is justly esteemed by all the Moderns who follow the Schools one of the difficultest Objections against the Faith of the Trinity viz. that if three Humane Persons have three singular Humane Natures and consequently are so many Men why three Divine Persons should not also infer three singular Divine Natures and consequently be three Gods And the Answer that the School men and Moderns give is that the case is vastly different that the Unity of three Humane Persons is only Notional the Unity of the Divine Persons strictly real The Animadvertor himself p. 300. can tell you of a better Allusion and Similitude to the Union of the three Divine Persons The Vnion of Vnderstanding Memory and Will as one and the same Soul One simple Being with three Faculties is a nearer resemblance of one simple Being under three Relations than three simple Beings n. 6. But let us hear the Animadvertor himself explain this Argument p. 175. à minore ad majus If several individual Men could not properly be said to have more than one Nature much less could this be said of the three Divine Persons To which I answer First Does the Animadvertor really believe that three Men cannot properly be said to have more than one Nature or not If he believes it What will become of his Objection that a Specifick Unity implies a Multiplication of the said Nature in the several Individuals What becomes of that famous Passage of his P. 270. that Substantiis Consubstantialibus will neither be Truth nor Sense I suppose he will not deny that several individual Men are Substantioe Substances in the plural Number nor yet that Consubstantialibus signifies of one Substance of one Nature I intreat him to answer this Question Are several Men Consubstantial or not Is Christ according to his Humanity Consubstantial with us Men or not Will he dare to say that the whole Catholick Church has neither spoke Truth nor Sense For the whole Church has ever professed a Belief of Christ's Consubstantiality with us Men. If the Animadvertor shall plead that it was the Sense of the Fathers that three Men could not properly be said to have more than one Nature even that is sufficient for my purpose who am now enquiring only into the Judgment of the Fathers This is sufficient ad Hominem to the Animadvertor but for my Reader 's fuller Satisfaction I answer to the Point that so far as this Allegation is true 't is Impertinent and that so far as 't is pertinent 't is false 'T is an acknowledged Truth that the strictest Union that can be betwixt Humane Persons is but a resemblance an Allusion to that inseparable incomprehensible Union betwixt the Divine Persons But this is not the question concerning the Union of the Divine Persons indefinitely but concerning the Unity of their Nature The Fathers maintained that the Unity of the common Divine Nature was of the same kind and degree with the Unity of the common Humane Nature There is certainly a greater Union betwixt two Humane Persons who are dear and intimate Friends than betwixt two who are mortal Enemies There is a greater Union betwixt two Saints in Heaven than betwixt the best Friends on Earth And yet two mortal Enemies have the same Unity of Nature with the Saints in Heaven The Union of the Saints in Heaven is by our Saviour himself resembled to the Union of the Father and the Son John 17.22 That they may be one as we are one But these words no more denote an illimited equality than those other words of our Lord Matt. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect denote an equality in Perfection If we suppose three unbegotten unproduced Divine Persons three Fathers I cannot see how we can deny such to be Consubstantial since we acknowledge three Angelical Persons to be of one Nature and Substance yet three unbegotten Divine Persons three Fathers are to all the Ancient Fathers three Gods They did not therefore believe that a Specifick Unity was the only Unity of the Divine Persons that they were one upon no other account but if we can know their meaning by their words they did certainly believe a Specifick Unity And this I perswade my self the Animadvertor's Heart misgave him n. 7. He therefore comes in with a third Salvo p. 176. That he does not in the least deny but several Expressions may have dropped from the Fathers which if we looked no further might be drawn to a very inconvenient Sense That is in plain English several Expressions have dropped from them which assert if we look no further a Specifick Unity What from those Fathers who never alledged this Example as a parallel Instance but always used it by way of Allusion or à minore ad majus It seems the Animadvertor's always and never will bear an exception What Salvoe has he for this He gives it us in the following words But then also it is as little to be deny'd that the same Fathers professedly and designedly treating of the same Points here declared themselves in such terms as are very hardly if at all reconcileable to those occasional and accidental Expressions And therefore since their meaning cannot be taken from both it ought much rather to be taken from what was asserted by them designedly than what was asserted only occasionally Now it is well contrived to take the conclusion for granted he is to prove It seems that the Animadvertor would have things come to that pass that we must take his bare affirmation of a thing for a proof of it Petavius Dr. Cudworth the Reverend Dean of St. Paul's have asserted the quite contrary they have already equivalently denied it and the Animadvertor gives us his own ipse dixit that it is little to be denied Again the Animadvertor pretends no more than a difficulty or a doubt whether these designed expressions may not be reconciled to the occasional expressions The Animadvertor makes an if of it to him these latter are hardly if at all reconcileable with the former which is no great wonder since he believes tribus substantiis consubstantialibus to be neither truth nor sense since he believes a numerical Unity absolutely inconsistent with a Specifick Unity Lastly Why is the conclusion stronger than the premises Why does he make the conclusion positive Their meaning cannot be taken from both is the conclusion whereas the premises mentioned only a difficulty or a doubt They are hardly if at all reconcileable The Animadvertor was I believe n. 8. in some measure sensible of the weakness of these answers and therefore He provides a fourth Salvoe Ib. p. 176. viz. that the Orthodox Writers of the fourth and part of the fifth Century were chiefly exercised with the Arian Controversie And the Arians would not allow so much as a specifick Unity of Nature between the Father and the Son but instead of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sameness held only an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
themselves differ that is by a strictly real difference The personalities of different persons always differ by the same difference by which the persons themselves differ that is by a strictly real difference The second of a Being differing from its own Mode is acknowledged to him The third viz. the difference of several things modified or affected is peculiar to the Animadverter never any Philosopher dreamed that several things differ by a modal difference they always differ by a strictly real difference However the Animadverter has here spoke a very great truth That the Divine Persons differ as several things but this utterly overthrows the Animadverter's Hypothesis According to him the Divine Persons differ not as several things but as one and the same Being under one Mode differs from it self under another Mode this is the only modal difference the Animadverter's Hypothesis requires and this with great profoundness of judgment he here omits The other three are nothing to the purpose had they been all never so true in Philosophy P. 33. lin 4. N. 8. Essence may be truly and properly defined That by which a thing is what it is that is to say by which it is constituted in such a kind or order of Being By Essence in this place the Animadverter understands what Metaphysicians call the Ratio Formalis of a thing that is he takes this term Essence in a transcendental sense in so large a sense that not only Substance Accident a mode of Being but even an Ens Rationis may be said to have an Essence for there is a ratio formalis of every one of these by which each of them is constituted respectively a Substance Accident Mode or Ens rationis Now to talk of truly and properly defining a Transcendental is the same blunder in Logicks as he would be guilty of in History who should enquire for the Father or Grandfather of Adam Every Novice in Logicks knows that a true and proper definition consists of a Genus and Difference and consequently that nothing but a Species is capable of a true and proper definition The supremum Genus in each predicamental scale is not capable of a strict Logical definition much less a transcendental Term that is transcendental to all the predicaments But this is the least part of the mistake according to this description of Essence there are at least Four Essences in the Trinity The Divine Relations of Paternity Filiation Procession have each their proper distinct ratio formalis by which each of them is constituted a relation of such a kind nay these Essences of the Divine Relations would differ Specifically for so Paternity differs from Filiation and all Divines acknowledge That the Absolute Divine Nature is a true proper Essence Aristotle appropriates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence to Substance First or Second So did the Fathers of the Church so do all the Moderns Translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by consubstantial of one Substance Of which more hereafter As for Existence it self it may be defined P. 33. lin 27. N. 9. that Mode or Affection of Being by which a thing stands actually produced out of the Power of its Causes or at least not actually included in any cause in which sense God himself does exist Some few Schoolmen who have supposed that the Human Nature of Christ wanted a Proper or Created Existence have asserted That Existence is a Mode in Created Beings that is something added to the Thing or Being and consequently capable of being Substracted But these are very few and the Animadverter is of a contrary Opinion p. 35. The generality believe that Existence is only the Actuality of the Thing or Being and that all it adds to the Being is only a Negation in the Animadverter's words that the Being is not actually included in any Cause But not one single Divine I firmly believe before his own dear self ever affirmed that Existence was a proper Mode in God His very next words confute this assertion p. 34. that Existence is necessarily included in his very Essence but a Mode a thing added to the Essence cannot be included in the Essence Again in the same page he ascribes one single undivided Existence to the Three Divine Persons which if Existence were a proper Mode would be very difficult to be conceived How Three distinct Persons can be modified or affected with one single undivided Mode P. 34. lin 6. N. 10. The next Term is Subsistence which is a Mode of Being by which a thing exists by it self without existing in another either as a part in the whole or an Adjunct in the Subject I say an Adjunct not an Accident for a Substance may be an Adjunct Subsistence is strictly a Mode of Existence that is it modifies the Existence of a Substance and distinguishes the Existence of a complete Substance from the Existence of an incomplete Substance or Part. Two things are therefore implied in this term Subsistence 1. That the Being which is said to subsist is a Substance and not an Accident not a Quality c. 2. That it is a whole and complete Substance and not a part of some whole This is plain and easy and that which Subsistence adds to Existence may be only a negation of Incompleatness The Animadverter is not satisfied with the common definition of Subsistence but to shew us his profound skill in Philosophy and Divinity at one time has added to the vulgar description of Subsistence those remarkable words or an Adjunct to the Subject and lest we should not sufficiently take notice of it he repeats it with an Emphasis I say an Adjunct not an Accident for a Substance may be an Adjunct Now I must profess that I have always a prejudice against new Definitions both in Philosophy and Divinity commonly they only proclaim the mistake of the Inventer of them First He needed not have cautioned us against an Accident the former part of the Definition had secured sufficiently against such a mistake a Thing existing by it self can never be an Accident except our Animadverter believes Transubstantiation Secondly What a mighty Secret has he instructed the World in viz. That a Substance may be an Adjunct I would fain know one person that understood the meaning of the terms who ever doubted of it However I will endeavour to requite his kindness and inform him That a Suppositum may be an Adjunct nay which is more every substantial Adjunct unless Hypostatically united is a Suppositum or subsisting Being If the Animadverter ever saw a Woman with Child or a Nurse carrying a Child in her Arms he might have been convinced of the truth of this Assertion That a Suppositum may be an Adjunct Nay further Had this Paradox in Philosophy been never so true it is of no use in reference to the subsistence of the Three Divine Persons Well but it would explain the mysterious Incarnation of the Second And I think if we would assign a way Ibid.
agreeing in the Fundamental Articles of this great Mystery viz. That the Father is truly Essentially God that the Son is truly Essentially God that the Holy Ghost is truly Essentially God that one of these Persons is simply not either of the other two And that there is nothing in this Faith which contradicts that Fundamental Article of Natural Religion That there is but One God or more briefly in the received Language of the Church that there is One God and Three Divine Persons shall choose to explain the modus of the Unity of the common Divine Nature by singularity with the Schools or shall profess that this Unity wants a Name in our present Logicks It is Truth not Victory I contend for he therefore who grants my Conclusion why should I quarrel with him concerning the Premises by which he arrives at the Conclusion The Impudence and Blasphemy of our late Socinian Writers extorted this Essay The Head and Mouth of the Party the Unitarian Historian in one short Section has amassed together this Charge against the Faith of the Ever Blessed Trinity viz. That the Faith of the Trinitarians is absurd History of the Unitarians p. 9. n. 7. and contrary to Reason and it self false impossible an Error in numbring most brutal inexcusable which not to discern is not to be a Man nonsense that it does impose false Gods on us that it robs the one true God of the Honour due to him A Letter of Resolution concerning the Trin. c. p. 6. n. 1. Another of the same Party is pleased to stile the Son and Holy Ghost Gods of our own devising Were such Blasphemies as these ever suffered before in a Christian State Crellius was a Zealous Socinian and wrote one of the subtilest Books which was ever published against the Orthodox Faith his Book of One God the Father These Gentlemen have translated and published this Piece in the English Language I will send these Persons to learn better Manners from him He in his Preface to that Book expresly expounds those words of St. Paul Rom. 9.4 of Jesus Christ viz. that He is over all God Blessed for evermore And in the first Chapter of that Book speaking of those words of our Saviour John 17.3 wherein he calls the Father the only true God Crellius has these express words For neither do we hold that Christ is by vertue of these words wholly excluded from true Godhead Crellius of one God the Father p. 4. I quote their own English Translation I am not for Persecution no not of the Socinians I disallow not of a modest Representation of their Opinions or of the Reasons why they embrace not the Catholick Faith of the Trinity and Incarnation Heresies are often the occasion to clear the truth it self But in so Sacred Articles it becomes all Persons to use modest Expressions especially those who want not only present Authority but are confessedly contrary to the Voice of the Catholick Church for more than Twelve Hundred Years and most of all since the Articles of the Trinity and Incarnation are in their Primary Conclusions the express words of Scripture Christ is called God says Crellius John 1.1 and Rom. 9.4 I doubt not that Crellius himself would have condemned with the greatest abhorrence the stiling of Christ a false God a God of Mens devising There can need no Apology to vindicate the Mysteries of the Christian Religion when they are thus barbarously attacked I have this to plead for my self and my own Hypothesis that as the Socinians confess so I verily believe that it was the Eaith of the Nicene Fathers and embraced by the most learned Fathers of the Greek Church from Athanasius to Damascene and so far as I know to this day Nor do I know that there is one Expression in the Articles of our Church that is not fairly reconcileable with it I have the same Plea in reference to my Second Part my Exposition of the Article of the Unity of God that it is of the Ancient Fathers they are both Venerable for their grey Hairs All I pretend to is only my weak Endeavour to set these two Ancient Expositions of the Articles of the Unity of God and the Trinity in a fairer Light to prove that they are very consistent one with another and liable to no just Exception by a Socinian After all I adjure my Reader that he will not judge of the truth of this Article by the strength of my Defence My Hypothesis may be true I only faulty in the explication of it Or if my Hypothesis of the Modus of this Unity be disallowed the Article concerning the Unity it self stands firm upon the Expressions of Scripture On my self let all the shame of any mistakes fall But let the Truth of God be unshaken and the Gates of Hell never prevail against the Faith of the Church the Faith I mean of one God and three Divine Persons He the Reverend Dean tells us That Petavius and Dr. Cudworth have abundantly proved That the Nicene Fathers did not understand the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Numerical but of a Specifical sameness of Nature or the Agreement of things Numerically different from one another in the same common Nature This is the First Part whether the Ancient Fathers asserted a Specifical Sameness Unity Identity of Nature or a Numerical Unity or rather a Singularity of the Divine Nature The Dean quotes two very learned Persons Petavius and Dr. Cudworth and tells us that they have proved the Specifical Unity of Nature to be the Opinion of the Nicene Fathers nay that they have abundantly proved it Had two such able Judges of Antiquity barely said it it would have weighed very much with considering Persons But the Dean tells us that they have not barely said it but proved it abundantly proved it which cannot be otherwise understood than that they have quoted several Sayings of the Nicene Fathers which plainly and undeniably evince abundantly prove this to have been their Judgment This was very full to the Dean's Design to prove that three Divine Persons are three Infinite Minds that is that the Nicene Fathers judged them so For I dare say p. 215. l. 10. that no Man besides himself will deny That three distinct Infinite Minds or Spirits are Specifically one if not by an higher degree of Unity No one who understands the meaning of the terms can deny that this term Infinite Mind is predicated of three Infinite Minds as a Species is predicated of its Individuals No one surely will say that three Infinite Minds differ Specie or in their definition If three Finite Minds are Specifically one are one in Specie such an Unity or an higher cannot be denyed to three Infinite Minds Again according to his own Argument a Specifick Unity implies a multiplication of the Nature And since all acknowledge that each Divine Person is an Infinite Mind if their Unity be only a Specifick Unity according to
are not levelled against the Fundamental Truth of this Article the true Divinity of each single Person and their real Distinction but against the particular Hypothesis of the Schools the Singularity of the common Divine Essence these Objections are of no force against the Nicene Hypothesis and therefore we meet not with them in the Writings of the Ancients of the most learned Defenders of the Orthodox Faith against the Arians The Sophistry of those few Socinian Objections which remain appeared no less evident to me and I doubted not by God's Grace to be able to make them appear so to any unprejudiced Reader that is I doubted not by God's Assistance satisfactorily to any unbyass'd Person to reconcile the Nicene Hypothesis and the Article of the Unity of God I was fully perswaded that I could clearly answer all the Socinian Harangues of Nonsense and Contradiction which they so confidently charge upon this Article of the Trinity and thereby reduce the debate to this single Question Whether the Article be revealed or not The Article of the Trinity will still be a Mystery that is it will still be unfathomable to us Why there were a Trinity of Divine Persons neither more nor fewer How God an immaterial Spirit can generate or beget a Son Why but one Son Why the Holy Spirit is not also a Son Wherein his Procession differs from Filiation The Oeconomy also of the Divine Persons will be a Mystery How Father Son and Holy Ghost concurred to the Creation of the World In what manner they jointly acted in the natural Kingdom of Providence How they will govern after the surrender of the mediatorial Kingdom of the Son of God In these and the like Questions did the Ancient Fathers place the Mystery of this sacred Article in these the Nicene Hypothesis that I mean which I propose as the Nicene Hypothesis still places an unsearchable Mystery The Schoolmen can decide you these with the greatest ease if you believe them with the greatest exactness but then instead of these which they pretend to solve they have given us many others ten times more difficult These Mysteries claim express Revelation for their Foundation viz. 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