be a just and modest Reprehension of him and what I am sure the Man will meekly take But to make him black and odious by all Arts and to talk of reforming him out of the Church for his peaceable Desires and Well-meaning is imperious beyond Measure and what another would call Tyrannical nor will he name what Spirit it bespeaks especially when the great Argument or Foundation of all against what he has said is no better than a Petitio Principii or taking for granted the prime Matter in question namely that the Doctrine of the Trinity as Dr. Sherlock has stated and does defend it is a Fundamental of the Christian Faith This the Dean in his Apology has not offered one Word to prove but quitting his Adversaries and shutting both Eyes and Ears against all that has been said against his Novelties on this Subject violently falls upon exposing the peaceable Man which was indeed much the easier Project but whether either Christian or Honourable the World will judg The melancholy Stander-by had asserted in his 7th Page the Doctrine of the Trinity as duly stated to be one of the Fundamentals of Christian Religion And it is most plain by what he propounds as the Medium of Peace that the stating it according to Scripture and in Scripture-Language he esteems the most due stating it the Dean likes not this says it is a Proposal of old Hereticks and not only would have the Philosophical Terms now a long time usual in this Point received for Peace-sake but as Fundamental in Faith Nay and not content herewith he gives new Definitions of or affixes new Notions to these Terms and would have all pass upon us still under the Colour of Fundamentals The melancholy Stander-by to speak the whole Truth neither could nor can admit either of these namely either that Philosophical Terms never used by Scripture and besides of various Use or uncertain Signification should be made Fundamentals of Faith or that the Doctor 's new Explication of them should pass at all and his Reasons may perhaps appear anon But in what he writ he express'd not this his Dissent so as to contest either of these Points Only as he would not enter into the Controversy himself so he desired chiefly by reason of the Mischief he thought he saw arising from thence it might be at present forborn by all and he is still as willing as ever to decline engaging on either Point only in his own Defence against what the Dean has endeavoured to load him with he must now say that if any should join Issue with the Dean upon the first Article of the Nicene Creed I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD c. which is a Fundamental and the true Catholick and Apostolick Faith It will soon appear that Dr. Sherlock has in his Book contradicted and to his Power overthrown that Faith as much as ever Johannes Philoponus or Joachim the * So the Text of the Decretal stiles him Florentine Abbot or as others the Abbot of Floria or Flency the two greatest and most antient Leaders of the Tritheists ordinarily assigned ever did for according to the best Accounts of them neither of these expresly maintained more Gods than one nay they expresly disclaimed such Assertion only they so taught the Nature and Distinction of three Persons as that their Doctrine inferred three Gods from which Charge the Invention of mutual Consciousness will never clear Dr. Sherlock ' s Definition of a Person in the Godhead for such Consciousness whatever he says to the contrary can infer only an Vnity of Accord not of Substance and Nature whereas it is an Unity of Substance and Nature that the Council and Fathers have held but these things require more Words than the present Design admits To make the Sum of my Sentiments or what I would be at plainer §. 3. The holy Scripture states the Trinity under the Notion of Three bearing witness in Heaven for I have much more to say for that exagitated Text than to allow it wanting in any Copies on any other Reason but their Imperfection and affirms these three one but how they are one it determines not And Faith being a Belief of the Witness of God and Baptism a Seal or Badg of Faith when we are baptized we are baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as owning and assenting to or professing and vowing to acquiesce in their Witness touching all the whole Will of God and Method of Salvation published in the Gospel This is Scripture and here the melancholy Stander-by would stop as to Faith in this Point of the Trinity To the Incarnation there is yet no occasion to speak The Fathers in the Council of Nice did not as far as ever I could perceive by any genuine Monuments of theirs vote the Term three Persons the Incarnation of the Son of God or his Divinity though made Man was the Controversy before them rather than the Trinity and the great Product of that Council was the word Homoousion in Assertion of the Son 's being of the same Substance with the Father But the Greek Fathers of that Age did soon use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in this Case is most aptly rendred Subsistence and contend for three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Subsistences Now as to the common Definition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in divinis that is to my best Memory pretended to be taken out of Justin Martyr by Damascen a Father of much latter Age I said to my best Memory for my Condition is such at present and has been such upward of four Years that I am without the Use of the best part of my Books and now near 150 English Miles distant from a Library Yet I thank God I am Master of Justin and Damascen more ways than one be it spoken without Affront to Dr. Sherlock in case of my having read other Books I had read them near two and thirty Years ago But to return to the Definition spoken of as now I take it out of my old perhaps too imperfect Notes runs thus In the Holy Trinity an Hypostasis is an unbegun or if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasâ—en Dialectic cap. ult Word may be pardoned a beginningless manner of the eternal Existence of each that is of Father Son and Holy Ghost So that according to this Author it superadds nothing to the Divine Essence which is one and common to all the three save a bare manner of Existence or Subsistence Only by the way I must note as to the Authority of that Piece in the Works of Justin Martyr whence this Definition comes namely the Expositio rectae fidei it is sufficiently proved by Scultetus Rivet and others to be none of Justin's genuine Works The Latin Fathers which came soon upon the Heels of the Council and of the Greek Fathers above spoken of suspected this Word Hypostasis and St. Jerome particularly contended there
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
the Communion of the regular establish'd Church which yet he is far from contemning or censuring Suppose I say a Person to be of such Character and Circumstances shall we dare to say this Man's Faith is not sufficient to his Salvation because we our selves perhaps have more Faith and are justly perswaded more is necessary to our own Salvation In all Likelihood he endangers himself to be excluded from Heaven who takes upon him to exclude such I am far from denying that Men ought to grow up to Perfection in all Faith and Knowledg that is to endeavour to comprehend and believe as near as they are able all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven or all revealed Truths built upon that one Foundation Jesus Christ and him crucified But we know how vastly the Superstructure is increased the Compass of Scripture even of the New Testament is large the Difficulty of understanding it at this Distance great the Lights which we have by Fathers and Doctors various and by their Variety many times dazling and confounding one another nay even whole Churches in Doctrinals very contrary to one another and at least one and that the greatest of them all for the maintaining her Grandeur has designedly with all the Arts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4. 14. and Methods of Deceit new modell'd the whole Frame of Christian Doctrine and not stuck in a sort to corrupt even Scripture it self by imposing on the World her corrupt Translation and in many Points corrupter Sense of it for infallible Truth and the only sure way to Heaven in which Impositions of hers all Protestants agree many Points to be fallacious and destructive Now these being and having been the Circumstances of the present Age and indeed of many late Ages is it not the constant Doctrine of all Reformed Churches that every Person should with Prayer Humility and Study of the Truth proposing unto himself the Holy Scripture for his Rule judg for himself And must not every Man believe what is the Result of his Judgment or what in Conscience according to Scripture he judgeth Truth Now perhaps sundry Points which particular Doctors yea which Churches have differently determined and which some of them pretend to be of Faith an honest inquisitive Man cannot perceive the Holy Ghost to have determined at all nor does he find them in the Apostles Creed the old Standard or Leiger-Roll of Fundamentals Nay further examining them according to the Analogy or Proportion of Faith that is comparing them with undoubted Fundamentals he cannot resolve which Opinion bears most Proportion or is most certain In this Case what shall the Man do For my own part I can see nothing more proper and safe than to take the Matter in that Latitude wherein the Scripture delivered it Had not learned Men differently interpreted and imbroiled the Text perhaps I should never have perceived any more than one Sense of it even that in which I now take it But having seen their Glosses I am sensible the Text will admit several Interpretations and which of them was designed by the Holy Ghost I know not I disbelieve none of them nor will I as far as able in my Practice act contrary to what either or any of them enforces I submit intirely to the Authority of God in all Here 's my negative Belief I will not divide the Christian Church nor take Part with them that do divide it but hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace maintain Christian Charity with all Christian People and esteem all them to be Christians who are content to walk or who without the Contradiction of a disorderly Life profess to walk by that Rule which I own namely Holy Scripture This is the Latitude I plead for and from which I think I never shall be driven But there being but one Faith there can be no more Latitude in Faith §. 12. than there is in an Vnit This is a Subtilty indeed and no doubt a stabbing Argument against the People of the long Name as some are pleased to stile many conformable moderate Persons But are there not as many sorts of Vnits as there are of Vnities And did Mr. Dean never hear in Philosophy of an Vnity of Composition which is so far from excluding Parts that it supposes them Or in Arithmetick did he never hear of Integrals and what minute Parts thereof Artists can make No Latitude in an Unit Yes and in the one Faith too especially as by the one Faith we understand what Churches and Doctors have now made it Have we not whole Systems of Opinions now adays made up into Confessions of Faith Certainly all controverted Points in Christian Doctrine can no more be maturely determined and the stated Truth distinctly be believed by all Men than all Christian Perfection be by all equally attained There are those to whom it is given in an ampler and more peculiar measure to know the Mystery of the Kingdom Though all may have the same Scripture or Body of revealed Religion all have not the same natural Sagacity and Judgment the same Education and Advantages of Improvement the same Leisure and Opportunity for Search and Application of Mind Some and that far the greatest Numbers of Christians can only understand the common Christianity repent of their Sins and in Well-doing depend upon God's Mercy in Christ Jesus for Life everlasting Others leaving that is not stopping at those the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ the alone true Foundation go on unto Perfection So that there is a measure of Faith as well as of other Christian Perfections And God is doubly the Author of a Latitude in Faith 1 In revealing his Truth in such Terms as admit of a Latitude of Conception 2 In giving to Men as he sees fit such measures of Knowledg and Perswasion as leaves them in an higher or lower Degree of Faith and even of Holiness And accordingly in our Father's House there are many Mansions Nor can any Man with Reason gainsay these things Now though this be far from thinking it indifferent what Men believe Pag. 9. or whether they believe any thing or not yea faralso from believing what we please yet I confess it is believing as by Grace we are able I must conceive as I can and judg as I can and believe as I can too And neither I nor any Man alive who believes any thing can believe all that dictating Men will impose upon them The Authority of the Church it is true is of great Weight and will go very far to the determining any sober Man's Judgment in a case where Evidences on both sides are perfectly equal that is alike probable or alike uncertain But the Faith we owe to the Church and that we owe to God are very different All the Churches or Councils in the World can never make that an Article of Faith which God has not made so He who alone can bestow Salvation has alone
am so far from espousing the Conversation much less Friendship of any such as that I say with the great Apostle If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha And as for my own part I from my Heart receive every Tittle of the revealed Christian Religion particularly as to those two Magnalia the Trinity and Incarnation Touching the former I have once and again declared my Judgment and Faith and touching the latter this being the meetest Place wherein to profess my Faith of it I do profess sincerely to believe my Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God the Word who was in the Beginning and who was with God and was and is God blessed for ever to have been in fulness of Time made of a Woman and so to have become Flesh or truly taken upon him Flesh and Blood to have been in the World as we are in the World subject to all Infirmities Sin only excepted and that as such having by himself purged our Sins he is sat down on the right Hand of the Majesty on high and as he lives for ever to make Intercession for us so he shall come to judg the World at the last Day Thus do I from my Heart adore and preach him and shall do I trust to my dying Hour I know indeed and have Converse with some who are not in all these Particulars of my Mind yet neither are they licentious Wits nor do they ridicule and scorn this Faith nor do I see how any sober Men dare ridicule it But some vertuous Rationalists having perhaps faln upon bad Books and by that Means lying under strong Prepossessions they misinterpret these Passages of Holy Scripture which I have reported and others like and endeavour to evade their Evidence when applied to that Sense to which we of the Church of England alledg them Now I do not think Stiffness and an immoderate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a winding up the State of each Question still higher and higher and then disputing scornfully and defending all in new Methods or by new Hypotheses to be the way to reclaim these Men but what I conceive to be most serviceable I shall before I have done speak out and submit As to Men that ridicule and scoff at any thing in Religion yea though it be erroneous as long as it is consistent with Holiness and Charity has a fair Claim to Scripture and seems deducible thence I think such Scoffers highly prophane and both these and all such who treat those that are not of their Opinions with Scorn and Haughtiness I judg them to be next door to David's Scorners Psal 1. namely in the highest Class of the Wicked and very near being incorrigible which is all I will say as to this Imputation of my having entertained a Friendship with such Men. Mr. Dean goes on and says I have found out such a Reason to prove §. 20. Pag. 20. the present Danger of disputing the Controversy of the Holy Trinity as he believes was never dream'd of and that is that it is one of the Fundamentals of Christian Religion Now to litigate touching a Fundamental is to turn it into Controversy c. Here I must again complain of soul dealing my Words were The Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity in whose Names we and all Christians are or ought to have been baptized is esteemed as it is if duly stated one of the Fundamentals of Christian Religion It is apparent I did affirm the Doctrine of the Trinity a Fundamental with this Restriction if duly stated He charges it upon me as affirm'd simply and at large I deny it to be a Fundamental or so much a Truth as Dr. Sherlock states it in his Vindication of it viz. that there is a Trinity of infinite Minds c. though with Reverence I acknowledg and believe it to be both a Truth and a Fundamental as the Scripture states it Now for Men to take the Name of a fundamental and revered Truth the Holy Trinity and affix it to a novel and gross Pack of Errors and to go on to dispute for those Errors under the sacred Title of a Fundamental of the Catholick and Apostolick Faith which was plainly enough my Sense this I say and stand to it is of dreadful Danger and may prove of as mischievous Consequence as most Practices assignable For in case the Adversary disprove and expose that Error it is not with the Generality of People the Error that suffers but that great Truth the sacred Name whereof was abused And whereas he demands Is it dangerous to preserve and defend Foundations when Hereticks unsettle them I answer he has truly done neither neither secured nor defended them but very surely has he done a third thing he has to his Power changed them Wherefore to all that dreadful aggravative Discourse which takes up a whole Page and an half spent to render me ridiculous and my Assertion Pag. 20 21. extravagant as if according to what I urge Men might not argue against Atheism I will give no other Answer than that I pray God to forgive him the making this Parallel and grant unto him hereafter better to employ his Time and Parts than in such open and unartificial Exaggerations In the next Page follows a Piece of News which I am truly to thank him for touching a Treatise in the Press from our excellent Primate Pag. 22. Now though this Intimation was intended against the Design of my Paper as an Argument from Authority and the Authority too of such a Person whom should I offer to except against I should most justly expose my Judgment if no more yet so welcome is the Tidings he tells me that here also I forgive both this his ill Intent and the sly Scoff with which he concludes that Paragraph not doubting but when I see that Piece I shall find in it both plain and perspicuous Scripture-Notions clear Reason and genuine Antiquity Besides I must tell the Apologist I look upon his Grace both by his publick Station and personal Qualifications far otherwise capacitated to write on this Subject than a private Doctor such as I suppose Mr. Dean was when he writ what he stiled the Vindication of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity I now come to what he has to say against my last Argument for a temporary §. 21. Forbearance of these Disputes which he thus reports that I say All Controversies are now unseasonable in such a Juncture wherein nothing but an Vnity of Counsels and joining Hands and Hearts can preserve the Reformation and scarce any thing more credit it than an Vnion in Doctrinals This Report of my Argument is according to his wonted Candour and Veracity But my Argument by his Favour stood not so in my Paper it was more carefully express'd had more Parts and those pressing closer I desire it may be considered I was to say as much as I could in a little and however Mr.
Dean thinks fit to deal with me I am not ashamed of any Part of what I said My Argument then stood thus As indeed all Controversies amongst Protestants are most unseasonable in such a Juncture wherein under God nothing but an Union of Counsels and joining Hands and Hearts can preserve the Reformation and scarce any thing more credit and justify it than an Union in Doctrinals so above all other Controversies none can well be thought of worse tim'd than this Of which ill timing it I gave a very particular Proof too warm it seems for him to touch upon and therefore he slipp'd it away between his Fingers as if it had not been But how answers he my Argument First he disjoints it then answers to what Parts of it he pleases and to those Parts in what Order he pleases And finally never considers the Parts as connected and together adding Strength to the main Conclusion Indeed such dealing as this with some Scorn interlaced is his usual way of confuting What he says worth notice I shall reflect upon The first Member of my Argument he thinks fit to ampliate and will say a little more that they i. e. all Controversies amongst Protestants which was the Subject of my Proposition are always unseasonable for there is no Juncture seasonable to broach Heresies and oppose Truth But may there be no Controversies especially amongst Protestants which broach not Heresies The Denial of the Trinity duly stated I allow to be Heresy But we in the first Member of the Argument speak of all Controversies amongst Protestants Now do all Dissensions amongst Protestants arise to Heresy on one side or other God forbid Again in times of publick Peace may there not be very seasonably amicable Conferences and Arguings between those who dissent from one another in order to clearing Difficulties and so to brotherly Accord Even those Treaties are certainly some kind of Controversies though some Men may be very unfit for them and therefore have little Kindness for them and those I stand to it ought to be held in due Season But at present I did not think even these kind of Arguings seasonable but would have them also suspended and was of Opinion that as things stand all Protestants suffering each other to worship God in his own way according to the Conscience of each should join against a common Enemy What I said may be Truth and advisable and as far as I yet see is so What Mr. Dean adds is not true and his Proof of it is very insufficient to say no worse For he would prove all Controversies to be always unseasonable because some are so I will not tell him that even Heresies may be and daily are in University-Disputations and like Theological Exercises strongly argued for and Truth opposed not only for exercising and ripening Scholars but that all the Strength Heresies have may be detected and enervated and the weaker Side of Truth secured so that thus also all Controversies asserting Heresy and opposing Truth are not always unseasonable So great a Disputant as Mr. Dean ought not to have advanced so universal a Proposition without more Caution As to his defending Fundamental Truths I have already spoken However seasonable the defending them may always be I say in a word the changing of them can be never so Next he repeats two other Members of my Argument and begins with carping at the last thus Is the Vnion in Doctrinals ever the greater that Socinians boldly and publickly affront the Faith of the Church and no body appears to defend it I answer that I am not for any Affronts in what Cause soever for I seldom see they do good but most of all am I against Affronts to the publick Faith of the Church The Socinians I am informed were silent some while upon my Paper till others blew the Coals afresh It is utterly against my Mind and grieves my Soul if they do affront the establish'd Church and 't is more than I know God forbid I should excuse them for it I would have them and all Men to be peaceable meek and humble But in case of such Affronts the Church God be blessed has better Ways to vindicate the Faith and her own Honour than the Fancies and new Notions of private Doctors who consult her not but run perfectly upon their own Heads and advance their own Principles being busy and intermeddling in every Controversy that is moved I boldly aver less would be said against the Truth did not such Persons appearing for it by their pretended Defences of it and by the haughty Stile and Manner of penning them give new Matter to the Adversary Those daily fresh Provocations and the Effects of them are what I did in part and must still insist upon as one main Reason for my Suit for Forbearance But will the World think that we are all of one Mind because there is §. 22. disputing but on one side Then they will think us all Socinians c. I answer Let us go on in Conformity to our Church-Doctrine and especially in an holy humble peaceable obliging Conversation and touching our Judgment in Doctrinals the World will sooner credit our Practice and the Articles or Confession the Liturgy Catechism Homilies Constitutions and such publick Acts of our Church than twenty little Vindications of private Doctors And as for the Pamphlets of some obscure and anonymous Persons I still say again 't is Opposition for the main that gives them Celebrity and Life Heresies have from Age to Age still been transmitted to Posterity by sundry Consutations they have received Had we had only the Holy Scripture and our Creed with a few practical and devotional Books delivered down to us we should have been united in a plain Faith in Charity and Holiness built thereupon and the very Names as well as the Errors of the antient Hereticks had been long since buried and unknown Whereas every Age now by what has been writ against Heresies know how to refine and new vamp them What further are in my poor Opinion the meetest Ways to provide against Socinianism as well as all the other isms or dissenting Parties I shall speak perhaps anon In the mean time I must not let pass a very signal Favour of Mr. Dean's to render me if he could obnoxious to the Government in making me privy to a very dangerous Secret or great Truth fit for all Governments to Pag. 23. consider truly their Majesties Chaplain in ordinary ought to admonish the Government of their Oversights a Truth he says which I have unwarily confess'd and he is in the right of it for I thought not of it nay I neither before knew nor do I now believe it to be generally a Truth that every Schism in the Church is a new Party and Faction in the State which are always troublesom to Government when it wants their Help This may be true of every vast or multitudinous Schism when the Number infected come to
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
Which my Author says is contrary to the Doctrine of Greg. Naz. the great Divine Niceph. Callist Hist lib. 18. cap. 48. Philoponus I must confess I know not what is I do not say the Dean believes three Gods God forbid I should but I do avow he has said what necessarily infers three Gods I hope therefore according to his Promise p. 11. he will thankfully correct this Absurdity and not blush to recant an Error § 4. After this my general Vindication I am now to descend to the Particulars I am charged with And first he charges me in Effect in his Title-page but more expresly in Pag. 2. and in other Places that I desired no Body would write against Socinians Whatsoever my Intent was of which I think he wants the Gift of discerning Spirits to capacitate him for being a Judg I am sure he can never prove this Charge from my Paper in which the only Controversy mentioned was that of the Trinity and possibly some of its Subdivisions Now it is notorious 1 That the Socinians are not the only Persons Heterodox in these Points 2 That these are not the only Points in which they are Heterodox There are also divers others in which I believe in my Conscience they grievously err The Doctor then might have written against the Socinians and not meddle with the Doctrine of the Trinity Therefore when I desired the Controversy of the Trinity might for the present be sorborn I did not desire that no Body should write against the Socinians The next Touch at me which I will remark is if I am a Divine of Apol. pag. 2. the Church of England why should I profess he means stile my self a Stander-by I answer perhaps I was not so conceited of my Skill at the Weapon as others are But admit I had been must every one that thinks he has found out some new Pass or Guard draw presently upon the next Man he meets begirt with a Sword Should all of the Doctor 's Degree or mine have written on that Subject where had been the End of Books I was therefore on this Account as well as in the Sense before mentioned a Stander-by and on how many Scores melancholy it is too long and too sad to recount I heartily pray neither Mr. Dean nor any other Christian may have like Reason But he is always very jealous of Men who are so tender of the wrong Side It is evident indeed to any who reads my Paper I have express'd therein a Tenderness 1 For the Church of England and the Nicene Faith 2 For the Credit of the Reformation 3 For Peace and Holiness Is any or are all these the wrong Side As to his Observation which he tells us he has made and which he subjoins touching Mens Tenderness being due to their Inclinations he may keep these his profound politick Notes for better Purpose I own my Inclination to the three Points mentioned and wish the same both in him and in all Members of our Church As to his perverting my peaceable Assertions and making them what he pleases by odious That is's in the two next Paragraphs and a multitude of other Places These are such open disingenuous Arts that I will only note them and having told my Reader that this is his common way of dealing with me to the end he may cast Reproach and a publick Hate upon me I will concern my self to answer only to the more material Points or to the Gross of the Res substrata which he imputes to me I confess my self an Enemy to such open Disputes between Protestants §. 5. as only publish to the common Enemies the Divisions of the Protestants Nor do I find the Reformers to have been whatever Mr. Dean says for such Disputings nor that the voluntary Disputings of unauthorized Persons have ever suppressed but rather revived old Heresies How I would have those who should write in this Controversy authorized I will anon set down In the mean time I come to that Latitude and Simplicity wherein I suppose Christian Faith was delivered and wherein I would have Pag. 3 c. it left which Mr. Dean will not understand And first he would gladly know what I mean by the Latitude of Faith Now because he seems to be at a great deal of Pains here to mistake me another Man would have said to blunder I will tell him that Latitude here is a metaphorical Term and I will not be so exact as to suppose it translated to our purpose either from Astronomy or Geography but taking it meerly for one of the triple Dimensions of Bodies apply it by way of Similitude to that Extent of Signification which Terms of any Proposition may naturally both in themselves and in their Dependance on Precedents and Subsequents admit All Men who have read and considered do know that the same Words may carry with them different Notions and that the Compass of those different Notions though it be bounded by the common Import of the Words yet does often times include divers Specialties in it And this I affirm as to the Propositions of Faith both in Holy Scripture and even in the Apostles Creed it self As to the latter I instance in that Clause He descended into Hell our Divines have told us it admits three or four Though it be a Christian's Duty to believe every Article of this Creed I conceive the agreeing upon some one Sense wherein to interpret every Article of it is not so absolutely necessary but that some one of them may be taken in a LATITVDE and either not determined to any one Interpretation or resolved to be capable of more Practic Cat. lib. 5. §. 2. Senses Dr. Hammond himself allows two and whosoever understands and believes it in either of those Senses though he should haply doubt or distrust the other of them is not guilty either of Heresy or Unbelief No nor supposing that by Contention he divide not the Church or himself from it is he to be taxed with Schism Now to leave Faith in the Latitude in which it was delivered is to impose no Determinations of such Words or Expressions as necessary to Salvation but to allow each Person to believe the Matter propounded in one of those Senses whatever it be which the Words naturally bear and which in his Conscience he judges the truest And this Allowance I particularly demand as to the Point in hand as set down 1 John 5. 7. And such Allowance in this as well as in other disputed Points would I say soon reduce Controversies amongst Protestants to a very small Compass at least the Heats in managing them would cease Then as to what I mean by Simplicity he says I leave it to guess Is this then a Word of Difficulty or is this Phrase the Simplicity of Faith unusual and uncertain But when no Exception else could be found Nodus in scirpo must be pretended Take then good Mr. Dean the Simplicity of Faith in what
the Church-Catechism has taught thereof out of the Creed to be sufficient to any Christian Practice which can be superstructed hereon Yet I must not thus conclude what I have to say for my Justification in my Reflection on the Master of the Sentences the learned Dean being so well versed in the School-men has certainly heard of a certain Censure or Caution to some Texts of the Masters in these Words Magister non tenetur And what is that in plain English but that on these Subjects the Master has writ so as that his very Scholars or Partizans are ashamed of him and not able with all their Subtilties to defend him One of the first Articles as I take it to which this Note is put is Charitas quâ diligimus Deum proximum est Spiritus sanctus Or Charitas quae est amor Dei proximi non est aliquia Creatura that is Charity whereby we love God and our Neighbour is no created being but the Holy Ghost This would afford admirable Consequents But to let them pass untouch'd being that the Assertion it self so intimately concerns the Holy Ghost as to pronounce in some measure touching his very Quiddity as I may so speak and being that the Holy Ghost is the third Person in the Trinity this must necessarily be acknowledged to be a very considerable Point in the Controversy of the Trinity And then neither have all the Papists been very Orthodox in the Disputes about As to the Orthodoxy of all the Papists in Point of the Trinity I would ask Mr. Dean if he never heard any thing of a Design some had of getting in or adding the Blessed Virgin to the Trinity and what a Trinity they would in such Case have made of it Or how Orthodox that Party was in their Conceptions either of the Deity or of that Trinity c. the Trinity as Mr. Dean says Apol. p. 23. for the Master himself advanced herein a gross heretical Proposition nor was the melancholy Stander-by unacquainted with the Master when he only with a light Touch censured what the Master had troubled the World with on this Controversy For my own part I would be unwilling to be put upon it to defend what yet the Master asserts and after his way endeavours to prove in another Place touching the Holy Ghost that saith he the Holy Ghost is an Act of Love so I render Dilectionem or the Love of Spiritum sanctum Dilectionem esse sive amorem Patris Filii quo scilicet Pater diligit Filium Filius Patrem Dist 10. F. the Father and of the Son namely wherewith the Father loveth the Son and the Son the Father Notwithstanding that that Distinction has no such Stricture that I have observed set upon it by the Scholastick Censors and notwithstanding too that Mr. Dean has more amply explicated and espoused it Vind. p. 130 c. The Father saith the Dean is original Mind and Wisdom The Son the Word and Wisdom of the Father that is the reflex Knowledg of himself which is the perfect Image of his own Wisdom and the Holy Ghost that Divine Love which the Father and Son have for each other These he calls three substantial Acts in God so distinct as that they can never be the same But whose will consider what Idea our Minds frame of Self-reflection and Love the Latin Term is Dilectio will rather stile these immanent Actions how permanent soever they may be supposed Now that an Action though immanent can be a living intelligent Substance an infinite eternal Mind is what I would be loth to be bound to the Proof of But says the Dean why did you not accuse the Fathers and Councils for the Master took most of what he has out of them Suppose that I had so much Reverence for the Fathers and Councils as to be willing their Names should not be blemish'd am I to be chastised for that He and all the World know I could not read the Master's Book but I must read therein the Names and oftentimes the Places of the Fathers whence he took most of what he says I could not therefore be ignorant that many of these things are to be found in the Fathers But I was desirous I say that their venerable Names should shine as bright as may be and that the rather for that this Rummager has after a sort weeded their Writings and very often taken only the worst things out of them The Father out of whom he has injudiciously amass'd together the most he has of the Trinity complains those his Books of the Trinity were almost ravish'd out of his Hands before he could amend or finish Aug. Retract lib. 2. cap. 15. them as he would have done and that he intended not to have published them but to have spoken what he thought of this Argument in another Work When therefore I find St. Austin produced proving the Son the Beginning a Principle or Original Principium the Word is and that not only in respect of the Creatures but even of the Holy Ghost from such a Testimony of Scripture as this is They said unto him Who art thou and he answered Even the same that I said unto you from the Beginning which the vulgar Latin and St. Austin as well as some other Fathers corruptly read The Beginning who also speak to you I let St. Austin pass who in effect did as good as ask Pardon for his Mistake or misapplying this Text and I tax him who taking no Notice of the Father's excusing his imperfect Work alledgeth even the most culpable Passages in it for legitimate Proofs Libellus Male cum recitas incipit esse tuus He by this Means makes the Fathers Over-sights his and is justly to be blamed for them But as to his Faithfulness in dealing with the Fathers hear what a great Man says His Books of the Sentences says Mornaeus he has made up out of Pieces of the Fathers here and there culled out and put together in a certain Order which Fathers he by changing omitting adding Words at pleasure has forced to serve his Plot and bowed to the corrupt Divinity of his Age. And however Orthodox any who affect Dispute and endless Speculation may judg him in the Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation Bellarmine himself after Recital of his Works adds this Account on him out of Matthew Paris That he was accused of Heresy in the Matter of the Incarnation and condemn'd at Paris nineteen Years after his Death Then as to the Point of the Trinity the Case wherein I taxed him L. Danaeus a Geneva Divine and no Socinian avows and proves that in every Part of his Disputation In quâlibet hujus Disputationis parte negligentia dolo malo aequiparatur Censura ad Dist 35. lib. 1. hereon his Fraud and Negligence are equal And whosoever will spend a few Hours in perusing the said Danaeus's Prolegomena to his Commentary on the first Book of
the Sentences the Master's Piece by me challenged and especially Prolegom V. will find both there and more fully in the Book the Master distinctly convicted to be 1 A false Witness 2 A pernicious Writer And 3 A ridiculous one He will find also an explicit Collection of his Frauds and Falsifications to which the Author subjoins he has not pick'd out Passages to cavil at but rather challenges any to produce what is faultless I might say much more but let this suffice as to my Defence in whatsoever Reflections I made on the Master of the Sentences in this Point I hope it appears I gave not that Touch upon him which I did without Reason and knowledg of his Accomplishments But for all this the more general Cause of my being so angry with the §. 7. Pag. 5. School-Doctors is because I have not Industry enough to read or understand them I thank Mr. Dean for this Ornament and will take hence only an Occasion of a little publick Penance before God and the World confessing with hearty Sorrow and Shame that I have not been so industrious as I ought to have been I cannot before an all-seeing Eye acquit my self of some kind of Idleness but beseech my good God to pardon what cannot be recalled and to quicken me for the future to double Diligence Yet I may adventure to plead that amongst them who have known the Variety of my Labours since I came out into the World and I believe also amongst all those now alive who either had the Tuition of me or were Associates of my Studies in my Education there is none will say I was in any measure ever noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a scandalous Ideler Then as to my reading and understanding the School-men in particular I will only add that many Years ago as soon as Master of Arts I set my self to read and study those of best Note amongst them and spent no inconsiderable Time and Pains therein as much at least as a Life otherwise laborious would permit that about ten or eleven Years ago having some Leisure and Opportunity I resumed those Studies with particular Purpose to refresh my Memory and rectify if I could my Judgment both in and by them that I think when I read them I generally do understand them I said generally for I am of Opinion that sometimes they understood not themselves that is they disputed themselves into uncertain obscure and confused Notions but I confess I never read these Doctors with such Relish Savour and Delight with such Warmth good Affection and Holy Advantage as I did and daily do read the sacred Scriptures O the infinite Disproportion of them Even in moral Notions in which notwithstanding divers of the School-Doctors excel themselves comparatively to their other Writings How much more Force is there sometimes in one Word or Glance of the Holy Ghost than in the acutest Definitions of the Doctors How far sharper and more piercing are the Divine Oracles even dividing asunder the Soul and Spirit and discerning of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart Further I acknowledg my Memory has not such a retentive Faculty of the nice Distinctions and Divisions which these Wits run nor after all do I see the Vse of them as to promoting Peace Holiness or in divers Cases sound Judgment in the Church of God How many School-Notions were not yet two Ages ago made Points of Faith as far as the usurping Power of what stiled it self an Oecumenical Council could make them And has Christianity received so much Improvement by those Sanctions as that we should be fond of the Fountains whence they derived those Waters of Meribah or at this Day pretend that these spinose and crabbed Doctors have only guarded Christianity with a Hedg of Thorns c. I pity those who for a shist betake themselves to such Assertions and I list not to pursue this thence only for a final Trial of my Insight into those Authors I appeal to every judicious Reader whether I did not deliver in my Paper p. 13. the Doctrine of the Trinity and Unity more conformably to the Doctrine of the Schools than Dr. Sherlock did in his Vindication notwithstanding his pretended greater Conversation in them I transcribed it not indeed either out of the School-men or Canonists de summâ Trinit from whom Mr. Hooker seems to have almost translated in this Point nor yet from St. Austin from whom they all have taken it though I was ignorant of none of those but from a Master of the Temple because I took that to the Master of the Temple to be more an Argument ad Hominem Now if I faithfully reported the Doctrine of the Schools 't is very probable I was not so unacquainted with them as Mr. Dean's Candour would represent me My next Accusation is that I have said The first Reformers complained §. 8. Pag. 5. of this namely the corrupt Divinity of the Schools and desired a purer and more scriptural he instead thereof puts spiritual sort of Divinity I did indeed say this but not without due Authority My Words were very nearly as nearly as I could remember the English of a Passage of the great Melancthon which having not then my Note-books at hand I could not perfectly Tantum Labyrinthorum falsarum opinionum est in Thomâ Scoto similibus qui dediti Aristotelis Doctrinae transformare Ecclesiae Doctrinam in Philosophiam coeperunt ut semper saniores Theologi desideraverint aliud genus Doctrinae plenius purius And a little before Haec aetas non tantum coenum sed insuper venena id est opiniones probantes manifesta idola in fontes evangelicos invexit Philip. Melancthon in Praefat. ad Luther Tom. 2. report but will now in the Margin transcribe the Text by which it may appear I was favourable in my Censure and spoke not the full of what my Author would have warranted And if this which is said in the Margin satisfy not that the Doctrine of the School-men is full of Labyrinths and Falsities of Dirt and Poison so as to have infected the very Fountains of the Gospel-Doctrine which yet is more than I said let Persons of Leisure and Advantages consult the second Tome of Melancthon's own Works where they may find some little Tracts designed to make good this Charge particularly Oratio Thomae Didymi a personated Name no doubt pro M. Luther And Philippi Melancthonis pro Luth. Apologia adversus furiosorum Parisiensium Decretum c. I could have said much to the same Effect out of Luther himself in divers Places but I feared it might have been said he was too fiery Nor are like Passages at all infrequent in Calvin but perhaps by some Men as much might have been said of him as of me that he had not read or understood whom he censured Melancthon's Authority I thought I might more safely speak upon he being a Person whose Learning and Moderation might
recommend his Judgment as more sincere and competent Now these three of the first Reformers I shall abide by at present as having censured the Divinity of the Schools much more severely than I did after them But these were not our English Reformers and I censured even them for retaining Scholastick Cramping Terms in their publick Prayers By Mr. Dean's Favour I censured them not only I modestly wished they had used the same Temper as did the foreign Reformers in banishing hard or Scholastick Terms out of our Prayers By these Terms he says I mean the Beginning of the Litany And how came he to know my Thoughts I will assure him I meant not that alone I will not touch upon divers Collects But what does he think of that Preface in the Communion Service ordered to be used before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on Trinity Sunday Has not that School-Divinity enough in it all address'd to God by way of direct Adoration However because he has pitch'd upon the other I am content to stick by it and shall only give him touching it the Sense of two of the first Reformers I confess not ours in England for I express my Sorrow that they observed not such Caution but two the most eminent who led the way to them Luther lest that Petition O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity c. out of the Liturgy as not only his Enemies Bellarmine and others accuse him to have done but the German Office to this Day evidenceth And Gerard Brochmand and other learned Lutherans not only confess but defend him for it saying the German Word which they use for the Trinity signifies Triplicity rather than Trinity But if that had been all why could not Trinity have been adopted into High Dutch as well as into English There was another Reason for it which I am loth to speak Calvin not only omits it but thus censures it It is good says he to forbear such Forms of speaking which are either too rough or remote from the Vse of the Holy Scripture The Prayer so Utile est supersedere à formulis loquendi nimiùm asperis vel à Scripturae usu remotis Precatio vulgo trita sancta Trinitas unus Deus miserere nostri mihi non placet ac omnino Barbariem sapit Epist quâ fidem admonitionis confirmat ad Polonos Tom. ult p. 687. common with the People O Holy Trinity one God have Mercy upon us does not please me and altogether savours of Barbarity Had the Socinians been the only Persons who except against it more might be said for the retaining it But as to its Original it was certainly never in the publick Prayers till introduced by Pope Gregory the Great the Compiler of the Litany for the main part or the Body of it though not perfectly in the Form it now stands in and Ethnici in summâ rerum ignorantiâ quem potissimum Deûm aut Dearū orarent nesciebant omnes igitur precabantur c. Casaub what other Innovations came in with it is sufficiently known No less a Man than Casaubon will tell us whom the Church imitated or what Precedents she had in such accumulate repeated Invocations Exercitat p. 327. Edit Londin A. D. 1614. Or Ad An. D. XXXII N. 14. And not only in a manner all our Nonconformist Countrymen elder or later but Foreigners of great Learning have strong Exceptions against this Part of the Litany If any will answer those which amongst others the learned Johannes Forbesius in his Instructiones Historico-Theologicae Part. 1. Qu. 31. a. 1. brings I will acknowledg to owe great Satisfaction to such a Person For however Hâc formulâ periculosè disperguntur cogitationes conceptiones precantis veluti ad diversa objecta quas recolligere conatur collectione objectorum in unum Nullo nititur praecepto vel exemplo sacrae Scripturae vel catholicae antiquitatis imo ab eisdem à doctrinâ saniorum Scholasticorum ab ipsâ ratione Theologicâ Discrepat c. Forbes I acknowledg some Men may use the prescribed Form without Sin yet I cannot but judg it much safer not to go so near dividing the Deity and so far to distract Devotion Much more than this could I say which I cannot answer so well as I would on this Subject but this may suffice to shew the Glance I gave was not without Cause And the reducing divers of our Prayers to more Scriptural Forms would much recommend our Reformation to foreign Divines as well as to those of our own Country whom we ought if possible to bring in and unite to us But this is only a plausible Project much talked of of late and such §. 9. Pag. 6. which Hereticks in former Days were the first Proposers of The Arians objected this against the Homoousions that it was an unscriptural Word By Mr. Dean's Favour he herein contradicts St. Athanasius himself who accuses the Arians that they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first began to fight against God from unwritten Terms or Arguments and particularly objects against them using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or unbegotten pleading that it was an unscriptural Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Athanas in Epist de Synod Nic. contra Haeresin Arian decretis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lb. p. 282. and therefore suspitious having also various Significations but that the simple written and truest Terms which had but one Signification were those in Scripture the Father and the Son that unbegotten was used by the Heathens who knew not the Father nor the Son but that of the Father was known to be from our Lord 's own Mouth And doth he not at the same time apologize from the Necessity that lay upon the Council for the Use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though not in Scripture and together confess that the most accurate Expressions or Notions of the Truth are rather to be taken from the Scriptures than other Books It were to be wished this Father had been more constant to this his ingenuous Acknowledgment Again did not St. Ambrose also in the like Case disputing against the Arians say as much of Ingenitus in Latin that it was no Scripture-term and therefore refuse it I am under great Infelicity that I am without so many of my Books and so being oftentimes to trust Memory or old Notes cannot make my Answers so close and pertinent as otherwise I might But I am sure St. Ambrose and I think in his Book of our Lord's Incarnation answering the Arians Argument for proving the Father and the Son not to be of the same Nature and Substance namely that one was ingenitus unbegotten the other genitus begotten now said they the same Nature and Substance cannot be begotten and unbegotten returns roundly In sanctâ Scripturâ nusquam invenio non legi or to that purpose Unbegotten is no where in Scripture I am not I am sure far from his very Words Now was this
Substance distinct but not separate Now upon the whole have either of these Words fix'd the Sense of the Scripture so that Hereticks cannot pervert it and have a private Sense of their own touching it May not a Man 1 Own three Hypostases or three Persons that is profess Faith in or under the two most Orthodox Terms that have been found out and none but God and himself know what he means Nay may he not hold to the Words and yet hold Heresy yea Blasphemy and that in divers particular Senses which I have named and which I have declined to name for that the Subject is so tender Again 2 May not a Man use the Words quite contrary to the Forms in which the Fathers generally use them and yet speak Orthodox Truth Did not if Theodoret say Truth the Council of Sardis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodor. Hist lib. 2. cap. 8. say This Catholick Tradition and Confession have we received and taught this do we hold that there is but one Hypostasis meaning thereby one Substance of the Deity Nay lastly must it not be acknowledged that at least one of these Words viz. Hypostasis has given occasion to the Tritheites Heresy as any Man may see who pleases to consult what Photius what Leontius the Byzantine Advocate and what Nicephorus Callistus report of Thiloponus too long here to be inserted Were it not better then to keep to Scripture-Words in which all agree than to take up new ones of humane Invention and contend and damn one another about them when yet it is apparent we may use these however artificial refined Terms and be as far from agreeing in Sense as ever we were nay much further than if we had kept to Scripture-Language Hereticks may here conceal themselves under a larger Latitude of Expression Pag. 8. and spread their Heresies with a traditionary Sense and Comment of their own more exactly and poisonously than the Purity and Simplicity of the Holy Text would have permitted But if any be still fond of the Litigious Ecclesiastical or Scholastical Terms in their Confessions and Articles let them stand for me In the Orthodox Sense and for Peace sake they may be subscribed to only in our Prayers at least wherein a most intire Assent and Consent without doubting or doubling is to be ingaged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us have Scripture and speak to God as he has revealed himself to us What then must we reform the Doctrine of the Trinity out of our Prayers as in his good-natured Fit Mr. Dean expresses it No but put it in there only as God has put it in our Bibles And my Hopes and Desires of seeing this done I take to be no foul Imputation nor at all Pag. 5. likely to cast an ill Reflection on any Design of excellent Persons whatsoever But I must return with my Apologist to the Latitude of Faith which §. 11. he again to use his own Term tragically complains of me for pleading for and demands whether there be any more than one true Christian Faith Pag. 8. and whether Christ and his Apostles intended to teach any more Or whether they did not intend that all Christians should be obliged to believe this one Faith Here are Questions enow and Fallacy enough in them I answer briefly and plainly Faith as Truth can be but one And every Truth which Christ and his Apostles taught ought if it can be without Scruple understood without Scruple to be believed All Christians are obliged to believe to the utmost of their Understandings each Truth by Christ and his Apostles taught But whether a determinate explicite Belief of all the Truths which Christ and his Apostles taught be absolutely necessary to the Salvation of every private Christian or even of every Christian Doctor I take to be a Question worthy of the Dean's Consideration For mine own part I dare not affirm it but judg a Latitude must be allowed and in such Determinations as exceed most Mens Understanding some such Temper as my Notion of a Negative Belief must be admitted Which Term by his good Favour has no more Impropriety or Contradiction in it than that more usual one amongst Divines of a Negative Righteousness whence I trans-sumed it thinking it for a Reason which he may guess at more palatable to some People than an implicite Faith and I having so fully and perspicuously defin'd it it was poor and pedantic in him to carp at the Term. In a word we are to reject nothing as false nor esteem any thing as mean superfluous or unprofitable which our Lord or his Apostles have taught We are to give Diligence to understand and as we can understand explicitely to believe all but there are many Points in Divinity that is in the whole Body of what our Lord and his Apostles have taught whereof perhaps we may not have so clear and determinate a Sense as that we can say this or that is it which our Lord and his Apostles intended to oblige us to believe And here we must either totally suspend our Faith till we can better satisfy our selves in the mean while not contradicting or else we must believe though not without some Tenderness what to us appears the more probable of the several Points in Scruple Now the Belief of the more probable Side cannot be stiled Faith but in a certain Latitude of the Name 'T is sure our Lord and his Apostles full well knew they both spoke and writ to People of very different Capacities and Circumstances and no doubt accordingly accommodated their Doctrine What was necessary to the Salvation of all is by them delivered very plain and I will add 't is short Certa semper sunt in paucis says Tertullian And all learned Protestant Divines have been ever very tender in defining the Number of Fundamentals or what things are necessary by all to be believed to their Salvation Here the Minumum quod sic as we commonly speak is a difficult Point to determine and Dr. Hammond in his Book of Fundamentals has amply shewn there must be as to the Number of them a Latitude allowed according to different States or Circumstances of Men. But his Authority is infinitely greater who said Vnto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required Consequently of him who knew not or giving honest Diligence to know understood not what is revealed a less measure of Faith shall be expected So that even here I stand to it is a Latitude Suppose a Man to have been baptized to understand competently the Apostles Creed and the common Rules of Christian Duty to profess the Belief hereof to shew his Love to God and Christ by good Works and a Life savouring of Heaven to live in the Communion of such a Church or Society of Christians as will allow such a Person for a Member of Christ though perhaps he may not be admittted for want of great Knowledg and a Faith of deeper Mysteries into
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
this Point but what is taught in Scripture and then I am sure there will be no fear that any wise Man should reject Scripture for its sake or put strained and unnatural Senses on it to reconcile it to Reason But that three such Persons as he has defined are by Scripture asserted or can be thence concluded to be in the Deity I have denied I do and must ever deny and conceive I have proved contradictious In the next Place having repeated his old Prevarication touching my §. 17. stiling the Socinians the learned Writers of Controversy he is displeased with me for not taking them to task for denying the Divine Nature to be incomprehensible Truly I never heard or read any of the Socinians guilty of such Presumption or Blasphemy But this I take only to be a Consequence drawn by himself from a certain Opinion of theirs and then fastned upon them Of which kind of fair dealing I will say nothing for the present But I do know there are some who deny God's Prescience of future Contigents touching which I had no Occasion to speak no more had he here but that he would hedg in any thing pertinent or impertinent to inodiate an innocent Person which being he has done I will take the Occasion to profess before the Searcher of all Hearts who knows what is in Man that he knows I do believe and in my Soul adore his Prescience that I abhor any Suspicions of it as seeing scarce any of his Perfections more clearly express'd and by a World of Instances verified in Holy Scripture Nay I voluntarily profess I cannot conceive infinite Knowledg without Prescience and though I do confess I cannot comprehend infinite Knowledg because I am very finite yet I bless him who helps my Vnbelief and has as fully possess'd my Heart with the Perswasion thereof as with the Perswasion of his Existence But I cannot so easily believe Mr. Dean's Notions for facilitating I suppose the comprehending the next Divine Attribute which he lugs-in namely Eternity which though he truly says pag. 16. lin 28 29. to be without Beginning and without Succession yet with his usual Attention he explains lin 32. to be a Succession without a Beginning a Second or a Third without a First This Notion I will not accuse him to have taken from the School-Doctors Only I must ask him why he put those Words a God Adequate and Commensurate to our Vnderstandings a little finite comprehensible God in the same Character in which he ordinarily puts the Words he cites or wire-draws from my Paper If he did it with a Design to possess the Reader that I had any such Words or had said any thing from whence such an Inserence could be made I have another Kindness to thank him for of a like Nature to his others I now proceed to account for the last Reason I assigned for the present §. 18. Unreasonableness of some Mens agitating this Controversy which was Hereby that is as both the very Title and the Paper it self expresly assert by some learned Mens present Writings on this Controversy our Church at present and the common Christianity it may be feared will be daily Pag. 18. more and more exposed to atheistical Men they being not likely to overlook the Advantages thus daily given them This Mr. Dean according to his usual way first calumniously perverts to another Sense then for this bold Stroke as he calls it will scarce allow me to be either a Christian or a Divine And lastly falls on catechising me First He calumniously perverts my Sense for says he The Sum of this is that to vindicate the Doctrine of the Trinity against Socinians will make Men Atheists Not so fast good Mr. Dean This Sum agrees not either with your own reckoning or with mine Three times at least in your Paper you said these learned Writers of Controversies by me designed were the Socinians According to which your own Interpretation your Proposition or the Sum explicitely should have been this The Socinians present writing against the Trinity will make Men Atheists Do you then deny that Proposition No you 'l say I believe you thought not of it But you know very well on the other side that amongst the present learned Writers of Controversy your self were more immediately concerned they are your own Words pag. 2. And now the Sum if truly stated will be much different namely this Such Vindications of the Trinity as that writ by Dr. Sherlock tend rather to make Men Atheists than to convert Socinians This Sir was my meaning and this I re-assert For Atheists may confute Tritheism or Polytheism for my Part I see not how either is defensible and having proved such Doctrines in Religion to be false they will be ready to conclude all Religion is so too but they can never overthrow the Doctrine of one God the Father of all and one Saviour the Son of God our Lord Christ Jesus and of one Spirit sanctifying and uniting the whole Body of Christian People or of these three being one And this if you will call it a bold Stroke I stick to it and fear not being exposed though I double it The Substance of two of his Questions is answered already First Do I believe the Doctrine of the Trinity to be desensible or no I do as delivered in Scripture but not upon his novel Definitions and Hypotheses But why do I not defend it better I have partly answered it already and a further Answer to that and to his second Question will come in by and by In the mean time as to his third Whâ—â— are Atheists concerned in the Disputes of the Trinity Very much in such Vindications of it which give such a Notion of the true God as implicates or is inconsistent with it self viz. that the true God adored by all Christian People should be three infinite Minds and yet not three infinite Minds If it be as it is impossible that there should be more infinite Minds than one then will Atheists say it is impossible such a Being should exist as you describe your God to be that is there is no God After these Questions I am to be told a Secret which though in great §. 19. Pag. 19. Modesty I conceal yet possibly I may be privy to viz. that Atheists and Deists Men who are for no Religion are of late very zealous Socinians I easily believe and acknowledg Mr. Dean better acquainted with the Town than I am but if Atheists and Deists be zealous Socinians let him never again object to me my Socinian Friends for I protest I have not to my Knowledg any familiar Acquaintance much less Friendship with any Atheists or Theists in the World I pray as our Church teaches to pray FOR ALL INFIDELS AS WELL AS TVRKS AND JEWS that GOD WOVLD TVRN THEIR HEARTS And in my Sphere as God gives me Opportunity I desire to labour in his Church to that purpose but otherwise I
possess'd of another's Will by being conscious to him what his Will is much less should have the Power of another because he knows as well as he what he can do is in my Apprehension impossible For it makes Understanding Will and Power to be the same thing And it is plain mutual Consciousness in Propriety of Speech implies only mutual Knowledg I may know another's Will yet not be able to bring mine to it I may know what another is able to do yet not arrive at his Power Much more might be said to shew the Insufficiency of mutual Consciousness for salving the Unity of three such Persons as he has supposed in one Nature any otherwise than as three Individuals are united in one special Nature which will not serve his turn but I had rather make an end Before he concludes he must clothe me as he has been used to do others §. 28. and as the Heathen did the Primitive Christians that Beasts might sooner seize them or as the Inquisitors do Hereticks before their Execution in some monstrous Shape that the World at least the Church may abhor me Accordingly in an insulting Mood as thinking himself to have run me down he puts the Question And can any Man tell what Opinion this Pag. 30. melancholy Stander-by has of the Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation And he answers it himself that I dare not speak out but I give very broad Signs what I would be at But can any Man tell how the Doctrine of the Incarnation comes in here My Paper had not so much as named it Only we must know the Doctor had writ on it and he could not give me Load enough except he possess the World that I dissent from him in a Doctrine wherein perhaps he is more Orthodox as well as in that wherein he is Heterodox I said perhaps he is more Orthodox in the Doctrine of the Incarnation but admitting the necessary and immediate Consequence of one Branch of his Hypothesis he is not so For if Self-consciousness alone distinguish one Mind whether finite or infinite from another then inasmuch as all must allow there is no more essential Property of the rational Soul than to be conscious to it self it will follow that there are two Persons in Christ viz. the second Person of the Godhead and the Man Christ Jesus which I think is Nestorianism Else he must deny the Son of God did take a rational Soul or became truly Man utrum horum But forasmuch as this is only a Consectary of his Doctrine and not expresly delivered by him I affix it not to him However I must complain he has done me wrong here fliely and beyond the present Cue to put the World upon a Jealousy of my Orthodoxy in Point of the Incarnation and for a Farewell having by corrupting dismembring and misplacing my Words fastned upon me divers extravagant things as said by me which I never said as will appear by inspecting my Paper to expose me as the greatest Applauder of the Socinians to take off my Sheeps Clothing as he calls it and put me on the Wolves In Conclusion devoutly praying God to preserve his Church from such as me But if I may have Liberty to answer his Question I will satisfy the World what Opinion I have both of all the Controversies on Foot amongst English Protestants for others I meddle not with and particularly of those of the Trinity and Incarnation First As to all Controversies amongst English Protestants I had in my Paper express'd my Opinion and Affection too p. 12. perhaps with so much Moderation and Justice that Mr. Dean thought not fit to take any notice of that Part. A happy Page of mine that which alone as far as I can perceive escaped his good-natured Pen. Now the Sum of what I there said and suggested in other Places of my Paper is this that being we are all agreed in the common Christianity thereby I mean the Apostles Creed and the Evangelical Law which is the Sum of Holy Scripture therefore both all private Doctors except in the Schools and all other private Persons of what Party soever should let Controversy alone and keep their Minds to themselves refrain from exposing one another and treasuring up to one another Wrath against an evil Day and should bend all their Studies to reform their own and others Lives worshipping God sincerely according to their Consciences and blessing him for their present Liberty and studying to be quiet and to do their own Business This is my Sense for the present as to all Controversies amongst us Protestants in general Then as to the two particular Doctrines by him mentioned I have sufficiently declared my Judgment already in this Paper And I will add thereto only thus much that my Opinion as to the Controversy betwixt Dr. Sherlock and me as more fully I have set it forth in this Paper is not by me newly taken up For above one and thirty Years ago being then a Preacher in Oxford I publickly averr'd what I still judg to be Truth and what was not then taxed as Heretical That he that shall affirm there are three Persons in the Godhead taking the word Person properly or strictly as we do in ordinary Cases is guilty of a more grievous Error than he who altogether denies three Persons That both then I had and since have subscribed several times to the Church-Articles which are plain enough in these Points That otherwise according to Law as required I have given Assurance of my Orthodoxy and Conformity nor have I done or writ any thing by which I have retracted such Subscription or Conformity and therefore I fear no Man's good Will as to reforming me out of the Church But in Sum I think it no Point of Nonconformity to desire and in my Sphere endeavour promote or perswade the reforming of such things in our Church as keep many good Men out of it And therefore notwithstanding my Engagements to the Church and Adherence thereto I declare it as my Judgment that the Church is bound upon her Faith that is upon her Promise often and on several Occasions given especially upon the Profession she has made in time of her Adversity to reform her Liturgy in divers Points and to relax the Conditions of her Communion as soon as a convenient State of Affairs offers it self of which I do not pretend to be a competent Judg but am of opinion much Delay will be dangerous And in case when a fit Season offers it self the Church should not reform or relax as abovesaid I fear she will forfeit much of her Credit and scarce be believed again in a Day of Tribulation if it should happen to her which God forbid Mr. Dean concludes with a Promise that having vindicated the antient Pag. 32. Rights and Liberties of the Church to defend the truly Catholick and Apostolick Faith from the Assaults of Hereticks he shall apply himself as his leisure serves to the Defence of his Vindication c. Alas good Man Who ever went about any-wise to infringe those Liberties Is intreating Men a while to forbear dangerous Disputes and those too so managed as to expose both themselves the Truth and the Church an Invasion of their Liberties nay and of the Rights of the Church too Verily if the Doctrine of three infinite Minds their Self-consciousness and mutual Consciousness be not either censured by our Church or generally disowned by the Divines of it it will soon be thought the Churches Doctrine And this being about a Fundamental perhaps some shortly will put the Question not where was your Church and Faith before Luther but where before Dr. Sherlock till he wrote you were not clear in Fundamentals For my Part I have admired to see first such an Explication of the Trinity and then such a Reassertion of it reviling and menacing an humble Man for Moderation and dissenting from Novelties and Heterodoxies come forth with publick Licence But to return to the Need there was of the Dean's vindicating the antient Rights and Liberties of the Church The Case is just the same as if a Stranger in a time of War accidentally finding a Friend of his engaged in a private hazardous Rencounter against experienced Duelists and trusting to some new little Slights he had got should cry out to them all to hold their Hands and by all means that he could use should perswade them to desist telling them they had more need to be at their Prayers for Publick Peace and to reserve themselves Strength and Skill against the Common Enemy Now it would be a pleasant thing in such a Juncture to hear this Stranger 's Friend exclaim against the kind Stranger for attempting or infringing therein his and the publick Rights and Liberties of Mankind given forsooth to all by the Law of Nature to defend themselves Even just so much Occasion and Reason had Mr. Dean to undertake a Vindication of the antient Rights and Liberties of the Church against me He will now apply himself he says as his leisure serves to the Defence of his Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and Incarnation Now I must beg his Pardon to say I can conceive but two ways in the World he has to vindicate it the one and that the most honourable is to write such a Piece as the Great St. Austin did in his latter Years and which is commonly put in the Beginning of his first Tome called his Retractations The other such a shift as some Men now and then have been put to to buy up or get into his Hands if it were possible all the Copies of his Book and destroy them that so his beloved Hypothesis may die away By either of these Means he may effectually vindicate his Vindication But if he be above this honest Advice I cannot help it Invitum qui servat idem facit occidenti I'shall not God willing trouble either the World or him any more with animadverting upon his Writings FINIS