Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A47736
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A brief account of the Socinian Trinity in a letter to a friend, June 1694.
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Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing L1121; ESTC R37965
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3,507
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16
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A Brief Account OF THE Socinian Trinity IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND June 1694. LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun West-End of St. Paul's 1695. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE Socinian Trinity In a LETTER to a FRIEND SIR THE Socinians hold a Trinity as well as we They have lately Published Bidle's Confession of Faith touching the Holy Trinity But in the Explanation of this is all the difference He and one part of the Socinians make the Second and Third Persons to be Creatures wherein they are guilty of a very gross sort of Idolatry beyond what was acknowledged by any of the Heathens To join Creatures into one Holy Trinity with God and to Baptize Men into the Faith and Worship of Creatures The Arians could never answer the Charge of Idolatry in giving Divine Honour to Christ while they acknowledged him to be but a Creature Nor can the VVorship of Christ supposing him but a Creature be excused from Idolatry by any manner of way which will not at the same time justifie the Excuses not only of the Church of Rome but of the Heathens themselves for their Idolatry Another sort of Socinians deny the Second and Third of the Trinity to be Persons And make them no more than the Power and VVisdom of God one call'd his VVord the other his Spirit but yet that they are nothing different from God as by a Man's Spirit you mean the Man himself Thus the Brief History of the Uni-tarians But by this Rule they cannot stop at a Trinity in God but must go thro' all his Attributes Justice Mercy Providence Omnipotence Eternity and Twenty more and instead of the Three in Heaven which they acknowledge they must go to a Fourth Fifth Sixth and without End In the next Place where it is said John 1.14 The VVord was made Flesh they say that no Person was made Flesh This Second of the Trinity they say is not a Person but only God's Power or the Manifestation of his Power which they say Inhabited an Humane Person i. e. the Person of Jesus Christ So God Inhabited or Inspired the Prophets Apostles c. but this did not make Him to become Flesh But he inspired Christ in a Higher Degree The Degree signifies nothing as to the being made Flesh No Inspiration or Inhabitation of God or any thing less than an Impersonation i. e. taking our Flesh into his own Person so as to be one Person with him nothing less than this can make him to be Flesh And it is certain that nothing can be made Flesh but a Person A Manifestation of God or of any thing else is nothing in it self it is but our manner of Apprehending what is manifested or shewn to us And to talk of this being made Flesh is the grosest Nonsence and Contradiction Therefore if there be but One Person in the Trinity as this Sett of Socinians do hold then the whole Trinity was made Flesh and then they must come to Muggleton who says as they do that there is but One Person in the Godhead which is God the Father and that He was Incarnate and really Died so that there was then no God But Muggleton says that Elijah govern'd in his absence Rais'd him from the Dead and Restor'd him his Throne and then He was God again But on the other hand if there be Three Persons in the Holy Trinity as the rest of our Socinians do hold But the Second and Third only Creatures and that the Word the Second Person was Incarnate then they must answer for their Idolatry in Worshiping a meer Creature and answer the Cloud of Texts which require and attest Divine Honor to be due to Christ and Command the very Angels of God to Worship Him But to turn again to those Socinians who will have but one Person in the Trinity they put this Meaning upon Matth. 28.19 that we are Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son who is the self-same Person with the Father and of the Holy Ghost who is the same Person with them Both. Again Matth. 12.32 if you sin against one of these you shall be forgiven but if you sin against another who is the very same with that one you shall not be forgiven Now I pray you compare their Trinity and ours They make Three in Heaven who are not only Three but may be Threescore and yet all but one and the self-same Person We acknowledge the Three in Heaven whom the Scriptures tell us of to be only Three and that they are Three Persons One of these was made Flesh the other not yet they will not allow them to be different Persons but that He who took Flesh and He who did not take Flesh were the same or that they were not Two These are the Men who cry out upon Mysteries and pretend to Explain their Faith wholly by Reason and Demonstration and to make it easie and intelligible to the meanest Understanding Besides they differ more if more can be betwixt one another than they do from us What greater difference can there be concerning the Object of our Worship than one to make it GOD the other but a Creature As it is among the Socinians in their Opinion of the Second and Third in the Holy Trinity What greater difference than for one to say they are Persons another no Persons One to say they are Adorable the other not Must not one of these think the other Idolaters And the other think them Profane and Erroneous in Faith who deny Divine Honour to whom it is Due These call themselves Unitarians yet there is not nor can be in the World greater Division and at farther distance than betwixt the several sorts of these who own themselves by one Name and would have the World believe that they have the same Faith Which when so contradictory to it self it can be Ill expected to agree with the Holy Scriptures and with the Holy Catholick Church We acknowledge a Great and Sublime Mystery in the Holy Trinity of GOD That is a Mystery to us which exceeds our Understanding And many such Mysteries there are to us in the Nature of God which we all acknowledge A First Cause without a Beginning A Being which neither made it self nor was made by any other Infinite without Extension In every place yet circumscrib'd in no place Eternal and Perpetually Existing without any Succession a Present without Past or Future and many other such un-Explainable un-Intelligible Incomprehensible Mysteries which yet hinder not our Belief of a God And therefore not being able fully and clearly to explain the Trinity which is the most hidden and secret Attribute of the Nature of God can be no Reason for us to reject such Revelation which God has given us of Himself Yet do we not want several Shadows and Resemblances of one Nature communicating it self to many Individuals without either a Multiplication or Division of the Nature We say that the Soul is all in all and all in every part of the Body yet that the Soul is neither Multiplied nor Divided among the several Members of the Body It is impossible for us either to Explain this or to Deny it for we feel it to be so though it is wholly unconceivable to us how it can be Now if the Soul which is but an Image of God at an Infinite distance can communicate it self to several Members without breach of its Unity why should it be Impossible for the Eternal and Infinite Mind to communicate it self to several Persons without breach of its Unity I will be bold to say you will not find so near a Parallel in Nature whereby to conceive of God's Eternity or his Infinity as this and a great many more whereby we may conceive of His Trinity and Unity by what we feel in our selves and see in a thousand things that are before us We see Extension not Divided but Distinguish'd into its three Dimensions and Communicating its whole Nature to each of the Three for Each is Extension and yet there is but one Extension in all the Three The Soul is not Divided betwixt its several Faculties they remain perfectly distinguish'd though not divided from one another To understand what is present is a quite different thing from Remembring what is Past and to Love or Hate is different from both of these yet these Three Faculties the Understanding the Memory and the Will partake all equally of the same Soul Light and Heat are so different that some are capable of the One who are not of the Other and yet they are not Divided in the Sun but flow equally and naturally from it without any Division of its Nature I say not that any of these Parallels do come up to the full explanation of the Communication of the Divine Nature to several Persons without any Division or Multiplication of the Nature But I am sure they take away the Contradiction alledged to be in it while we see the same Difficulty in our own and other Natures which we can as little Explain But instead of solving this difficulty the Socinians have made it a downright and Irreconcileable Contradiction They would have Three to be One and the self-same Person This cannot be sav'd from a Contradiction They acknowledge the Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit If these are one and the self-same Person they cannot be Three If they are one Nature and several Persons this is a Difficulty it is a Mystery but it is no Contradiction because they are not One and Three in the same respect for that is necessary to make it a Contradiction In one Respect that is of their Nature they are One in an other Respect that is of their Persons they are Three But if they are One in Person as well as in Nature and yet are Three as these Socinians do confess then they are Three and One in the self-same Respect which is a full Contradiction FINIS