so much the greater because I may ground my Interpretation upon other Expressions of the Scripture wherein Christ is formally called the Image of God and because you have no express Texts of the same Scripture wherein the Sacramental Bread is called the Figure of Christ's Body Now neither in my Proposition nor in yours the Image cannot be the Original As the Bread hath but a Conformity of Qualities with Christ's Body not the same Qualities and the same Substance Thus Christ as he is the Image of God cannot have the same Qualities nor the same Nature with God He only hath the Impression of the Divine Substance which God hath communicated to him by honouring him with his Unction bearing Testimony to him and crowning him with Glory as a Reward of his Sufferings Because he humbled himself to the Death of the Cross therefore the Father hath highly exalted him and hath given him a Name which is above every Name Now if Christ hath been dignified with that high Name by reason of his Obedience and Vertue it follows from thence that he had it not by the Priviledg of his eternal Generation For if so the pompous Description of Christ's Elevation set down in the Gospel would be but a Shew and mere Pageantry Therefore dear Cousin if you find in those clear Texts of the Scripture the true Reason of Christ's being called God believe me do not fetch any other from the extravagant Notions of the Athanasian Creed wherein neither you nor I can apprehend any thing except we apprehend nothing Notwithstanding you are so bold as to pronounce against me a Sentence of Damnation upon the Words of that doting Writer who was not Athanasius and even to damn all those who will give no Credit to his Ravings let them be never so pious and charitable O strange Prejudice of Men As for me I 'le make bold likewise to tell you that how false and ill grounded soever the Assurance of Salvation may be which that Author promises to those that believe his Visions it is yet more false that those good Christians who refuse to believe them shall be damned For there is nothing more certain and clear in the Gospel than this viz. That all honest and pious Men shall be saved and that all those who shall be saved will be saved without believing the curious Mysteries of the pretended Athanasius Do but peruse all the Evangelical Promises and look if you can find any one that promises Salvation to those who believe the Vnity in Trinity and the Trinity in Vnity I can shew you a thousand which make Salvation sure to Piety or to a Faith inconsistent with the Faith of Athanasius What Guide shall we then follow this Creed which says That whosoever will be saved ought to believe three Divine Persons and one Divine Essence or Christ who assures us that eternal Life consists in acknowledging his Father the only true God and himself Christ Jesus to be he whom the Father hath sent that is to say the Messias What Creed shall we pitch upon to be the Badg of our Christianity either the new ones which speak of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost as three equal Persons or the ancient Creed of the universal Church commonly called the Apostles Creed which only speaks of God the Father Jesus Christ his Son and the Holy Ghost without giving the Title of God to these two last and which expresly ascribing to the Father the Attributes of the Godhead of Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth ascribes only to the Son that which is only consistent with a Man and cannot be ascribed to the supream God without Blasphemy viz. That he was conceived born died was buried and raised Now as it is not the Language of the Apostles Creed to say God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost so it is neither the Stile of the Scripture which never gives the Title of God to Christ when it joins him with the Father in those Places wherein it sets before us the Objects of our Knowledg and Worship and makes as it were a kind of Form or Confession of Faith The Reason of it is this Christ is God with Respect to the Empire which he hath received from God over the new Creatures which he hath taken out of the Chaos of Sin and governs by his Father's Power But with Respect to God his Father he is only the Minister of his Will his Messenger and is at most called the Lord which is a Term of Inferiority in the New Testament to denote him whom the Father hath made his Lieutenant who hath received his Empire from another and is to deliver it to him that intrusted him with it God say the Holy Apostles having made him Lord and Christ According to this Rule which the Scripture exactly follows it doth not only deny the Title of God to Christ in the Abridgments of Faith which it affords but it is wont to ascribe it only to the Father exclusively of the Son saying expresly that the Father is the only true God and the Son the only Lord as often as it puts together those two Objects of our Faith And in this remarkable Opposition it is that we are to look for the true Sense of the Scripture about this Mystery not in those other Places wherein it doth not affect the same Exactness Here dear Cousin I intreat you again if you are a true Lover of Truth seriously to consider those Texts of the Gospel upon which my Remark is grounded This is Life eternal says Christ to his Father to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent But to us says St. Paul There is but one God the Father of whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him One God says the same Apostle and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus Where is the Trinitarian who on such an occasion would not say One God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost yet there is no mention made of the Holy Ghost and as for the Son he bears only the Title of sent Lord and Mediator that of God being not at all bestowed upon him in those Places Who is the Trinitarian that would not say on the last cited Place One God and one Mediator between God and Men Christ God-man But God-man is too barbarous an Expression and the Holy Ghost is too wise to make such a Conjunction Lastly who is the Trinitarian who would call the Father the only God the only true God to distinguish him from the Son by opposing God to Man the only God to the only Lord and Mediator in a Word the Father to the Son and one Person to another Do they not pretend that the Father cannot be called the only true God but by Opposition to the false Gods of the Heathens But the Holy Apostle doth not only oppose him
Contradictions are Orthodox if one doth but keep in his Mind the blessed Distinction of two Natures which directs the Intention and hinders a Man from telling a Lie By such Tricks as these you pretend to Orthodoxy and boast of a Principle that promotes Holiness and Piety and as you say hath a great Influence upon all the Parts of Religion But dear Cousin don't you know that the learned Dr. Hammond who made a large practical Catechism could find no Place in his Book for the great Spring of the Trinity No question but he look'd upon it as a thing altogether useless and uncapable of moving the Heart of Man Make no doubt of it it is a dry and empty Opinion a Bone without Marrow or Meat which can afford a Christian Soul no sort of good Nourishment in order to Piety I confess there is a Trinity that hath Influence upon the Life of all true Christians viz. that in which you and I have been baptized the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost But I must confess at the same time that it is very different from yours if understood according to Scripture We have the Doctrine of the Father revealed by his Son his Interpreter and Messias and confirmed by the Gifts and Miracles of the Holy Spirit This Doctrine hath so necessary an Influence upon the Practice of Christians that without a right Knowledg of that Revelation we could neither obey God's Commands nor hope for his Rewards And I confess that with respect to this primitive and capital Truth any Man to whom that great Object is proposed shall be no less accountable for the Faults of his Understanding than the Vices of his Will There is a plain Reason for it viz. that this Object doth not consist in Philosophical Speculations which the Simple cannot attain to and the Ignorance whereof must needs be excusable but in plain and sensible Facts for the believing of which nothing else is required but the same Honesty and Sincerity necessary to practise the Precepts For Example We believe a Father Creator of all things a Son born dead raised c. and a Holy Ghost setting the Seal of his Miracles to that Revelation Here is a Faith grounded upon undeniable Facts which doth not require from us a seraphick Understanding but some Honesty to receive the Testimony of those who relate them with as much Evidence as is necessary to satisfy an honest and reasonable Mind The Want of Faith or Understanding in this Respect is the Want of Probity and Uprightness and therefore the Fault is inexcusable But if instead of so simple and sensible a Faith you introduce your Athanasian Faith of three Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible Ones you make Unbelief of all things the most pardonable nay and the most reasonable too because such a Faith is above the Reach of our Senses Reason and Revelation So that we must read in the Gospel I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from Babes and hast revealed them unto the Wise and Prudent I can assure you that not only many eminent Bishops and great Councils have rejected the Belief of such a Mystery as you confess it but that no good Christian knew it except perhaps in his Catechism or a Book of Controversy How many Monuments of Antiquity have we lost of which we could boast with great Reason Who can tell but most Fathers had been on our side if the Malice of their Enemies the Superstition of Monks and the Flames of the Emperors had not destroyed their Books As for those that remain nothing but this can be concluded from them viz. that the Party that prevailed History tells us by what means took Possession of Tradition and Orthodoxy However we have still in the Apostles Creed the Primitive Truths which unite all Christians the saving Truths wherewith God's Providence fed the Faith of Christians during the Quarrels of their Teachers and the only Truths for whose sake true Martyrs have shed their Blood I shall add that the same Providence hath preserved in all Sects and Ages a Body of Christian Morality which makes the great and whole Design of the Gospel Let us conclude here and seriously think dear Cousin that you and I shall be judged by Christ in the last Day only according to this Rule independently on those Opinions which now a-days make the Subject of our Disputes I rest Yours c. FINIS
Words on purpose to keep Christians within the Bounds of the Faith of their Ancestors Metaphysical Terms whereof Men have no fixed Notion and yet they stop the Mouths of Hereticks by making the Church speak more clearly and reasonably than the Holy Ghost did But this is not all some of the same Men who inveighed so much against the Inquisition and Popish Violences set up among themselves a Holy Inquisition and will hear of no Toleration but oppress the Liberty of the Christians who dare speak out their Mind so far are they from venturing on Writings and a publick Profession One would think that by our many Disputes with the Roman Church concerning Infallibility we have acquired the Priviledg thereof to our selves Give me leave therefore dear Cousin since you call me to God's Tribunal to summon you to the same Pray tell me Ought we not to fear that God should require from us the Truth of the Holy Scripture with which we have been intrusted that Light which we have put under a Bushel and his gracious Talent which we have buried If he asks from whence we took those prosane Novelties of a Science falsly so called I mean that most strange and barbarous Language in his Church O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity three Persons and one God have Mercy upon us What shall we answer him What if he shall oblige us to give an Account of our Faith of that monstrous Creed of Athanasius with which we honour our great Holy Days and which you mention as the most illustrious Monument of the Faith of our Fathers Where is the Scribe where is the Philosopher of this World that can answer him to one of those many nonsensical Articles How came ye will he say to find in my Word one Essence and three Persons rather than one Person and three Essences By what Partiality have you discovered a Figure in these Words This is my Body and have found none in these The Word was God Why did you distinguish two Natures in the Christ whom I sent you whilst you refused to admit of two sorts of Being in the Sacramental Body which he gave you You were afraid of those Words To eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of God and you had no Repugnancy for the literal Sense of these A Virgin brought forth God The Jews crucified God He can ask a thousand such Questions to which we shall be able to give no reasonable Answer by reason of the Inequality of the Reverence we pretend to pay to his Word and of our Unsteadiness in the Use we make of our Reason and Senses In Effect I would fain have our Teachers to tell us by what Principle of Philosophy by what Rule of Language that Conclusion is irght and necessary viz. the Father is a Divine Person the Son is a Divine Person the Holy Ghost is a Divine Person Therefore there are three Divine Persons and this should not likewise be so The Father is God the Son is God the Holy Ghost is God Therefore there are three Gods Doth not common Reason tell us that those two Conclusions are like this Gabriel Raphael and Michael are three Angelical Persons therefore they are three Angels The same might be said of Peter James and John who are both three humane Persons and three Men. This Principle of natural Reason ought to prevail unless we are taught by the Scripture that three Divine Persons are not the same with three Gods or that a God is three Persons and three Persons a God But where doth it tell us so What Texts can they alledg that are clearer to prove that Mystery than those alledged by the Papists are to prove their supposed Mystery of one Christ and many Bodies and of many Bodies and one Christ How is it that with respect to the Sacrament we are helped by our Senses to put a reasonable Sense upon the Scripture but with respect to the Trinity Reason forsakes us so far as to ascribe to Scripture an absurd Sense and contrary to its Simplicity Is the Light of a sensible Man more certain than that of an understanding and reasonable Man Have we a greater Certainty that a Piece of Bread is not a humane Body than that two and one make three Is the Mystery of Christ's Sacramental Body more suitable to our Apprehension than the Mystery of his real and natural Body How come we to know that there is something that is incomprehensible in that Man whom we see born and dead and that there is no such thing in the Bread which we take and eat A God is joined to that say ye and why not to this But we see still some Bread will ye reply It is true your Senses do not deceive you But have not the Apostles too seen with their Eyes and touched with their Hands the Man who is called the Word of Life and their Senses have not deceived them This is true who can doubt of it How shall we come off Shall we fly to another Nature hypostatically united to this which is the Object of our Senses But then the Hereticks who err about the Sacrament may have Recourse to the same Shift to avoid the Testimony of the Senses Some will say that the Senses can judg only of the Species which remain in the Sacrament Some that there is an invisible Object in the Bread which is the glorious Body of Christ Some that there is an hypostatical Union of that Bread with the eternal Word which raises the Mystery so much above our Reason that it loses thereby the Right and Liberty of judging thereof and lies under the Necessity of submitting to the Authority of the Revelation which is clear upon this Point for it says This is my Body Now if our Reason is rash in the Judgment it bears concerning the Incarnation notwithstanding the Evidence of the literal Sense of the Scripture which is on her side what Rashness will it not be to interpose her Judgment in the Mysteries of Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation against the express Revelation of God's Word This is my Body I will only ask you one Question upon this Matter and I desire you to answer me in the Fear of God and the Sincerity of your Heart Why do you think you may with Dr. Wallis say that the Terms of Person Father Son Begotten c. are metaphorical whilst you cannot endure that those you call Hereticks should use the same Right and according to Reason and Scripture pretend likewise that the Title of God ascribed to Christ is also a metaphorical Expression Can any thing be more unjust Furthermore why do you take the Liberty to explain the Words of the Eucharist thus This Bread is the Representation and the Figure of my Body And why do you deny me at the same time the same Liberty when I explain the Words in the Beginning of St. John's Gospel by these And the Word was the Image of God Your Injustice is
must be rendred the same is Antichrist For first since Christ signifies Anointed an Antichrist is one that is an Enemy to the Lord Christ's Anointing Now do not you destroy that Divine Unction pretending that Christ is the Son of God by an eternal Generation which makes him uncapable of Unction or Exaltation and overthrows that Fundamental Truth viz. that God made him Lord and Christ Secondly since to come in the Flesh signifies to come not like a conquering Prince but like a Man of Sorrows do not you destroy his Flesh and Sufferings pretending on one hand that he is the most high God who can neither be born nor die and on the other affirming that Christ hath not the proper Personality of a Man but the borrowed Personality of the eternal Word so that according to your Notions the Holy Virgin did not bring forth a Man but an humane Nature the Jews have not crucified a Man but an Humanity An humane Nature is but an Ens rationis and a mere Fancy an Humanity can neither be born nor die nor be raised which overthrows the first Articles of the Christian Faith and may convince you of mere Antichristianism For my part dear Cousin I can boast Thanks be to God of a contrary Character viz. that he that confesseth that Jesus who came in the Flesh is Christ is born of God For I do not believe him to be the most high God who can neither be born nor die but I believe he is a Man like unto us in all things Sin excepted who died for our Sins and was raised for our Justification I confess at the same time that Jesus is Christ the Lord to the Glory of God the Father who hath highly exalted him and given him Power Might Honour and Glory I am amazed to see that instead of building your Faith upon the Rock of that solid Confession you will by all means found it upon such Doctrines as have no Influence upon Practice What Advantage is it to your Religion to reckon three Almighty and three Incomprehensible Ones as Objects of Confidence and Worship Is Infinity capable of more or less Is one the richer for having ten thousand than one only infinite But to believe the only all good wise just and Almighty God was pleased to manifest himself to us by his Messias who is the Prophet that declares his Will to us the King who engages himself to fulfil his Promises and the faithful and merciful High-Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities This I say is the Notion of a most wise Religion which contains a great many Doctrines wherewith the Mind is enlightned and the Heart moved a firm Support to our Faith a solid Foundation to our Hopes and a thousand Encouragements to Holiness of Life I exhort you dear Cousin to a serious Consideration of so simple but so rich a Religion Do it with an honest and sincere Heart and I hope by God's Grace that so great a Light will scatter the Mist that surrounds you and help you to overcome the Prejudices of a Party For it is to be presumed that they are on your side and one that owes his Religion to his Birth and Education ought always to mistrust them You are already gone a great way adopting St. Augustin's Maxim viz. That whatever Expression of the Scripture seems to command a Crime must needs be figurative Go on and be sure that any Expression of the Scripture which seems to require the Belief of an Absurdity and a Contradiction must needs be figurative The Reason is the same for if the Scripture cannot require of you any thing that is contrary to the natural Notions you have of Piety for Example to eat humane Flesh it can neither impose upon your Belief any thing that is contrary to your natural Ideas of Truth as for Example That a Man who dies is the living and immortal God I leave it to your Consideration recommending you to God and the Word of his Grace I am Dear Cousin Yours c. POSTSCRIPT Dear Cousin AFter a second Reading of your Letter I have observed some Fragments of the Writings of your Teachers which you took the Pains to transcribe and upon which you seem to rely much as upon good Authorities I shall tell you that several of your Teachers have over-strained the Matter and that a modest Man ought not to depend upon their Expressions Some others have been so inconstant in their Judgment concerning Hereticks that they have blown hot and cold with the same Mouth according to the several Circumstances they have been in However we need only in opposition to them to consider the Testimony of some more wise and moderate Divines whose Names are no less eminent and respected in the Church of God These are so far from damning devout Christians that are in Error that they will not damn devout and virtuous Jews and Heathens Do but read the Christian Life Vol. 3. p. 2. wherein Dr. Scot tells you that to live according to mere natural Reason is all that God expects from those to whom Christianity hath never been proposed and as for those to whom it hath been sufficiently proposed he lays upon them no other Obligations but those wherewith Christ hath strengthned natural Religion Since Christianity says he hath improved the Duties of natural Religion upon new Principles and inforced them with new Obligations to render our Piety and Vertue strictly and properly Christian it is necessary that we should receive those new Principles and act according to those new Obligations But lest you should dispute about those Principles and Obligations which the Gospel adds to natural Religion I shall abridg this Dispute by a fine Place taken out of the Design of Christianity The pious Author of that excellent Book says p. 236. that if one would be sure that one keeps the Foundation of Christianity and is in no damnable Error he must examine himself thus Am I sincerely willing to obey my Creator and Redeemer in all things commanded by them Do I entertain and harbour no Lust in my Breast Do I heartily indeavour to have a right Understanding of the Holy Scriptures and chiefly of the Gospel and to know what Doctrines are delivered there in order to the bettering of my Soul by them and the Direction of my Life and Actions according to them If we can answer those Questions in the Affirmative who can doubt but all pious Hereticks may do it whatsoever Mistakes we may labour under they can be none of them such as will undo our Souls because we shall have Cause to conclude from thence that the Design of Christianity is in some measure effected in us And whatsoever Tenets may be accompanied and consist with the true Love of God and a sollicitous Care to keep a Conscience void of Offence towards him and Men we may be certain that they belong not to the Catalogue of fundamental Errors This obedient Temper is the