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A67388 An explication and vindication of the Athanasian Creed in a third letter, pursuant of two former, concerning the Sacred Trinity : together with a postscript, in answer to another letter / by John Wallis ... Wallis, John, 1616-1703. 1691 (1691) Wing W581; ESTC R38415 30,910 70

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both which are Individual from himself But when we say God is Omnipotent we do not say he is Omnivolent He wills indeed All things that Are else they could not be but he doth not will all things Possible And the like of other Attributes If therefore we do but allow as great a Distinction between the Persons as between the Attributes and certainly it is not less but somewhat more there is no incongruity in ascribing the Incarnation to One of the Persons and not to the rest 'T is asked further How I can accommodate this to my former Similitude of a Cube and its Three Dimensions representing a Possibility of Three Persons in one Deity I say Very easily For it is very possible for one Face of a Cube suppose the Base by which I there represented the Second Person as Generated of the Father to admit a Foil or Dark Colour while the Rest of the Cube is Transparent without destroying the Figure of the Cube or the Distinction of its Three Dimensions which Colour is adventitious to the Cube For the Cube was perfect without it and is not destroyed by it Which may some way represent Christ's Humiliation Who being Equal with God was made Like unto Us and took upon him the Form of a Servant Phil. 2. 6 7. So that upon the whole Matter there is no Impossibility in the Doctrine of the Incarnation any more than in that of the Trinity And supposing them to be not Impossible it is not denied but that they are both of them sufficiently Revealed and therefore to be Believed if we believe the Scripture And of the other Articles in the Athanasian Creed there is as little reason to doubt There is therefore no just Exception as to the Declarative part of the Athanasian Creed And as to the Damnatory part we have before shewed that it is no more severe than other passages in Scripture to the same purpose and to be understood with the like Mitigations as those are And consequently that whole Creed as hitherto may justly be received 'T is true there be some Expressions in it which if I were now to Pen a Creed I should perhaps chuse to leave out But being in they are to be understood according to such sence as we may reasonably suppose to be intended and according to the Language of those times When they did use to Anathematize great Errors which they apprehended to be Destructive of the Christian Faith as things of themselves Damnable if not Repented of And I suppose no more is here intended nor of any other Errors than such as are Destructive of Fundamentals Oxford Octob. 28. 1690. Yours Iohn Wallis POSTSCRIPT November 15. 1690. WHen this Third Letter was Printed and ready to come abroad I stopped it a little for this Postscript occasioned by a small Treatise which came to my hands with this Title Dr. Wallis ' s Letter touching the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity answered by his Friend It seems I have more Friends abroad than I am aware of But Who this Friend is or whether he be a Friend I do not know It is to let me understand that a Neighbour of his reputed a Socinian is not convinced by it But names some Socinian Authors who endeavour to elude Scriptures alledged for the Trinity by putting some other sence upon them He might have named as many if he pleased who have to better purpose written against those Authors in vindication of the True sence And if he should Repeat what Those have said on the one side and I say over again what Those have said on the other side we should make a long work of it But he knows very well That was not the business of my Letter to discourse the whole Controversie at large either as to the Evidence or as to the Antiquity of the Doctrine For this I had set aside at first as done by others to whom I did refer and confined my Discourse to this single Point That there is no Impossibility which is the Socinians great Objection but that What in one consideration is Three may in another consideration be One. And if I have sufficiently evinced this as I think I have and I do not find that he denies it I have then done what I there undertook And in so doing have removed the great Objection which the Socinians would cast in our way and because of which they think themselves obliged to shuffle off other Arguments on this pretence Now whether he please to call this a Metaphysick or Mathematick Lecture certain it is that there are Three distinct Dimensions Length Breadth and Thickness in One Cube And if it be so in Corporeals there is no pretence of reason why in Spirituals 〈◊〉 should be thought Impossible that there be ●●ree Somewhat 's which are but One God And these Somewhat 's till he can furnish us with a better name we are content to call Persons which is the Scripture word Heb. 1. 3. Which word we own to be but Metaphorical not signifying just the same here as when applied to men as also are the words Father Son Generate Begot c. when applied to God And more than this need not be said to justifie what there I undertook to defend Now 't is easie for him if he so please to burlesque this or turn it to ridicule as it is any the most Sacred things of God but not so safe Ludere cum Sacris The Sacred Trinity be it as it will should by us be used with more Reverence than to make Sport of it I might here end without saying more But because he is pleased to make some Excursions beside the Business which I undertook to prove and which he doth not deny I will follow him in some of them He finds fault with the Similitude I brought though very proper to prove what it was brought for as too high a Speculation for the poor Labourers in the Country and the Tankard-bearers in London And therefore having a mind to be pleasant he adviseth rather as a more familiar Parallel to put it thus I Mary take thee Peter James and John for my wedded Husband c. thinking this I suppose to be Witty And truly supposing Peter Iames and Iohn to be the same Man it is not much amiss But I could tell him with a little alteration if their Majesties will give me leave to make as bold with their Names as he doth with the Names of Christ's Mother and of his three Disciples which were with him in the Mount at his Transfiguration Matth. 17. 1. it were not absurd to say I Mary take thee Henry William Nassaw without making him to be three Men or three Husbands and without putting her upon any difficulty as is suggested How to dispose of her Conjugal Affection And when the Lords and Commons declared Him to be King of England France and Ireland they did not intend by alotting him three distinct Kingdoms to make him three Men. And