Author from whom I beg leave to dissent will obligingly grant me That the Explainer whom he would save from Heresy understands as he explains I am sure he 's a Knave if he does not and speculative Heresy is an innocent thing in comparison with practical Knavery To declare publickly that an Article may be rightly believ'd which is not rightly understood if an Unitarian or any Friend of theirs had done it without question he had been plentifully reproach'd Mr. J. E. B. D. would not have miss'd the occasion but have enrich'd his last Rhapsody of railing with Exclamations argumentative as well as ill-natur'd How an Article rightly believ'd tho not rightly understood To see what senseless shifts these pretenders to Reason take up with to save their Heterodoxes from the imputation of Heresy and themselves from the peril of the Stake What Idea can there be had of so self-contradicting a Proposition Indeed to such a sharp Reproof as this I don't see what could have been reply'd by any Unitarian of them all or by Mr. Lock or Mr. Toland either as much Friends as they are tho neither side knows it to the Unitarians But then those Gentlemen are not capable of such an elevated Thought it is not possible for any one to rise so high but a vast-read profound Scholar who does not judg concerning the Truth of a Proposition by the Agreement or Disagreement of the Ideas contain'd in it but by a sort of Reason which what it is and how it operates no Conception can be had nor Account given But whatever Mr. J. E. would have done had this contradictory Notion been started by an Unitarian I shall deal gently with it observing only that for whose sake soever it was made publick it will save all that Assent and Consent to an Article as it lies in the Words of the Church of what Denomination soever they are and how plainly contradictory soever their Explanations it will save all alike all or none But the Unitarians want not this Plea to defend their Cause for they profess to believe the Article of the Trinity nay and what is more they explain that Article to the very same Sense as do the Nominalists for Peace sake submitting even to the Scholastick Terms which they cannot like so well as the very Phrase of Scripture Now I cannot imagine how these Unitarians so very orthodox and so exactly conformable to the Church can be left alone in the lurch for Hereticks unless it be prov'd that as one Man may be right in the Belief of an Article tho he be wrong in the Explication so another may be right in the Explication of an Article tho he be mistaken in the Belief of it But after all these things which may be righteously pleaded in behalf of the Unitarians it must not be denied but that their Adversaries had a just Motive to enter into religious Controversy while they suspected them of labouring to undermine the Christian Religion only their Adversaries were to blame that they did not more calmly and leisurely examine the Meaning of those Passages whatsoever they were at which they took Offence I purpose to offer something now to clear all Suspicions that the Nominalists may chance to entertain of the Unitarians as for the Realists no Accommodation can ever be between them and true Christians great Men out of the abundance of their Charity may forgive the Tritheism of those Heathenish Writers but by all their Wit and Learning they can never make Three infinite Minds to be but One God nevertheless I am content that they be forgiven only I would not have so much Charity wasted to forgive them that there be no Equity left for sincerer Christians In order to clear the Suspicions which the Nominalists may chance to entertain of the Unitarians that so there may be no Simultates between them no evil Grudgings no base Language no unchristian Reviling I shall consider 1. What manner of Persons those are who of late have been distinguish'd by the Name of Unitarian 2. What is the Tendency of their Doctrines And this I propound to do not by way of Answer to all the false and foul Imputations which are vomited up by Mr. Burgess Mr. Edwards or that over-bold Poetaster who makes so bold with the Almighty as to subscribe himself God's most humble most faithful and devoted Servant but I suppose that that Gentleman will excuse himself and say all the World may know he did but complement but in hopes to satisfy those fairer Disputants such as Dr. Pain and Mr. Norris whom by their Christian Candor and Equity one may with more Reason conclude heartily to believe the holy Religion which they profess Yet it will not be proper to speak to the first Head until I have premis'd a word to inform the Reader of what standing these Unitarians are When the Papists ask the Protestants Where was your Church before Luther the Protestants by way of Reply pretend to find Christians through all Ages tho of divers Denominations who are recorded to have held the same Opinions with them in like manner the Opinions which are at this day charg'd upon the Unitarians may be trac'd up from Age to Age to the very next times to the Apostles and by their early Asserters were vouch'd as truly Christian and Apostolical and in several Ages a great majority of Christian Professors holding the same they then went for Orthodox But our Church of England bearing a great Reverence for Antiquity is very zealous for the Retention of some old Philosophical Terms yet as nice and careful in explaining the same according to Scripture and Reason tho at the same time she in the Persons of her most Orthodox Sons is reproach'd by a few backsliding Tritheistick Realists as if she agreed with those antient Hereticks said to be the Founders and Predecessors of the Unitarians The Unitarians themselves I mean the English of late so call'd think it an Injury to be term'd Ebionites Alogians Arians Photinians c. or indeed any thing but Christians but when they are reproach'd by those Names of distinction they cannot forbear noting that the very Apostles Creed has lain under the Suspicion of Arianism Photinianism c. God knows how justly for we have some Orthodox Doctrines which if they are contained in that Creed are yet so covertly contain'd there that it is not every ordinary Reasoner that can espy them and by a long Train of just Consequences deduce them and bring them into light By the Apostles Creed however and by the Holy Scriptures the Unitarians are always willing to be tried and mean not to make a Peace-disturbing Schism from the Church of England at least not as long as the chief Doctors of the Church profess That by none of her Homilies Creeds or Canons they mean any such thing as a Tritheistick Trinity a Trinity with three distinct infinite Minds The present Term of Reproach with which some Men for want of
THE Grounds and Occasions OF THE CONTROVERSY Concerning the Vnity of God c. THE METHODS by which it has been managed AND The MEANS to compose it By a Divine of the Church of England LONDON Printed and sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall MDCXCVIII THE Grounds and Occasions OF THE CONTROVERSY CONCERNING The Vnity of God c. THE eminently Learned Wise and Good Bishop of Down and Connor Jeremy Taylor having affirm'd and prov'd from express clear and full Attestations of Scripture from the Reasonableness of the thing from the Testimonies of Fathers and later Schoolmen that all the Articles of the Christian Faith are plainly set down in Scripture did not yet scruple to acknowledg That there were still in Scripture innumerable Places containing in them great Mysteries but then those Mysteries he thought were so involv'd with Clouds and Darkness so cover'd with Allegories and Garments of Rhetorick that God may seem to have left them as Trials of our Industry as Arguments of our Imperfections Incentives to our Longings after the clearest Revelations of Eternity and as Occasions and Opportunities of Mutual Charity and Toleration That the Mysterious Passages of Scripture are Trials ever like to find Work for our Industry and convincing Arguments of our Imperfections is evident from the little satisfaction which the many various attempted Interpretations have given and I question not but this Reflection may incline devouter Minds ardently to long for the brighter Revelations of Eternity but how few are they who make the obscure Mysteries of Scripture Occasions and Opportunities of Mutual Charity and Toleration In truth it is but reasonable to judg that the All-wise God design'd them for this good end but the general Event which has accidentally follow'd through the Indisposition of unwise and ill-natur'd Men is that they are made Occasions of venting bitter hatred and wreaking zealous Malice one upon another Could Religious Controversies be manag'd without intemperate Heat breach of Friendship and good Neighbourhood the advantages issuing thence might perhaps be more and greater than could be easily esteem'd and numbred we should certainly reap Fruits worthy our Industry and Study either by improvements of our Knowledg or sense of our Ignorance we should happily teach or at least civilly use one another but if we are forsaken of common Prudence as well as Christian Charity we shall turn all our Disputes about Religion and when we are forbid them every thing else into the Instruments of barbarous Cruelty and thereby create a greater mischief to the Body Politick whereof we are all Members than a wise Conqueror would compel us to suffer or a fair Enemy wish It is out of an honest desire of being serviceable not to demonstrate what is the certain true sense of a Mysterious Article I would sooner promise to solve all the puzling Phaenomena in Nature or fix the time for the Downfal of the Turk and Conversion of the Jews but to prevent the mischievous Consequences of various Interpretations that I am going to consider I. What has rais'd the Disputes at present agitated among us II. What has inflam'd them to that dangerous Excess which in time 't is fear'd may disturb the publick Quiet III. What 's the proper way to remedy the Mischiefs which have happen'd and to prevent farther It is to me evident that the original of our present Disputes can be referr'd to no one Cause many Persons Ecclesiasticks and others diversly mov'd have ingag'd in them There is one sort of Men who have been sometimes distinguish'd by the Name of Vnitarians and by angry Adversaries reproachfully call'd Socinians but to deal justly on all sides who ought to be numbred with the Orthodox because they not only embrace the Doctrines of the Church of England but also are contented to use her School-terms which they once thought and do still think not so fit to express her sound Doctrines These Persons as to me seems probable have engag'd in our Religious Controversies 1. Out of an aversion from taking things upon trust This Motive must be allow'd to be reasonable and just because he that gives up his Faith to human Authority is beholden to his good Fortune whenever the Opinions which fall to his lot have any thing of truth or usefulness in them and as often as they happen to be illgrounded and noxious he deserves all the evil Consequences which he suffers by them for if he had made use of his Reason before he gave his Assent there was at least a probability that he might have known better and guided himself more safely The Bereans are commended in Scripture who would not take things upon trust no not from the Mouth of an Apostle which is enough to justify without farther arguing all them who are concern'd in Religious Controversies mov'd thereunto by an aversion from taking things upon trust If I were writing to do service to these Orthodox Unitarians for that must be granted to be their Character now they have explain'd themselves and taken off the jealousy which the Church had conceiv'd of them if I were writing purposely to do them service I might here expatiate in liberal Praises due to that noble Disposition of Mind which takes nothing upon trust We are beholden to it for all the great Improvements of Knowledg which serve the Necessities and Comforts of Life and not only so but methinks we owe to it our very Christian Orthodoxy it self for an easy implicit Believer will never stand with his Supream be it Alcoran or what it will which he is required to subscribe but the wary Examiner who searches the Scripture that he may see whether things are as the Church teaches no sooner perceives the truth of her Articles but he holds unmoveably stedfast to them and unfeignedly venerates his holy Mother But this is not my business now Therefore 2. Another Motive which I am perswaded has influenc'd these Orthodox Unitarians to enter into Religious Controversy is an honest desire to be serviceable to the Church and useful to well-dispos'd less-knowing Christians by instructing and informing them Whether these Persons are Ecclesiasticks or Laymen it matters not much for I suppose it will be granted that it is lawful for one Man to inform and instruct his Friend Neighbour or Countryman either in private Discourse or publick Print tho he be not a Minister of the Gospel or perhaps not Episcopally ordain'd 3. I will not say but that these Unitarians may have been thrust upon Controversy by a forward zeal to defend the Mysterious Doctrines of the Church against the Heathenish Interpretations of some eminent unwary Tritheists Zeal in defence of Doctrines which are certainly true or at least unfeignedly believ'd to be so and against Errors really pernicious or generally suspected as such by good Men if it spend its force only to establish the former and to refute the latter abstaining from all Illegal Injurious and Unchristian Treatment of erroneous Persons may pass for a vertuous
and laudable temper of Mind Men give an assent an unfeigned assent to Doctrines because they believe them to be true and they endeavour to perswade others of the truth of those Doctrines whereof they are perswaded themselves because they suppose that the same may be beneficial to others as well as to themselves On the contrary they seriously dispute against those Doctrines which they imagine to have an evil influence prejudicing the nobler Interests of Mankind To me then it appears that the arguing and disputing Temper is cherish'd and prompted by good Nature but if Wisdom does not direct and Charity accompany it if it grows wild and imperious and uses them ill whom it cannot convince it ceases to be a laudable vertuous Temper and becomes quite another thing Now whether these Unitarians have vindicated the Mysterious Doctrines of the Church of England by proper cogent Arguments and in an obliging Christian manner without illegal injurious treatment of Dissenters that 's a Question which ought not rashly to be determin'd for or against them That I may more impartially deal in my Censures I defer the Consideration of it till my method shall lead me to consider also how proper and how cogent have been the Arguments how winning and civil their manner of handling them who have made it their business to oppose these unfortunate but perhaps not justly suspected Unitarians for to speak freely I am afraid that all which either of them must pretend to is to have committed the fewest Mistakes and to have trespass'd least against the righteous equitable Laws of Christ and the generally accepted Rules of good Manners I have now noted all that I can probably imagine to have prompted the Orthodox Unitarians to enter into the Religious Controversies which are at present under debate Methinks it is too hard to judg as some do that they have been spurr'd on by a vain Ostentation of Learning tho thus much is evident without a stock not contemptible they could not have done what they have but to say that their Writers are mercenary and hir'd to the Work looks as like an impertinent Slander as can be but to suppose them hir'd which I don't believe tho' I can't prove the contrary I would fain ask where 's the unpardonable crime to be hir'd to write in defence of this or that Explication which the Church gives of an Article that 's obscure and understood but in part If any Man will hire me to that Work which agrees with honest Principles and exceeds not my poor Abilities I am not asham'd to declare that I am at his Service ready to be commanded at a reasonable Rate There is another Division of Disputants engag'd in Religious Controversy but which fall into many a Subdivision all which Subdivisions are in open profession and most of them in truth and reality of the Church of England as well as the Unitarians tho they are sometime unwisely content to prove their Title to that Honour by so weak an Argument as their differing from the Unitarians and when they have done very few of them differ from the Unitarians except in terms Scholastick peculiar Phrase and manner of Expression which small matter is also now very well accommodated This Division of Disputants with all their Subdivisions may be compriz'd under the general distinction of Nominalists and Realists the former are of the Church and know themselves to be so the latter are meer Heathens as far as Polytheism goes tho they know it not we are bound in Charity to believe they know it not because they profess to be of the Church Both the Nominalists and Realists engag'd against the suspected Unitarians mov'd thereunto as may be guess'd from their Writings 1. By a profound Reverence for Authority To do these Gentlemen justice as well as the former this Motive is not to be rashly condemn'd nor yet can it be well allow'd without nearly examining what is here meant by Reverence and what degrees of Reverence are here spoken of Meaning by Reverence a good opinion and high esteem of the Wisdom of the Antients of Fathers and Councils of modern Convocations of pious and dignified learned and wealthy Men methinks it is a justifiable Motive a Motive also to which we are naturally inclin'd for we are born only with a nobler Form and a Docility above other Creatures and under the first advances of our Knowledg it is hardly possible for us to think of ever becoming like the Royal Psalmist wiser than our Teachers When our Reason is grown manly and can go alone i. e. of it self compare Ideas examine their Agreement and Disagreement thence drawing farther useful Conclusions still we are justly inclin'd to have a great Respect for our Teachers and Men of Fame that went before us and cannot nay ought not to endure to have their Doctrines condemn'd as erroneous without fair and full evidence against them When Experience chances to acquaint us with any notices about which our Ancestors or now living Teachers have been mistaken there is still a Reverence due to them a Reverence that should restrain us from exposing them a Reverence that should guide us modestly to represent what our own study and observance hath discover'd and 't is but an honest and grateful Reverence to their Wisdom to vindicate all their Conclusions which our own Reason apprehends to have been fairly drawn from just Premises Wherefore all those Writers that have ingag'd in Religious Controversy mov'd by such Sentiments as these their Reverence for Authority becomes them and justifies their Undertaking but what is beyond this is Excess and Extravagance and it were strange if the products of such Motives should be regular and even reasonable and useful It is notorious Excess and wild Extravagance to make Gods of Men and equal Human Authority to Divine The Doctrines of Fathers the Canons of Councils the Decrees of Popes the Confessions of National Churches may 't is true be reasonably defended by any Man who is sincerely perswaded that the same are truly stated righteously ordain'd wisely decreed and well drawn up But when any Doctrines or Canons Decrees or Confessions are defended not for sake of their own Truth and Excellence but in reverence to the Authority of the Authors a Reverence is paid them above what they can deserve because a greater cannot be paid to God Almighty We can but submit our Judgments to the Revelations of God and it is lawful for us to examine nay 't is our commendation to examine how far those Histories are to be trusted which give us an account of his Revelations having once satisfy'd our selves in this point and as to the Histories of the Old and New Testament we have fair and full Evidence that 's my Opinion and I am sure the Unitarians grant it we have then nothing to do but to examine with the best skill we have in Languages and Customs of the old Jews and first Christians by regarding the Genius Style and
Design of Sacred Writers c. what is the true and proper signification of the Words which we read what sense arises from them Contradictions to natural Reason cannot be the true sense of the words Difficulties may such is the Doctrine of the Resurrection if we submit our Judgments in any case but this where we are sure of a Divine Revelation and where we are sure of the sense of the sacred Penman's words we pay an excessive Reverence to the Authority of Men but I believe that those Gentlemen who profess to submit their Judgments to the Church have no other aim but to court the Church her favour or cheat her inspection with a Complement There 's no avoiding such a thought as this when the solemn and publick Judgment and Declaration of a Vice-chancellor and Heads of one of our Universities condemning the Doctrine of three infinite distinct Minds and Substances in the Trinity as False Impious and Heretical contrary to the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and of the Church of England is made a Jest of and rejected with bold contemptuous and angry Railery All that the Church of England requires of us is I humbly conceive such a Reverence and Esteem as I first describ'd a wise Submission a Reverence join'd with Honesty and a good Understanding a Submission according as may be gather'd from the 20th of her 39 Articles because she does not as she ought not ordain any thing contrary to God's Word written because she expounds Scripture one place consonant to another because she is a faithful Keeper of Holy Writ decrees nothing against the same and besides the same enforces nothing as necessary to Salvation The Church does not pretend to Infallibility the most eminent Sons shall I say or Fathers of the Church look upon her Articles as Forms in a comprehensive Latitude drawn up for Peace sake and very conscious are they that the Church of the last Age was Calvinist the Church of the present Age Arminian and all the while it was Church of England but when bold Opiniators shall not be content to keep themselves within the accountable bounds of prudential Latitude but start odd Notions not at all distinguishable from Heathenish Polytheism then they who dispute against them enter into Religious Controversy mov'd thereunto by a very just Motive But perhaps it may be urg'd that the Polytheists did not begin the Quarrel Well suppose it what will they gain by that Plea if still their Doctrine is no other than Polytheism And what if it should appear that the Unitarians gave the first occasion of Dispute this will create no Prejudice against them in the Minds of considering Men for as far as I can perceive they took Exceptions not against the Articles but the Scholastical Terms of the Church and drove at nothing farther than that those difficult Propositions which are called Mysteries might be express'd as far as the Subject would admit in words plain and intelligible and when that could not be in the very Phrase of Scripture The Unitarians if I take them right cannot yet submit their Judgment so as not to prefer Scripture-Phrase before Scholastick Terms tho they are such lovers of Peace that it has been again and again declar'd that when nothing is meant by all those Terms of Art which is contrary to Reason or not consonant to Scripture they will not contentiously decline the use of them They have said as much in some of their Prints and I should not do them justice if I did not take notice of it They are also ready to pay due reverence to the Church because of her great Candour and Moderation in not exacting from good Christians a submission of Judgment as to the use of Religious Rites and Ceremonies something more hardly once she treated them but now God be thanked she is come to a true Christian Temper so that I reckon the Toleration which Parliamentary Authority has indulg'd is enjoy'd by conscientious Separatists with the consent of the Church for it were uncharitable to suspect that she is not the same now as a while ago in the time of her danger And therefore I think that those warmer Zealots who entertain their Auditories with Invectives against the Toleration do not only slight the Authority of King and Parliament but also bring a Scandal upon the Church It is but just to believe that the Church is pleas'd with the Toleration for this other reason because she gets more by that than ever she did by violence for it is visible that our Parochial Churches are fuller now than when we compell'd Men to come in But enough of this tho it is not altogether out of the way for this also tends to declare on what accounts a reverential esteem is due to the Church and on what respects the vindication of her Honour is a just Motive of entring into Religious Controversy but a blind submission of Judgment to all that the Church already has decreed or may decree hereafter is a sensless slavish Stupidity An implicit Faith in all her Articles is more than she does require a taking up always with the first obvious literal Grammatical Sense is more than the most and the most learned Deacons Priests and Bishops themselves do 2. The Persons of whom I have been speaking were prompted as may be gather'd from their Prints to enter into Religious Controversy by an indignation against all Innovations in Religion As specious a look as this Motive has it must be very well circumstanc'd before it can be allow'd for a just and reasonable one for it happens many times that the Innovation is but surmis'd and suspected and perhaps there would not be half the Differences which there are in the Church if words which have not all of them determinate and distinct Ideas if terms of Art and equivocal Phrases were expounded and sixt by exact and plain Definitions Foreign Protestants are apt to suspect that the Church of England favours the Doctrine of Transubstantiation because she expresses her self by that ambiguous Phrase Real Presence they are afraid lest Real Presence should signify Corporeal Presence But when the Church avows that she does not use the word Real in that sense but means only a Spiritual Presence apprehended and enjoy'd by Faith the occasion of dispute is remov'd and all that can be said against the Church is that her Language is not so proper as her Faith is pure Therefore that celebrated Hugonot Jurieu was more angry than the Cause deserv'd when he join'd Transubstantiation and Real Presence together and call'd 'em both Monsters which harsh Censure cannot be return'd upon his Accomplishment of Prophecies for that 's an ingenious learned pretty thing the Events of History have an agreeable resemblance to the Apocalyptick Emblems to which he applies them but for all that I believe there 's not one word of truth in his interpretative Accomplishment By the Form of Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick one might
from the Church of England that is if the Bishops and chief Doctors of the Church know what the Church means I do confess that I much fear the Unitarians may have private Opinions about Articles commonly held necessary to Salvation different from the Opinions of the Compilers of the 39 Articles and from the Grammatical literal Sense of those Articles for through them as also through our Homilies there runs a Vein of that Scheme which at this day is call'd Calvinism But the Grammatical literal Sense of our Articles and Homilies are fall'n into the hands of Governing Bishops Deans and Doctors and Governed inferiour Priests and Deacons of whom a vast Majority as appears by their Prints and daily Sermons expound them very widely different from the Grammatical literal Sense intended by the first Compilers Words and Phrases have nothing in their own nature which can fix them to this or that particular Sense it is common Consent and way of speaking which appropriates them and therefore our Articles and Homilies which once held forth some of the Predestinarian Rigors for the Doctrine of the Church are not to be suppos'd to teach the same still now that the Consent of our Church runs so strongly another way Possibly the Unitarians have not Cranmer Latimer and Ridly on their side in the Points now controverted but in them and all other necessary Articles they have the Reverend Bishops of Worcester and Sarum Dr. South and Mr. Edwards with them indeed if those Bishops and Doctors should neither be the Church nor conjoin'd with enough to make a Majority which must be the Church the Lord have mercy upon the Unitarians for who is it that indulges his Brother a due liberty of Conscience but when he needs it himself but the Bishops and Doctors aforesaid being conjoin'd with an uncontestable Majority the Unitarians have nothing more to do to prove that they have no particular private Opinions about Matters commonly held necessary to Salvation but to shew their Agreement with those Bishops and Doctors or which is much the same thing the Agreement of those Bishops and Doctors with them now this has been amply and fairly done by an Unitarian I know not whom he being a perfect Stranger to me but it matters not much who he is whether a Transmarine or Cismarine Divine or no Divine at all 't is nothing to the Cause that Mr. Edwards by drawing up a Creed from Socinian Writers mostly Foreigners and publishing it as the Creed of the Unitarians gave this Unitarian an occasion to declare the Sense of himself and his Friends upon all those Points which he has done in a Paper call'd The Agreement of the Vnitarians with the Catholick Church Mr. Edwards takes no notice of this ingenuous Declaration but because the Author has not also defended every unstudied doubtful or extravagant Saying which this or that Socinian may have publish'd therefore he triumphs rubs his Forehead and proclaims That the Unitarian has not one Syllable to say for himself or against him Now in my Judgment the Unitarian might as well expect that Mr. Edwards should defend all the Pagan Tritheism which might be quoted from Dr. Cudworth Dr. Bull and Dr. Sherlock for what has the Unitarian more to do with the foreign Socinians than Mr. Edwards has with these learned and real Trinitarians and Tritheists For the Unitarian does not blindly follow the Socinians but while he takes up with some of their critical Interpretations of difficult Texts he forsakes them in others even Mr. Edwards himself agreeing perhaps in most points with the aforesaid Realists accepts them for Orthodox Brethren while he lets them keep their Tritheism to themselves it were a very unfair thing in me if I should publish the religious Frenzies of Mr. Gailhard which have been so well chastis'd by two honest Gentlemen as part of Mr. Edwards's Faith nay I much doubt whether he would be content to own all that I could quote him out of the Origines Eccles and the Irenicum of that Patron of his whose Name he says is not so much the Name of a Person or a Family as it is the Name of profound Learning and solid Religion I mention not those Books as if I thought them full of Errors for I have a greater esteem for them than perhaps the Author himself may have now or Mr. Edwards either but my meaning is that neither should Mr. Edwards be put to answer for the Tritheism of the Realists nor the Unitarians censur'd for Socinian Mistakes By the way were I a great Man and my Fame wanted some specious Decoration I would bestow my encouraging Bounty on an Ecclesiastick rather than a meer Heathenish Poet not but that the meer Heathenish Poet might have the most Wit the noblest Fancy and as little Conscience as any grave Panegyrist whatsoever but because an Ecclesiastick for a small matter will say all that he can to make a God of his Patron while the other measures his Encomiums by the Number of the Guineas that are paid him To return the Socinian Perswasion is to be seen in the Racovian Catechism The English Unitarian Sentiments in the Agreement c. those their Sentiments there set down no one that I know of has undertaken to refute or charge with Heresy But farther from several Tracts of the Unitarians it appears that those their Adversaries who have been distinguish'd by the Name of Nominals and who are a considerable Majority of the Church do yet explain the controverted Articles to the very same Sense as do the Unitarians I refer the Reader chiefly to the Discourse concerning the Nominal and Real Trinitarians to which I can add but little yet some Instances I shall produce which make it plain that the Leaders of the Nominalists in the controverted Points differ as little from the Socinians as the Unitarians do The Racovian Catechism affirms that the Essence of God is but one in number and that in the Essence of God there is but one Person The first of the 39 Articles of the Church of England teaches That in the Unity of the Godhead there are three Persons this Doctrine the Learned Bishop of Worcester undertakes to defend supposing it gainsay'd by the Socinians and by the Unitarians But if it be gainsay'd by neither his Lordship has thrown away a great deal of Learning to little purpose 'T is true a Man has not the less Learning for this sort of Expence but then if he spends much Labour in it 't is an undervaluing of his Judgment The different Explications which the Racovian Catechism and his Lordship give of this ambiguous homonymous word Person being consider'd it is plain that they differ about the meaning of a word and that 's all while their Doctrine is one and the same The Racovian Catechism defines a Person to be an Individual Intelligent Essence but according to the Bp of Worcester a Person is one and the same Nature under different Modes of Subsistence
to see it done by one much longer and better acquainted with him than my self I think Mr. Firmin ought not to have been look'd upon with an evil eye by any of the Church of England I am sure the moral Discourses of the most learned and pious of the Clergy in his time differ not at all from his Sentiments but rest on the same Foundations which he built upon viz. the Foundations of natural Reason and consonant Christian Revelation 'T is true he did differ from them as they differ from one another in some speculative Opinions and I will say that for both their Honours wherein the Clergy differ'd among themselves each Party thought Mr. Firmin in the more pardonable Error so that if Heresy had been doom'd to the Fire the Church would have been almost half destroyed before it had come to his turn 'T were too invidious a thing to name either those that esteem'd or those that malign'd him but might I have the liberty which some Philosophick Fathers after their Conversion from Paganism made bold with I would adventure at a Pathetick Argument and by a proper Prosopopoeia introduce Mr. Grigg Dr. Whichcot or Archbishop Tillotson vindicating the Honour of their dear Friend Had they been now living they would have done it effectually I am conscious I cannot put into their mouths Words worthy them or him but the least they would have said must have imported thus much He exposes his own Judgment who accuses Mr. Firmin of Heresy he proclaims himself an ill Man who questions his Morals Against his worst Enemies those that could take Offence at nothing but the Vertue and Reputation of the Man I shall not inveigh severely it is enough to say the Coffee-man can have no Comfort in his Scandal which no body will credit and as for Mr. Burgess he took it up not from any manner of Probability even his own Printer and several others told him it was a horrid Calumny but out of pure Zeal against what he calls Socinianism because he knows no better It was this which made him talk in his fanciful way about stinking Goats and sweet-scented Panthers painted Snakes and immoral Poison But whether it pleases him or not the injur'd Man's fair Fame has taken Wing and is not to be bounded within our narrow Seas or blasted by his envious Metaphors The Masters of Oratory say those Metaphors ought to be shunn'd which are borrow'd à re turpi aut sordidâ and those which are too far fetch'd had better have been let alone but if a Man is above these Rules then with his Goats Snakes and Panthers he may make what work he pleases and if he be minded at one bold Stroke to defy all Rules and ridicule his own Discourse let him represent the serious Business of reproving Sin by snuffing a Candle By accident our Enemies often happen to do us greater Kindness than our Friends So happen'd it to Mr. Firmin All that convers'd with him were extreamly taken with the soft agreeable and endearing Conversation of the Man but what a Friend says in such a case is often suspected to have more of Affection than Truth in it but Providence to secure the Fame of Mr. Firmin mov'd an Enemy to bear Testimony to his Honour for one that with a malevolent eye observ'd him represents him as a Man of Socinus's Make complaisant and sweet even to such as oppose and detest his Heresy Now I know of no Heresy which he had I am sure he did not take the Opinions of Socinus upon content but agreed with or differ'd from that Writer as he saw cause if he had any thing in him bordering upon Heresy it was his Obstinateness in believing with his own Understanding those things only which appear'd to him credible agreeable to Holy Scripture and not contradictory to Natural Reason but his Conversation indeed that as his Enemy says was always complaisant and sweet for alas he was bred a Christian and never us'd to return Railing for Railing But by the way if a sweet good Nature be an Heretical Temper then a furious ill Nature must be an orthodox Temper and then this Term of Art Orthodox will at last become but another Word for Vnchristian Who would have imagin'd that the Wit of an Enemy should have advanc'd against Mr. Firmin such an Objection as that He was open-handed to the Poor with his own or other Folks Money Both parts of the Disjunction are true but to suppose only the latter so that proves that Mr. Firmin was well known for a faithful and prudent Dispenser of Charity and to suppose he had nothing of his own to give which is spitefully insinuated yet even this redounds to his Honour for is it not a very commendable thing if there were no more in 't for a Man to spend so much of his time upon the Poor I am apt to think it was offence taken at the ill Lives of the Christians rather than the Doctrines of Christianity which made the renown'd Averroes wish that his Soul might rest with the Philosophers now have I that awful regard for the Vertue and Piety of Mr. Firmin that let his Adversaries revile him and call him Heretick as long as they please I cannot forbear praying may my Soul rest with this thrice excellent and truly Christian Unitarian It is to spare the Reader 's farther trouble that I deduce no longer a Catalogue of English Unitarians not long since deceas'd who were neither Atheists nor Deists nor Profane nor immoral Persons as is the Cry of some now when they have spent all their fair Arguments and distrust their Efficacy but seriously religious fully satisfied of the truth of the Christian Revelation devout honest and charitable If it objected that the Unitarians lately deceas'd whom I have now character'd separated themselves from the Church of England and form'd religious Assemblies to themselves apart and therefore the Unitarians now living cannot pretend to the Title of Orthodox Churchmen I reply 1. That as for the Unitarians deceas'd it is probable to me that they separated after such manner as they did separate which how far it was I have not been made acquainted that they might not seem to profess a Tritheistick Trinity compos'd of three distinct Infinite Minds and Substances for in their time our eminent Ecclesiasticks had not so particularly explain'd themselves against that heathenish Notion 2. There may be a conscientious Separation from the Church by Men that agree with her in Doctrinals such I take the Separation of the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists to be 3. The Unitarians now living being lately satisfied that the Majority of the Doctors of the Church do not mean by their scolastick Terms still retain'd any such Trinity as is plain Tritheism but such a Nominal Trinity as the Bishop of Sarum and Dr. S th have explain'd and as the Learned Bishop of Worcester has spoke of tho a little obscurely which learned Men cannot help and having
therefore publickly profess'd their Agreement with the Church of England on this and other disputed Articles I ought not in reason but to look upon them as sound and orthodox Members of the Church of England as to their Faith If it be still objected That there is in some of the first Prints of these Unitarians something very like a formal Opposition of the Articles of the Church let it be consider'd they have of late answer'd for themselves confessing that careless or less accurate Expressions may have been us'd by both Parties of which neither ought to take advantage because which is originally a Tritheist's Argument but the Nominalists acquiesce in 't there is no Heterodox Intention on either side Nay the Unitarians have desir'd that those Passages in their Writings which might be wrested by an ill-natur'd Adversary to their Disadvantage be interpreted according to their later more accurate and careful explaining their Minds If it be farther urg'd by those that love no Satisfaction but the Ruin of poor Men who have had the Misfortune to displease them that it is an intolerable Shame for the Unitarians to shift about thus after they have made a hurly-burly in the Chutch they may perhaps desire to know whether they are more to blame than the Realists and whether they may not have as free leave to explain their first Writings as the Realists to explain their first For Dr. S th was not angry at the Dean for explaining his obnoxious Tritheistick Phrases but because his Explanation was as arrant Tritheism as his first obnoxious Tritheistick Phrases which cannot be said of the Unitarians in that Book where they have declar'd their Agreement with the Catholick Church Whereupon even Mr. Edwards cries out Why should I contend with these Catholick and Orthodox Men Who will fall out with those that profess agreement with the Catholick Church Indeed he does not use these friendly Words till the very latter end of the very worst Book he ever wrote It 's true he acknowledg'd himself in debt to the Civility of the nameless Socinian so he calls him for he calls no Man he dislikes by a right Name and promis'd a return of Civility about six Leaves before but it seems he had not quite discharg'd his Stomach of the foul Matter which lay upon it and could not speak him fair till he had call'd him all the names he could think on just his way of dealing with Mr. Bold for seven or eight Leaves together he represents him as a Subverter of the Foundations of Christianity a Worshipper of the Idol that Mr. Hobbs and Mr. Lock have set up a dull phlegmatick horrid lying Fellow c. and in the close he is ready if what he says is true to express the deference which he ows to Mr. Bold's Person and Office From whence tho it does not follow but that Mr. Bold may be a learned and honest Man for all that Mr. Edwards says is not Gospel yet it does plainly follow that Mr. Edwards thinks he ows a deference to an Antichristian Idolatrous dull horrid lying Fellow and that he is ready to express the same and by joining Mr. Bold's Person whom he represents as an Antichristian c. he fairly implies that it is his Perswasion that the Office sanctifies the Person tho the Person be an Antichristian Idolatrous dull horrid lying Fellow I hope without offence to any sober Man it may be set down as an instance of Priestcraft this subtle Contrivance That the holy Office of the spiritual Man should expiate whatever is done amiss by the Sinner I word it gently and don 't pursue it so far as the matter leads I have said what I had to say concerning the Persons of the late Deceas'd and now living Unitarians and as far as I perceive the Men are honest their Conversation blameless the Holy Scripture is their Rule and they interpret it according to the best of their understanding nay as good luck will have it they interpret it just as the founder and major part of the Church does and have always so interpreted it tho they did not always perceive the Agreement between the Church and themselves they are not as they have been odiously revil'd Men of no seriousness in Religion meer Deists much less Atheists or as a Reverend Father out of the abundance of his Charity compliments them irreligious profligate Villains but it is to be hop'd that he will recal those bitter words at least for his own sake for I am told they are resolv'd to make it plainly appear to the World that his Lordship's Doctrine in some of his Books and in some perhaps not accords as much with the Racovian Catechism as theirs so that if there be not two Rules to judg of Heresy one Fire will serve them and his Lordship both I come now to consider what is the Tendency of the Unitarian Doctrines only one Question I have to premise Supposing that the Conversation of these Men is such as becomes the Gospel which from my Soul I believe but their Doctrines false and of mischievous Tendency would it not have become their jealous Adversaries who by the Rules of the Gospel are oblig'd to believe the best which a Cause will bear to have look'd upon them as Men erring through Ignorance and not perceiving the mischievous Tendency of their Doctrines A good Man cannot promote a Doctrine which he knows to be false or of mischievous Consequence but a zealous or a proud Man is capable of suspecting a Doctrine to be false and of mischievous Consequence which is nothing so Two ways the Unitarians defend their Doctrines from the Imputation of mischievous Consequence or Tendency 1. By ingenuously carefully and largely explaining their Minds on those Articles which they were charg'd to deny or expound amiss 2. By making it appear that they have no particular private Opinions about Matters commonly held necessary to Salvation different from the Church of England i. e. if the Bishops and chief Doctors of the Church know what the Church means 1. By ingenuously c. The Writer who drew up the Trinitarian Scheme quotes not the Authors whence he drew it I suppose because his Design was to reprove the Errors of Men and spare their Persons Mr. Edwards who knows not when his Friends are well us'd tells him he had no credible Authors to vouch that Scheme Sure he meant creditable But 't is no new thing for Men of bustling Learning to forget their Mother-tongue The Unitarian will not pretend to find credible Authors i. e. Authors fit to be trusted for the Scheme which he looks upon as erroneous they may be credible in Matters of fact in Matters of Faith not so Matters of Faith are not to be taken on the bare Credit of any Man's word but if creditable i. e. Authors of esteem to vouch that Scheme will content Mr. Edwards he may have them in due time and to be very civil to him he shall
be one Mr. Edwards fram'd a Socinian Creed and quoted his Authors for every Article a Unitarian Writer replied but says Mr. Edwards That Gentleman in effect acknowledges that the Articles I fixt on the Socinians are the very Doctrines and Sentiments of those Persons worded as I set them down and that the Authors whom I quoted deliver'd them in those very Terms and that I have not misrepresented any of them He that will may trust Mr. Edwards but I for my part desire to be excus'd for the Unitarian Writer in his Agreement of the Vnitarians with the Catholick Church does expresly affirm That he has examin'd some of Mr. Edwards's principal References and can say of them that they are either Perversions or downright Falsifications of what the Authors referred to did intend It is true he has alledg'd no Instances but he seldom is long on such an occasion in a Friend's Debt But on every Article of Mr. Edwards's Socinian Creed he has ingenuously accurately and amply declar'd what it is which the English Unitarians do believe to all which Mr. Edwards returns only this Censure It is Higgling or Dodging or Recantation Now if an ingenuous accurate and ample declaring what the English Unitarians do believe be higgling and dodging who can help it If it be Recantation methinks Mr. Edwards should have rejoic'd that his Labours had contributed to win Souls to the true Faith But alas he is afraid that it is a real Recantation and therefore he beslaves the Party for he was in hopes they would have persisted in their Error that he might have had the Pleasure of seeing them burn'd and the Comfort of believing them damn'd But notwithstanding this his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Unitarians stand upon it that neither are their Doctrines erroneous not have they forsaken them No! why says Mr. Edwards This Anonymous Scribe meerly to avoid the Imputation of some Articles I fastned on the Socinians ventures to renounce what the Staunch-men of that Party have asserted Well! but if he never did assert what the Staunch-men have asserted nor ever profess himself a Disciple of Socinus may he not have leave to renounce that which is falsly laid to the Charge of himself and his Friends I doubt not but Mr. Edwards knows what 's Heresy enough to burn a Man but does he think to perswade the Unitarians as they do Witches in Scotland to confess the Crime whereof they are not guilty that so he may have the Satisfaction to glut his vengeful Eyes with the Flames in which they fry But Mr. Edwards would fain prove that the Anonymous Scribe as he calls him for he 's full of his Nicknames has also renounc'd what the modern domestick Socinians have asserted He offers this Instance for Proof The Anonymous Scribe had said He may for our parts be Anathema that teaches or believes that Doctrine viz. That there is no Merit in what Christ did or suffer'd and that he made not Satisfaction for our Sins And yet in one of their Prints they let us know That the Oblation which Christ made of himself was not made to the Justice of God or by way of Reparatioâ—â— but as all other Sacrifices by way of humble Suit How these two Passages do directly contradict one another Mr. Edwards when he is at leisure will inform us In the mean time I make bold to acquaint him that before I have done I will produce him an honourable Cloud of Witnesses of the last and of this present Age eminent Doctors and Bishops of the Church of England offering the same Sense for Orthodox which Mr. Edwards decries as gross Socinianism Mr. Edwards having offer'd nothing else excepting bad Language against tho Book call'd Agreement of the Vnitarians with the Catholick Church thither I refer the Reader for not Mr. Edwards himself I presume tho he 's a bold Man will dare to pronounce the Doctrines which the Unitarians there own to be false and of mischievous Tendency But Mr. Edwards and some others have one invidious Objection which I do not remember particularly answer'd They say Socinianism is the Road to Deism and Deism the Road to Atheism Now if this were true it does not affect the Unitarians who are neither Atheists nor meer Deists nor yet Socinians But Mr. Edwards takes every of these Positions for indubitate A Unitarian is a Socinian Socinianism tends to Deism Deism to Atheism These things with him necessarily hang together like a Hobbian Chain of Thoughts Yet I will shew him how loose the Links of this Chain are if he knows how let him fasten them That a Unitarian is no Socinian appears plain from the Agreement to which I hope to add some farther Proof that Socinianism does not tend to Deism I will now offer some Reason but Mr. Edwards must take it for an Auctarium which I need not throw him in but shall do it out of pure Charity to convince him of his adventurous Boldness at Calumny and extream Shortness at Argument By Deism I take it is commonly meant Natural Religion founded on the Belief of the Existence of a God and of a future Life with a Rejection and Disbelief of all Revelation Socinianism is not the Road to this Deism I know not of any English Catechism which accounts for the Truth of the Christian Revelation except the Racovian Methinks it is a Deficiency and if Deism does abound so much as Mr. Edwards says surely 't were not amiss that our Youth and other docile apprehensive tho not Book-learn'd People should be informed in a plain Catechetical way how the Authority of the Old and New Testament is to be prov'd This may be learn'd in that Catechism of the Socinians which is call'd the Racovian the first Chapter consists of near eight Leaves proving that we have no just Grounds to doubt but sufficient Reasons to perswade us to give Credence to the Holy Scriptures Now the Arguments there us'd are not trivial â—or weak are not such as might give an Adversary occasion to object that they mean to betray the Cause Let Mr. Edwards tell me what can be said more to the purpose or better in such a compass touching the Sufficiency Chap. 2. touching the Clearness of Holy Scriptures Chap. 3. The Socinians have declar'd themselves so plainly so judiciously so Orthodoxly that their imbitter'd Adversaries have nothing to find fault with Now supposing that these Men were widely mistaken about the Sense of several difficult Texts yet who that had any Modesty left would accuse them of inclining to Deism of rejecting the Authority of Holy Scriptures and denying the Truth of the Christian Religion Let Mr. Edwards defend the Christian Religion if he can better than the Socinians have defended it but if he has no stronger Arguments than they have us'd for that purpose why would he have them suspected of Deism To labour to perswade People that the Socinians who have said so much to establish the divine Authority of the Bible
Racovian Friends pretends to take Distaste because they believe That Christ only died for our Good P. 141 142. and not in our Stead that by his Death he might fully confirm his Gospel and give it a great Authority They believe That by his dying he intended to set us a most perfect Pattern of bearing the sharpest Sufferings with the perfectest Patience and the most entire Charity that by doing this he was to merit at God's hand that supreme Authority with which he is now vested for our Good that so he might obtain a Power to offer the World Pardon of Sin upon their true Repentance Finally That he died in order to his Resurrection and for giving a sensible Proof of that main Article of his Religion Now what does his Lordship believe more than this Why he says the same things over again in a new Set of Phrases and adds this Expression Christ suffered both upon our Account P. 143. and in our Stead If the Bishop would abide by the strictest and most proper Sense of these Words In our Stead he would indeed differ in a considerable matter from the Racovians but then he would also differ as much from himself for he means no more by suffering in our stead than the Racovians mean by suffering for our good as appears from what he says p. 135. If every Sin as being of infinite guilt must be expiated by an infinite Act it will not be easy to make this out how the Acts of Christ tho infinite in value should stand in a strict equality with all the Sins of so many men every one of which is of infinite guilt If his Lordship is sincere in this then he cannot pretend to believe that Christ suffer'd the infinite Punishment due to the infinite Guilt of all Men and by doing so made a full proper and adequate Satisfaction for the Sins of the World which is the strict and proper Sense of suffering in our Stead All that his Lordship does or can consistently to himself make of this Phrase In our Stead is That Christ did so suffer for our Good that if he had not suffer'd as he did we must have been the miserable Sufferers our selves But there is another Phrase wherein his Lordship labours to distinguish himself from his Friends and that is Expiatory Sacrifice But he may please to consider That the Racovians are not utterly averse from this Phrase for in their Catechism to that Question What think you of those Sacrifices i. e. of the Old Covenant they answer p. 139. By them the Sins of the People were expiated or aton'd that is by the intervening of those Sacrifices Remission of Sins graciously decreed by God was brought to effect Otherwhere also they thankfully acknowledg That the Death of Christ expiates our Sins through the gracious Condescension of his Father who is pleas'd to accept that Sacrifice not as a Payment to his Justice but as an Application to his Mercy And just thus but more elegantly as always his Lordship explains what he means by an Expiatory Sacrifice p. 151. We are to consider that in Sacrifices it is the Appointment and the Acceptation which makes the Satisfaction for God's accepting a Sacrifice is an Abatement of the Rigour of Justice and a declaring that he will pardon Sins in such a Method and upon such a Consideration He had spoke to the same purpose p. 136. But I am weary of transcribing By what I have said it is plain That on the Article of Christ's Death and Satisfaction for the Sins of Mankind there is no real Difference between the Bishop and the Racovian Catechism and when his Lordship explains his less proper Phrases there 's an end of all verbal Difference between them As before of the Bishop of Worcester so now of the Bishop of Sarum I have one thing to beg in behalf of the Unitarians But because I would not offer my Petition rudely I have a very pertinent Story to introduce it In the beginning of the last Reign William Pen in behalf of himself and Friends preferred an Address which to the best of my remembrance was thus worded James We are sorry for the Death of thy Brother Charles but we rejoice that we are fall'n under thy Government Thou art a Dissenter from the Church of England so are we we hope thou wilt allow us that Liberty which thou tak'st thy self So farewel By this excellent Pattern I draw up my Petition My Lord of Sarum The Unitarians are sorry that they have been misunderstood by the Church of England but they rejoice to find that your Lordship teaches the same Doctrine which they have done If your Lordship thinks it no Heresy in your self they hope it will be none in them So farewel Having thus shewn by what Methods the Unitarians defend their Doctrines of evil Tendency and mischievous Consequence I think it fit to acquit my self of a Promise to Mr. Edwards He takes notice of these Words in the Agreement c. p. 7. He may for our parts be Anathema that teaches or believes that Doctrine viz. That there is no Merit in what Christ did or suffer'd and that he made not Satisfaction for our Sins And he pretends that the contrary was taught by an Unitarian t'other day in these Words Antitrinitarian Scheme p. 18. The Oblation which Christ made of himself was not made to the Justice of God or by way of Reparation but as all other Sacrifices by way of humble Suit Now I take this Passage to be so far from a Contradiction that it may be look'd upon as a just and reasonable Explication of the former The Bishop of Sarum either more honest or more discerning than Mr. Edwards represents the Socinians owning that Christ by his Death merited at God's hands merited a supreme Authority and obtain'd a Power to offer the World Pardon of Sin upon their true Repentance p. 142. He believes also with the Vnitarians that the Oblation was made not to the Justice but to the Mercy of God for he says pag. 135. The Right of punishing God may use or not use as he pleases and that the Acts of Christ tho infinite in value cannot stand in a strict Equality with the Sins of Mankind And whereas Mr. Edwards accuses the Unitarians for scoffing and ridiculing the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ they are ready to tell him 1. That they are the least given to scoffing of any Writers of Controversy 2. It cannot be pretended that they have scoff'd the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ as the Church and the Bishop of Sarum understand those Words whatever they may have done to the Calvinistical Hypothesis which Mr. Edwards must embrace if on this Subject he disputes against them 3. Whether the Calvinistical Hypothesis be fit to be scoff'd at I will not argue but I am sure it deserves to be abhorr'd That there was no such Justice in God as necessarily oblig'd him to exact a Satisfaction is a
Perswasion not only built upon sound Reason but also credited with the Authority of the most eminent Theologues antient and modern Vossius in his Answer to Ravensperger has quoted above a dozen of them and Calvin and Zanchy are two of the number But Mr. Edwards I will not say refines but corrupts the very Dregs the four Hypostasis the heavy Subsidence the thick Sediment of Calvinism I thought I had concluded the Topick on which I have dwelt I fear too long already but I beg the Reader 's Patience yet farther that I may call to mind a Gentleman who has engag'd in this Controversy and might take it ill if he should be neglected as one not worthy of our Notice He is a zealous Accuser and a strong Justifier of the Doctrine of the Unitarians but since his Courtesy is more beneficial than his Anger injurious tho perhaps he never intended it so I will do what I can to reconcile him to himself He is an irreconcilable Enemy to the Unitarians or Socinians as he calls them of New Atlantis and Vtopia but accords perfectly well with the European Unitarians both Foreigners and English He saith p. 58 There is a Distinction made in the Godhead under these three Names Father Son and Holy Ghost which the Church hath exprest all together by the Word Trinity and singly by the Word Person I conclude that there is something more than a meer Nominal Distinction I conclude that they are not three distinct different Spirits From these two Conclusions let 's hear what he infers p. 59. I infer there is in the Godhead something more than a meer nominal Distinction and something less than that of three different Spirits Some Men have such roving wild Heads that they 'll infer any thing from any thing because the Moon shines with Light borrow'd from the Sun therefore Kings hold their Crowns of the Pope But our Author keeps close to the Matter and infers from his two Conclusions nothing but what he had concluded before Well! if he is right in his Conclusions he is safe in his Inference But how came he by his Conclusions Why from some Passages of Scripture he found that there was a Distinction in the Godhead Well! be it so One might ask now what is the Distinction Is it a Distinction of Properties Relations Modes or what But for that we must hold him excus'd for says he I have not the least knowledg how strict the Union is or how great the Distinction He was well set on work then to write against the English Unitarians who oppose no Trin-Unity but a Trinity of Three distinct Essences in Numerical Unity But the Ignorance of this pert Academian is a small Fault in respect of that censorious and singular Boldness wherewith he takes upon him to censure his Superiors in the Church his Superiors for Learning and Dignity both who several of them have attempted to explain and have made it intelligible at least they themselves think so how the Three are distinguish'd and how united Mr. Peter Brown fears not to throw this Censure on their Undertakings p. 59. Any Man who strives to conceive it himself or takes pains to explain it to others is guilty of such a Folly that I can't think of any Action in nature extravagant enough to match it This is very agreeable to his Sense p. 173. where he intimates that neither Dominion nor Religion are founded in Reason So then his Loyalty and Orthodoxy are both of a piece Our Church of England in the late Reigns had much ado to be loyal enough for the Men of Dublin I am afraid they will have much ado to be Orthodox enough for them now Having now spoke what I had to say concerning the Causes which have rais'd the Disputes at present agitated among us I am next to consider what has inflam'd them to that dangerous Excess which in time may disturb the publick Peace Certainly it cannot be pure Love of God or a sincere Desire to advance the Happiness of Mankind which makes Religious Disputants manage their Controversies with that angry impatient Heat I know 't is not uncommon for Men to pretend the Honour of God and the Interest of Holy Religion when they whet their Tongues like Rasors and dip their Pens in Gall when they lay Plots to oppress and kill and are bent on Ruin and Destruction nay 't is possible for them while they are thus mischievously imploy'd to think they are doing God Service but they must have prodigiously debauch'd their Reason before they can entertain such Thoughts for it is not easy to believe that God delights in Uncharitableness Envy Hatred and Persecution It is not easy to believe that Persecution is not contrary to the obliging good-natur'd Precepts of the Gospel It is not easy to believe that Force is the way to convince Men of their Errors It is not easy to believe that Force is a proper way to move Men to consider It is not easy to believe that speculative Opinions which Men cannot help should be destructive of their Eternal Happiness It is not easy to believe that the Magistrate's Sentiments are rational and true meerly because they are the Sentiments of those who are in Authority It is not easy to believe that the Magistrate has a right to enforce his own Opinions when himself is confessedly liable to Mistakes It is not easy to believe that God would be worshipp'd in every Nation only by that way which the Magistrate shall chuse It is not easy to believe that 't is the Duty of Men to worship God contrary to their Consciences Is it not easy to believe that Persecution which naturally tends to set all Mankind together by the ears to destroy Trade and Commerce and to hinder the Improvements of Knowledg can be doing God good Service It is not easy to believe that Magistrates were appointed to ruin those for whose good we are told in Scripture they were ordain'd It is not easy to imagine that Authors who have publickly profess'd that in Matters of Faith every Man must judg for himself and that every Man using his own Judgment without Pride or affectation of Singularity is doing the best thing that he can do that simple Error is not Heresy c. it is not easy I say to imagine that such Authors can esteem Persecution a part of that reasonable Service which they owe to the Great God If Men of reviling persecuting Tempers could be perswaded deliberately and seriously to examine their own Minds and put themselves the Question What is it which prompts them to give bad Language to calumniate to form Designs against the Fame Estate Liberty and Life of their Brother to pursue him beyond this Life not as Brutus did Aruns which was the Wit of the Historian but with real Enmity to pursue him beyond this Life to hang him and burn him in order to damn him no doubt they might perceive that they were not mov'd by a
true Love of God or a desire to advance the Happiness of Mankind but by an undue Love of themselves and a desire to advance some not very honourable Interest which might be much impeded by an indulg'd Liberty of Prophesying 't is something of this kind which has mingled so many bitter Reproaches false Stories and malicious Insinuations with our controversial religious Pleadings That I may avoid the envy of descending to Particulars I leave my Observation as it is propounded only in general being satisfied that free impartial Considerers will soon perceive its Truth and as to those Persons who are less us'd to look into the Reason of things I will for their sakes cover it with a great Authority Bp of Sarum's 4 Tracts p. 185. If it be said that Error does disturb the Peace and Order of the Church beyond what is to be apprehended from Sin Error runs Men into Parties and out of those Factions do arise which break not only the Peace of the Church but the whole Order of the World and the quiet of Civil Society whereas Sin does only harm to those who are guilty of it or to a few who may be corrupted by their ill example To this it is to be answer'd That Sin does naturally much more Mischief to Mankind than Error He that errs if he is not immoral with it is quiet and peaceable in his Error therefore still the greatest Mischief is from Sin which corrupts Mens Natures thro its own Influence And the Mischief that Error does procure arises chiefly from the Pretensions to Infallibility or something that is near a-kin to it for if Men were suffer'd to go on in their Errors with the same undisturb'd quiet that they have for most of their Sins they would probably be much quieter in them since Sin of its Nature is a much fiercer thing than a point of Speculation can be suppos'd to be but if Men apprehend Inquisitions or other Miseries upon the account of their Opinions then they stand together and combine for their own defence so that it is not from the Errors themselves but from the Methods of treating them that all those Convulsions have arisen which have so violently shaken Churches and Kingdoms I quote no other Author nor no more from this to the Purpose before me purely to avoid being tedious but there is that plenty of concurring Testimonies obvious to be collected from the printed Discourses of the most eminent of our Ecclesiasticks that hardly a considerable Man of any order can call for the Sword of the Magistrate to punish Differences of Opinion in Matters of Faith but he must do it in defiance of his own Conscience as well as the Laws of the Land I lay it down then not only for a very certain evident but also for a generally confess'd Truth that it is always a Vice more or less artificially conceal'd which prompts religious Disputants to fight the Lord's Battels with angry Noise and fiery Words and flaming Censures that Thunder and Lightning of theirs which does more Mischief than all the Artillery of Nature from the stormy Sky or the sulphureous Caverns of the Earth And now there 's no avoiding the Inquiry Whether the Unitarians or their Adversaries or both have manag'd their Disputes with any of these unjust and unbeseeming Methods It is urg'd hard upon the Unitarians that they have ridicul'd the venerable Articles of the Christian Religion and spoke disrespectfully and contemtuously of the most eminent learned and pious Fathers of the Church for proof of the first Charge the Story of Dulcinea and one or two Passages more of the second the two Tracts call'd Considerations of the Explications c. are much insisted on But methinks what the Unitarians say for themselves in their own Defence is weighty as much of it as has been communicated to me I will set down and add what more is obvious and may be justly added but for the evener Thred of Discourse I offer both the one and the other as from my self I have scarce met with that Person who has read the Considerations but confesses those two Tracts may pass for Models of elegant proper and decent Writing in the controversial way and I was amazed that two Reverend Bishops should think themselves affronted or disrespected there for my part I know not how a greater Deference could have been paid them unless they had been honour'd as inspir'd and infallible Interpreters and worshipp'd with Mr. Edwards's gross Flattery which hallows their Names and makes them signify profound Learning and solid Religion The severe Vertue of one of the old Romans would have resented this as a Libel But however Mr. Edwards vouches his elevated Compliment with a solemn Asseveration Without the least shew of Adulation it may be most truly said that your Name is now not so much the Name of a Person or Family as it is the Name of profound Learning and solid Religion He that makes no conscience of such Strains and such Vouching tho to a Bishop very Learned and Orthodox would have bated nothing had his Patron 's Merit been no greater than his own But I digress The briskness and saltness in those two Tracts the Considerations has nothing that is personal nothing that reflected on the Persons of their Lordships or of any other Antagonists it is no more than is allow'd to all Writers that their Books may not nauseate an ingenuous Reader or weary and tire the more Delicate by a continued Chain and Course of severe and close Reasoning like a high Tragedy without any Interludes of Musick and Dancing And perhaps if their Lordships had leisure to look into their former controversial Writings when they were engag'd with other Adversaries they might find that themselves had us'd as much Liberty as here they condemn A long deduced Narration of Argument upon Argument naked Argument without pleasing turns of Wit or well-suted Ornaments of proper and manly Rhetorick is a very dry Business of which their Lordships have been so sensible that when I was a young Fellow I us'd to read their Writings for my Pleasure as well as my Profit and I will undertake to prove that in the controversial Discourses which they have publish'd in Print whether against Papists or other Dissenters from the Church of England they have us'd the Persons of their Adversaries more disrespectfully and contemtuously than it can be pretended the Considerer has us'd them so that were their Charge against the Considerer just they ought to forgive him for their own sakes It is a good Spanish Proverb If a Man 's own House be made of Glass he should have a care of breaking his Neighbour's Windows But that which is aggravated most invidiously against the Considerer is the manner of his Reply to the late Archbishop to expose which the Bp of Worcester repeats what he pleases without its Dependance and Connexion and then pronounces Pref. p. 54. The plain meaning of all this is that the
appear Heretical that is unless the Persecuted should fall into the Humour of appealing to all impartial and unprejudic'd Persons whether the Writings of the Nominalist Unitarians be not as obnoxious as theirs and altogether as much at the mercy of an Interpreter And perhaps there be that think the World has been troubled too much by them both and that neither ought to be forgiven unless they first forgive one another and I am strangely deceiv'd if I cannot name the Instances which duly consider'd recommend to them both so much Humanity The Nominalists are safe from the Unitarians not only by the Unitarian Principle which disavows Persecution but also because of their Paucity nor can their Abilities make them formidable for as a great Man notes their Adversaries are their Superiors both in Wit and Learning and the Unitarians ought to be safe from the Nominalists not only because the Doctrine of them both is one and the same tho their Language sometimes varies but also for those many cogent Reasons which are to be met with in the Essay above cited and in the Letters for Toleration which I presume will have their influence on both Nominalists and Realists as many of them as are men of Vertue true Piety and Christian Moderation but as for such furious Inquisitors as Mr. Edwards and Mr. Peter Brown I reckon they are so very passionate that they are utterly incapable of attending to sober Reasoning from plain Christian Principles therefore I will tell them a Story which perhaps they may have read in their younger days and that it may not be thrown away upon them I will be at the pains of application Pyrrhus Prince of Epirus an ambitious Politick Captain made use of one Cyneas a sensible witty Man in the conduct of his weightiest Affairs This Person one day accosted his warlike Master after this manner The Romans Sir against whom we are arming are a hardy valiant People but if the Gods should prosper us how shall we use our Victory Why said Pyrrhus when we have beaten the Romans we shall presently be Masters of all Italy And how shall we govern our selves then Sir Then Sir why then Sicily holds out her Arms to receive us a fruitful Island a noble and an easy purchase Very probable and what shall the possession of Sicily put an end to the War O Friend says Pyrrhus we must not throw away the Opportunities which the Gods put into our hands We are next bound for Lybia and then Carthage proud populous and wealthy is ours and by that glorious Conquest we shall become powerful enough to subdue all Greece The subtle Cyneas still plied him with the Question What are we for next At last Pyrrhus replied Then we 'll live at Ease spend our days in Wine and Mirth and nothing shall employ our Thoughts but the ways to vary and heighten our Pleasures When Cyneas had brought his unwary Master to this point he turn'd short upon him and ask'd What hinders us now from living at Ease without dispossessing others of their Rights and hazarding our own Fortunes Instead of running all these Risques we may even now sit down and sing O be Joyful Now to my Application Mr. Edwards and Mr. Brown furious Dealers in Polemic Squabble ambitious both to spread their Empire wide over Conscience were one day in Consult how to remove the Obstacles that stood in their way The methods they agreed on were to restrain the Press for fear they should lose by disputing to censure what they do not understand for fear there should be Heresy in 't to set up an Inquisition to jail the suspected of Faith erroneous and burn the avow'd Dissenter Their first Process they determin'd to direct against a handful of Men of late known by the Name of Unitarians in contradistinction to some Ecclesiasticks professing to believe and worship three distinct Infinite Minds Dr. Christian Eubulus was their Chancellor whom they requir'd to prosecute the aforesaid poor Men with the utmost Rigour This Christian Eubulus represented to them that the Unitarians held no private Doctrines different from what were taught by our most Orthodox Prelates that they were Men of some Learning untainted Probity and good Sense but if it was irrevocably decreed that they were to be utterly rooted out he humbly desir'd to know whom he was to fall upon next Why said Mr. Edw. and Mr. Br. when we have once dispatch'd these malepert Unitarians we shall become formidable to all the Bawlers against Priestcraft who now despise us and need not be afraid to attacque the Quakers of whom the largest Division the Foxonians who are the ruling Party are meer Deists they are a numerous and politick People the Scripture is to them a dead Letter the Rule of their Faith is the Light within them that is meer natural Reason and they have an odd way with them instead of guarding their own Doctrines they attacque ours so 't is absolutely necessary to ruine this Sect It may be done by Fines Imprisonment Death if need be or merciful Banishment What matter if the State lose by it better be without them and their Effects than plagu'd with their Heresy Christian Eubulus seem'd to acquiesce but desir'd to know of his Masters whether they should have any more need of him O Dear Friend replied they when God has blessed our Zeal so far for his Service we must not give over so there are two Sticks so they call themselves Presbyterians and Independents crooked Sticks both who cudgel one another when we let them alone but not enough to the purpose these Sticks must be burnt both burnt for they will not bend to decent Discipline and by that time we have consum'd them to Ashes all the little crawling Sectaries will fall down and worship as many infinite distinct Minds or Essences as we please or one such infinite Mind in Language that signifies Three Christian Eubulus was again at his Question and when all the World conforms What then Then Man replied the bold Duumviri why then we 'll live like true Christians none of our Communion shall be suffer'd to indulge himself in Prophaness and Immorality we 'll show Mercy and do Works of Charity we 'll diligently preach the holy Doctrines of the Gospel and honestly practise them our selves so that the Church shall become a Heaven upon Earth When Christian Eubulus had brought his zealous Masters to this point he put them the hard Question of all Why can't we live like true Christians now Why cannot we now discourage the Prophaness and Immorality of the Members of our Communion What hinders us now from being fervent in Prayer diligent in preaching the Gospel and exemplary in our Lives and Conversations When one is got into Stories especially by the Parlour Fire in a Winter Evening there 's no end of them but if the Reader will forgive me I will punish him but with one more and it shall be as short as he could wish Barclay in his Icon Animorum tells us of a Father and his two Sons who excommunicated the whole World and confin'd the Church within the narrow Pale of their own three Elect Persons within a few days the hopeful Boys excommunicated the old Man and not long after they excommunicated one another Suppose now the Church of England should convert or confound the Unitarians the Quakers the Presbyterians the Independents and every little Philadelphian Society nay and Popish Recusants also tho that 's a swinging Supposition is all like to be Peace at home within her own Body no such matter the Quinquarticular Controversy will set 'em together by the ears among themselves Mr. Gailhard and the Growth of Error have already declar'd open War against all Churchmen of the Arminian Perswasion for want of a Bone the Theory of the Earth will make a bustle among them and for ought I know the Royal Society may make some Discovery in Nature that may be Heresy in Religion but to mention no more the Unitarian Controversy it self shall live among them as vigorous as ever Dr. Sherlock will never forgive Dr. South nor Dr. South Dr. Sherlock the Nominalists will never leave till they have run down the Tritheists the Tritheists with their last Breath will revile the Nominalists for Sabellians and Socinians so that in short if the Church will have no War without her Pale she must have one within wherefore I would advise every one to make living like a good Christian his Business now and never be troubled at the Disputes which are stirring of which there 's like to be no end let the present Disputants that have the worst on 't by reason of their inferiour Numbers be run down hang'd or burnt or not I conclude with one word of Advice to the Unitarians i. e. that they would give over the Dispute I know they are Men of Conscience and have within the Bounds of Moderation been zealous for the Truth but that will not suffer tho they are silent the Learned and Excellent Bishops of Worcester and Sarum Dr. South and others are able and forward enough to defend it against all the heathenish Opposition of the Tritheistick Tribe FINIS
do not themselves believe it is methinks no other than to tempt Scepticks to conclude that enough cannot be said to establish their Authority which Mr. Edwards of all Men ought not to do unless he himself be a meer Deist which Imputation as yet I forbear to lay to his Charge tho in truth by his last Book which he calls A Vindication of Fundamental Articles c. but might better have entitled it A Vindication of Railing see p. 26 27. which Title the Book fully answers for it is one interrupted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it does not appear that he is a Christian Queen Elizabeth had a Secretary who when he retir'd to Tihalds his Country Seat was wont to lay aside his Cognizances of Honour with these words Lie there Lord Burleigh and then the grave Statesman would be very merry and gamesome It take Mr. Edwards to have much of that honourable Gentleman's Humour for I cannot imagine that he has utterly renounc'd Christianity only perhaps when he writes or preaches Controversy he cries Lie by for a while lie by so long good Christian but the angry Story once finish'd or the Sermon over he 's the same Mr. Edwards as learned as honest and as pious as he was before I beg my Reader always to consider that I defend Socinianism only quo ad hoc it is not the Road to meer Deism in the next place I will prove that meer Deism is not the Road to Atheism Deism I defin'd to be Natural Religion founded on the Belief of the Existence of a God and of a future Life There may for ought I know be Men who would be counted Deists that believe not a jot of the Life to come but these I judg if they were put to 't would hardly be able to distinguish themselves from downright Atheists To me it is all one to question the Existence of a God and to question his future Retributions but Natural Religion which depends on the Belief that God is and that he is a Rewarder cannot be the Road to Atheism I will not deny but that Mr. Edwards knows the Road to Atheism as well as any Man breathing but he must not put it upon us that Deism is that Road he may as well bear us in hand that sailing Eastward is the Road to the West-Indies There cannot be a plainer Contradiction than to say That the Belief of a God leads to the Belief of none Were Atheism the prevailing Opinion I grant to Mr. Edwards we should quickly see it move apace to the Ruin and Subversion of Kingdoms and Common-wealths Societies and Bodies Politick but upon the Principles of Deism i. e. on the Foundation of Natural Religion publick Peace and Order stood firm before the days of the Christian Revelation and did it not do so among the neighbour Nations that hated the Jews Among the Deists during the flourishing days of the growing Greatness of the Romans there were I believe as few Atheists as there are among Christians now Let no malicious Adversary here pretend that I plead the Cause of Deism no I do not this I do I maintain that Deism is not the Road to Atheism as some Men very weakly and imprudently have affirm'd for it rather is the Road to Christianity I know Mr. Edwards will be angry with me for what I am going to tell him but let him summon all the Powers and Skill he has in Logick seasoning it with a dose of ill Nature quantum sufficit and then refute me if he can I here affirm That if the Man who is not yet a Christian be an honest moral Deist a Believer in God and an Expecter of a future Judgment he is at least in precinctu ad salutem and stands fair to be a Christian no reveal'd Religion offers so reasonable Grounds to win him as the Christian Now I much wonder that so ingenuous and moderate a Man as Mr. Norris should join with Mr. Edwards in so ignorant invidious and designing an Assertion as this viz. Deism is the Road to Atheism Mr. Norris's elegant way of wording it is He that is once a Deist is in a hopeful way of being an Atheist whenever he pleases No Mr. Norris no an honest moral Deist's Principles are directly pointed against Atheism but a spiteful proud and cruel Christian is in very great danger of being an Atheist if he be not one already But perhaps Mr. Edwards may reply he spake not of a Deist who never had been a Christian but that his meaning was The Man who falls from Christianity to Deism is in the Road to be an Atheist To this I reply That tho the Unitarians are firmly perswaded of the Truth of the Christian Religion yet they need not grant the Assertion thus explain'd to be true for what Christianity teaches beyond that which natural Reason dictates has not the Efficacy to prevent Atheism which natural Reason has however I am content and I think the Unitarians ought to be so likewise That the Man who is afraid of a Bullet should wear a Coat of Mail as well as keep out of Gun-shot I hope the Reader now plainly sees that there is never a Link of Mr. Edwards's Chain that will hold The Unitarians are Orthodox of which more anon The Socinians are so far Orthodox that they are firmly perswaded of the Verity of the Christian Religion and are not meer Deists Conscientious moral Deists are in no danger of being Atheists But is there no dangerous Road leading to Atheism of which Men ought to be warn'd that they come not near it Yes there is and it is a wide Road too pav'd all along with rash Censures ill Language false Stories barbarous unchristian Dealing forg'd Decrees of inconditional Reprobation and Stoical Fate this is the Road and the Persecutor the Slanderer and the Calvinist drive hard like so many Jehu's in it leaving Deism a long way off on the right hand The Christian Religion does not allow its Professors to be so much as proper Judges of Heresy as commonly understood much less to be Executioners of Hereticks for the reason given why the Tales should not be pull'd up before the Harvest is lest some good Corn should be pull'd up with it The Christian Religion directs Men by fair Carriage by the Words of Truth and Soberness to convince them whom we think in the wrong He that is cruel abusive and unjust can be a Christian only in name in reality he is Infidel all over Then for Calvinism that four System which is good for nothing but to fight with but I hope Mr. Edwards is innocent from that for he has sourness enough without it how should it otherwise than tend to Atheism when it represents Man without Free-will and God without Goodness 2. The Unitarians defend their Doctrines from the Imputation of mischievous Consequence or Tendency by making it appear that they have no particular private Opinions about matters commonly held necessary to Salvation different