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
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
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
Vindic. of the Trin. p. 14 15 16. The Bishop will not say that there are three Individual Intelligent Essences in the Godhead The Racovians never did say that the Godhead might not be consider'd as subsisting under divers Modes Now as for the Unitarians in this Particular their Case is this While they follow'd the Definiture of the Racovians which was accommodated to the common Acception of the word Person their Doctrine was But One Person in the One God But when the Nominals unanimously declar'd that they meant by Person not a compleat Intelligent Being but only Relations Properties or Modes of Subsistence then the Unitarians made no scruple to own three Persons in one Godhead As to the Particular before us then all that I would beg of my Lord of Worcester in behalf of the Unitarians is that they may have leave to be as much Socinian as his Lordship more they will not desire and if his Lordship hath any Arguments to refute the Trinity of the Realists consisting of three distinct Minds Intelligent Beings Essences which the Socinians have not us'd before him let him be pleas'd to communicate them and the Unitarians will promise for the future to oppose the Tritheism of the Realists only by his Lordship's Arguments and not by any borrow'd from the Socinians farther the Unitarians will be content that his Lordship shall only declare himself against the Doctrine of the Realists who are by reason of their equal Learning Eminence and not contemptible Numbers too considerable to be otherwise griev'd but far from every Orthodox Father be that Injustice common among Boys who when the Person that gives the Offence is out of their reach strike him that stands next It is not much out of place here to commend the good temper of the Unitarians who for conserving brotherly Love and Peace among Christians will not litigate about Terms and Words on which the Authority that imposes them puts an honest Sense and Meaning there are it must not be denied no small Inconveniences in altering the common signification of words but that 's so well remedied by a new Definition of the words that are alter'd that I would sooner envy our Church the Power of declaring Articles of Faith than this Liberty of making words signify in spite of common Sense what they please The greatest Mischief is when words that must be us'd in Theological Controversies must not signify as they have commonly done nor yet be determin'd anew to any other express Particular but this is the Fault of some Realists One of the Unitarians in his Book call'd The Agreement c. p. 36. has examin'd the Sense of the Bishop of Sarum concerning the Incarnation and Divinity of our Lord Christ and grants that the Sense of his Lordship may pass for Orthodox but undeniably evinces that the Sentiments of the Unitarians are a degree or two more Orthodox I shall not repeat but refer the Reader to the place chusing rather in pursuit of my chief purpose to insist wholly on this that there is not so wide a Difference between his Lordship's Explanations and the Racovian Catechism as might be imagin'd and that his Lordship is at least as much Racovian as the Unitarians I do not aim to vindicate all that 's in the Racovian Catechism but only so much of it as the Unitarians are concern'd with The Racovian Catechism teaches that Jesus Christ was a true Man by Nature but had not truly a Divine Nature that Jesus Christ was not so constituted of a Divine and Human Nature as a Man is of a Body and Soul The Bishop of Sarum teaches in the 2d of his four Treatises p. 96. That the Godhead by the Eternal Word the 2d in the blessed Three dwelt in and was so inwardly united to the human Nature of Jesus Christ that by virtue of it God and Man were truly one Person as our Soul and Body make one Man It must be confess'd that here is Contradiction in Terms direct and plain as can be but let the Exposition of the Terms which is given on either side be duly weigh'd and it will evidently appear that the Racovians and the Bishop agree very well as to the Substance of the Article except in one small respect wherein his Lordship is at some small variance with himself When the Racovians teach that our Lord Christ who was a true Man had not a true Divine Nature they do not mean that he was not constantly illuminated conducted and actuated by the Godhead but only that the Godhead did not become commensurate to a finite Man so as to produce a real Communication of Idioms and thereby make the great things which are spoken of Christ in respect of the Illuminating Conducting Indwelling Godhead to be equally applicable to his Humanity this is plain from the Reasons they give why they deny Christ to have a Divine Nature The first is this two Substances endued with opposite Properties cannot combine into one Person i. e. according to their Sense of the word Person into one individual Intelligent Essence Nothing occurs throughout the Bishop's whole Discourse contrary to this Negative but to establish it more sure several Expressions of the Bishop's as Mr. Hill of Kilmington has observ'd upon him intimate that the Manhood of Christ is a Person distinct from the Eternal Word that dwelt in him 2. The Racovians deny the Divine Nature of Christ because say they two Natures each whereof is apt to constitute a several Person i. e. a several individual Intelligent Essence cannot be huddled into one Person or one individual Intelligent Essence One would think that this Reason should not down with the Bishop and indeed the Language does not for p. 102. he says that from the Divine and Human Nature united there did result the Person of the Messias but then what does he mean by the Divine and Human Nature united Why no more than The Human Nature always actuated illuminated and conducted by the Divine This is very agreeable to Scripture yes and the Racovian Catechism also But to make this look more like an unintelligible Union that the Realists might not charge him with betraying the Cause to the Unitarians he calls it in lofty Phrase an assuming the Man into an inward and immediate Oeconomy p. 108. In short the Bishop makes no more of the Divine Nature than this Christ was God by virtue of the indwelling of the Eternal Word in him p. 127. The Racovians scruple the Phrase Divine Nature but admit all that the Bishop makes of it The Bishop places the Divine Nature in that thing which the Racovians do not deny and the Racovians deny the Divine Nature for Reasons which the Bishop allows to be Truths so then the difference between them is purely Nominal a meer Logomachy But to do his Lordship justice he is in the right for using the Terms Divine Nature and God-man because they are Terms authoriz'd by the Church on which both his