thought the Articles of that Creed are affirmed I have examined some of his principal References and can say of 'em they are either Perversions or downright Falsifications of what the Authors referred to did intend Dr. Wallis whose dishonest Quotations out of the Socinians have been detested by every body is hardly more blamable in that kind than Mr. Edwards saving that the Doctor being as one rightly tells him somewhat more than a Socinian did but foul his own Nest by his Forgeries but we cannot certainly say what is the opinion of Mr. Edwards in the great Article in question among us But come we to the Creed which he says is ours as I promis'd I will answer to every Article of it sincerely and directly I. I believe concerning the Scriptures that there are Errors Mistakes and Contradictions in some places of it That the Authority of some whole books of it is questionable yea that the whole Bible has been tamper'd with and may be suspected to be corrupted That there are Errors Mistakes and Contradictions in the H. Bible was never said by any person pretending to be a Christian if by the Bible you mean the Bible as it came out of the hands of the inspired Authors of it As on the other side that there are Errors Mistakes or Contradictions in the vulgar Copies of the Bible used by the Church of Rome for instance or the English Church was never questioned by any learned Man of whatsoever Sect or way and least of all can Mr. Edwards question it He has published a book concerning the Excellence and Perfection of H. Scripture in which book he finds great fault with our English Bible He saith in the Title of his 13th chapter It is faulty and defective in many places of the Old and New Testaments and I offer all along in this chapter particular Emendations in order to render it more exact and compleat As to the Hebrew and Greek copies of the Bible 't is well known some are more perfect and some less They differ very much for in the Old Testament the Hebrew Critics have noted 800 various readings in the New there are many more Mr. Gregory of Oxford so much esteemed and even venerated for his admirable Learning says hereupon and says it cum Licentiâ Superiorum There is no book in the World that has suffer'd so much by the hand of Time as the Bible Pref. p. 4. He judged and judged truly that tho' the first Authors of the Bible were Divinely Instructed Men yet the Copiers Printers and Publishers in following Ages were all of them Fallible Men and some of them ill-designing Men. He knew that all the Church Historians and Critics have confessed or rather have warned us that some copies of the Bible have been very much vitiated by the hands as well of the Orthodox as of Heretics and that 't is matter of great difficulty at this distance of time from the Apostolic Age to assertain the true reading of H. Scripture in all places of it Yet we do not say hereupon as Mr. Edwards charges us that the Bible much less the whole Bible is corrupted For as to the faulty readings in the common Bibles of some Churches and in some Manuscript Copies the Providence of God has so watched over this sacred Book that we know what by information of the antient Church-Historians and the writings of the Fathers what by the early Translations of the Bible into Greek Latin and Syriac and the concurrent Testimony of the more antient Manuscript copies both who they were that introduced the corrupt readings and what is the true Reading in all Texts of weight and consequence In short as to this matter we agree with the Critics of other Sects and Denominations that tho' ill Men have often attempted they could never effect the corruption of H. Scripture the antient Manuscripts the first Translations the Fathers and Historians of the Church are sufficient directors concerning the authentic and genuine Reading of doubtful places of H. Scripture Farther whereas Mr. Edwards would intimate that we reject divers Books of H. Scripture On the contrary we receive into our Canon all those Books of Scripture that are received or owned by the Church of England and we reject the Books rejected by the Church of England We know well that some Books and parts of Books reckoned to be wrote by the Apostles or Apostolical Men were questioned nay were refused by some of the Antients but we concur with the opinion of the present Catholic Church concerning them for the reasons given by the Catholic Church and which I mention in the Reply to my Lord the Bp. of Chichester If Mr. Edwards would have truly represented the opinion of the Socinians concerning the Scriptures he knew where to find it and so expressed as would have satisfied every body He knows that in the Brief Notes on the Creed of Athanasius they have declared what is their sense in very unexceptionable words The Holy Scriptures say they are a divine an infallible and compleat Rule both of Faith and Manners Br. Notes p. 1. The Church neither requires nor desires that they should say more II. I believe concerning God That he is not a Spirit properly speaking but a sort of Body such as Air or Aether is That he is not immense infinite or every where present but confined to certain places That he hath no knowledg of such future Events as depend on the Free Will of Man and That it is impossible such things should be foreseen by him That there is a Succession in God's eternal duration as well as in time which is the measure of the duration that belong to finite Beings That Almighty God is Incorporeal Omnipresent and Omniscient has not only been confessed but proved by the Unitarians of this Nation in divers of their late Prints As to the other that all Duration that of God as well as of Creatures consists in a Succession is affirmed by some Learned Men of all Perswasions and Ways as well as by the Unitarians It should seem Mr. Edwards holds that God possesses eternal Lite all at once that to God Eternity is one standing permanent Moment St. John is of another mind for he describes the duration of God by a Succession by was is and is to come Grace be to you and Peace says he from him which is was and is to come Rev. 1.4 'T is undeniable by any but affected Wranglers that here the duration of God his continuance in being is distinguished by the threefold Succession was is and shall be which is common to all Beings Eternal life possessed all at once is one of the monstrous Paradoxes which our Opposers maintain for all that I can see meerly from a spirit of contradiction for it has no manner of ground either in Reason or Holy Scripture I desire to know of 'em how the duration of God is the less perfect because 't is said to consist in a Succession
or what is the same to be distinguished by was is and shall be seeing 't is confessed on all hands that he carrieth all Perfections into every Succession of his Duration But is it not a Scandal that some Unitarians of foreign Parts have denied the Spirituality or Incorporeity of God his Omnipresence and Omniscience saying and contending for it that he is a Body with such Configuration of Parts as Men have consequently that he is in Heaven inspecting indeed and governing all things but by the ministry of the several Orders of Angels and that he doth not foresee contingent Events but only such Events as are necessarily not arbitrarily produced by their Causes Doubtless but no more a scandal to the Unitarians than to their Opposers for they are Errors which some of the Fathers even the most antient learned and pious of 'em have defended as Truths Nay it should seem they were some time the prevaling Opinions in some places namely when the Anthropomorphite Doctrine was so zealously espoused that the Hermits and Cenobites would not indure their Bishops if they but suspected 'em of Origen's Doctrine that God is a Spirit without Parts or Passions And in denying the Spirituality and Omnipresence of God they must needs be understood not to believe his certain and absolute Prescience of contingent Events About the year 400 when almost every body concerned themselves in condemning and departing as far as possible from the opinions of Origen the Anthropomorphite Doctrine and its consequences were the Standard Orthodoxy of many places and were Heresy no where Even St. John Chrysostom at Constantinople hardly defended the Fratres Longi from the Prosecutions of Theophilus Archbishop and Patriarch of Alexandria who was a profest Anthropomorphite and had expelled the Fratres Longi for adhering to Origen's Doctrine of the Spirituality and Omnipresence of God But as I said we not only dislike but utterly reject the dangerous Doctrine That God hath a Body is like to Man toge-with its consequences That he is neither Omnipresent nor Omniscient It may as well be said he is not at all nay this latter tho the Anthropornorphites see it not seems to be implied and included in the former But we condemn not the Schechina or glorious Appearance of God in Heaven which many Learned Men hold nor the spiritual Body of Christ III. I believe farther concerning God That there is no distinction of Persons or Subsistences in God And that the Son and Holy Ghost are not God The former of them being only a Man the latter no other than the Power or Operation of God That there was nothing of Merit in what Christ did or suffered and that therefore he could not make satisfaction for the Sins of the World But Mr. Edwards too much mistakes The question is not at all concerning three Persons or three Subsistences in God but whether there are three infinite Subsistences three eternal Minds and Spirits We deny the latter with the whole Catholick Church against the Tritheists We never questioned the former Persons or Subsistences but only as Persons are used or taken for Spirits Minds and Beings I shall explain this matter however more fully in my Answer to the Bishops of Worcester Sarum and Chichester annexed to this Agreement or any one may see what is our sense in the Judgment of a disinterested Person concerning the Controversy between Dr. S th and Dr. Sherlock By a Divine of the Church of England What that Author makes to be the Doctrine of the Nominals and of the Church concerning the Blessed Trinity the Divinity of our Saviour and the Satisfaction is and ever was the belief of the Unitarians as well as of the Catholick Church But we say the Lord Christ is only a Man and the Holy Spirit only the Power of God No we say our Lord Christ is God and Man He is Man in respect of his reasonable Soul and human Body God in respect of God in him Or more scholastically in respect of the Hypostatical or Personal Union of the Humanity of Christ with the Divinity By which the Catholick Church means and we mean the Divinity was not only occasionally assisting to but was and is always in Christ illuminating conducting and actuating him More than this is the Heresy of Entyches and less we never held tho we confess that careless and less accurate Expressions may have been used by both Parties of which neither ought to take advantage against the other when it appears there is no heterodox Intention That by the Spirit of God is sometimes meant in Holy Scripture the Power of God cannot be denied but concerning the Three Divine Persons we believe as the Catholick Church believes That they are relative Subsistences internal Relations of the Deity to it self Or as the Schools after St. Austin explain this Original unbegotten Wisdom or Mind reflex or begotten Wisdom called in Holy Scripture the Logos and the eternal spiration of Divine Love But do you not say There was no Merit in what Christ did or suffered and that he could riot make satisfaction for our Sins He may for our parts be Anathema that teaches or believes that Doctrine We believe that the Lord Christ by what he did and what he suffered was by the gracious acceptance of God a true and perfect Propitiation for Sinners that repent and turn to the good ways IV. In the next Article he makes us to believe a great many things as that The first Man was not created in a state of Vprightness As if it were possible that men in their right senses should think the first Man was created a Sinner That By his Fall Adam did not lose Righteousness and Holiness which are part of the Image of God As who should say that by being a Sinner he did not sin or become unlike to God That Adam's Posterity have received no hurt nor stain by his Apostacy As if you should say that neither his bad Example nor the Curse that made the Earth so much less fruitful was any hurt and that the Rebellion of an Ancestor no not against God is not any blot in his Family I shall grow quite out of conceit with these Unitarians if they say many more such weak things But in very deed I imagine Mr. Edwards had a mind to have charged 'em more home when he does we shall consider what to answer I am of opinion that in this part of the Article he was somewhat ashamed of his own Doctrine and that he feared to make himself and Party ridiculous by a clear and distinct Representation of their opinion That Mankind notwithstanding Adam's fall have by nature an ability to desire and embrace all spiritual Good and to avoid all that is sinful or vitious They are bold Britains What embrace all the Gospel-precepts by mere nature when 't is not possible so much as to know divers of them but by Revelation Divine And can they avoid too all that is vitious at all times
only by nature In good truth they are better and stronger by nature than I ever hope to be in this Life by the superadded Grace of God But here again he did not strike home he intended more than he durst say and he durst not say it lest we should ask him whether he believes the just contrary That There is no need of the Spirit to repent to believe or to obey the Gospel and perform religious Acts. 'T is a serious point We answer with St. Paul the Spirit HELPETH our Infirmities Rom. 8.26 But we judg for all that the Holy Scripture gives no occasion to any to turn Enthusiasts and to resolve the whole duty we owe and must perform to God and to our Neighbor into preternatural Impulses as if we were Machines and not men or Puppets moved by invisible Wires not Men that act by their own Reason and Choice That Men are righteous before God not by the merit of Christ but by their own good works We answer with all but Antinomians and the more rigid Calvinists the Merit of Christ is not reckoned to us without Faith and good Works of our own But I am not certain that the Calvinists or the Antinomists would not assent to that Proposition or not allow it to be orthodox I incline to think those People have no real difference with the Church nor the Church with them but that they mistake one anothers meaning V. Another branch of our Creed according to Mr. Edwards runs thus I believe concerning a future State That the Souls of the Deceased have no knowledg or perception of any thing they are not sensible of any Rewards or Pains and that their very Nature is absorpt That at death the Soul as well as Body sleeps was an error of some of the most ancient Fathers as well as of some Unitarians But neither of 'em said as Mr. Edwards pretends that in death the very Nature of the Soul is absorpt which is to say extinct they both of them held that there is a Resurrection of the Soul as well as Body But why dos Mr. Edwards impute that opinion to us when he has read for he quotes the book in the first Part of the Considerations on the Explications of the Trinity what is our sense of that matter The words at p. 33. are these This Error was common to Socinus and some of the Fathers The Learned Mr. Du Pinn in his Abridgment of the Fathers has noted that Justin Martyr Irenaeus Minutius Faelix and Arnobius were in this Sentiment There was no reason to object this to Socinus as if it were a peculiar opinion of his much less to the English Unitarians who never defended it nor that I know of do any of 'em hold it VI. He says next I believe we shall not rise with the same Bodies but that another Matter or Substance shall be substituted in their place I see most of our Opposers have affected to mistake our meaning concerning the resurrection of the Body We hold nothing that is singular in the case we differ not from the Catholick Church about it We say with St. Paul 1 Cor. 15.35 How are the dead raised and with what Bodies do they come Thou sowest not the body that shall be The Body that is raised is not in all respects the same that was committed to the earth in divers perhaps in the most it is We rise not Infants or decrepit old Men or lame or deaf or any way distorted tho' many so lived and so died Nay as to the Passions resulting from the present complexion of the body and therefore to be reckon'd the Modifications and as it were parts of the body we rise not with them it is not the same Body in respect of those Passions that it here lived For instance some are by complexion very cowardly or pensive or choleric or jealous the Body that shall be will not be such It will be conformed to the likeness of the glorious Body of our Lord Christ that is be freed from all both external and internal Imperfections Farthermore our present body Physicians and Philosophers say is in a continual Flux all the parts of it internal as well as external continually decay and are continually also renewed They decay by the Perspiration that is continually caused by the internal heat and are continually renewed by the Nourishment taken in and converted into Blood Spirits Flesh and Bones 'T is said by the Learned in these matters that no man's body is the very same as to the matter and substance of it this present year that it was the last year and will be the next year 'T is wholly new by the nourishment of the present year We say therefore there shall be a Resurrection of the Body and as some of the Antient Creeds spoke of the same Body as truly and as properly as N.N. is the same Man this year that he was one or seven or twenty years ago If Mr. Edwards requires us to say more he exacts more than the Church believes For by the Resurrection of the same Body the Church intends only that 't is as truly the same as a Man notwithstanding the Flux of his parts is now the same N. N. or J. B. that he was seven or ten years past Yet not altogether the same because inconceivably better That is without any external or internal Deformities or Weaknesses VII I believe that at the Day of Judgment Men shall not be required to give an account of their Actions the most flagitious Sinners shall not be examined concerning any thing of their past Life Only they shall be punished and their Punishment is this to utterly cease or perish for ever The unquenchable Fire is nothing but Annihilation I do not know that the Scriptures or the Catholic Church do require any to believe that Sinners shall be examined concerning their past Life at the day of the general Judgment To what purpose I pray doth the All-knowing Judg need to be informed concerning the particulars of their Guiâ—â—â— If every person is to be severally exâ—â—â—â—ed concerning the particulars of his â—â—ansacted Life the Day of Judgment will extend it self to many Millions of Ages more and farther than the whole duration of the World from its beginning to its consummation It should seem Mr. Edwards thinks that because the Scriptures speak of the great Judgment by God in the language of Men and of Human Judicatures such as Trumpets the Throne of the Judg a formal Sentence the Pleadings of the Guilty the Answers of the Judg that therefore in very deed we are to expect such a Scene at the Judgment by God as at a common Assize I conceive on the contrary that all such expressions and words wherever they are found in Scripture are not intended as real Descriptions but as Comparisons or Resemblances by which the capacities of the Vulgar may he assisted and their affections wrought upon All that is intended by such expressions is
AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. Firmin's RELIGION AND OF The Present State OF THE UNITARIAN CONTROVERSY London Printed in the Year 1698. AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. Firmin's RELIGION MR. Firmin was remarkable above almost any private Man of this Nation and Age for his care and agency on behalf of the Poor and his zeal and activity for his way or Sect of Religion I shall say nothing of the former we have an account of his diligence and methods for the Poor from some friends of his that knew him longer and with the nearest intimacy But concerning lib Religion I may claim to know as much of it as any other It was the same in general with that of all Protestants that is the H. Bible and the Apostles Creed as the abridgment of the Christian Faith contain'd in that Book But as for the Explication of Articles controverted it was that which he and his party call Vnitarian but others Socinian Mr. Firmin and the English Vnitarians never were entirely in the sentiments of F. Socinus they embraced the opinions of Mr. J. Bidle Mr. Bidle differ'd from Socinus and the foreign Vnitarians as in some other points so in that he believed the H. Spirit is tho' not God yet a Person in the vulgar sense of that word Mr. Firmn was a very discerning but not a learned Man Some others of his party have all the qualities for which the foreign Socinians have been so much esteemed that is to say besides an acuteness and dexterity of Thought they are excellently Learned especially in the sacred Criticism But that which in my opinion most commends him and them is the freedom and sincerity which they have all along practised in judging of the controverted Articles of Religion They followed indeed an first Mr. Bidle as he espoused the Tenets of Socinus but so that as soon as there appeared better light to use a Scripture Phrase they rejoyced in it From the time that F. Socinus and his Doctrines began to be taken notice of the Churches of all denominations were persuaded the difference between Socinianism and the doctrin of the Catholic Church was Real Great and even Unreconcilable Many learned Men have thought some such degree of accord between the Church and other Dissenters might be devised that they might bear with one another and hold occasional Communion But Socinianism was supposed to be a departure from the Churches Doctrin so far and in so many points that no Coalition in Communion much less in Doctrine might ever be hoped And of this mind were the English Socinians as well as the Foreign and both of them no less earnestly than the Church But as I said the English Vnitarians or Socinians being Men of ingenuous and free Minds and Principles and therefore always ready to entertain farther light after 8 or 9 years late contest in print with the principal Divines of this Nation they have been so dextrous and happy that instead of farther embroiling the points in question which is the usual effect of the Paper-war they seem to have accommodated whatsoever differences depending between the Church and them A greater Service or any equal to it was perhaps never done to the Catholic Church For as on the one side the Socinians being so much the Jesser Party flood exposed to all the poenal Laws in any Nation that had ever been enacted against any fort of Heretics So the Church was more dangerously threatned by this Cloud of the bigness of a man's hand than by all other Dissenters or Opposers whatsoever The opinions of the Socinians had that appearance of Reason such an agreement with all the yielded Principles of Philosophy whether Natural or Metaphysied that if they had been fostered by the helps under the cover and shelter of which other denominations of Religion have made shift to subsist Socinianism would have flourisht and spread like that Tree in the Prophet Daniel the hight whereof reached to Heaven and the sight thereof to the ends of all the Earth Other Sects by the favour of Princes or the quality of the times have obtained an exemption from Mulcts and Penalties of the Laws and thus their course not being impeded by any dams or banks they have over-spread sometimes considerable parts of particular Countries If Socinianism had any where enjoyed those Halcyon-days its sudden irresistible Progress would have been that I may again borrow one of the sacred Comparisons as Lightning that rusheth out of the East and shineth even to the West Alas on equal Ground and with equal Circumstances the combat between unintelligible Mistery and clear Reason between seeming Contradictions Absurdities and Impossibilities and a rational obvious accountable Faith would soon have been ended But 't is better ended The Divine Providence and Goodness in mercy to both Parties has granted a Peace instead of a Victory It has pleased God to favor the suffering side with an unexpected Light he has shown 'em what may seem incredible that their Opposers think as they the Vnitarians speak that their difference is not in the ideas or notions but only in the terms or words To manifest this Mr. Firmin caused the following Scheme of Agreement offer'd to him by a Person long conversant in these questions to be considered by some of the principal Vnitarians in England And being approved by him and them it was published about a year since The Scheme of Agreement Mr. Edwards after having published divers good Books and one that may deserve the epithet of Excellent his Demonstration of the Existence and Providence of God found an inclination in himself that he could not it should seem resist of contriving a New Religion or rather Impiety and of imputing it to the Socinians By whom he means it appears the Vnitarians Those in England who call themselves Vnitarians never were entirely in the sentiments of Socinus or the Socinians Notwithstanding as our Opposers have pleas'd themselves in calling us Socinians we have not always declined the name because in interpreting many texts of Scripture we cannot but approve and follow the judgment of those Writers who are confessed by all to be excellent Critics and very Judicious As particularly and chiefly H. Grotius who it must be granted was Socinian all over And D. Erasmus who tho' he lived considerably before Socinus commonly interprets that way and therfore is charged by Card. Bellarmine as a downright Arian Non poterat says the Cardinal Arianam causam manifestiùs propugnare Erasmus could not more openly espouse the Arian Cause than he has done in his Notes on the Fathers and on the principal Texts of H. Scripture Praef. ad libros 5. de Christo But tho as I said we are not Socinians nor yet Arians seeing Mr. Edwards has contrived a Creed for us under the name of Socinians I will answer both directly and sincerely concerning the several Articles of the Creed which he saith is ours As to the References unto places in particular Authors where Mr. Edwards would have it
he be God or Man or whether he satisfied Divine Justice for our Sins by his Death but only that a Man of Nazareth was ordained and sent by God to be a Saviour I see all Mr. Edwards his Colts-teeth are not yet out of his head he cannot forbear dealing sometimes in Railery and Wit but I must seriously desire him to name me any Socinian or Unitarian Writer that ever said no more is required to make a Christian but only that he believe Jesus is the Messias The truth of the matter is this Mr. Edwards has been lately very much foiled first by a Learned Gentleman then by a Divine of the Church of England upon this Question Whether it be of the essence of a Christian as a Christian to assent to more than this one Article that Jesus is the Messias sent by God to instruct and save the World They do not doubt that 't is a Christians duty to learn by degrees all the other Articles of the Christian Creed and to believe them but if he hath attained or by occasion of whatsoever Impediments that were not caused by his own Negligence or Perversness he can attain to more either Knowledg or Faith yet this one Article doth make him a Christian It doth not satisfy Mr. Edwards that upon all the points in question they have declared themselves to be Anti-Socinians he resolves for all that they shall be Socinians and this opinion which they maintain against him a new Article of the Socinian Creed It may be one way he thinks to reduce 'em to silence if he calls their opinion Socinianism and if after that they will not pull in their Horns it shall be Irreligion or downright Atheism or at least abnegation of Christianity or Popery his other Compliments to those whom he is pleased to attack I have now answered concerning all the Articles of our Religion with sincerity without any the least disguise or reserved or unusual meaning or meanings And I am not sorry that Mr. Edwards almost constrained us to explain our selves concerning these points For as unsincere and untrue as his Imputations are and as scurrilous as his manner of representing them and discoursing upon them sometimes is the Retortion or Answer here made will be judged by indifferent and discerning Persons to be home and satisfactory As to the man himself Mr. Edwards has been serviceable to the common Christianity by divers learned Books therefore I wish to him whatsoever good himself desires to himself these Concertations between us notwithstanding THIS Scheme as it expresses the real Sentiments of the Socinians so it perfectly agrees with the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and of the Church of England saving that in the fourth Article concerning Original Sin Freewill and Grace the Answer is not so explicit and direct as it would have been if Mr. Edwards had not affectedly declined to declare and express the Doctrine of the Church concerning those matters In their first Rise the Unitarians followed the Doctrine of St. Austin and Mr. Calvin in the Article of Original Sin and the depending Articles Free-will and the Grace of God but F. Socinus coming into Transilvania and then into Poland revived among 'em the Pelagian Doctrine so that for about an Age they were Pelagians in the question of Original Sin and its Dependents In this last Century as they speak or Age being the seventeenth from the birth of our Saviour those Questions have received a new turn in all the Western Churches that is to say among the Roman Catholicks and the Protestants of all denominations A kind of Semipelagianism is grown into repute in most places being a temper or expedient of Peace both Parties yielding somewhat and yet both retaining enough to make their Doctrine consistent with our natural Notions of the Justice and Mercy of God And to this I think the Unitarians now rather encline but not generally that is not universally or not all of them In short the above-recited Scheme is direct and clear except only in the fourth Article concerning Original Sin and the Points thereon depending But those Questions being now variously held in all Churches and among all Parties the Socinians are no more Dissenters on the account of what some or most of them believe concerning that Article than Bishop Jer. Taylor for instance and Dr. Hammond and the Remonstrant Party supposed to be the greater part of the Church of England are So that upon the whole we may say There is now no Sociniun Controversy The misunderstanding that was common to both Parties the Church and the Unitarians is annihilated and Mr. Firmin by approving and publishing the Scheme of Agreement professed himself of the same mind with the Catholick Church and the Church of England Mr. Firmin was sensible of this notwithstanding as Curator of the Unitarian an Religion he resolved to have continued his endeavours that no false Notion oâ— the Trinity should corrupt the sincere Faith of the Vnity He was perswaded that the Faith of the Unity is the first Article of Christianity the Article that distinguishes Christians from Pagans as the belief of the Messiah already come distinguishes us from Jews He judged that tho the unscriptural terms Trinity three Divine Persons and such like in the sense they are intended by the Church contain a Doctrine which is true yet taken in the sense they bear in common familiar Speech in which sense the greater number of men almost all the unlearned must needs understand them they imply a more gross and absurd Polytheism than any of the old Heathens were guilty of He that understands three Divine Persons to be three distinct infinite all-perfect Spirits or Beings or Minds three Creators three several Objects of Worship is more guilty of Polytheism than the Greeks or Romans ever were before their conversion to Christianity for tho they and other Nations were Heathens that is Polytheists Asserters of more Gods yet they never believed more than one Infinite All-perfect Spirit the Father and King of the lesser Deities Mr. Firmin knew well that the Majority of vulgar Christians and not a few Learned Men have a Tritheistick Notion or Conception of the Trinity or three Divine Persons each of which is God namely that they are three distinct Infinite All-perfect Minds or Spirits Meeting this every day in Conversation as well as in Books he was not less zealous for the Doctrine of the Unity after the Publication of the Scheme of Agreement than before And therefore he purposed besides the continuation of all his former Efforts to hold Assemblies for Divine Worship distinct from the Assemblies of any other denomination of Christians But he did not intend these Assemblies or Congregations by way of scism or separation from the Church but only as Fraternities in the Church who would undertake a more especial care of that Article for the sake of which 't is certain both the Testaments were written The great design and scope of both