intelligent Essence or Substance are equivalent terms so that in saying three Persons you say also three Essences The Ground of Faustus Socinus and which if true all Men grant that his Scheme also of Religion would be true is that Person and a particular intelligent Substance are the same that as often as you multiply one you multiply the other from whence Faustus concluded we must not say three Divine Persons because 't is a granting three Divine Substances or Essences which would be three Gods Lest Dr. Sherlock should deny that he takes the same Ground with Faustus Socinus and therefore that in consequence their Schemes are coincident I will subjoin his very Words A Person and an intelligent Substance are reciprocal terms and three distinct Persons are three distinct numerical Substances and one numerical intelligent Substance is but one numerical Person Vindic. p. 69. Again How can three distinct Persons have but one numerical Substance What is the Distinction between Essence Personality and Subsistence p. 139. To conclude All the Difference between F. Socinus and this Man is Socinus saw the Consequences of his Principles without a Monitor the other even when admonish'd does not or as some think will not see them A POSTSCRIPT By another Hand THIS Author has told his Reader p. 7. that Dr. Sh. hath not indeed in this Sermon declar'd expresly what kind of Trinity he pleads for but he intimates it and plainly points to it at p. 7 10. But besides what is there said for making known the Dean's Doctrine of a Trinity of Spirits and Substances I conceive it may give greater Evidence of it to cite a Passage or two concerning it out of his Book The Vindication of the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity c. where we find p. 66. It is plain the Persons are perfectly distinct for they are three distinct and infinite Minds To say they are three Divine Persons and not three distinct Infinite Minds is both Heresy and Non-sense They are three intelligent Beings Father Son and Holy Ghost are as really distinct Persons as Peter James and John p. 105. They are three Holy Spirits p. 258. There is no Contradiction that three Infinite Minds should be absolutely perfect in Wisdom Goodness Justice and Power for these are Perfections that may be in more than one p. 81. And p. 47. We must allow the Divine Persons to be real substantial Beings the three Divine Persons are substantially distinct This now is that Doctrine which Dr. Sherlock must be understood to plead for in this Sermon It is the Mystery of this Trinity of which he says p. 12. The Inconceivableness can be no Argument against the Truth of the Revelation or that Sense of the Words which contains such Mysteries These are the things he says we must believe tho we do not see things which we have no natural Notion or Conception of things that are not evident to natural Reason The meaning is plainly this We must believe his Doctrine of three distinct and Infinite Minds and Spirits however it does in our clearest Reason improv'd also by most evident Revelation introduce the Worship of three Gods for what is so evident both in Reason and Revelation as that God is one Infinite Mind and Spirit and not three But Dr. Sh. has devis'd some pretty new terms such as Self-consciousness and mutual Consciousness whereby to elude the Testimony of Holy Scripture concerning the perfect Oneness of God but Reason contradicts him and will not suffer him to destroy that glorious Attribute under the notion of unconceivable Mystery She says it 's not Mystery but a plain Inconsistency therefore Dr. Sh. would have her Mouth stopp'd or our Ears stopp'd that we may not hear what Reason says tho in consent with Revelation or at least that we should give no heed to what she says Our Author has told us that the Oxford-Decree condemns this Doctrine as Impious and Heretical contrary to the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and the Church of England But if we will believe this Preacher the Oxford-Heads have pass'd that Sentence because they give too much heed to natural Reason and Philosophy and exalt what those say even above Revelation This brings to my mind what the late Archbishop of Blessed Memory determin'd in the Dispute between Reason and Revelation Dr. Sherlock did him a great deal of Right in a Sermon upon the sad occasion of his Death I hope he will not now despise his Judgment That great Man upon 1 John 4.1 says 1. That Reason is the Faculty whereby Revelations are to be discerned 2. All supernatural Revelation supposeth the Truth of the Principles of natural Religion 3. All Reasonings about Divine Revelations must necessarily be governed by the Principles of natural Religion that is by those Apprehensions which Men naturally have of the Divine Perfections and by the clear Notions of Good and Evil which are imprinted upon our Natures Because we have no other way to judg of what is worthy of God and credible to be reveal'd by him and what not but by natural Notions which we have of God and of his essential Perfections and by these Principles likewise we are to interpret what God hath revealed and when any doubt ariseth concerning the Meaning of any Divine Revelation as that of the Holy Scriptures we are to govern our selves in the Interpretation of it by what is most agreeable to those natural Notions which we have of God and we have all the Reason in the World to reject that Sense which is contrary thereto 4. Nothing ought to be receiv'd as a Revelation from God which plainly contradicts the Principles of natural Religion or overthrows the Certainty of them Under this Head that excellent Man concludes That a Miracle is not enough to give credit to a Prophet that teacheth any thing contrary to that natural Notion which Men have That there is but one God who only ought to be worshipped Thus we see that in the Judgment of the late Archbishop Dr. Sherlock's Trinity would not be made credible tho a Miracle should be wrought in Testimony of it because it contradicts the Principles of natural Religion that is of natural Reason FINIS
saith are Philosophy and Reason I am of opinion they must be beaten at their own Weapons or they will never be beaten Yield but to them Philosophy and Reason the Advantage I fear will be judged to be on their side I wonder how this Doctor who is for excluding Reason and Philosophy as Enemies to Divine Truth would deal with the Atheists and Infidels But it may be he would buy him a massy Quarto-Bible with Clasps and Bosses and knock 'em down with it And it troubles him sadly too that Philosophy and Reason are the Weapons of Hereticks of Arians and Socinians and Pelagians as well as of Atheists and Infidels And from hence he infers as before that it was this same scurvy Philosophy and Reason that made 'em Hereticks Without doubt this was intended at the Oxford Heads Those morose old Gentlemen that could not let a Man alone in a small slip but must be decreeing and censuring as soon as ever 't is said or printed that there are three Eternal and Infinite Spirits 't is but fit they should be told their own that 't is they with their Philosophy and their Logicks or Art of Reasoning that make all the Hereticks And yet 't is thought by some odd Fellows on the other hand that Philosophy and Reason never caused that Mischeif that our Preacher pretends and they offer to confirm what they say by the Example of the Arch Heretick Socinus Who never understood Philosophy nor so much as Logicks or the Art of Reasoning till the latter part of his Life Toward the latter part of his Life he got some Skill in the Sophismatical part of Logick and wrote a little Treatise about it Howe're it be I find 't is like to go hard with Philosophy whatever becomes of Reason For Dr. Sherlock warns in effect my Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen that they take care that their Children may never see Oxford or Cambridg for there they will catch the Infection of Rhilosophy and after that 't is certain they will be Hereticks Arians or Socinians or Pelagians The Hereticks on the other side many of them are no less bitter against this same damnable Philosophy they protest especially in their Latin Works that 't is Philosophy that corrupted and debauch'd Divinity I wish in my heart these Gentlemen the Doctor and the Hereticks do not play booty into one anothers hands for as angry as they would seem against one another 't is plain they join Stocks against Philosophy As for poor Reason and the Hurt she does in seducing Men from the true Faith I will consider what may be said in the case in another part a more opportune place of this Answer and content my self to make here this one Reflection 'T is very surprizing to me that this Doctor should turn Heretick-taker when he himself stands censured of Heresy and in the very point of the Trinity by Decree of the most famous University in the World Not only so but some Learned and Orthodox Writers as great Anti-pelagians as himself pretend to a Discovery that he and his Party of Realists are Socinians and start just from the same place from whence L. Socinus Ochinus Blandrata and other Founders of Socinianism first set forth They prove this Charge by two things First that the Doctrine of Dean Sherlock concerning the Divine Persons is exactly the same with the Heresy of Laelius Socinus B. Ochinus G. Blandrata V. Gentilis and other Founders of Socinianism they all teach alike three Divine Essences Substances and Spirits And whereas against this everry one would be ready to object that three infinite Spirituall Essences three Eternal all-perfect Spirits must needs be three Gods against which the Scripture is positive asserting every where that there is but one God They answer'd there is but one God the Father is that one God the true God the most High God and God of the other two Divine Persons The reason is the Father only is unoriginated the Son and Spirit are originated from the Father as their Fountain and Cause this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pre-eminence of the Father doth intitle him to the name of the God by way of Excellence the one God the true God the most High God nay and of God of the Son according to that of our Saviour himself I ascent to my God and to your God Dr. Sherlock dissolveth the objected Difficulty after the same manner For when he hath said three Infinite Essences three Eternal Spirits he saith also but one God and interprets those words I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God as L. Socinus and that Junto did namely thus in these very words There is no Inconvenience in owning that the Father is the Head and the God of the Son as the Son is a Divine Person for the Father is the Fountain of the Deity The Son being only God of God that is God originated from God namely from God the Father therefore the Father may be called his God Vindic. of the Trin. p. 154. The other Proof of the Charge of Socinianism against the Dean and of a design to introduce it is that the Doctrine of three Essences and three Spirits doth lead by necessary and unavoidable Consequences to the Socinianism that is now so called For tho Laelius Socinus Blandrata and the rest did abide a while in it that three Essences and Spirits are one God because only the first of them is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unoriginated as to his Being and Godhead the other two derive Being and Godhead from him yet after some time it was perceived by 'em that three Infinite Essences three all-perfect Spirits are not the less three Gods because the second and third are originated from the first for it can be only said in the case that the first God generated two other Gods Originated or not originated is not what maketh a God but Omnimodous Perfection therefore if the second and third Spirits are each of them All-perfect he is not lefs a God than the first is This Reflection gave birth to the modern Socinianism or the Socinianism that now is for Laelius Socinus soon dying his Nephew Faustus Socinus convinced Blandrata and the others that they must no longer say three Essences and Spirits but one Essence one Spirit and also but one Pers Faustus Socinus took Person and intellectual Essence or intellectual Substance to signify the same thing he thought them equivalent terms therefore because he plainly saw that three Infinite All-perfect Essences or Spirits are certainly three Gods he contended being neither a Critick nor a Metaphysician that as there is but one Divine Essence or Spirit we ought also to say there is but one Divine Person In short the Dean's more warm Opposers say his Doctrine of a Trinity of Essences and Spirits is the same that was affirmed by Laelinus Socinus and other Founders of Socinianism and that in its Consquences it leads to the modern
Reason or that any Man living can know any thing of them And this he adds is all the Incomprehensibility and Contradiction that Men can charge on the Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation P. 17 18 19. The second Objection is To what purpose can such a Revelation serve or of what use can such a Faith be which is concerning things we cannot comprehend or understand and to which Reason disagrees He answers First we may use the World and every thing in it as fully and to as good purpose as if we understood the Reasons and internal Natures of things The Objection if it hath any force takes place as much against created Nature or the Complex of things called the World as against the Gospel-Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation for the former is all inconceivable Mystery as well as the latter He answers again Secondly Tho we understand not the Trinity the Incarnation or the necessity of the Satisfaction by the Death of the Son of God 't is for all that a very useful Knowledg even this that God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life P. 21 22 23. This is the Substance and Force of the Sermon And one would think on a general View of this Discourse that all Dr. Sherlock's Care and Concern were for the poor distressed Articles of the Christian Faith that there is nothing in his Thoughts however nothing equally in his Thoughts as the Defence and Patronage of the Catholick Doctrines of the Trinity the Incarnation and Satisfaction But I know no body but himself and his Party of Realists as they call themselves that question the Articles of the Trinity the Incarnation or the Satisfaction in the Sense they are held by the Catholick Church It is even necessary to caution his Hearers and Readers what this Doctor 's true meaning is when he pretends to plead for the Trinity and the Articles thereon depending For when he cries Trinity he means three Eternal and Infinite Spirits that is he says Trinity and means Tritheism and this is the Reason why his Defences of the Catholick Doctrine of the Trinity are as false and weak as his Explication of that Doctrine that I may use the words of the Oxford-Decree concerning it is heretical and impious The whole Catholick Church believes that Almighty God is one Infinite and Eternal Spirit That the Divinity was so incarnate in the Humanity of the Lord Christ as to exert in it the Divine Attributes as Omniscience or the Knowledg of the Thoughts and of the Future and Omnipotence or the Power of Miracles Whereupon there followed as Divines speak a Communication of Idioms Which is to say in consideration of this Incarnation we say God was made Man and the Lord Christ is true God But by the former 't is only meant that by his Incarnation or Indwelling in the Humanity it may be said somewhat Catachrestically or improperly that God became Man by the other that the Lord Christ is true God is meant he is God and whatsoever may be said of God in respect of God in him Farther that our Blessed Saviour by his active and passive Obedience did reconcile Men to God and God to Men and satisfied whatsoever the Justice of God required for the Pardon of Sin and the Donation of eternal Life on the Conditions however on our part of Faith Repentance and Newness of Life As to the Divine Persons that the Divine Essence or Substance or the Divinity it self can be no otherwise distinguished or diversified but only as the Bishop of Worcester words this matter by different Modes of Subsistence or relative Properties which being considered together with the Divine Essence and Attributes are named Persons In this Faith all the Denominations of Christians do acquiesce As it is the Churches Doctrine and her whole Doctrine about these Matters 't is also imbraced by all the Sects of Christians except only the Arians of which Perswasion there are none I think in England nor in the Dominions of any Christian Prince or State But Dr. Sherlock and with him some few others endeavour to disturb this happy Agreement and Consent they would divide us by novel Doctrines and a new Explication of the Trinity an Explication which is as manifest Polytheism and Paganism as any of the old or modern Heathens were ever guilty of He hath not indeed in this Sermon declared expresly what kind of Trinity he pleads for but he intimates it and plainly points to it at p. 7 and 10. He owns at p. 10. 't is the new Explication and at p. 7. the real Trinity by which Names all Men know he and his Party call their Trinity of Spirits and Substances in all their Books Therefore tho if another Man had preached this Sermon the Errors and Weaknesses for which 't is so remarkable might have been charitably overlook'd yet coming from him who designs to establish a Heresy that subverts the grand Design of Christianity and revives Paganism under the disguise of a false Zeal for the Catholick Doctrines of the Trinity the Incarnation and the Satisfaction it would be a very drowsy Neglect not to give notice and warning of this Wolf in Sheeps Clothing or not to detect the Falseness of his Reasonings as well as the Impiety of his Principles and Doctrine I come therefore now to a particular Discussion of the several Parts of his Sermon which I have already represented in distinct Propositions The first was Philosophy and Reason are the only things which those Men adore who would have no God at all And what makes some Men Atheists and Infidels even the Philosophick Tincture and their Adherence to natural-Reason the same makes others to be Hereticks that is to be Arians Socinians and Pelagians He intended it without doubt as a mighty Prejudice against Reason and Philosophy that Atheists and Infidels pretend to both and that they seem to esteem nothing else And in truth a notable Reasoning it is for a Sermon as Sermons ordinarily now go but from the Press or in a Book 't is a contemptible Weakness Atheists and Infidels magnify Philosophy and Reason therefore Divines and good Christians must be hence cautioned that Philosophy and Reason will despoil 'em of their Piety towards God and their Faith as Christians Sir Francis Bacon Lord Verulam is often quoted for a contrary Aphorism namely this that indeed a smattering in Philosophy inclines Men to Atheism and Irreligion but a Mastery in it begets and nourishes Piety and Faith And surely Experience has shown he was in the right For those Divines who have also been Philosophers are the Men that have by their Writings done the greatest and most successful Service to Religion Which in such an Age as this would hardly have stood its Ground under the Management of Divines that were not Philosophers also The Weapons of Atheists and infidels Dr. Sherlock