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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A52613 A letter of resolution concerning the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719. 1691 (1691) Wing N1507B; ESTC R217844 25,852 20

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Monster is that Faith that is made up of contradictory Parts of Propositions that destroy one another of such Inconsistencies that in saying and affirming one you either expresly or implicitly deny the other In their Doctrine of the Incarnation they tell us an infinite Person is whole and all united to a finite Man Is not this a contradictory Faith doth it not confound Infinite with Finite and make them to be all one doth it not destroy all the Demonstrations of Geometry and thereby contradict both our rational Faculties and our Senses Their Doctrine of the Trinity is in short this There are three Infinite Almighty All-wise Persons three eternal Beings three absolutely-perfect Spirits and yet but one GOD. Is not this a contradictory Faith Doth it not destroy our natural Ideas our congenit Notions For what are three Gods but three such Persons and what is the Idea Notion or Conception of but one God which is natural and congenit to every Man but one Infinite Almighty All-wise Person one eternal Being one absolutely perfect Spirit As to the late Attempts of some to satisfy in part these Difficulties you know Sir how vain and fruitless they have been Dr. Wallis saith the three Divine Persons are only three Modes that is three Qualifications or three Respects of GOD towards his Creatures and they make one GOD as Vnderstanding Will and Memory make one Soul But this saith Dr. Sherlock is both Non-sense and Heresy How doth Dr. Sherlock mend the matter Why he hath advanced an Explication of the Trinity which Dr. Wallis and other Orthodox Men have in Print condemned as Tritheism that is as introducing three Gods a far worse Heresy than Socinianism And thereupon they tell Dr. Sherlock in Print also That though he hath not been counted a Fool yet it may become a wise Man to change his Opinion In a Word they have in civil Language invited him to a Recantation 4. How is DEVOTION another principal Instance of Piety disturbed by such a strange and unaccountable Object of it Devotion is senseless and irrational if the Object to be adored and worshipped be not conceived by it But such of Necessity must be the Worship and Devotion of Trinitarians if in their Prayers they keep to their Belief For they may talk of a Trinity but themselves will not pretend that they can think it they can have no Conception of it no more than of Words without Sense We have seen very lately that those who have indeavoured to make Sense of this as they call it Mystery or to represent it as a possible and intelligible thing not only accuse one another of Heresy and demand a Recantation but are generally disclaimed by their own Party The Party it self if you mean thereby the general Body of Trinitarians are for a Trinity which no Man understands or ought to pretend to give other Account of it than that 't is an incomprehensible Mystery and this Trinity they call their GOD. And thus by their own Confession that Blame and Reprimand which our Saviour gives to the Samaritans is equally applicable to them and what he saith of himself and the Jews is verified in the Unitarians Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship John 4.22 5. As to Obedience the last part of our Piety towards GOD and the most necessary the Obligation to it and all occasion for it is wholly taken away by the Doctrine of the Incarnation and the Superstruction which Trinitarians build thereon They say GOD the Son being incarnate in our Nature did by his active Righteousness fulfil for us all Obedience By his Sufferings in this Life his Death and Descent into Hell which things they call his Passive Righteousness He more than exhausted all that Punishment that is or can be due to Sin Whatsoever he did was they say for us and his Righteousness was meritorious of Heaven for never so many Sinners and what he suffered was in our stead also and one Drop of his Blood was sufficient to ransom and thousand Worlds from the Demerit of their Sins that is from Hell and all other Punishments The manifest Consequences of these Doctrines are these 1. Gospel-Obedience good Works or a good Life are in us unnecessary and superfluous some of them have said hurtful and dangerous to Justification and Salvation 2. Heaven is so much every Sinner's just Due and Debt from GOD without any Amendment or Newness of Life on their Parts that GOD would be unjust in giving them no more if more could be given 3. GOD should be unrighteous if he punish'd Men for Sin though unrepented of because we have in Christ our Representative both fulfilled all Righteousness and suffered and paid a more than sufficient Price of Redemption The notorious Decay of Christian Piety in all Places and Ages since these Doctrines have prevailed plainly shows That these are not speculative Consequences only but such real Consequences as do much influence the Practice of most Men. One may know and be assured that 't is these Consequences and this Belief which bolsters Men up in their wicked Courses because these are the things that comfort and support such at their Deaths The greatest of Sinners go away with Peace of Mind on the Reflection and Consideration of the infinite Merits and Satisfaction of GOD their Redeemer They have not nor can out-sin his Satisfaction and Deserts and applying both to themselves by believing in him that is by believing he merited and suffered for them in particular therefore they depart assuredly expecting of GOD the Rewards that are appointed to only Innocence and Well-doing I pray Sir desire your Friends who find Fault with us for reviving as they say unnecessary Questions to take it into serious and impartial Consideration Whether Doctrines that have these Consequences and also are such Hindrances of the other Branches of Piety ought not to be again and again examined whether they are or can be true The Fourth Reason against them is this They have crumbled the Christian Church into innumerable and unreconcilable Factions and Parries so that there is no possible way of restoring Peace but by returning to the Belief and Profession of the Unity of God Next to Godliness or Piety the Peace of the Christian Churches should be the Wish and Indeavour of every Christian Man But the Doctrines under Consideration have so divided the Churches called after the Name of Christ that there is no Agreement but among those Professors who believe there is but one GOD or but one who is God The Orthodox as they call themselves are so multifariously divided that they are not perhaps ten of them in a Party The whole Mobile indeed of them go under the common Name of Trinitarians and the Trinity and Incarnation are the general Tests of Orthodoxy among them but this is an Orthodoxy only of Names and Words for in interpreting those Words and Names I doubt very much whether there are ten of them that
restore the Belief of the Vnity of GOD which at that time was extirpated among the Eastern Christians by the Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation They will have it that Mahomet meant not his Religion should be esteemed a new Religion but only the Restitution of the true Intent of the Christian Religion They affirm moreover that the Mahometan learned Men call themselves the true Disciples of the Messias or Christ intimated thereby that Christians are Apostates from the most essential Parts of the Doctrine of the Messias such as the Unity of GOD and that he is to be worshipp'd without Images or Pictures in Spirit and in Truth But whatsoever the Design of Mahomet was 't is certain Mahometism has prevailed over greater Numbers and more Nations than at this Day profess Christianity Nay it has worn Christianity out of great part of Europe most of Asia and all Roman Africa not by Force and the Sword for the Mahometans grant Liberty of Religion to all the conquered Provinces of Christians but by that one Truth in the Alchoran the Unity of GOD. The Naturalness of their Belief of the Unity of God and the unreconcilable Inconsistence of the Trinity with that Belief make it impossible ever to reconcile the Mahometans whether Turks Moors or Persians to Christianity This is that by which both they and the Jews are perpetually and without Hope of regaining them alienated from us that they suppose the Trinity to be the Doctrine of all Christians and from thence conclude that modern Christianity is no better nor other than a sort of Paganism and Heathenism The Nations also who are yet Pagans reject Christianity for the sake of the corrupt Doctrines against which we are arguing Of this there has been a calamitous Instance in the Tartars This warlike People who have made themselves so terrible by their Cavalry to the great Kingdoms of Poland and Muscovy and even to Germany it self were lost to Christianity by Occasion of the Doctrines of the Trinity c. In the Year 1246 Pope Innocent IV sent an Ambassage to Bati Cham of Tartary inviting him to the Christian Religion Bati received the Ambassage civilly but when he heard from the Religious sent to instruct him what were the chief Points of the Christian Faith the Trinity the Incarnation the Transubstantiation c. He thank'd the Pope for his Kindness and promised to make no Incursions into the Christian Countries for five Years next insuing but withal declared himself not satisfied with the Christian Religion as represented to him Immediately after the Saracens sent a like Ambassage to Bati recommending to him saith the Historian Mahometis sectam tanquàm plausibiliorem i. e. The more plausible Sect of Mahomet And these prevailed Bati and the whole Nation of the Tartars submitting to Mahometism in which they continue to this Day and are both the Shield and Sword of that way of acknowledging and worshipping GOD. L. Surius Comment rerum in Orbe Gest These Sir are the Damages sustained by Christianity by occasion of these Doctrines I believe by that time you have well considered them you will conclude these Doctrines will never repair half the Wastes they have already made in our Holy Religion and that they are honest Men who are jealous of and desirous to inquire very strictly into the Grounds of such Paradoxical Perswasions as have already given such deep Wounds to our common Cause of Christianity I will conclude Sir for this time with only telling you that the Reasons I have given might all of them have been much amplified and illustrated and some of them greatly exaggerated But that is a Design hardly practicable in a Letter the Brevity of a Letter even constrained me to lay before you what I had to say in few Words and in a plain and sincere Discourse without the Arts or Pomp of Rhetorick Nor am I offended at it for our Cause needs not those Helps Till our Opposers can extinguish Reason and common Sense in Men while there are any left who are not wholly Priest-ridden who have not abandoned the Conduct and Guidance of Reason and natural Knowledg for that of a Confessor that is to say a Divine Light for an Ignis fatu●●s or Will-a-wisp So long I think we need not be very sollicitous whether our Discourses or Writings concerning these Doctrines be altogether so laboured and artificial as our Opposers must take Care that theirs are SIR I am your most Obliged and Assured FINIS