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book_n	see_v	speak_v	write_v	2,745	5	4.9771	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27348	A letter to a friend with remarks upon two pamphlets lately published, in defence of tritheism viz. A brief enquiry by J. T. and The Socinian slain by J.H.	A. B.	1700 (1700)	Wing B18; ESTC R2798	16,001	16

single Being And 3. For essential Properties of Being Will this Author be understood in any or none of these Senses If he mean by Essence common Nature or kind of Being then Father Son and Holy Ghost are three individual Gods numerically distinct in their Beings but of the same sort or Species of Divine Nature this I think bids fairest for his Sense Or dos he mean by Essence single Being then Father Son and Holy Ghost are but three Names for one single Almighty Being and the proper Notion of Persons in the Godhead will be lost in this Sense yet this sometimes must be his meaning or what he says can have no meaning And I suppose he does net understand the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be three Properties of one Deity But let the Author or any one for him once ascertain the Sense of this term Essence and the Controversy will soon determine it self but he and his Authors too are unwilling to be plain in this matter lest the Mystery vanishes and Truth should stare 'em in the Face Yet after all methinks the Author of the Socinian Slain has in some Passages expounded his meaning and plainly owns a plurality of Gods and if the Reader considers what he says and how he speaks in some places he will see there is no Reason to doubt of it I will grant that he sometimes forgets himself and speaks of Almighty God as one single Being but his whole Book will correct that meaning for he contends throughout that religious Worship and Adoration are equally due and to be paid to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and in all places speaks of these three as three distinct individual Beings For instance in his 30th page he stiles the Father Son and Holy Ghost Intelligent Almighty Principles of Operation who created the Heavens and the Earth In Page 31 32 33 36. these three are spoken of as so many distinct Beings in as plain terms as the Wit of Man can express it and how wary soever other Writers have been the Socinian Slain will not and cannot but be understood in every Page of his Book discoursing of the Holy Ghost as a real proper and absolute Person in the Deity really and intirely distinct from the Persons of the Father and the Son in as true and proper a sense as the Person of Peter is complete in it self and numerically distinguish'd from the Persons of James and John And if you would know of him how these three intelligent Beings the Father Son and Holy Ghost are one he frequently inculcates this Answer That they are one in Essence and one in Nature or of one Divine Essence and of one Divine Nature which is just the same reply that every Body makes to this Question In what sense may Peter James and John three distinct intelligent Beings be said to be one Why the Answer is They are one in Essence or they are one in Nature or they are of one human Essence and of one human Nature Now 't is plain that Divine Essence and Nature as well as human Essence and Nature are abstract Terms in such Passages as these and signify common Nature or sort of Being comprehending divers particulars or several Individuals under it The Soc. Slain therefore and all his Party are for a Specific Trinity of three Formal Individual Intelligent Almighty Beings or Principles contain'd under one common Nature or of one divine sort or kind of Being And can any thing be more formal and palpable Tritheism than this He disputes for a numerical Distinction of these three and asserts only a specifical Unity nay he asserts the equality of these three Almighty Beings and maintains an equal Right that all the Divine Three or the three coequal Gods have to our religious Worship and Adoration p. 19 30 36. ad finem And when this is the Sense and Language of all his Book can he with any reason take it unkindly if he be understood to teach and maintain the Doctrine of three Almighty Gods In short if that be not his Sense all he writes and says must be Nonsense how orthodox soever it may be thought by his Favourers And whatever may be the Issue of some Mens Doctrines unfairly represented P. 53. and the Tendency of some Mens Opinions untruly and disingenuously stated 't is as evident as any thing can be that this Writer's Doctrines and Opinions are in themselves and in their own nature Heretical Antichristian Polytheistical and Basphemous The Unitarians are charg'd without Reason and without Scripture by their Adversaries with teaching Doctrines that lead to Infidelity and Atheism Would to God this detestable Charge were no more true when brought against the Socinian Slain and his Tritheistic Brethren But whilst they continue to hold and profess that there are three infinite Minds three eternal Principles three Almighty Creators three distinct individual most perfect Beings three coequal Divine Persons or Deities to whom they pay distinctly Divine Honours and religious Adoration and anathematize and persecute to the death when the State permits 'em all others of a different Opinion They must excuse all the thinking and considerate part of Mankind from embracing their Faith and believing their Contradictions And the Tritheists must pardon the Vnitarians who heartily love their Persons but detest their Errors if they are compell'd to declare that Tritheism or the Doctrine Belief and Worship of 3 infinite Beings Minds or Gods with distinct and coequal Veneration is no Scripture-Doctrine no Scripture-Faith no Scripture-worship but a horrible abuse of the true Christian Religion a violation of the Law of Nature a stumbling-block to the Jews and Mahometans and a revival of Polytheism or a plurality of Gods And 't is in vain for the most learned Tritheists and much more vain for these illiterate Tritheists to set about the confuting us with one Book and Pamphlet after another We know what they can say and what they dare not say We see what they drive at and guess at their Designs but till these equivocal Terms in their Books viz. Nature Essence Person Subsistence Hypostasis and the like are better explain'd and set in their true light we defy our Tritheistic Adversaries with all their craft and subtilty to purge themselves and their Writings from Sophistry and Equivocation And until they confess one infinite Mind or intelligent Being even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to be the most High God and that no other Being is to be compar'd or equally ador'd with him because all other Beings are from Him and he is from none because all other Beings besides him have a Father Cause or Author of their Beings and he has none but by the Confession of our Tritheistic Opposers and all the Tritheistic Creeds is the Fountain and Origin of all Beings Until they will acknowledge this first of Beings to be the most High and Supreme God or God in the chiefest Sense and give Him peculiar Honour and

A Letter to a Friend WITH REMARKS Upon two Pamphlets lately published In Defence of TRITHEISM VIZ. A BRIEF ENQUIRY By J. T. And THE SOCINIAN SLAIN By J. H. In malâ causâ non possunt aliter at causam Malam quis coégit eos habere August LONDON Printed Anno Domini M.DCC. SIR I Have at your request read over two little Books you were pleas'd to put into my hands viz. The Brief Enquiry which I find was written by J. T. and The Socinian Slain written as 't is reported by one J. H. And really Sir when I have perus'd such Discourses written with an Air of Candour and Sincerity and when I see the Authors so very zealous in defending their own Mistakes and find them loading with heavy Aggravations the Opinions of others I cannot but extreamly regret the ill usage of those important Truths they undertake to confute and I assure you am at the same time no less concern'd that so much Zeal as these two Writers have express'd should be mispent in a wrong Cause and not barely so but in opposition to the most Natural and most Scriptural Notion that the best of Men and the best of Christians have ever had of the Deity How unhappily have these Men and a great many others who have earnestly contended in these Controversies in conclusion prov'd nothing so effectually as this That Education and Interest are irresistable that they will put such a biass upon a wise Man's Judgment and manner of reasoning which without extraordinary Care and divine Assistance will become almost insuperable to him I say almost and not altogether insuperable because I 'm perswaded there is no Man so much under the power of Mistake in the common necessary Points of Religion but may be undeceiv'd if he makes his Enquiries with any tolerable degree of Candour and Ingenuity But when a man sets up for absolute Certainty in a controverted Point and speaks and dictates like an inspired Writer there remains no remedy for his Errors till he is cur'd of his Infallibility What opinion these two Persons have of their own Performances is certainly known to God and their own Consciences alone but they give abundant satisfaction to the World that they are Men who have not temper enough for any Contronversy nor skill enough to manage this The late Bp of Worcester Bp Chichester Bp Sarum Bp Glocester Mr. How The most eminent Writers both for Learning and Dignity have written against us with the Decency of Gentlemen and the Temper of good Christians they make it appear that they can be candid and charitable to an Adversary and how warmly soever they are engag'd in the Debate yet they keep within the bounds of Religion and good Breeding And tho the Cause they engaged in was never to be confuted yet 't is own'd if it could have been they certainly had done it But this Brace of Writers have taken up the Dispute when the field was quitted by the most sober and most learned of our Opponents and when the most celebrated University of Oxon had decreed in our favour and condemn'd the vulgar Tritheistic Trinity and the Rev. Dean of Paul's had in his State of the Socinian Controversy with a Modesty that became a Man of his Dignity and Learning handsomely retracted or at least prudently soften'd whatever had the countenance and appearance of Tritheism in his former Writings With what good Grace then can these two Writers of the lowest Class who it may be were never taught in any Class undertake to revive the Debate that was given over by the best and wisest Gentlemen of the Tritheistic Party Do they think they can say somewhat better than any that have written before them sure they are too modest to be of that opinion or is it because they will say and argue as no body would besides them this may be true enough indeed for they both of them argue and prove in that unusual Method that one may see at the first blush that they understand not what they say nor whereof they affirm They knew certainly when they began to write that this Controversy whatever others might be was terra incognita to 'em both and yet which is very much to be admir'd they are as positive and as decretory as if they acted by Legantine Authority from the Holy See and came not to debate but decide this controverted Point The Brief Enquiry Pref. tells his Readers with very great gravity Gentlemen pray take notice I write only for Truth but I remember the time when he durst not dispute for it and made an honest and true confession that he could not And he adds ibid. That Christian Charity must not be abus'd towards those who root up the Foundations of Religion no nor must it be abus'd towards any Persons whatever nor on any account whatever To abuse Christian Charity would be a great abuse indeed but to abuse it for the sake of ill Men would still be a much greater abuse But I suppose he would insinuate that the Vnitarians root up the Foundations of Religion and that to treat 'em charitably would be to abuse Christian Charity which ought not to be done God forgive him for his uncharitable Insinuation and we will too but let him remember there is not a more scurvy abuse of the Christian nor of any Religion indeed than to affirm that it teaches us not to exercise Charity towards Men of a different Opinion But tho the Brief Enquirer be so very wary how he abuses Christian Charity yet to the great scandal of all pious Christians he cares not what abuses he flings at Christ and the Christian Religion provided he can expose the Vnitarians for abating a few pages a good part of his Book consists in odious Comparisons of Christianity with Mahometanism and Christ with Mahomet and if Christ be not the Supreme God and of the same Essence with the Father he wickedly infers to the just abhorrence of all that love the Lord Jesus in truth and sincerity P. 14 and 51. That Christ was an Impostor and Deceiver that the Jews justly sentenc'd him to death for Blasphemy and rejected his Apostles that the Christian Religion is Idolatry and Superstition and the Messiah is not yet come c. And these terrible Inferences are not made en passant and by the by but he continues to copy Monsieur Abbadie's rude scandalous and impious Expressions for several pages together If says he p. 15. Jesus Christ is not true God of the same Essence with the Father the Mahometan Religion is preferable to the Christian and Mahomet a greater Prophet than Christ because the Christian Religion brings in Idolatry and the Mahometan abolishes it c. How gladly would the Brief Enquirer prove the Mahometan to be the better Religion why else dos he take that for granted to prove it which every Body denys viz. That the Christian Religion brings in Idolatry for there is no Christian but the