Whereas therefore he is pleased to charge me with want of School-Divinity touching which I shall say more anon I who have no great Confidence or Opinion of my own Learning in any kind but am an Admirer of all kinds of useful Learning where-ever I find it would have been glad to have had occasion for Admiration at his Skill in the more useful Part of the Divinity of the Schools I mean in their Morals which had his Reverence better read or better remembred he would not have defended his fine new Notions with Calumny The Angelical Doctor and the several Commentators on his Text would have taught him better Non licitum esse calumniose se defendere 2dâ 2dae qu. 69. a 2. The Dean's way of dealing with me enforces me so particularly to cite the Place lest hereafter again he should take occasion to tell the World as so often he does in other Cases with equal Truth and Modesty that I have not read the Author With a Plea of this Nature I mean calumnious it is that he begins what he calls his Apology for writing against the Socinians excusing himself for his long Silence more truly the Impossibility of the thing in not vindicating his late Vindication His Excuse is a Pretence of a long and patient Expectation what the learned Writers of some Controversies at present would bring forth and the learned Writers he will have to be the Character given by me of the Socinians How far he is sincere in this Pretence of Patience I will not venture so much as to guess but his own Conscience tells him and God who is not mocked knows As to his pretending that by the late learned Writers of Controversies I mean the Socinians not to expose him for this as an Excuse doubly wanting Art first in the Choice of it then in the putting it off with no better a Gloss it lies grosly open and whosoever runs and reads may see the Prevarication I take it as a wilful Mistake and in a word a down-right Calumny I prove it a Mistake by solemnly protesting I meant no such thing and surely to this my Protestation Belief cannot be denied for could a Man have so little Sense as to desire the Socinians not to write against themselves And I prove it a wilful Mistake by his own Text for after he has said twice pag. 1. lin 2. p. 2. l. 4. that I meant the Socinians by those Terms he as in the same Breath p. 2. l. 10. complains himself and Dr. Wallis to be more immediately concerned in this Suit for Forbearance This last he spoke true and knew it to be so Therefore the other is a wilful Mistake or what I will not name And again he cites and repeats p. 24. a different Character I gave the Socinians whom I represented not as learned and as far as I know any of them I have found them rather to affect the Reputation of Religious Simplicity than Learning Now though I acknowledg Dr. Sherlock and Dr. Wallis I should for all Reasons except that of Preferments have said Dr. Wallis and Dr. Sherlock to be learned Writers Yet God forbid I should insinuate to the World touching them what one of them has done touching me that they are Socinians Further if he had had any Thoughts that hereby I meant the Socinians why does he tax me p. 18. for not telling the Socinians what Injuries they do by their writing in this Controversy If this Term be interpreted equally to belong to both Sides I have told one as much as the other of the Mischief they do This then because it is said falsly and contrary to his own Sense against me And further as far as I can perceive with a Design to render me odious or to confute my Paper by drawing its Author under Reproach as an Extoller and Applauder of Socinians I challenge as a Calumny and say it is such a Defence as shews no Skill in School-Divinity nor in the fair Laws of Disputation By this Beginning it may easily be guessed what Candour and Sincerity I am treated with in the Progress Body and even Conclusion of his Apology Waving therefore many Instances of like Disingenuity I shall as a fit Preparatory to all Particulars present here the main State of the Cause betwixt us The Author of the Suit for Forbearance had desired that the Disputes §. 2. touching the Controversies of the Holy Trinity might be at present let alone till fit Time and Place What he meant by fit Time and Place he will shew anon And to perswade to this he had said This particular Controversy is of all others at present most unreasonable most dangerous and most unseasonable And as he took the Name of the melancholy Stander-by merely to insinuate a peaceable Temper so he endeavoured to write as a Peace-maker and to that purpose would appear under the fittest Qualification of such namely as a Person violent on neither side notwithstanding he conceives in what he wrote there is much more Tenderness shewn and more said in favour of the establish'd Church of which he all along in his Discourse professes himself what he really and cordially is a Member than the most uncharitable Logick can force from any thing he has said or desired in reference to the Socinians And where is the Mischief of all this Is it Treason in Divinity or is it Heresy to move for Peace at least for a Truce till both Parties are calmed and may calmly treat This was most plainly all that that Author designed or moved for And he is so far from repenting his Motion notwithstanding the Treatment he has received that he now renews it and thinks in Conscience he ought so to do he beseeches as upon his Knees that Protestants agreeing in the common Rule of a holy Life the sure way to Heaven and keeping to the Holy Scripture and the common Creed usually called the Apostles as the Summary of Faith contained in Scripture would give over making Hereticks of one another That those who have private Opinions of their own different from what is commonly accounted and called Orthodox would keep their Singularities to themselves Hast thou Faith have it to thy self that if any have so little Temper as to contend for private Opinions others at present would either for the sake of Peace and Holiness wink at the Errors and impotent Spirits of such Men or at least not exaggerate at this Juncture of Time any Points in Difference amongst us He declares himself not to be without Hopes that Posterity may in no long Time find some Expedients for uniting Protestants though it be true many things must first be done preliminary hereto If he be mistaken in these his Sentiments prove him so and then call him imprudent weak shallow in his Judgment Counsels and Opinion of things unfit to say any thing by way of publick Advice and what else of that Nature you please This in such case would
a good Answer in the Fathers and shall the same be ill meerly because at another time in another Case it came from an Heretick The Hereticks proposing it you say renders it suspect St. Athanasius and St. Ambrose using it say I and relying upon it too gives it Authority The Hereticks used it not first but only retorted it on the Fathers Wherefore at least admit the Authority of the one to take off the Disadvantage it may sustain from the other and let the Project as you call it stand or fall according to its own naked Merit Only by the way give me leave to add that if what is just and reasonable must be rejected because it has been sometimes used by Hereticks we must oftentimes give over pleading from Scripture and quit a World of Texts therein I must acknowledg I am not able to see why Men should be so averse from the Language of the Holy Ghost either in their Prayers or Creeds The Sum of the Reason alledged is that it is the Sense of Scripture which Pag. 7. is the true Faith and not merely the Words And must we saith Mr. Dean very admirably believe the Words or Sense of the Scripture I may desire him if he can to believe this or that Sense as revealed by God for he cannot know this or that Sense or Proposition as revealed by God without the Words in which it was revealed I demand Do those Words express contain and convey to us this Sense of such or such Point of Faith or do they not If they do not then the Sense insisted on is not the Sense of the Scripture and consequently not Faith If they do why should we not keep those Words by which God hath thought fit to express this Sense Why should we separate what he has joined Are we wiser than he or can we express the Mind of God better than himself But when Hereticks have used their utmost Art to make the Words of Scripture signify what they please is it not necessary to fix their true Sense and to express that in such other Words as Hereticks cannot pervert Yes in the Name of God let us use our utmost Art to vindicate if possible all and every Scripture from Heretical Glosses or Distortions and with all the Light and Evidence we can discover and assert its genuine Sense The natural Explication of Scripture is our immediate Scope in most or in all the Arts and Sciences which as Divines we take in But what do all our Explications effect save a Proof or Discovery that this or that is the Sense contained under such Words of Scripture When therefore we have plainly proved that these Words of Scripture contain this Sense why should we change the Words If they were not plain the Explication supposing it to have done any thing to the purpose has made them plain When they are plain then why may they not be kept They may be undetermined said Mr. Dean and 't is necessary to fix their §. 10. true Sense But this is the Difficulty They may rationally at least probably admit more Senses than one and when you say you have fixed your own true Sense another shall deny the Sense you have fixed to be the true Sense at least assign another equally probable Sense And a third Person it may be a third For Instance the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2. 10 12. God hath revealed the Joys and Glories which he has prepared for those that love him unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God For what Man knoweth the things of Man save the Spirit of Man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God This Text the learned Dr. Sherlock as well as others even Athanasius himself interpret not without Probability of the essential Spirit of God and the Doctor both in his Vindication and Apology endeavours thence to prove the Personality of the Holy Ghost and his mutual Consciousness with the Father and the Son Now I sacredly protest I remember not my self ever to have read any Socinian Author on this Text But I find some others by the word Spirit here understand the spiritual Illumination and inward Perswasion of Mind wrought in the Apostles and other faithful People And this we seem enforced from ver 12. to admit where we read the Apostles to have received the Spirit which cannot be well understood of the Person but of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost This agrees too with the Close of ver 10. The Spirit searcheth all things that is scrutari nos facit This Illumination in their Search leads all such who are endowed therewith into the knowledg and belief of all things necessary to their Salvation even the deepest Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Further this spiritual Gift may be said to know i. e. we by this Illumination know and relish the things of God as feelingly as the Spirit of Man knows the things of a Man because this Gift is so true a Communication from God and as it were somewhat of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. imparted to us But that the Spirit of God here spoken of as knowing the things of God should be a Person distinct from God any more than the Spirit of a Man knowing the things of a Man is a Person distinct from the Man seems unreasonable And it is considerable that amongst others even Calvin and Beza allow by the Spirit here may be understood such Gift of Illumination as spoken of But Grotius referring us to what he had said on Mark 2. 8 c. with great Learning and Probability interprets the Spirit here of the Divine Nature of Christ and tells us it was by Christ as coming from the Bosom of his Father and knowing all his Secrets that these things were revealed to the Apostles and that the Sense here is the same as in John 1. 18. and ch 6. 46 c. and he produces many Authorities both from Scripture and Fathers touching the Divine Nature of our Lord being stiled the Spirit Now who shall determine which is the true and genuine Sense and if any of the two latter should be genuine then has not the Dean evinced hence what he conceived and particularly not the mutual Consciousness of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son for that the Person of the Holy Ghost is not here spoken of It were easy but that it would be tedious to give like Instances in many other Texts of Holy Scripture What shall we do then It were an admirable Expedient indeed could we determine infallibly this or that to be the true Sense of each controverted Text and then express that Sense in such Words as Hereticks cannot pervert But where shall we find
again what he endeavours to expose §. 14. my Desires to all to let this Controversy rest as it was above thirteen hundred Years ago determined by two general Councils And my Reason stands unshaken as far as I can see by the Dean or any else The Improvements which have since been attempted upon it have more embroil'd it than explain'd it and bring us down many times into grosser and more phantastical Conceptions of the Deity than become us As to what the Schools and Dr. Sherlock have done I have already spoke my Sense I could have shewn that Dr. Walls was only the English Author for three Somewhats and have cited a certain Father for tria quaedam but I had rather Mr. Dean should tell the World how ignorant I am of the Fathers than that their Esteem should be lessened by any thing produced by me that may seem to reflect on them Only because the World as if weary of metaphysical Improvements in this and like Subjects begins now to be fond of or expect even in Christian Mysteries some Wonders from Physicks or Mathematicks I shall give an Account of something more copious in this kind than what as far as I know our learned Professor here at home has as yet published There is a Book intituled Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres imprinted at Amsterdam 1685. wherein I find an Account of an Essay called a Memorial Memoire communicated by M. and writ to shew the Habitude or Resemblance Rapport of the three Dimensions of a Body to the three Persons of the Deity in which after a short Preface of the different Natures of a thinking and extense Substance there is drawn a Parallel between La Trinite in one Column and Laquantite in another amounting to no fewer than twenty three Particulars And after somewhat said of the Use of these Parallels wherein he utterly denies the false Idea's as he terms them of the School-men he adds seven more parallel Instances between the Objections Hereticks make against the Trinity and such as may be made against the triple Dimensions of Bodies Then follow ten Axioms out of the Religio rationalis Andreae Vissovatii an Author of whom I can find no Account amongst those Books which I have to consult placed also Column-wise the Trinity on one Side and extense Substance on the other He ends with a Promise if this Essay take of a Parallel between the Incarnation and the sensible World on all which I will only say Real and Physical Quantity exists only in Bodies Mathematical Quantity merely in the Mind or Thoughts of the Artist Now how highly Christianity is likely to be advanced by such Speculations as these what real and what rare spiritual Conceptions and Demonstrations at this rate we shall in some time come to have touching God I leave all considering Men to judg and in the mean while again desire all to stop at the afore-mentioned safe Boundaries of Faith and Peace I must now proceed with Mr. Dean rebuking me as surely intending §. 15. this for no more than a Jest that I would have the Doctrine of the Trinity left upon its old bottom of Authority And here he demands would I myself Pag. 12. believe such absurd Doctrines as some represent the Trinity in Vnity to be meerly upon Church-Authority for his Part he declares he would not And for my part I who adhere to Scripture and plead for such strict Adhesion am press'd with none of these Absurdities or absurd Doctrines but if he will not accept such Terms or Forms of speaking as Homoousion or Consubstantial Conglorified and the like from Councils and Fathers he must which would be a great Fault in me even let them alone I do not know whence else he can or must receive them nor who else coined them and desire him to inform me Perhaps he will say what the great Father in this Controversy did before him these syllabical Words are not indeed in Scripture but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Sense is I answer So I believe the Father-thought and so I believe thought the Generality of the Nicene Fathers for by Mr. Dean's Favour they pretended rather to determine this Point out of Scripture than to deliver any traditionary Sense thereof and agreeable to this Pretence was the placing the Holy Records in the midst of the Council yea admitting what we judg good Consequents out of Scripture to be of the same Truth with Scripture so think I but so do not others think nor will I pretend my self able nor do I see any notwithstanding their mighty Boasts able to convince them Demonstrate to the World this to be the Sense of Scripture and the Controversy is at an end Till that be done if we will be fair we must own this to be the State of our Evidence We have for the Orthodox Side Scripture interpreted by the Tradition of the Church this at length resolves it self mainly into Church-Authority For the traditionary Sense which determines Scripture to signify this not that is of such Authority and therefore is the Dogme thence concluded such also Wherefore I see no Reason to recal that honest Acknowledgment of mine conceived indeed in Terms a little larger After all Authority must define this Controversy Yet haply it might not be amiss to desire my Words may be strictly attended I said indefinitely Authority for I know not whether it can be said single Ecclesiastical Authority did ever effectually define it that is appease the Controversy nor will it I fear ever be able There was some other concurrent Power of which I forbear to speak interposed to temperate the Factious in a certain Council as well as to recommend its Decrees and so must there be amongst us for the ending this Controversy Let but the Forms of Worship which some Mens Consciences cannot bear be made easy that we may unite in the Service of God and 't is no matter how severe the Laws be against any who shall write or speak more in the Controversy I cannot tell but Mr. Dean may have private Reasons which induce him rather to abide by the Arguments or Sentiments of some Fathers than the Authority of the Councils by me insisted on I have not pretended to much Skill in Fathers and Councils and no where imperiously to justify my Pretences within the Space of two or three Pages rattle out over and over the same six or seven Fathers in a Breath without producing a Word out of any of them which some Men may interpret a Pretence to Skill in them but no good Mark whence to discover it However because the Judgment and Authority of Councils is so little in his Esteem and the learned and subtile Disputations of a certain Person in the Nicene Pag. 13. Council of so great Force with him I will take leave notwithstanding my being so little vers'd in these Authors to tell him that though I have â—â—â—ue and profound a Veneration for the