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A59787 An answer to a late Dialogue between a new Catholick convert and a Protestant to prove the mystery of the Trinity to be as absurd a doctrine as transubstantiation : by way of short notes on the said dialogue. Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1687 (1687) Wing S3261; ESTC R10173 11,401 17

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being God. And further where-ever in the Scriptures there is made any mention of the Three Persons there is always declar'd an express Gradation as 1 Cor. 12.3 4 5. 2 Cor. 13. 14. Gift and Communion from the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost Grace and Administration from the Lordship and Kingship of Christ and Love and Operation from the Father the Supreme God the Original Fountain according to Ephes. 4.4 5 6. p That Christ is called in the Old Testament the Angel of the presence I grant but affirm also that the Angel of the presence was no created Angel but the Lord Jehovah who spake to Moses in the Bush as the Ancient Fathers grant q To be the first born of every Creature does not prove that he is a Creature but that he was begotten of God before any Creatures were made that is before the Creation of the World and that signifies an Eternal Generation for nothing was before the Creation of the World but that which is Eternal and uncreated as is sufficiently intimated in this very Text 1 Col. 16.17 18. and then it is no injury to the Eternal Generation of Christ though we grant that he was begotten again at his Resurrection from the Dead r As for the Holy Spirit he is indeed called the Spirit of Christ and is said to be sent by Christ as he is by his Father but this proves only that he is the Third Person in the Trinity and in the Aeconomy of Mans Salvation acts as a Vicarious power to Christ the Redeemer But his very Office to Inspire and Sanctifie and dwell in the whole Christian Church and every Christian proves him to be God not only because the Christian Church and Christians are his Temple but because no Created Spirit can dwell in all Christians For what this Convert alledges of an universal tempting evil power is no better than Manichism or to assert an evil God. For an universal power is God and did one Devil tempt and poss●ss all bad Men as one and the same Holy Spirit dwells in all good Men he would b● an omnipresent and infinite Devil which is what the Manichees call an evil God and sure this is not the Doctrine of the Church of Rome which is a sign that our Author is but a new Convert B. I must confess Sir these Opinions seem to make it necessary for us in that Doctrine too to trust to the Authority of the Catholick Church and I shall take time to consider a little upon them But pray Sir what say you to the Reasons of the two Doctrines A. Really s Sir I must tell you I think that Parellel much the easiest 'T is strange new Arithmetick to a man to tell him Three distinct Persons are one and the same Individual Nature and then to call such a one the most Pure and Simple Being and that especially when they are declar'd to have various Intellectual Powers as appears by John 16.12 13 14 15. and Mark 13.31 1 Tim. 6.15 Acts 1.7 For my part I cannot tell well how the Prejudice of Education could possibly digest a thing so unreasonable were it not a Divine Mystery I am sure t to my carnal Reason there may be as well Three Hundred Persons in the Godhead as Three and I know not what can be said of Transubstantiation that is seemingly more absurd than That B. I must confess Sir I have had strange confus'd and surprizing Thoughts of it my self but I always apprehended the Christian Church a sufficient Guide A. If you did Sir pray consider who that Catholick Mother is you so obey'd and as you have receiv'd the Trinity so receive a Doctrine equally as reasonable and deliver'd by Her Transubstantiation I know the Ingenuousness of your Temper and you promis'd me at first not to be a wilful Schismatick and therefore I have hopes my Reasons and your Consideration will be sufficient to reduce you to Catholick Communion B. Sir I shall consider of it but as yet you only talk'd to me at large I shall desire one Favour of you before we part Pray state the Parallel a little shorter I shall the better remember it A. Well Sir I shall First the Tradition of one Doctrine cannot be stronger than another where both have been at least equally question'd Secondly 'T is as reasonable to take This is my Body literally as it is to take these Texts I and my Father are one God over all blessed for ever and By him all things were made without reference to other Scriptures and a Figurative Interpretation And lastly I think to human Reason 't is as equally unreasonable and as seemingly repugnant to say One is Three as it is to say a Body is not what it appears B. Very well I shall desire no more of you now I 'le only takea little time to consider and then you shall know my mind more freely A. Farewel and God give you his Holy Spirit to instruct you s And now we are come to the main Point Whether the Doctrine of the Trinity be as absurd and contradictious as the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which God forbid it should be I am sure the Arithmetick is very good for Three Persons and one Nature is no bad Arithmetick To say that there are Three Persons and but One Person and but One Nature and yet Three Natures had been no good Arithmetick but a plain Contradiction that Three are One and One Three in the same respect which God himself cannot make true but Three Persons and One Nature is no Contradiction how incomprehensible soever it may be He has made it a Contradiction indeed by saying That Three distinct Persons are one and the same Individual Nature but whoever before said that the Person is the Nature or that the Divine Nature is an individual Nature or a Nature appropriated to one Person which is the signification of an individual Nature I suppose he had heard somewhere of individua Trinitas and this he mistook for an individual Nature These are indeed Contradictions and new invented Heresies but this is not the Catholick Doctrine of the Trinity t We cannot indeed comprehend how Three distinct Persons should subsist in one Nature for we see no example of it in Nature for in finite Creatures one finite Nature is confined to one Person but a finite Nature I hope is no rule for an infinite Nature and therefore an infinite Nature may be common to more Persons than one though a finite Nature cannot and it may be it is as intelligible how Three distinct Persons may subsist in one infinite Nature as how three distinct Faculties can be in the same finite Soul by which Comparison the Ancients explain'd the Doctrine of the Trinity The Omnipresence Omniscience Omnipotence Eternity of God are as much above our Comprehension as a Plurality of Persons in the Deity and if men will but allow that God is incomprehensible this can be no Objection against the Doctrine of the Trinity