this to be wonder'd at that we should have confused Notions of things which no particular Idea's our Minds are furnish'd with can render clearer to us For if we consider the Degrees and Limits of our Knowledge and take a strict Survey of our whole stock of Thoughts we shall find there are very few things that we know fully and distinctly Most of our Notions differ only as more or less confused more or less general There is a certain Scale of Knowledge wherein every thing is so fitted and proportioned to our Faculties that we cannot descend below such a determinate pitch in our Conceptions or Explications of any Object proposed to us As for instance suppose a Blind-Man has a desire to know what Colour is 't is certain he can never form a true distinct Idea of it but yet he is capable of a general confused Knowledge which wants but one degree of Particularity to be clear and perfect Conception He may know that Colour is not any Substance but some Mode or Determination which owes its Existence and Support to some other Being that it is not Extension or any other Accident or Quality perceivable by any of the Senses he enjoys He may further be made to understand that it is some kind of Sensation produced by the impression of other Bodies upon that part of a Man's which is called the Eye which other Men perceive though he does not Now 't is plain that such a Man knows a great deal of the Nature of Colour more by far than another Blind-Man who has not made the same Enquiries and Reflections about it and so much as will secure him from having any other Idea imposed upon him for that of Colour which is so distinguished and circumstantiated to him that should he now receive his sight he would presently acknowledge the marks before described to him And yet after all it may be truly said while he continues blind he has no manner of Idea of Colour because he has no distinct Idea of that particular kind of Sensation to which his general Idea's are applyed And therefore he can go no lower in his Explications of the Notion he has of Colour For if he explains it by any Sensation which he receives from his other Senses the Idea's he has then in his Mind are indeed more particular and distinct but the Judgment he makes upon them must be utterly false whereas before his Knowledge was only general and confused but yet true I have made choice of this plain familiar Instance of Sense to shew the unreasonableness of those who in higher Speculations complain that the terms brought to explain them are too general and abstracted and demand a further Explication of what we cannot possibly know beyond such a degree of Particularity which the Terms already made use of do express In vain therefore and unjustly are we urged to explain the Doctrine of the Trinity more particularly when we have brought it down to the utmost Particularity we are capable of conceiving and at the same time freely acknowledge we don't know it so distinctly as 't is capable of being known For then only is the Use of general abstracted Terms to be condemned either when the subject we are upon will admit of a more particular and sensible Explication or if it will not when by too much Refining and Abstracting we deceive our selves and think some Terms we have found out make the Thing clear to us tho' we have not really more distinct Conceptions of it than we had before and at the same time these very Terms make it more obscure and difficult to others And this is what I remarked before as a Prejudice to be avoided in an impartial Search after Truth But so long as we acknowledge we have only a general confused Notion of the Trinity or such a Three-fold Distinction in the Godhead as is consistent with the unity of the Divine Nature we may be allowed to explain this Notion in general abstracted Terms because we lay no greater a Stress upon the Terms than they will truly bear and require only a Faith proportionate to our Knowledge that is a general confused Faith which we expect a clearer and more distinct Revelation of hereafter And thus I have dispatched the first Branch of my Discourse wherein I proposed to consider how far 't was possible for us to believe a Trinity II. I come now to my Second General Enquiry viz. What it is the Scripture requires us to believe in this Matter For a distinct Resolution of which Question I shall observe the following Method First I shall barely and positively lay down the Doctrine of the Trinity so far as I judge it expresly contained in Scripture Secondly I shall endeavour to prove the Truth of what I assert Thirdly I shall consider the particular Additional Explications that have or may be given of the Scripture-Account of this Article 1. In speaking to the First it must be allowed that there is no such Proposition as this That One and the same God is Three different Persons formally and in Terms to be found in the Sacred Writings either of the Old or New Testament Neither is it pretended that there is any Word of the same Signification or Importance with the Word Trinity used in Scripture with relation to God There is one Text which plainly enough affirms without the help of Inference or Deduction that God is Three and One But this being a disputed Passage and no where else repeated in the same or the like Terms I shall not insist upon it Nor do I think such a Trinity as we profess to believe stands much in need of the Support of this Text the Matter and subject of our Faith in this Point being frequently largely and circumstantially mentioned and as it appears to me interwoven into the very Design of the Scriptures Now the Summ of all that the Scriptures plainly and expresly teach concerning a Trinity is this That there is but One only God the Author and Maker of All Things but that One God ought to be acknowledged and adored by us under those Three different Titles or Characters of Father Son and Holy Ghost Which Terms whatever they signifie according to my Judgment upon a fair and impartial Consideration of all Circumstances that can determine their Sense are evidently applied to God in many Places of Holy Writ and consequently are truly and properly applicable to him 2. The Proof of which Assertion is the Second Thing I undertook But here I find my self forestalled by the successful Endeavours of a great many Learned Men who have carefully and nicely examined every Text that can be brought either for the Establishment or Confutation of the Doctrine of the Trinity I shall not therefore trouble my Reader with a particular detail of all their Arguments but only acquaint him truly and fairly what were the chief Motives which influenced and disposed me to make such a Judgment as I have
just before declared Now the Reasons which determined my Opinion in this Matter were such as freely offered themselves upon an unprejudiced reading of Scripture and considering the Design Connexion and Analogy of those Writings And I am apt to believe if any Man else took the same Method and considered Things togegether and not only in loose Texts and Passages the first Result of his Thoughts would be the same viz. These Terms Father Son and Holy Ghost must all be so understood as to include the same God in their Signification and that any other Sense or Explication of the Words would be attended with greater Difficulties But this being a Reflexion which is founded upon the Agreement and Coherence of all the Parts of Scripture 't would be a very improper and ineffectual Design to go about to confirm the Truth of it from some particular Passages Omitting therefore all those Texts which are a great many where any of these Terms Father Son or Holy Ghost appear to be directly affirmed of God according to a fair Construction of the Words I shall only observe Two or Three Passages from the History of our Saviour and his Gospel which to my Apprehension do as strongly prove what I have advanced as the most formal Expressions and are less liable to be perverted by the Criticisms of Language The first Observation I have to make concerns the common Forms of Baptism Salutation and Blessing used in several Places of the New Testament Now these are Matters no way controverted That our Saviour commanded his Disciples to go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost That St. Paul makes use of such Salutations as these The Lord be with you The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Grace be to you and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ And particularly closes his Second Epistle to the Corinthians with this 〈◊〉 and fuller Blessing The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all From whence I infer that all these Terms Father Son and Holy Ghost signifie God because I cannot possibly conceive 't is agreeable to the Nature of the Christian Religion that the Ministers of it should Teach Baptize or Bless the People in any other Name but God's It cannot be imagined but the People must equally believe in those in whose Names they are Baptized or Bless'd They must believe that those who are call'd upon to bestow Graces and Blessings upon them are able to give what they are called upon for And whatever is meant by Baptizing in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it seems very plain that these Three are all equally concerned in what 's done in that Sacrament Whether by this Form of Baptism be signified on the Minister's Part the Authority or Commission by which he acts in his Administration or whether on the Part of the Person baptized be meant any Acknowledgment or Confession Submission or Dedication of himself or whether this Phrase in the Name or as in the Greek into the Name does imply all this and more the whole Force and Importance of the Expression does in the same Extent belong to Father Son and Holy Ghost The Power and Authority here received is derived from all Three They are all to be acknowledged as Authors of our Salvation all infallible and to be believed in what they Teach have all the same Title to our Submission and Obedience and are Joint-Parties in that Covenant we make in Baptism The Inference from hence is very Plain and Easie That if any one of these Terms signifie God they must all Three signifie God and if all Three signifie God they must all Three signifie one and the same God for God is but One. Now that the One Supreme God the Lord and Maker of All Things is here meant by the Word Father is a Thing not questioned and therefore Son and Holy Ghost are Terms expressive of the same Divine Nature Should we but suppose the contrary That by Son was meant only a meer Man or some Heavenly Being of highest Rank under God and by Holy Ghost was signified only some created Spirit inferior to the Son or the Power Efficacy Love Favour or Vertue of God how strange would such a Form of Baptism appear I Baptize thee in the Name of God Peter the Apostle and the Power or Love of God or I Baptize thee in the Name of God Michael the Archangel and Raphael a Ministring Spirit There needs no more but a bare Mention of such an Exposition to shew the Falshood of it What absurd Consequences may be drawn from it I shall leave to every Man 's particular Reflexion Another Thing which mightily confirmed me in this Belief that the Father Son and Holy Ghost so often named in Scripture are One and the same God under those Three different Appellations was this That the Son who is the same with him that is in other Places called the Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ and sometimes only Jesus or Christ was worship'd with a Religious Worship by those that followed him and embraced his Gospel For if he that was called the Son of God or Christ was thus to be worship'd it plainly and evidently follows from hence according to all the Notions we have of God and Religion either from Nature or Revelation that the Son was also God the same true and only God with the Father And if the Son be allowed to be God as well as the Father it will be easily admitted that the Holy Ghost is so too who appears in Scripture invested with all the same Characters of Divinity For Father Son and Holy Ghost are as consistent with the Vnity of the Godhead as Father and Son only and besides there 's greater difficulty in conceiving the Son to be God than the Holy Ghost because of his Humane Nature But that he was God manifest in the Flesh is I say apparent from the divine Worship that was pay'd to him For that God only is to be worship'd is an evident Principle as well as an indispensable Duty and I can as soon believe a thing to be and not to be as that any thing that is not God should be worshipped as God Now that Christ received the Honour and Worship due to God only is plain from abundance of Places of Scripture where we find he was not only adored with all the outward Expressions of Reverence and Devotion but confess'd and acknowledged to be God by an Application of the Divine Attributes to him such as agree only to God and are incommunicable to any other as might be proved at large if it had not been done already But this being fully insisted upon by others I shall only name Two Passages to this Purpose the one Phil. 4. 13. the other Act. 7. 59. which if there were no other are of
themselves sufficient to shew what the Faith of the first Christians was For who but one that believed that Christ was God could say with St. Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me or with St. Stephen at the instant of Death cry out Lord Jesus receive my Spirit From these and many other Texts it seems plain to me that Christ was worshipped and acknowledged as God and that therefore he ought so to be worshipped and acknowledged we have all the same Reasons to believe as we have that the Scriptures are True the Establishment of a False Worship being a thorough Disproof of the Authority that Commands it Supposing therefore the Truth of the Scriptures there 's no way of eluding this Argument but by giving another Interpretation to all those Places which seem to ascribe divine Honour to Christ which can no otherwise be done than by framing a particular Dialect for this Purpose and giving new Significations to Words when applied to our Saviour which they never had before when used upon other Occasions I shall not enter upon a particular Proof of this but pass on to Another Argument I observ'd from Scripture which gave me further Assurance of the Divinity of the Son and consequently of the Truth of the whole Proposition before advanced and that is The Character of Jesus Christ considered meerly as a Man Now 't is certain that the Man Christ Jesus the Son of David according to the Flesh is represented by all the Evangelists as having his Conversation in this World with all Lowliness and Humility and with perfect Holiness and Unblameableness of Life And it is not imaginable that a Person of this Character should have suffered any Titles to have been given him any Honour or Respect to have been pay'd him which were not strictly and indispensably due to him much less have taken the Honour and Worship peculiar to God only to himself if he had not been infallibly conscious that of a Truth God dwelt in him I cannot possibly conceive that one who declined all Appearance of Grandeur Dominion and Authority should have allowed of any thing that look'd like Worship or Adoration or might have been mistaken for it or that he who knew he was believed to be the Son of God in such a Sense which some thought Blasphemy would not have undeceived his Followers and justified himself to his Enemies had he not really been what 't was Blasphemy to have pretended to be if he were not I might easily pursue these Reflections a great deal further and bring more Arguments to confirm the truth of what I have asserted that these Names or Titles of Father Son and Holy Ghost are applyed in Scripture to the One True God but I judge it altogether unnecessary not only because it has been fully made out already in several set Discourses upon this Subject but because it is so plainly and expresly revealed that I am verily perswaded every Man that reads would believe were it not for the additional Explications such a Belief is charged with 3. Which is the next thing to be considered And indeed here lyes the whole difficulty of the matter the main stress of the Controversie For that God should be called Father Son and Holy Ghost is as easily to be believed as that he should be called Adonai Elohim and Jehovah That the same thing should be signified and expressed by several names is no such incredible Mystery But if we allow that these Terms Father Son and Holy Ghost are all applyed to God in Scripture 't is not thought sufficient to say that these are three several Names which signifie God but we are further required to believe that God is One and Three the same God but three different Hypostases or Persons And that one of these three Hypostases or Persons is both God and Man These are the hard sayings which puzzles some Mens Understandings and make them chuse rather to wrest and pervert the plainest Texts than admit such seemingly inconsistent Consequences Here therefore I shall Examine what grounds there are in Scripture for such an Exposition And what we are obliged from thence to believe when we express our Faith in this particular manner First then as to these forms of Expression That God is One and Three c. It is to be observed that these Names Father Son and Holy Ghost are applyed to God in Scripture in a different way from what any of his other Names are For the other Names of God signifie only Partial Conceptions of the Divine Nature such as Self-Existence Power c. and are all contained within the same Idea of God and so are indifferently used upon any occasion to express the whole Idea of God to which they belong which is the same under every denomination These therefore cannot be the Foundation of any distinction in the Godhead But Father Son and Holy Ghost according to our way of conceiving things signifie something Extrinsecal and Accessory to the Divine Nature as much as we know of the Divine Nature by reason the whole Idea of God being conceived as full and compleat before the application of these terms And though all of them are separately and together affirmed of God yet each of them in so peculiar a manner that there are several occasions where when one of these terms is used with relation to God 't would be improper to use either of the other From whence it follows that these three Names of God Father Son and Holy Ghost must denote a three-fold difference or distinction belonging to God but such as is consistent with the Vnity and Simplicity of the Divine Nature For each of these Names includes the whole Idea we have of God and something more so far as they express the Nature of God they all adequately and exactly signifie the same 't is the additional signification which makes all the distinction betwixt them What particular kind or manner of distinction this is is not expressed in Scripture but since the Church has thought fit to assign a Name for it that of Person seems to me as proper and agreeable to the whole Tenor and Design of the Holy Writings as any other that could have been chosen for that purpose For Father Son and Holy Ghost whether we consider the Primitive sense and intention of the words the general and constant use of them or the particular Connexion and Circumstances in which they are mentioned in Scripture have plainly a Personal Signification each of them without any figure of Speech being determined to signifie some intelligent Being Acting in such a manner as is there related There needs no Proof of this the plain distinction of Persons imported by those Terms being the chief Argument made use of to shew that they cannot all be applied to God but must necessarily signifie Three distinct Beings But that they are all applyed to God in Scripture has been proved already And therefore Father Son and
Some Considerations Concerning the TRINITY AND The WAYS of Managing that CONTROVERSIE LONDON Printed and Sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall MDCXCVI THE PREFACE TO THE READER THIS Discourse was Written some time ago for the Private Satisfaction of the Author who thought that a proper Season for an Impartial Enquiry into the Doctrine of the Trinity when several Persons of different Opinions in that Point had just before appeared in the Controversie about it and their Printed Papers being canvas'd over again in Conversation had produced many New Remarks upon the same Subject Which Advantages together with what he had formerly read having as he judged given him a pretty full comprehension of the Matters in Dispute he took the following Method of Re-examining that part of his Faith and Justifying what he believed to his own Reason and Conscience Some Persons to whom he communicated what he had writ advised him to Print Which he had done before now upon the Judgment of a Great and Learned Man of the Church lately dead who was pleased to approve the Papers without knowing to whom they belonged But Occasion being given him to fore-see some little Objections which might probably at that particular time have in some measure obstructed his Good Intentions in Printing them he thought fit to defer the Publication of them till a more convenient Opportunity such as he judges this to be when the Controversie of the Trinity is managed in such a manner as to offend a great many and satisfie very few and the Church is like to suffer very much by the too Adventurous Attempts made by some to Vindicate her Doctrines Those who pretend to Explain the Distinction in the Godhead by Modes Offices Relations and the like are censured as saying too little and coming much below the Characters of Distinction to be found in Scripture though at the same time they use these Terms they acquaint us that they use them in a different Sense from any they are taken in when applied to Creatures and in a sense importing greater Difference but such as is not conceivable by Human Understanding And some of those who call the Three Divine Persons Three Infinite Minds Spirits or Substances would not be thought to mean by these Expressions That the Three Persons in the Godhead are as much distinguished from one another as Three Men or Three Angels are but that the Distinction betwixt them is so great that no other Terms can reach it though these do somewhat exceed what they would signifie by them Which Distinction less than these Expressions in the common use of them do import and higher than any other can come up to is acknowledg'd likewise to be inconceivable Which being observed by the Author of this Discourse he thought it more Advisable to use no New Terms with a Design of Explaining what by the Confession of Persons of different sides in the Dispute is not to be rendred more conceivable And to Justifie his Opinion in this Matter he has endeavoured to prove that no New Terms can be used to any such purpose And this he thinks he has made very Evident by the Account he has given of what we can distinctly conceive and what we can confusedly believe of the Doctrine of the Trinity which ought carefully to be distinguish'd in all Disquisitions upon Subjects of this Nature As for those who will allow only a pure Nominal Distinction in the Godhead or that apply the Terms Son and Holy Ghost to meer Created Beings he has only the Language and Design of Scripture to oppose to them which seem to him utterly irreconcileable to such Notions and he hopes those general Reflections he has drawn from thence will make this appear so to others But the Opinion of those who make the Persons in the Godhead as distinct as Three Men or Three Angels he is sure both from Revelation and Reason is false And that advancing any such Explications of the Trinity as will fairly bear this Construction is of such dangerous Consequence that he hopes he has done some Service to Religion by proving That Three Persons in the Godhead as distinct as Three Men or Three Angels is not only an Incomprehensible Notion but an Impossible Thing which implies a manifest Contradiction to the plainest and surest Principles of Knowledge Having given this short Account of the Author and his Performance in this Discourse I have only this further to acquaint his Readers with That he desires they would believe him to be a sincere Man that has a serious Regard for Religion and no other aims behind what he professes For whatever his Arguments are he is sure his Design is good And that his Reasoning may appear so too he would be glad that They who take up these Papers would give them the Reading over before they pass any Judgment upon what is advanced in them For the Discourse being written in the Demonstrative way where the Main Conclusions are establish'd by a long Train of Preparatory Proofs no true Judgment can be made but upon the whole together May it please God to make these Endeavours of the Author successful to Satisfie and Unite the Minds of Men in their Belief of the Doctrine of the Trinity or may He direct some abler Persons to find out more Effectual Methods of Establishing the Primitive Faith and settling the Present Peace of the Church SOME CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING THE TRINITY c. THere 's no part of the Christian Faith has produced so many Disputes and Controversies such a numerous Variety of Opinions and Sects as the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity If we consult the large Catalogues of Primitive Heresies we shall find the far greatest Number of them nothing else but so many several Modes and Ways of Explaining the Common Undivided Nature and Essence of the Trinity and the different Offices and Operations of each Person How far the uncertainty of our Faith in these Points the many Absurd and Blasphemous Expositions that have been made of them and the warm and indiscreet Management of contrary Parties have contributed to the Prejudice of Religion and the Scandal of its Professors has been a common Observation and Complaint in all Christian Ages And several Expedients have been proposed for the Redressing of this Mischief but all Attempts of this kind have hitherto miscarried The principal Reason of which I humbly conceive to be this That those who have laboured in this good Design have for the most part proceeded upon wrong Measures Now the Methods that have been generally and chiefly insisted upon are Three which are all improper or insufficient and have therefore proved ineffectual as will plainly appear upon a particular Examination of each 1. First then There are some who are for Reverencing the Mystery of the Trinity without ever looking into it at all who think it not to be the Subject either of Dispute or Enquiry imagining every thing of this high and transcendent Nature is proposed to us