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
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
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