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sense_n place_n signify_v word_n 4,916 5 4.4090 4 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A48160 A letter to a friend concerning a postscript to the Defense of Dr. Sherlock's notion of the Trinity in unity, relating to the Calm and sober enquiry upon the same subject Howe, John, 1630-1705. 1694 (1694) Wing L1639; ESTC R3143 19,814 66

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believes no man can tell what it is For how can such actual sensation be imagin'd to be union As well might the use of sense its self speaking of any thing singly to which it belongs be said to be its constituent form or consequently the doing any thing that proceeds from Reason be the form of a Man So the writing a Book should be the Author And whereas he says it is certain the Dean took it to be so and therefore he did not leave out a natural external union it follows indeed that he did not leave it out in his Mind and Design but he nevertheless left it out of his Book and therefore said not enough there to salve the unity of the Godhead but ought to have insisted upon somewhat prior to mutual consciousness as constituent of that unity and which might make the three one and not meerly argue them to be so 2. But now p. 105. he comes to find as great fault with the Enquirers way of maintaining this unity and because he is resolv'd to dislike it if he can't find it faulty sets himself to make it so The Temper of Mind wherewith he writes to this purpose what follows p. 105. and onwards to the end so soon and so constantly shews it self that no man whose mind is not in the same disorder will upon Tryal apprehend any thing in it but such heat as dwells in darkness And he himself hath given the Document which may be a measure to any apprehensive Reader True divine Wisdom rests not on an ill natur'd and perverse Spirit I understand it while the ill fit lasts But 't is strange he could write those words without any self-reflection The Thing to be reveng'd is that the Enquirer did freely speak his Thoughts wherein he judg'd the Dean's Hypothesis defective his not taking notice of what he reckon'd naturally antecedent and fundamental to mutual consciousness A most intimate natural necessary eternal union of the sacred Three If the Enquirer spake sincerely as he understood the matter and him and it evidently apppear the Defender did not so I only say the wrong'd person hath much the advantage and wishes him no other harm than such gentle Regrets as are necessary to set him right with himself and his higher Judge He says he the Enquirer represents this Unity by the union of soul and body and by the union of the divine and humane nature c. 'T is true he partly doth so but more fully by the supposed union of three created Spirits to which he that will may see he only makes that a lower step and he says with respect especially to the former of these That an union supposeable to be originally eternally and by natural necessity in the most perfect being is to be thought unexpressibly more perfect than any other But he adds these are personal unions and therefore cannot be the unity of the Godhead And he very well knew for he had but little before cited the passage that the Enquirer never intended them so but only to represent that the union of the three in the Godhead could not be reasonably thought less possible What he farther adds is much stranger and yet herein I am resolv'd to put Charity towards him to the utmost stretch as he professes to have done his understanding for he says as far as he can possibly understand and that he should be glad to be better informed tho' there is some reason to apprehend that former displeasure darkned his understanding and even dimn'd his Eye-sight which yet I hope hath it's more lucid Intervals and that his distemper is not a fixed habit with him And what is it now that he cannot possibly understand otherwise that no other union will satisfie him viz. the Enquirer but such an union of three spiritual Beings and individual natures as by their composition constitute the Godhead as the composition of soul and body do the Man i. e. He cannot understand but he means what he expresly denies Who can help so cross an understanding If he had not had his very finger upon the place where the Enquirer says in express words I peremptorily deny all composition in the Being of God this had been more excusable besides much said to the same purpose elsewhere It had been ingenuous in any man not to impute that to another as his meaning which in the plainest terms he disavows as none of his meaning And it had been prudent in the Dean or his Defender of all Mankind not to have done so in the present case as will further be seen in due time But he takes it for an Affront when he fancies a man to come too near him He adds for this reason he disputes earnestly against the universal absolute omnimodous simplicity of the divine Nature and will not allow that Wisdom Power and Goodness are the same thing in God and distinguished into different Conceptions by us only through the weakness of our understandings which cannot comprehend an infinite Being in one thought and therefore must as well as we can contemplate him by parts I know not what he means by earnestly the matter was weighty and it is true he was in writing about it in no disposition to jeast But it 's said he disputed against the universal absolute omnimodous simplicity of the Divine Nature I hope the Defender in this means honestly but he speaks very improperly for it supposes him to think that the universal absolute omnimodous simplicity so earnestly disputed against did really belong to the Divine Nature but I can scarce believe him to think so and therefore he should have said his disputation tended to prove it not to belong If he viz. the Defender or the Dean did really think it did they or he must be very singular in that sentiment I would have them name me the man that ever laid down and asserted such a position Some I know have said of that Sacred Being that it is summè simplex or more simple than any thing else but that imports not universal absolute omnimodous simplicity which is impossible to be a perfection or therefore to belong to the Divine Nature No man that ever acknowledged a Trinity of persons even modally distinguished could ever pretend it for such simplicity excludes all modes Nay the Antitrinitarians themselves can never be for it as the Calm Discourse hath shewn And if the Dean be he is gone into the remotest extream from what he held and plainly enough seems still to hold that ever man of sense did But for what is added that he will not allow that Wisdom Power and Goodness are the same thing in God This is not fairly said Civility allows me not to say untruly There is no word in the place he cites nor any where in that book that signifies not allowing 't is intimated we are not instructed by the Scripture to conceive of the Divine Nature as in every respect most absolutely