TWO LETTERS Concerning the HOLY TRINITY Reconciling together in some measure the Semi-Arian and the Trinitarian Systems concerning Christ's Divinity and Inquiring Whether the Term Persons speaking of God shou'd be Impos'd in Acts of Church-Communion To be offered to the Consideration of the Learned in order to their giving their Opinion and Reasons concerning the things herein mentioned The First LETTER being a Preparatory of the Matter more fully treated of in the Second *** I Consume my Spirits daily in studying more and more the Doctrine of the Trinity and cannot cease that Study for fear I should be wanting to my Duty on the one Hand or the other But after all I can find no Rest but in the seeming Generality of the Expressions of Scripture I believe there may be more implied in those Expressions or they may import otherwise then all Men are aware of But then the Scripture being so Mysterious and Obscure about this Point doth it not seem to be to the intent to try the best Industry and Search of every one in particular and our Moderation in so intricate and difficult a Matter and so to lead and oblige us to bear with one another in different Sentiments herein uniting in the Scripture-Generality no Man being to judge for another The Ancients so far as I can perceive seem very much Divided and Uncertain in their Judgment about this Obscure Subject By the Expressions of the Primitive Doctors that began to Platonize among Christians it seems that they inclined most to Semi-Arianism as I also in some measure do mollifying the Arian System as I think is the true Import of it rationally understood I seek only Counsel and Instruction and desire to be truly Humble and Moderate as I ought to be and pray God I may actually discharge my whole Duty I believe that the Godhead is as intimately United with Christ as possible and that not only the Divine Power continually assists him so that he disposes of it as a Man disposes of his Arms or Hands which is merely by Desiring or Willing but also that the Divine Wisdom constantly illuminates and conducts his Soul as our Soul doth our Body insomuch that he is thereby enabled to represent God at the Head of the Universe And I do not see what more than this can be understood by the Union of the Divine with Christ's Human Nature Wherefore by this Consideration the Semi-Arian and Trinitarian Systems seem herein to be nearly reconciled together By the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit I understand the Divine and Sanctifying Inspiration and the Miraculous or Wonder-working Divine Power communicated in some measure to some Men according to the good Pleasure of God together with the concurring Ministry of some Angel as seems to be inferr'd from several Places of Scripture particularly Luk. 1 35. 1 Tim. 5 21. Hebr. 1 7 compared with Acts 2 3 4. Hebr. 1 14 compared with John 16 13. Acts 8 26 29 39. I believe then that there is in God the Divine Mind the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Power Mr. Calvin asserted that it was sufficient to acknowledge these Divine Properties and that it was not necessary to insist on the term Persons Instit Cap. 6. Sect. 25. p. 179. Genev. 1550. St. Austin owns it to be very improper De Trin. L. 5 C. 9. St. Jerom declared he cou'd not use it Epist ad Papam Damas. I am of the same Opinion I have prepared a Second Letter humbly to represent my Reasons for it If I mistake in my Sentiment I hope I am but of those Weak in the Faith who may be received and whom God will receive I conclude most humbly beseeching you to compassionate me and to grant me your Prayers being c. The Second Letter *** THIS Controversy seems exceeding intricate and difficult after the maturest and carefullest Consideration of it But then seeing the Scripture expresses it self so obscurely and in so general terms concerning that Subject it seems that as was intimated in the former Letter it is to the intent to try our Moderation as well as every ones best Industry in particular and that we should not be too Decisive and Imposing and should not condemn but should bear with one another herein and should unite and agree in the seeming Generality of the Expressions of Scripture considering that sincere Persons may mistake about so obscure a Point and considering that a hearty Love of God and of Christ cannot but be acceptable to them that the main things are secured when the Expressions of Scripture are adhered to in this Matter that it will in all probability suffice to have a fuller Knowledge of it after this Life that in the mean time we are not to judge for one another and that after all there is not probably so much Difference as has been imagined between the contending Parties There would have been no Disunion if Christians had seriously made those reflections and had contented themselves with this scriptural and general Profession that the Word is God that the Holy Spirit or Inspiration and Power of God is God that these three the Father the Word and the Spirit are one and that there is but one God There may undoubtedly as I said be more implied in these Expressions or they may import otherwise than some Men or all Men are aware of Howbeit the Scripture being thus general seems to require indispensibly no more than this general Acknowledgement And therefore Protestants particularly owning that they are not to judge for one another can justly require no more for Terms of Union And then all Christians that are sincere cannot but be safe for sincerely believing the Scripture as Mr. Chillingworth somewhere observes they believe implicitely even those very Truths and Senses which perhaps they are somewhat short in For my part God is Witness I consider this Subject to the best of my Power and act and proceed sincerely herein howsoever I may sometimes differ from former Sentiments and be sometimes perplexed in my Thoughts But after the fullest consideration it seems to me it is not impossible that the Arian or Socinian Systems be true and yet not impossible but that that System also be true which by the Word and Holy Spirit understands God himself or the Acts and Properties of the Father tho' indeed it seems very improper to say God the Wisdom and God the Power Incontestably there is in God as was said a Divine Mind a Divine Wisdom and a Divine Will or Power Nevertheless even tho' by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel should be understood the Divine Reason or Wisdom produced forth or shewn in the Old and New Creation there said therefore by a Figure to be Incarnate that is most intimately to dwell with and assist the Human Spirit of that Man who is the chiefest of God's Messengers it hinders not but that at the same time by the Word may be meant the Soul of the Messiah which for the
could not then be great But there is no Antiquity and Authority like that of the Scripture And it seems that this kind of Arian or Semi-Arian System which I have described in these two Letters is the most agreeable to it If I err in my Sentiment I said I hope I am but of those Weak in the Faith who may be received and whom God will receive for I am heartily desirous to know his Will and the Truth to follow it and have fervently prayed him to shew it me so far at least as it is necessary to to be known And this Unitarian System little differs from the Trinitarian It seems indeed strange to address distinct Prayers to the Divine Power The Scripture doth it not It seems in a manner as harsh as to represent it as a distinct Deity and it seems to do it in making of it a Divine Person And tho' the Man Christ Jesus may be invocated by Wishes when absent we find he is invocated in Scripture as Mediator between God and Man and as united to the Godhead yet as a distinct supremely Divine Person is I think no where expresly taught in Scripture nor necessarily deducible from any Argument It seems Christ now is sufficiently invocated here by us when both we are denominated by him and he is so call'd and relied upon in our Prayers that our Petitions are put up to God in his Name and that we therein offer up his Sacrifice to God and plead his Merits and Intercession This is actually to call upon his Name in Prayer as is observed in the Brief History of the Vnitarians on Acts 9 14 and 21. As St. Jerom rejected and protested against the term Persons and St. Austin owned it to be improper and Mr. Calvin opined it sufficed to say Properties Dr. Sherlock Page 7th of his Book which is intituled The present State of the Socinian Controversy observes that the Truth doth not depend upon the use of this and other the like Scholastick terms for he owns the true Faith was before them Why should they then be imposed By the second and third Persons may those partial Considerations of the Divine Mind be understood the Divine Wisdom and Power or Inspiration There would then be no Difference in the Doctrine for all do acknowledge these things to be in God But for the Term it cannot be warrantable to impose the calling Wisdom and Power Persons for the reasons aforesaid And on the other hand when God is worshipped can we then be wanting in our Worship of what is supremely adorable That cannot be imagined In summ The term Persons is not in Scripture in speaking of the Divine Nature The Texts alledged for it or for the sense and import of that term are very rationally susceptible of another signification Nevertheless the Divine Mind Wisdom and Power are owned to be in God and to be God or eternal infinite all-perfect 'T is granted all that is in God is reducible to these three Divine Intellect or Mind Wisdom and Power the Divine Will being implied in the Divine Power or the Power in the Will and the Divine Wisdom comprehending the Divine Goodness and Justice But then the Divine Mind is most properly the Divine Essence and the Divine Wisdom and Power are incontestably Divine Properties 'T is from Plato's School that Christians learned to make Persons of them And it seems manifestly that the Doctrine of three Persons in one God is encumbred with unavoidable Contradictions What must I do I cannot think otherwise of that term nor of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds which use it or imply it I most humbly beseech You for God's sake to compassionate me if I seem to mistake in my thoughts concerning the scholastick terms May these things be so considered and illustrated that the Truth may be made to appear most conspicuous to all that are sincere I humbly beg your Prayers and am c. P. S. If by the Word and the Spirit should seem to be understood some things in the Divine Nature somewhat analogous to Persons yet first of all it seems at least they must be not only inferiour to the Father but as it were some Portion as Grotius notes on John 1 2 or but some Beams of his Person in some measure as are to a Man his right Hand and left Hand insomuch that the Father communicates of his Perfections to them but so far as he pleases For the Scripture as we have seen John 17 3. 1 Cor. 8 6 c represents the Father not only as the Superiour but as the whole Godhead all that Christ and the Holy Spirit do is ascribed to the Father as the Chief and Primary Cause working in and by them Christ says that the Father who dwells in him doth the Works that the Son can do nothing of himself that the Son knew not when was to be the Day of Judgement that the Spirit not only is sent but is taught and commissionated what to do and say and if the Practice of Scripture and the Texts to that purpose be exactly weighed it seems that Christians are not directed to address their Prayers to the Son or the Spirit but to the Father or God in general terms For when in a Vision Christ is both seen and heard speak since his Exaltation that is a particular case there being no doubt but that not only he is then to be personally honoured but may then certainly be applied to tho' not as a distinct and second Divine Person yet as the Mediator between God and Men and as the Viceroy of the Universe assisted by the Godhead dwelling in him as was said It should then be observed Reason and Scripture plainly shew us that the Divine Mind is endued with infinite Wisdom and Power as being the natural and necessary Perfections and Properties of the Divine Mind it self But that the Divine Wisdom and Power are real and distinct Persons that particular Prayers should be address'd distinctly to the Divine Mind distinctly to the Divine Wisdom and distinctly to the Divine Power and that the Deity consists of several real Things or real Portions whereof the one has excellencies above the other seems unaccountable to the most sedate Reason and appears not expresly specified in the Word of God Now it seems that from this consideration all along enforced or made way for in these Two Letters these two Inferences do necessarily follow First We should then ordinarily and in common Assemblies content our selves to direct our Prayers to the Father or God in general terms as the greatest number of the reformed Churches do these incontestably would be the safest Measures in so intricate a Matter it being certain that when God is worshipped all is adored that is supremely adorable and we should content our selves with the Apostles Creed the Expressions whereof are as general as those of Scripture whereas Human Terms more decisive may be erroneous and may cause just scruples in so abstruse a subject
Vnitarians that there have been Vnitarians all along and that many of them were the most learned of their time Who for instance more learned than Theodotian Symmachus Paulus Samosatenus Lucianus and Origen Arius and Eusebius for these last as Arians or Semi-Arians may as well as the former be reck'ned Vnitarians Even from the 28th Chapter of the 5th Book of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History it appears that at least a great Number of the Primitive Bishops and Churches were Vnitarians Justin Martyr owns Vnitarians for his Christian Brethren Colloq cum Tryphon Jud. P. 207. But by a Quotation in the aforesaid Chapter of Eusebius it appears the Vnitarians pretended they were all along in the first Century the greatest Number and had the Succession of Bishops in their Sentiment in the most considerable Places even till Popes Victor and Zepherin at the end of the second Century which doth not seem to be there disproved as it might then have been if it had not been true Origen owns the Jewish Christians were generally Vnitarians Contr. Cels. L. 2. P. 56. It appears that Theodoret doth the same Haeret. Fab. L. 2. C. 3. For the Jewish Christians especially were call'd Nazarens as well as Ebionites as appears Acts 24 5. Epiphan Haeres Naz. C. 1 Augustin de Haeres C. 9 10. St. Jerom. Epist ad August Thus it is own'd the Ebionites and Nazarens were no contemptible Vnitarians and they were thus nick-nam'd first by the unbelieving Jews and in like manner probably by the Heathens and afterwards by the platonizing Christians A few years after the Council of Nice the greatest part of Christians were Vnitarians In fine there have always been some Unitarian Christians in Asia and there are many Churches of them to this day in the Dominions of the Pagan and Mahometan Princes and even in Muscovy as well as in Transilvania in Hungary Solavonia and Illyricum IV. It is certain that all the Doctors that in the greatest part of the second Century were proselyted from Heathenism and that became the great ring-leaders were wholly devoted to not to say infatuated with Plato's Philosophy Even the Popish Criticks complain of it Huet Origenian L. 2. C. 2. And even some of them do insinuate what indeed cannot be doubted of that upon that account the Writings of the Primitive Vnitarians were destroy'd by the Trinitarians Vales. in Euseb L. 5. C. 11. Now all the unscriptural Terms which are us'd concerning the Trinity and which have caus'd all the Division being found in the Platonick Philosophers and so many of the Primitive Christians being avowedly Platonists it cannot be question'd or wonder'd from whence those Terms were brought in or which way came the alteration of Doctrine V. It cannot be denied but that about and since the Council of Nice the greatest Violences have been constantly used to suppress the Vnitarians It is not strange therefore if they have been driven out of many Places where the Governours persisted to persecute them Thus Protestants have been extirpated out of Spain Bohemia and in a great measure out of France VI. It seems incontestable that the Primitive Trinitarians or those commonly held such differed from those of the Council of Nice and their Followers and that these as well as the former differ from the present Scholasticks For the present Scholasticks assert that there is but one Divine Spirit and that the Son and Holy Ghost are eternal and necessary Persons equal to the Father The Nicene in their Creed say that the Son is God of God which implies distinct God of distinct God or a distinct God which title they give not to the Spirit Gregory Nazianzen says that many good Catholicks in his time would have been scandalized if in the religious Assemblies the Holy Spirit had openly been said to be God Orat. 20. The Great St. Basil says that God is not one in Number but only in Nature horrid Polytheism perfect Heathenism and too palpable a Demonstration of the Mischief of Platonism and of the then prodigious Alteration of the true Doctrine and with the current of the Doctors of those times he represents the three Persons as being as distinct Beings as three Men 141 Epist ad Caesariens Irenaeus teaches that the Father is greater than the Son Advers Haeres L. 2. C 49 and that besides the Father and the Son no other is of his own Person Lord or God L. 3. C. 9. Justin Martyr who owns that he and at least many Christians in the second Century ador'd and worshipped the Prophetick Spirit and the Host of the other good Angels together with God and his Son Apol. 2. P. 43 affirms that the Son had not a necessary Being but was voluntarily begotten of the Father that he is inferiour to him ministring to the Will of the Father Ibid. P. 221. that the unbegotten God or the Father doth not descend or ascend from any place neither is moved seeing he cannot be contain'd in any place but that this might be said from the beginning of the World of the Son who sais he by the Father's Will is a God and in the beginning before the Creation of the World was generated of the Father Ibid. P. 221 and 280. Accordingly Tertullian holds that there was a time when the Son was not Advers Hermogen C. 3. The Council which magisterially condemned the Doctrine professed by Paulus Samosatenus and his Party at Antioch at the same time decred that the Son is not of the same Essence with the Father as is even noted by Dalaeus in his Treatise De usu Patrum Lib. 1. Cap. 5. Thus by these very instances it appears that the Trinitarians have so much varied that a constant Tradition cannot be pleaded For these several reasons it seems that too great a stress should not be laid on the pretended Ecclesiastical Antiquity of this Sentiment but on the contrary that the chiefest Inquiry should be What appears most decisive in Scripture and Reason concerning the Points themselves that are controverted and concerning which it seems that the least that can be granted is that with relation to them we should keep in Terms of Vnion to the Generality of the Terms of Scripture If that should prove a Mistake yet it is very fit that so important a Matter should be most carefully consider'd and debated that the Errour may be evinc'd and confuted by those that may have the opportunity to do it But if this be no Errour the not considering of it cannot but be most pernicious wherefore I cannot but wish this were communicated to several learned Men in order to their giving their Opinion and Reasons concerning these things It seems that for any thing that appears to the contrary by the Father the Word and the Spirit in understanding them of God we may understand what the Vnitarians then understand thereby Namely God and the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Power or Divine Inspiration and that our Prayers are to be addressed to
Persons implies three Gods for every All-Perfect Person subsisting of its self must have in it self whatsoever is necessary to the constituting of a true intire and distinct God The asserting therefore three distinct Divine Persons is to assert so many Gods And so it is very important for the Honour of Christianity and all the Concerns of Religion to be freed from that Scholastick term which sets up Polytheism disguises the most excellent Revelation destroys the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel and appears contradictory and impossible If the Son were a Divine Person as the Father this Contradiction would follow that the Divine Essence were both Begotten and Vnbegotten for each Person is said to be the same Essence together with a peculiar Relation A Relation alone is not said to be a Person but a Relation with the Essence Therefore the Essence with a peculiar Relation must be Vnbegotten and the same Essence with another Relation must be Begotten The Scripture says Mark 13 32 the Son knew not something that God knew the Fulness of the Godhead imparting its influences to him at one time more than at another as the Soul doth to the Body insomuch that Christ grew in Knowledge and not communicating it's Nature to the Human Spirit in which it dwells so as to make it cease to be a Creature or a Finite Being Now not only there are not two Sons in Christ but it is not rational nor the Stile of any Language to deny simply or in general terms of a Being what is true of any Part of him Therefore denying that the Son knew what God knew it appears that by the Son the Scripture doth not understand the Divine Nature but the Human tho' by a Figure possibly by the Son we may mean that Influence of the Divine Wisdom and Power which is communicated to and dwells in the Son the Man Christ This Argument is illustrated in the 1st Book of Crell's Treatise Touching one God the Father Sect. 2 Chap. 9. It is said that the Father only knew of that Day Matth. 24 36. Therefore the Father only is the God who thus dwells by his Wisdom in the Soul of Jesus so as to be intimately united therewith as was said This is confirm'd by Crell's observations in the first Chapter of his aforesaid Book on John 17 3. And in many other Places the Scripture is express that the Father is the only Person who is God in the true or proper Sense of that word 1 Cor. 8 6. Ephes 4 6. c. Thus and it seems thus only the Divine Unity is preserved and establish'd And if so the Scholastick Terms should not be imposed There is a small Octavo on that Subject intituled Apologia pro Irenico Magno which I wish were considered and answered if answerable the said Octavo and its Arguments being proposed as intended to know the Reasons of others on this Subject By the Holy Spirit it seems the Scripture understands the Divine Inspiration or Miraculous Power as was intimated in the First Letter commonly joined with or annexed to and communicated by the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5 21 particularly the Seven Archangels Revel 1 4 the First whereof undoubtedly is the Chief of the Angels not personally united with the Divine Power or God for he doth not represent God at the Head of the Universe but as an inferiour Officer acting in concurrence with the Divine Power This as was shewn seems to be deducible from several Texts of Scripture And so the Holy Spirit is both the Divine Power and the Angels whom God employs God is pleased to work with them and to have them work with him Therefore God employing them in his Works and particularly in the Service of the Church they are subject to it's Head the Governour of the World for whom all the Parts of the Universe and all Things whether in Heaven or Earth were created to the Glory of God being disposed of by our Lord Jesus Christ in the best Order which is most agreeable to God God speaks by his Word or Word-bearer the First-born who is as it were the Mouth of God or his Speaker and the Angels obey and the Divine Power co-operates and concurs with them God in the beginning shewed the Son what was to be done And the Son shewed it to the Chief of the Angels when they were created and with the concurrence of the Word appointed to their several Stations God did work before the Son And the Son did work like him being enabled by the Father taught by the Divine Wisdom and seconded by the Angels when created but assisted by infinite Power But the Work is ascribed to the Soveraign and the First Actor under him as the taking of a Town is ascribed to the General and to the Prince by whose Authority he acts This System seems to account for those Places of Scripture which import that Christ created or disposed all things together with God that the Son can do nothing of himself but that what he sees the Father do he doth the like the Son seeing thereby what he is to desire of the Divine Power as Grotius notes on John 5 19 20 21. and that Christ is the Word of God and that he is a God that the Angels are Ministring Spirits c. Till his Incarnation the Word or aforesaid Word-bearer was as a Son in his Minority in his Father's House Then a Son little differs from the Servants tho' he is the Heir he is then under probation for the Inheritance In his Pilgrimage on Earth he was in a State of greater Humiliation At his Ascension and Exaltation he was then properly and most eminently associated to the Empire of the Universe This is properly God the Son or the Man Christ Jesus exalted and in his Human Nature made the King of Kings under God in which sense in the Scripture-stile he may be said to have created or disposed and modelled all things in Heaven and Earth as Grotius shews in his Annotations on Col. 1 16 and he may as such a Man much more be said to be God than the Bread of the Eucharist is said to be his Body These things not only appear in a great measure conceivable and intelligible rational and free from intolerable difficulties and in short accountable and maintainable but they seem perfectly agreeable to the Holy Scripture The Primitive Antiquity as I said seems very much divided and uncertain about this most obscure Subject concerning which it was not impossible to mistake considering the great Generality and the mysterious and obscure Manner in which it pleas'd the Holy Inspiration of God to dictate it to the Sacred Writers and considering the Philosophy that than prevailed Howbeit even by the Notions of Irenaeus Justin Martyr Origen and all the Doctors that began so early in some measure to platonize it seems that they were then properly Semi-Arians and therefore rather Vnitarians than otherwise And so the Error of either side