Infinite Persons and but one God Ask them How can these things be and what do you mean They answer our meaning only is God understands himself and willeth that is esteems and loves himself This is a very mean and despicable Sense to be couched in such mysterious and surprising Terms Why do they affect to speak fantastically when they might speak soberly and plainly But we would easily forgive them the Folly of their Mysteries if their Hieroglyphick Language were not as false and contradictory as 't is vain and trifling For after they have told us that by Son and Spirit they mean nothing but God's Knowledg and Love of himself that the Eternal Generation so much talk'd of is only God's conceiving understanding or apprehending his own Perfections and the Procession which we are so carefully to distinguish from the Eternal Generation is only the Love which proceeds from God towards himself after I say they have thus unriddled their Mystery and of a Mystery made it a very vulgar and ordinary piece of Knowledg how absurd and monstrous is it to tell us that this Reflex Knowledg which God hath of himself and his Love or Esteem of himself are Persons and Spirits really distinct from him One while the Second and Third Persons so called are only God's knowing himself and loving himself that is they are only two Acts of his Vnderstanding and Will At the next turn these two Acts God's Apprehending himself and Esteeming himself are metamorphosed into Two several Spirits and Persons whereof one you must call the Son and the other the Holy Ghost Of one you must say on pain of Damnation He was Conceived Generated or Begotten of the other you must believe and say under the same Penalty He proceeded I say now this is Egyptian all over 't is the very Genius and Spirit of the old Mystical Hieroglyphicks that is to say partly Foolish and partly False And to prove it I need go no farther than the Understandings and Consciences of all Reasonable Men or even of every Individual Man who hath not as much given up his Reason to Mother Church as the Good Man who would not believe his Eyes against his Dear Wife had given up to her his Senses To tell Men that to apprehend one's self is a Person and to love one's self is another Person and Spirit is in effect to ridicule Religion and to scare from it all Men of free Sense I know not why the prophane Wit was esteemed an Atheist for his saying God by his Almighty Power can turn a Tree into a Syllogism more than such may be justly suspected of Atheism who say an Action of the Divine Vnderstanding is an Infinite and Almighty Person whom under pain of Damnation we must call the Son of God And again an Action of the Divine Will is another such Person and him we must name the Holy Ghost For the Wit only turned a Substance into a Thought and Trinitarians turn Thoughts into Substances and Persons Did they alledg for these Mysteries but the least colour of Reason or Revelation we would hold our Tongues but to be obliged to believe such things without any pretence of Revelation and contrary to all Reason and common Sense this I think is what we owe to no sort of Men of what colour soever they dye their Coats For my part I never think of these whether Dotages or Impostures without such an Inclination as I very hardly resist of applying to our Athanasian Doctors what Cato said of the Roman Augures and Aurispices I wonder says Cato that an Augur or Aruspex can meet another of the same Profession without their Laughing in one another's Faces He knew their pretended Learning and Discipline was the Religion establish'd by Law warranted by Custom and Prescription and authorized by the Consent of Nations For all that 't was a Cheat so gross and palpable that he could not but admire that the Augurs were such stark Fools or such perfect Knaves that meeting they could carry a grave Look upon one another Of the Creation IN the Fulness of Time the before-described Trinity Created the World and all things therein Yet we are not to imagine that the Three Divine Persons divided the Work among them each of them taking a Part. Nor could every one of them Create the same things because a thing can be created but once But according to that Oeconomy as Divines speak that is the Domestick Order or Houshold-Government that is between the Three Persons it must be said and held that the Father is most properly the Creator the Son the Redeemer and the Spirit the Sanctifier of all Persons and Things So that when we say the Trinity Created Heaven and Earth and all Things this is thereby intended The Father Created all things by the Son through the Holy Ghost The Notes The Father created all things by the Son through the Holy Ghost I wish the Sages of the Party had thought fit plainly to tell us what they mean by such an odd way of expressing themselves But they have long since let the World know that all their care is to get Words and for Meaning they never think of it But the Father it seems is the Creator nay 't is he that is properly the Creator but then 't is by the Son and through the Holy Ghost That is to say the Father is not the Creator much less is He properly the Creator but the Son and Holy Ghost and these two are jointly Creators For if the Father created the World by the Son and through the Holy Ghost then the Father himself had no immediate Efficiency or Hand in the Work but only the Son and Holy Ghost these were the true Creators of the World and of all things And besides that the old Difficulty returns namely that the Son and Spirit divided the Work between them each taking his part or the same things must be created twice I know not how better to explain their Notion of the Father's being most properly the Creator than by saying he was just so according to them the Creator of the World as King Charles I. built the Royal Soveraign or was the Builder of the Royal Soveraign For we say that King built the Royal Soveraign by the Master-Builder through the Ship-Carpenter that is he built it not he only ordered it to be built the Master-Shipwright or Master-Builder and the Ship-Carpenters were the Builders But if this be so we are strangely misled by the Apostles Creed which instructs us to say that the Almighty Father is the Creator of Heaven and Earth and is wholly silent of the great Mystery that it was by the Son and through the Holy Ghost And the Scriptures do yet worse impose on us by an unheard-of Solecism and Impropriety while they speak of these two or three pretended creating Persons by the singular Pronouns I HE THOV HIM which in no Language are used but only of one singular and particular
of all sorts and of every Order of Men from the damning Imputation of Adam's Transgression to them to this end it was ne-necessary that a full Reparation should be first made to the Blessed Trinity for that Transgression of Adam and that a Punishment equivalent to the Punishment or threefold Death which Adam had drawn on himself and on his Posterity should be undergone by some Person or Persons in the stead and place of Adam and his Descendents It is true there is no such Vindictive Justice in God that He could not by his Mercy forgive this Transgression or any other but in the case before us God is to be considered as a Righteous Governour who would not suffer his Law to be despised and violated without a full Satisfaction to his Honour and Justice by the Offenders or some other on behalf of the Offenders For this reason it was that 't was necessary to find out a Person or Persons who should undergo the threefold Death for Mankind or other ways make an Equivalent to the Justice of God The Person undergoing the Punishment or the Equivalent must be a Righteous Person else he would need one to satisfy for himself Nay he must be a Person of Infinite both Merit and Dignity else he could not merit Heaven for so many nor could his Sufferings be accepted instead of so many as were obnoxious and obliged to undergo the threefold Death The Expedient therefore at length resolved on by the Blessed Trinity for the Redemption of Mankind was this That a Righteous Person of Infinite Dignity and Merit should be substituted to the Punishment deserved by Sinners in the room stead and place of Sinners This was judged more agreeable to the Majesty of God as Governour of the World than either to forgive to Adam his Transgression and to his Descendents God's Imputation of it to them or than to inflict on him or them any less Punishment as suppose some Temporal Calamity than the threefold Death Which thing God might have done either by his Mercy as a Maker and Father or by his Authority and Prerogative as a Soveraign and Governour 'T is true there is a wonderful depth of Mystery never to be fathom'd by Human Understanding in this manner of proceeding And Human Wisdom would without doubt have chose either to forgive the Sin or to abate somewhat of the Punishment rather than have substituted in the room of the Wicked and Worthless a Person infinitely Righteous and Worthy even tho such Person should be supposed to have offered himself to the Punishment But my Thoughts are not your Thoughts neither are your Ways my Ways saith the Lord. Isa 55.8 The Notes In their Doctrine of Original Sin our Opposers feign that Almighty God imputes the one Sin of one Man to all Men and concludes them thereupon under the threesold Death or three Deaths but in this Doctrine of the Satisfaction they tell us of a contrary Prodigy that he imputes all the Sins of all Men to one Man and what is yet a greater Monster says on him alone a Punishment equivalent to the three Deaths Temporal Spiritual and Eternal of all Mankind We might call this the Trinitarians Fetch-back if it were not that the Interpretation they give of this Doctrine is contrary to the Doctrine it self One would think if we might judg of their meaning by what they say that the Doctrine of the Satisfaction made a compleat Amends for the Doctrine of Original Sin that is that the supposed Satisfaction by Christ did as it were fetch-back the Damage and Losses occasioned they say by the Sin of Adam But 't is not so for tho they say the Redeemer was able to suffer and did actually suffer an Equivalent to the three Deaths of all Mankind yet say they farther neither his Merit nor his Sufferings do any good but only to a few that is to the Elect. As to the Vnitarians they most thankfully and devoutly own profess and publish that the Lord Christ underwent the greatest of Labours and Sufferings for poor wretched Apostate Mankind He made himself an Oblation an Expiatory Sacrifice on the Altar of the Gross for our Sins to reconcile us to God and in some respects God to us But we say that his Labours and Sufferings on our behalf were not as Trinitarians teach designed as a Punishment laid on him in our stead because Punishment is the Evil of Suffering inflicted for the Evil of doing and the Lord Christ having done no Sin as the Holy Scriptures expresly teach 1 Pet. 2. â—3 it necessarily follows that what he underwent were purely Labours and Sufferings not Punishment And for those Sufferings we say further it has pleased God by way of Recompence highly to exalt him and give him a Name above every Name Phil. 2.9 Nor was the Oblation or Sacrifice which the Lord Christ made of himself on our behalf an Oblation made as our Opposers contend to the Justice of God or by way of full Reparation to God's Justice but as all other Sacrifices formerly were an Oblation or Application to the Mercy of God For this Doctrine of ours we judg the following Reasons to be such Proofs as must needs be allowed by every one that considers them freely and impartially 1. One Man could not possibly be judged an Equivalent for such an immense number of Sinners as were all of them obliged to be as righteous as he and because they were not so were liable to Punishment therefore it was not to the Justice of God that the Lord Christ offered himself for those Sinners as an Equivalent but to God's Mercy by way of humble suit 2. If one Man can be conceived to be an Equivalent for all Men yet if the Sufferings or as our Opposers speak the Punishment he underwent was not equivalent to the Punishment due to them then it must not be said he tendred himself to the Justice of God but only to his Mercy on behalf of the Offenders and instead of their Punishment The Punishment as well as the Person suffering must be equivalent else Justice will refuse it but Goodness or Mercy may admit of it But now who sees not that the Temporal Sufferings and three days Death of the Lord Christ were far from being equivalent to the Death Temporal Spiritual and Eternal of so much as one Man 3. Uniratians will never detract from the Dignity of our Saviour's Person they acknowledg with the Scriptures that God was with him nay God by his Spirit was in him But if they could also add as Trinitarians do that the Humanity of Christ was one Person with God yet seeing only the Humanity could suffer or die and seeing no Union of a Man with God can exalt Humanity to be Divinity or make that to be Infinite which of its own nature is Finite therefore the Temporal Sufferings and three days Death of a meer Human Nature cannot be equivalent to the Death Temporal Spiritual and Eternal which is an
him and the English Reader to the Paraphrase of the late Learned and Pious Dr. Claget Our Opposers delight in marvelous Doctrines therefore as they pretend that Faith and Newness of Life are effected by God in us by Means so unsutable to the Qualities produced and to the Nature of our Souls as Water Bread and Wine so they assure us farther that the written Word and Word preach'd have no Efficacy toward begetting those Effects but 't is say they the inward Word which sometimes to some and in some measure accompanying the Word written or preach'd first convinces and then reclaims Sinners For my part I would gladly know what kind of thing an inward Word is I had thought all Words had been outward Words and that otherways they could not have been called Words But be that as it will Unitarians are well satisfied that the outward Word as our Opposers are pleased to Nickname the Holy Scriptures and the Word preach'd is sufficient and effectual by the Reasons it suggesteth and the Rewards and Penalties it proposeth to convince and reform our Reasonable Natures and that otherways they were not Reasonable but Brutish Natures This is not ours but the Doctrine of Holy Scripture and that in as express and clear Terms as can be devised First as to the Efficacy of the written Word 2 Tim. 3.15 Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation Then for the Word taught after St. Paul had said Rom. 10.14 How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher He makes this Conclusion at ver 17. So then Faith cometh by Hearing And is it not indeed a very strange Paradox of these Gentlemen that the Wisdom of God should make use of a Means that produceth they say no Effect If the outward Word produceth no Effect in him that hears or reads we might as well have been bid to tell twenty in order to the getting Faith and subduing our Lusts as to hear and meditate of God's Word And if that be indeed the case 't is very surprizing that God should expostulate after such an angry manner with lazy and negligent Pastors and should so heartily rouze up others as 't is undeniable he doth Isa 56.10 They are dumb Dogs that cannot bark sleeping lying down loving to slumber Isa 58.1 Cry aloud spare not lift up thy Voice like a Trumpet shew my People their Transgressions and the House of Israel their Sins 1 Cor. 9.16 Necessity is laid upon me and wo unto me if I preach not the Gospel What needed any thing of all this if the outward Word is nothing and 't is only the inward Word which is not in the least tied to the other that only can and does produce the desired Effect About interpreting Holy Scripture IF it be asked how it comes to pass that we differ so widely from the Hereticks about the Doctrines specified in the foregoing Paragraphs while both we and they pretend Holy Scripture to be our Rule and the sole Judg of Controversies and Questions about Religion The Answer is at hand even this That Hereticks being Men of some Wit and Learning and withal carnal are hereupon puffed up are too proud to submit themselves to God's Revelation but only as bowed and subdued to their Reason But 't is all Mens Duty in a Clash between Revelation and Reason whether real or only seeming to submit Reason to Revelation and not subject Divine Revelation to Human Reason 'T is unpardonable Boldness in any to dislike the express words or evident sense of Holy Scripture because our Reason cannot fathom the depths of that Divine Book If I would believe the Doctrine there set down were it not for the Contradiction made to it by Human Reason I am not a Christian otherways than in Name if I do not receive such Doctrine with an implicit Faith without seeking to elude or to correct it by Reason And it is upon this Hinge that all our Controversies with these Hereticks do turn whether we are to follow the express words and obvious natural sense of Holy Scripture or whether we are to interpret Scripture by Reason so as to fly to a Figurative Sense or even to a Catachrestical i. e. somewhat harsh Construction or Interpretation rather than admit any Doctrine that is contrary to Reason The Notes Unitarians think that a real Clash between Revelation and Reason is an absurd Supposition but if we must put that impossible case we think 't is clear that Human Reason must needs be subjected to Divine Revelation But where the Clash is only seeming that is where there are ways of reconciling them as by so interpreting the Revelation as to make it agree with Reason we think 't is as absurd to oppose as Trinitarians do these two Lights to one another we think in that case we ought to use the Expedient of Interpretation If the Interpretation must be made either by a Figurative Sense or by somewhat Catachrestical harsh Construction yet 't is always better to strain Words than Things and there are particular Reasons why we ought so to do in interpreting Holy Scripture and all Interpreters of all Perswasions do it with Approbation of All. Yet this is a thing on which I will not here insist tho it deserveth great Consideration because this is not as Trinitarians pretend our Case or Quarrel with them or the Hinge on which these Controversies turn For we utterly deny that the express Words or the obvious natural Sense of Holy Scripture are on the Trinitarian side we never fly in these Controversies to a Catachrestical or harsh sense no nor have at any time need of a Figurative Sense as hath been sufficiently shown in the brief History of the Vnitarians Trinitarians indeed are forced to those Expedients I do not call them Shifts because 't is plain they must be sometimes allowed not only in interpreting Holy Scripture but in all other Writers and Writings But seeing themselves are forced to use very often those ways of interpreting especially in interpreting the Gospel of St. John and the most part of St. Paul's Epistles they have no right to object such kind of interpreting to Unitarians if indeed we had occasion for it The CONCLVSION THese things have not been said God is Witness to challenge much less to affront other Sects and Denominations of Christians and least of all the Church of England From which Church the Unitarians have not separated as other Dissenters for small and inconsiderable Causes have done We place not Religion in worshipping God by our selves or after a particular Form or Manner but in a right Faith and a just and charitable Conversation We approve of known Forms of praising and praying to God as also in administring Baptism the Lord's-Supper Marriage and the other Religious Offices we like well of the Discipline of the Church by Bishops and Parochial Ministers we have an Esteem for the eminent Learning and exemplary Piety of the Conforming Clergy For these Reasons we communicate with that Church as far as we can and contribute our Interest to favour her against all others who would take the Chair We would not therefore be understood to be Enemies to the Church or as seeking to undermine her Our whole Pretence is this to reform our FAITH by the Rule of Holy Scripture in consistence with evident REASON And the design of this Pretence or Endeavour of ours next to approving our own Souls to God our Judg is to vindicate the common Christianity from the Insults of Atheists or other profane Persons to take from such all just Exception against the most holy and wise Body of Laws that the World ever had or can have even the Christian Religion By making it appear to be a most rational and consistent System as well in the Credenda the Things to be believed as in the Agâ—â—â—a or Things to be done We think this 〈◊〉 such a Design as ought not to be entertaâ—â—â—â— with those Jealousies and aspersed 〈◊〉 those Calumnies and Clamours that are every day raised against us both by the Pulpit and Prâ—ss We hope that the Reasons of our Dissent from the Church in these Doctrines being once known and well considered and the Honesty of our Design in publishing them apparent our Fellow-Christians will less regret our Difference with them about these Questions and will at length acknowledg that however we are mistaken yet we are well-meaning Brethren Thou Father who governest in the Kingdoms of the Children of Men continue to us All the Means of rightly knowing Thee and of living up to the Precepts of the Gospel that we may All at length receive of thee the Inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fades not away reserved in Heaven for us FINIS