Edwards and my Lord the Bishop of Chichester Printed in the Year MDCXCVII In Answer to Mr. Edwards MR. Edwards after having written some trifling Books some indifferent ones divers good ones and one excellent Book his Demonstration of the Existence and Providence of God found an Inclination in himself that he could not resist of contriving a New Religion or rather Impiety and of imputing it to the Socinians By whom he means it appears the Unitarians Those in England who call themselves Unitarians never were in the Sentiments of Socinus or the Socinians Notwithstanding as our Opposers have pleased themselves in calling us Socinians we have not always declined the Name because in interpreting many Texts of Scripture we cannot but approve and follow the Judgment of those Writers who are confessed by all to be excellent Criticks and very judicious As particularly and chiefly H. Grotius who it must be granted was Socinian all over and D. Erasmus who tho he lived considerably before Socinus commonly interprets that way and therefore is charged by Cardinal Bellarmine as a downright Arian Non poterat says the Cardinal Arianam causam manifestius propugnare Erasmus could not more openly espouse the Arian side than he has done in his Notes on the Fathers and the principal Texts of Scripture Pref. ad Libros 5. de Christo But tho as I said we are not Socinians nor yet Arians seeing Mr. Edwards has contrived a Creed for us under the Name of Socinians I will answer both directly and sincerely concerning the several Articles of the Creed which he pretends to be ours As to the References unto places in particular Authors where Mr. Edwards would have it thought the Articles of that Creed are affirmed I have examined some of his principal References and can say of 'em they are either Perversions or downright Falsifications of what the Authors referred to did intend Dr. Wallis whose dishonest Quotations out of the Socinians have been detested by every Body is hardly more blamable in that kind than Mr. Edwards saving that the Doctor being as one rightly tells him somewhat more than a Socinian did but foul his own Nest by his Forgeries but we cannot certainly say what is the Opinion of Mr. Edwards in the great Article in question among us But come we to the Creed which he says is ours As I promised I will answer to every Article of it sincerely and directly I. I Believe concerning the Scripture that there are Errors Mistakes and Contradictions in some places of it That the Authority of some Books of it is questionable yea that the Whole Bible has been tampered with and may be suspected to be corrupted That there are Errors Mistakes and Contradictions in the Bible was never said by any that pretended to be a Christian if by the Bible you mean the Bible as it came out of the hands of the inspired Authors of it As on the other hand that there are Errors Mistakes or Contradictions in the vulgar Copies of the Bible used by the Church of Rome for instance or the English Church was never questioned by any Learned Man of whatsoever Sect or Way and least of all can Mr. Edwards say it He has published a Book concerning the Excellency and Perfection of Scripture in which Book he finds great Fault with our English Bible he saith of it in the Title of his 13th Chapter It is Faulty and Defective in many places of the Old and New Testaments and I offer all along in this Chapter particular Emendations in order to render it more exact and compleat As to the Hebrew and Greek Copies of the Bible 't is well known some are more perfect and some less they differ very much for in the Old Testament the Hebrew Criticks have noted 800 various Readings in the New there are many more Mr. Gregory of Oxford so much esteemed and even venerated for his admirable Learning says hereupon and says it cum Licentia Superiorum There is no Book in the World that hath suffered so much by the hand of time as the Bible Preface p. 4. He judged and judged truly that tho the first Authors of the Bible were divinely instructed Men yet the Copiers Printers and Publishers in following Ages were all of them Fallible Men and some of them ill-designing Men. He knew that all the Church-Historians and Criticks have confessed or rather have warned us that some Copies of the Bible have been very much Vitiated by the hands as well of the Orthodox as of Hereticks and that 't is matter of great Difficulty at this distance of time from the Apostolick Age to ascertain the true Reading of Holy Scripture in all places of it Yet we do not say hereupon as Mr. Edwards charges us that the Bible much less as he imputes to us the Whole Bible is corrupted For as to the faulty Readings in the common Bibles of some Churches and in some Manuscript Copies the Providence of God has so watched over this Sacred Book that we know what by Information of the antient Church-Historians and the Writings of the Fathers what by the early Translations of the Bible into Greek Syriac and Latin and the concurrent Testimony of the more Antient Manuscript Copies both who they were that introduced the corrupt Readings and what is the true Reading in all Texts of weight and consequence In short as to this matter we agree with the Criticks of other Sects and Denominations that tho ill Men have often attempted they could never effect the Corruption of Holy Scripture the antient Manuscripts the first Translations the Fathers and Historians of the Church are sufficient Directors concerning the authentick and genuine Reading of doubtful Places of Holy Scripture Farther whereas Mr. Edwards would intimate that we reject divers Books of Scripture On the contrary we receive into our Canon all those Books of Scripture that are received or owned by the Church of England and we reject the Books rejected by the Church of England We know well that some Books and Parts of Books reckoned to be wrote by the Apostles or Apostolical Men were questioned nay were refused by some of the Antients but we concur with the Opinion of the present Catholick Church concerning them for the Reasons given by the Catholick Church and which I shall mention by and by in the Reply to my Lord of Chichester If Mr. Edwards would have truly represented the Opinion of the Socinians concerning the Scriptures he knew where to find it and so expressed as would have satisfied every body He knows that in their brief Notes on the Creed of Athanasius they have declared what is their Sense in very unexceptionable Words viz. The Holy Scriptures are a
Article he makes us believe a great many things as that the first Man was not created in a State of Vprightness As if it were possible that Men in their right Senses should think the first Man was created a Sinner That by his Fall Adam did not lose Righteousness and Holiness which are part of the Image of God As who should say that by being a Sinner he did not sin or become unlike to God That Adam's Posterity have received no hurt or stain by his Apostacy As if you should say that neither his bad Example nor the Curse that made the Earth so much less fruitful was any hurt and that the Rebellion of an Ancestor no not against God is no blot in his Family I shall grow quite out of Conceit with these Unitarians if they say many more such weak things But in very deed I imagine Mr. Edwards had a mind to have charged 'em more home when he does we shall consider what to answer I am of opinion that in this part of the Article he is somewhat ashamed of his own Doctrine and that he feared to make himself and Party ridiculous by a clear and distinct Representation of their Opinion That Mankind notwithstanding Adam's Fall have by Nature an Ability to desire and imbrace all spiritual Good and to avoid all that is sinful or vitious They are bold Britans What imbrace all the Gospel-Precepts by mere Nature When 't is not possible so much as to know divers of them but by Revelation Divine And can they avoid too all that is vitious by only Nature In good truth they are better and stronger by Nature than ever I hope to be in this Life by the super-added Grace of the Gospel But here again he did not strike home he intended more than he durst say and he durst not say it lest we should ask him whether he believes the just contrary That there is no need of the Spirit to repent believe and perform religious Acts. 'T is a serious Point We answer with St. Paul the Spirit HELPETH our Infirmities Rom. 8.26 But we judg for all that the Holy Scripture giveth no occasion to any to turn Enthusiasts and to resolve the whole Duty we owe and must perform to God and to our Neighbour into praeternatural Impulses as if we were Machines and not Men. Or Puppets moved by invisible Wires not Men that act by their own Reason and Choice That Men are Righteous before God not by the Merit of Christ but by their own good Works We answer with all but Antinomians and the more rigid Calvinists the Merit of Christ is not reckoned to us without good Works of our own But I am not certain that the Calvinist or Antinomians would not assent to this Proposition or not allow it to be Orthodox V. Another Branch of our Creed according to Mr. Edwards runs thus I believe concerning a future State that the Souls of the Deceased have no Knowledg or Perception of any thing they are not sensible of any Rewards or Pains and their very Nature is absorpt That at Death the Soul as well as the Body sleeps was an Error of some of the most antient Fathers as well as of some Unitarians But neither of them said as Mr. Edwards pretends that in Death the very Nature of the Soul is absorpt they both held that there is a Resurrection of the Soul as well as Body But why does Mr. Edwards impute that Opinion to us when he had read for he quotes the Book in the first Part of the Considerations on the Explication of the Trinity what is our Sense of this Matter The Words there at p. 33. are these This Error was common to Socinus with some of the Fathers The learned Mr. Du. Pinn has noted in his Abridgment of the Fathers that Justin Martyr Irenaeus Minutius Foelix and Arnobius were in this Sentiment There was no Reason to object this to Socinus as if it were a peculiar Opinion of his much less to the English Unitarians who never defended it nor that I know of do any of them hold it VI. He says next I believe we shall not rise with the same Bodies that we now have but that another Matter or Substance shall be substituted in their Place I see most of our Opposers have affected to mistake our Meaning concerning the Resurrection of the Body We hold nothing that is singular in the case we differ not from the Catholick Church about it We say with St. Paul 1 Cor. 15.35 How are the Dead raised and with what Bodies do they come Thou sowest not the Body that shall be The Body that is raised is not in all respects the same that was committed to the Earth in divers perhaps in the most it is We rise not Infants or decrepit old Men or lame or deaf or any way distorted tho many so lived and so died Nay as to the Passions resulting from the Complexion of the present Body and therefore to be reckoned the Modifications and as it were Parts of our Body we rise not with them it is not the same Body in respect of those Passions that it here lived For instance some are by Complexion very cowardly or pensive or cholerick or jealous the Body that shall be will not be such it will be conformed to the Likeness of the glorious Body of the Lord Christ that is be freed from all both external and internal Imperfections Farthermore our present Body Physicians and Philosophers say is in a continual Flux all the Parts of it internal as well as external continually decay and are continually renewed They decay by the Perspiration that is continually caused by the internal Heat and are continually renewed by the Nourishment taken in and converted into Blood Spirits Flesh and Bones 'T is said by the Learned in these Matters that no Man's Body is the very same as to the Matter and Substance of it this present Year that it was the last Year and will be the next Year 't is wholly new-built by the Nourishment of the present Year We say therefore there shall be a Resurrection of the Body and as some of the antient Creeds spoke of the same Body as truly and as properly as N. N. is the same Man this Year that he was one or seven or twenty Years ago If Mr. Edwards requires us to say more he exacts more than the Church believes for by the Resurrection of the same Body the Church intends only that 't is as truly the same as a Man notwithstanding the Flux of his Parts is now the same N. N. that he was seven or ten Years past yet not altogether the same because inconceivably better that is without any external or internal Deformities or Weaknesses VII I believe that at the Day of Judgment Men shall not be required to give an Account of their Actions the most flagitious Sinners shall not be examined concerning any thing of their past Life only they shall be
his Lordship confesses that D. Petavius and H. Valesius the exactest Criticks we have in Church History disapprove the Conjecture and Reasons of Cardinal Baronius and give up Lucian to the Unitaries This is all that is considerable that his Lordship has offer'd from Antiquity I proceed to Scripture and Reason HIS 8th and 10th Chapters are imployed in opposing and as he thinks in exposing and ridiculing some Interpretations of a few Texts of Scripture by the Unitarians and in attacking a few Paragraphs in Mr. Toland's Book Christianity not mysterious I know not what it was to his Lordship's Purpose to fall upon Mr. Toland's Book But if he would needs attack the Book he should have dealt fairly he should have discussed the main Argument in it and not carpt only at a few Passages and those too so mangled and deformed by his Representation of them that I dare to affirm Mr. Toland does not know his own Book in the Bishop's Representation of it I do not perceive to speak truly but that the Book still stands in its full Strength if it hath not also acquired a farther Reputation by occasion of this so unsuccessful nibling at it But suppose the Bishop had disarmed the Gentleman what is that to us do we offer this Book against the Trinity of the Realists was it written with intention to serve us doth it contain any of our Allegations from Reason against the Trinity of Philaponus Joachim and Gentitis We desire him to answer to the Reasons in our Books against the Trinity of the Tritheists but to these he saith not a Word but only falls upon Mr. Toland's Book in which or for which we are not in the least concerned nor do I think the Learned and Ingenious Author will hold himself to be interested to defend that Christianity not mysterious which his Lordship presents us with As to his Exceptions against some Interpretations of Scripture which he finds in some Books of the Unitarians we should have enough to do if we went to the Press to vindicate what has been already so well establisht every time that an angry Litigant is in a humour to write against us His Lordship had a Mind to shew his superiour Learning and Wit and casting the Dice to determine what Subject he should choose up comes the Trinity and the Books of the Unitarians upon these he will gain immortal Honour We wish him Luck but not being at leisure to wipe off every small Soil that may happen to be scattered on our Books our Opposers may safely for us enjoy their Victories We care not for Proselytes that have no manner of Sense and for Persons that have any we dare trust them with whatsoever Vindications we have yet seen we only desire them to read our Arguments whether from Reason or Scripture as they stand in our own Books not as they are disguised in Vindications The Exempts of the Church who are discharged from the mean Drudgery of Preaching the Gospel and are concerned only in the noble Imployment of Commanding how easy is it for them to come out now and then with a magisterial Book seeing whether 't is home to the Purpose or not is solely at the Buyer's Peril In short if his Lordship has baffled the Interpretations of the Unitarians against which he has concerned himself in the Opinion of any Reader he shall for me enjoy his Success for my part I am enough perswaded without further arguing the Matter that he has spent his Breath against a Rock His Lordship's Explication of the Trinity AFter his Lordship has taken so much Pains to vindicate the Doctrine of the Trinity let us see what kind of Trinity he believes and contends for For Mr. Biddle also wrote a Book for the Trinity his Lordship's Title bears A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity but Mr. Biddle far more speciously and zealously The Apostolical Opinion of the Holy Trinity asserted Ay but his Lordship's Trinity is the Athanasian Trinity he has a whole Chapter in Vindication and Explication of the Creed of Athanasius Well but Father Wallis too published a Book intituled An Explication and Vindication of the Creed of Athanasius They both of them interpret the Athanasian Creed and then believe it that is believe it according to their own Sense of it And so do we that is we believe it according to the Sense they make of it But his Lordship believes and contends for that Trinity which the Unitarians deny and oppose I 'll give thee my Cap then what Proof do you make of his believing that Trinity which we deny Why he has wrote two whole Books against you one concerning the Satisfaction the other concerning the Trinity But my Brother S th also wrote two bigger Books in both which he blames and quarrels the Unitarians as abominable Hereticks and yet we so little think that we have any real Difference with him that we intend him an eminent Place in the Company of Vnitarians at our next General Assembly His Lordship has a whole Chapter 't is that remarkable Chap. 6. beginning at pag. 68. and ending at p. 101. the longest or one of the longest in his Book to state the Notion of the Trinity and to vindicate it from Contradictions He begins with observing 1. We must distinguish between the Being of a thing and a thing in Being Or between Essence and Existence 2. Between the Unity of Nature or Essence and of Existence or Individuals of the same Nature 3. Between the Notion of Persons in a finite Substance and in a Being uncapable of Division or Separation After he has spoken first of the first he comes to say 2. We must now distinguish the Unity which belongs to the common Nature from that which belongs to Individuals in actual Being And farther the Unity of Existence may be consider'd 1. Either where the Essence and the Existence are the same as they are in God 2. Or where the Existence is contingent as in Creatures Moreover the Unity of Existence may be considered 1st Either as to it self and so it is Identity 2dly Or as to others that is as every one stands divided from every other Individual of the same kind altho they all partake of the same common Nature or Essence The clearing of this he adds is that main Point on which the whole Notion of these Matters depends so in order thereto we must consider 1. What that is whereby we perceive the Difference of Individuals 2. What that is which really makes two Beings of the same kind to be different from each other 1. As to the Reason of our Perception of the Difference between Individuals of the same kind it depends 1st On the Difference of outward Accidents Feature Age Meen Habit c. 2dly On the Difference of inward Qualities which we may perceive by Observation and which arise from Constitution Education Company acquired Habits c. 2. As to the true Ground of the real Difference between the
each other All Men who know the Fathers know that this is their constant Language Vindic. of the Trin. p. 130. To make this Testimony the more considerable the Author intimates in the last Paragraph but one of his Preface that in writing this Book he must thankfully own he was divinely assisted If you will not take the Word of Dr. Sherlock and the constant Language of the Fathers then hear the Bishop of Sarum with all the School-Divines and the universal Church They conceived that the primary Act of the Divine Essence is its Wisdom this they thought might be called the Son as being the Generation of eternal Mind From this Fountain-Principle eternal Mind and the inward WORD or Logos or Wisdom a Love did issue forth which was to be the Soul of the Creation and more particularly of the Church This was rested on and became the universally-received Explication of the Trinity and was dressed up by the Schools with a great deal of dark Nicety Discourse to Clergy p. 99. Now Sir lay your hand on your Heart and answer like a true Unitarian Do you your self or know you any of the Denomination that question this Trinity the Trinity our very Opposers say of the Schools the Fathers and the universal Church Namely 1. One Divine Nature Essence or Substance with one only Omniscience and Omnipotence and consequently with one only Intellect and Power of Action 2. Three Properties called by the Bp. of Worcester RELATIVE PERSONS viz. Vnbegotten eternal Mind Reflex or begotten Knowledg or Wisdom and Divine Love proceeding from both This from themselves is what they mean by Persons in the Trinity and Communication of the Divine Nature without Division or Separation by immanent and Eternal Acts. I confess I fear much that were Dr. Cudworth alive that great Divine and Philosopher would either reason or laugh us out of this Gibberish he would constrain us to return to the Language of Scripture about these Matters And it is most true that these Terms are not to be found either in Holy Scripture or in the Creeds or received General Councils of the Catholick Church They were first advanced by some particular Fathers especially St. Austin in his 15 Books de Trinitate were taken up from them by the Divines of the Schools that is of the middle Ages and have been confirmed by the constant Use of the Moderns or Divines of the two last Ages We declare openly and therein consists our whole Heresy that we like 'em not not only as they are unscriptural which in matter of Faith is a most just Exception for divers very weighty Reasons but because by their dangerous Ambiguity they give occasion to Heresy not only among the People but even among Learned Men. These are the Terms that have occasioned the Heresy of the Realists or Tritheists maintained at this time by divers Learned Men among us Yet for Peace sake we admit the Terms interpreted in the known Sense of the Church which Sense we acknowledg the Bps. of Worcester and Sarum Dr. S th and the Oxford-Heads have as we have seen already rightly understood and especially Dr. S th in his Latin Letters under the Name of a Transmarine Divine dextrously declared I may pass I think to the last thing to be considered The Conciliation of Dr. S th and Dean Sherlock DR Sherlock in his Books against the Unitarians had taken this for his Ground and Foundation that the three Divine Persons are three eternal infinite Spirits each of them a God but the three Gods are made up again into one God by being internally conscious to one anothers Thoughts and Operations Dr. S th in two English Books by him written and in three Latin Letters excepts against this Explication of the Trinity as false heretical and directly introducing three Gods He saith as we do that the Deity is one numerical individual Nature Substance Mind Spirit with one only Understanding Will and Energy As to the Divine Persons they are the one individual Nature or Essence of God with three Relative Properties each Property consider'd with the Divine Essence is called a Person What these Properties and Persons are hath been said already The Bp. of Worcester seeing in what danger an old Friend is undertakes first to excuse Dr. Sherlock from the Imputation of Heresy and then to reconcile him to Dr. S th and the Nominals He inlarges himself on these three Points 1. That Dr. Sherlock's Explication not only will do no manner of Service towards clearing the Difficulties in the Doctrine of the Trinity but that it introduces a specifick Divine Nature which is inconsistent with the Divine Perfections Pref. p. 29. He adds at p. 30. 'T is impossible to conceive that the same individual Substance should be in three Persons as the Catholick Church teaches if those Persons have peculiar Substances of their own as Dr. Sherlock affirms and contends Immediately he cites an excellent Reasoning of Maimonides by which to know when Men affirm three Gods and concludes that Dr. Sherlock's Explication differs not from what Maimonides proves to be an introducing more Gods p. 30. He forbears not to own at p. 31. that he thinks it impossible to reconcile Dr. Sherlock's three individual Essences or Substances with the Catholick Churches one individual Divine Essence and that the former looks too like asserting three Gods and yet but one 2. But now how to save his Friend from the secular Arm He says in short Dr. Sherlock holds the Article of the Trinity and only mistakes in the Explication of it but it is not Heresy he saith when a Man assents to a Fundamental Article and only mistakes in the Explication Interpretation or Sense of it Pref. p. 22 23. But I fear our Brother S th is too quick-sighted to let this pass he will assuredly say that an Article whether fundamental or not fundamental and the Explication or Sense of such Article are the very same thing and that an Article falsly interpreted or explained is by no means the Article but a Contradiction to the Article He will certainly laugh out that his Antagonists can be no way excused from Heresy but by giving up at once the whole Doctrine of the Catholick Church For the Doctrine of the Church is most certainly yielded up if once it be granted that a Man believes her Articles while he expounds or takes them in a wrong Sense of them At this rate will he say Philoponus Joachim and Gentilis were good Catholicks for what makes a Catholick is not holding the Article in the true Meaning of it but in any Meaning in a false Meaning or a contrary Meaning I shall leave Dr. S th to argue it out with the Bp. and pass to the next 3. He alledges last of all that tho Dr. Sherlock affirms three individual Essences three eternal Minds three infinite Spirits which is Heresy yet he also says the Father communicated his Divine Nature or Essence wholly and intirely to the Son