the Communion of the regular establish'd Church which yet he is far from contemning or censuring Suppose I say a Person to be of such Character and Circumstances shall we dare to say this Man's Faith is not sufficient to his Salvation because we our selves perhaps have more Faith and are justly perswaded more is necessary to our own Salvation In all Likelihood he endangers himself to be excluded from Heaven who takes upon him to exclude such I am far from denying that Men ought to grow up to Perfection in all Faith and Knowledg that is to endeavour to comprehend and believe as near as they are able all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven or all revealed Truths built upon that one Foundation Jesus Christ and him crucified But we know how vastly the Superstructure is increased the Compass of Scripture even of the New Testament is large the Difficulty of understanding it at this Distance great the Lights which we have by Fathers and Doctors various and by their Variety many times dazling and confounding one another nay even whole Churches in Doctrinals very contrary to one another and at least one and that the greatest of them all for the maintaining her Grandeur has designedly with all the Arts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4. 14. and Methods of Deceit new modell'd the whole Frame of Christian Doctrine and not stuck in a sort to corrupt even Scripture it self by imposing on the World her corrupt Translation and in many Points corrupter Sense of it for infallible Truth and the only sure way to Heaven in which Impositions of hers all Protestants agree many Points to be fallacious and destructive Now these being and having been the Circumstances of the present Age and indeed of many late Ages is it not the constant Doctrine of all Reformed Churches that every Person should with Prayer Humility and Study of the Truth proposing unto himself the Holy Scripture for his Rule judg for himself And must not every Man believe what is the Result of his Judgment or what in Conscience according to Scripture he judgeth Truth Now perhaps sundry Points which particular Doctors yea which Churches have differently determined and which some of them pretend to be of Faith an honest inquisitive Man cannot perceive the Holy Ghost to have determined at all nor does he find them in the Apostles Creed the old Standard or Leiger-Roll of Fundamentals Nay further examining them according to the Analogy or Proportion of Faith that is comparing them with undoubted Fundamentals he cannot resolve which Opinion bears most Proportion or is most certain In this Case what shall the Man do For my own part I can see nothing more proper and safe than to take the Matter in that Latitude wherein the Scripture delivered it Had not learned Men differently interpreted and imbroiled the Text perhaps I should never have perceived any more than one Sense of it even that in which I now take it But having seen their Glosses I am sensible the Text will admit several Interpretations and which of them was designed by the Holy Ghost I know not I disbelieve none of them nor will I as far as able in my Practice act contrary to what either or any of them enforces I submit intirely to the Authority of God in all Here 's my negative Belief I will not divide the Christian Church nor take Part with them that do divide it but hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace maintain Christian Charity with all Christian People and esteem all them to be Christians who are content to walk or who without the Contradiction of a disorderly Life profess to walk by that Rule which I own namely Holy Scripture This is the Latitude I plead for and from which I think I never shall be driven But there being but one Faith there can be no more Latitude in Faith §. 12. than there is in an Vnit This is a Subtilty indeed and no doubt a stabbing Argument against the People of the long Name as some are pleased to stile many conformable moderate Persons But are there not as many sorts of Vnits as there are of Vnities And did Mr. Dean never hear in Philosophy of an Vnity of Composition which is so far from excluding Parts that it supposes them Or in Arithmetick did he never hear of Integrals and what minute Parts thereof Artists can make No Latitude in an Unit Yes and in the one Faith too especially as by the one Faith we understand what Churches and Doctors have now made it Have we not whole Systems of Opinions now adays made up into Confessions of Faith Certainly all controverted Points in Christian Doctrine can no more be maturely determined and the stated Truth distinctly be believed by all Men than all Christian Perfection be by all equally attained There are those to whom it is given in an ampler and more peculiar measure to know the Mystery of the Kingdom Though all may have the same Scripture or Body of revealed Religion all have not the same natural Sagacity and Judgment the same Education and Advantages of Improvement the same Leisure and Opportunity for Search and Application of Mind Some and that far the greatest Numbers of Christians can only understand the common Christianity repent of their Sins and in Well-doing depend upon God's Mercy in Christ Jesus for Life everlasting Others leaving that is not stopping at those the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ the alone true Foundation go on unto Perfection So that there is a measure of Faith as well as of other Christian Perfections And God is doubly the Author of a Latitude in Faith 1 In revealing his Truth in such Terms as admit of a Latitude of Conception 2 In giving to Men as he sees fit such measures of Knowledg and Perswasion as leaves them in an higher or lower Degree of Faith and even of Holiness And accordingly in our Father's House there are many Mansions Nor can any Man with Reason gainsay these things Now though this be far from thinking it indifferent what Men believe Pag. 9. or whether they believe any thing or not yea faralso from believing what we please yet I confess it is believing as by Grace we are able I must conceive as I can and judg as I can and believe as I can too And neither I nor any Man alive who believes any thing can believe all that dictating Men will impose upon them The Authority of the Church it is true is of great Weight and will go very far to the determining any sober Man's Judgment in a case where Evidences on both sides are perfectly equal that is alike probable or alike uncertain But the Faith we owe to the Church and that we owe to God are very different All the Churches or Councils in the World can never make that an Article of Faith which God has not made so He who alone can bestow Salvation has alone
bear some considerable Proportion as perhaps of a fifth or sixth Part to the whole Nation but not of every Party which some call a Schism surely as to that little contemptible Party that Pag. 19. only think themselves considerable as to that so inconsiderable abhorred Party when they stand by themselves that all Parties who own any Religion Pag. 23. will join Counsels and Hands and Hearts to renounce them as he had not above nine Lines before drawn the Character of the Socinian The Help of these surely can neither be wanted by the Government nor they ever be troublesome to it If therefore any Words of mine import any such thing which I profess I cannot see they do I confess it was said very unawares nay contrary to my Intention Besides I should never have expected this Insinuation from Mr. Dean against the Socinians of all Parties in the World For he being a Person so deeply engaged against them cannot be esteemed so little read or vers'd in their Heresy as to be ignorant that amongst their Errors of Note this is one That it is not lawful for any Christian Man to exercise even the Civil Power of the Sword that Christians are to leave this Matter to the World and that there never will be wanting worldly Men enough Children of this Generation who will be ambitious enough of Power and Government and who are fitter for it and much better Managers of it than are or would be the Children of the Light that therefore they are to be subject to the Power that is and not to attempt the possessing themselves of Rule This Party therefore of all other ought not to fall under the Jealousy of the Government Nor should Mr. Dean of all Men being he so well knows this to be against their Principles have accused them of it And now passing by some poor trifling Reflections which he makes upon me touching my Intimacy with Socinians c. without regarding whether that which he infers follow from the Premisses he takes and which mostly make up his 24th Page I come to speak more fully my meaning in a Passage of more Weight which he is unwilling to understand Forasmuch as all Men know Opposition commonly makes those whom we cannot quiet only more eager and troublesom I had perswaded a Neglect of the Socinian Papers till fit Time and Place as really believing that if they received no new Matter to provoke them to write they would surcease Now Mr. Dean will have the Time he wrote in to be a fit Time Pag. 23 I suppose because he had leisure and a Mind to give the World some new Specimen of his Skill in Dispute and for other Reasons that the World talk of and what I mean by fit Place he knows not But that he may be soon let into the whole meaning as well as Reasonableness of my Proposals I will tell him that the great St. Augustine would not undertake writing against the Pelagians till chosen and deputed thereto by two Councils in both which he sat one of Carthage the other of Milevis both held according to Baronius in the Year CCCCXVI From consideration of which memorable Precedent I concluded the fittest Time and Place for the taking notice of and confuting heretical Doctrines especially in such tender Points as that of the Holy Trinity to be what is nearest a Council amongst us namely a full House of Convocation and the fittest Persons to do this a Committee chosen by that great and reverend Assembly and the Work afterwards to be revised and approved by the said Assembly How far it might be expedient to call or admit the Adversaries to publick Disputation at such Time and Place I take not upon me to consider But according to this Method we should be sure to have no novel Hypotheses or Definitions put upon us or started On the contrary all Points would be maturely stated with Moderation and Caution even Expressions themselves weighed the Truth solidly confirmed Error confuted and censured So that in fine all Sons of the Church would and must be concluded and by this Means a due End would be put to these Controversies This was what I meant by saying At fit Time and Place let that be done which shall be judged most Christian and most wholesorn And I believe a little Candour and Consideration would easily have taken my Meaning But having now thus more fully declared it I shall only add as to this Matter that I persist still in the same Opinion So do I also in my Proposal of what I termed a Negative Belief which he again attempts to expose instead of which Term if any will give me a better and more significant Succedaneum I shall readily accept it but as for the thing it self I judg it as I have said most reasonable and just Nor do I see any readier Expedient towards such Vnion as in the present State of things may be adjudged possible than what I proposed namely that in such mysterious Points which we cannot understand or clear our selves in we shall be permitted what indeed as to the inward Act none can hinder to suspend our Judgment and not be required to declare any further Assent and Consent to the Churches Determination than that we will not contradict or teach contrary thereto Withal that in the mean time no Practice be imposed upon any contrary to their Conscience But I would have it noted here that I neither in my Paper did nor do I now propose this Temper as a Mean to qualify Men for Church-Preferments but only for Communion Now though Mr. Dean may judg all this unpracticable and that it is not possible to bring hereby some Men to hold their Tongues yet perhaps he judges of their Tongues by what he knows and has declared of his own Pen that he will in a certain Controversy never lay it down while he can hold it in his Hand However I find some in Print to be of a contrary Mind in this Point even touching himself and to believe that if the Booksellers would but hold their Hands in giving him so much a Sheet for his Copies he would soon cease troubling the World with Controversy of any kind But he adds that I remembred not when I made this Proposal what I Pag. 26. had said of some Mens Zeal and eternal Disputing I did remember good Sir what I had said and spoke consistently with it which is more than some People always do but you misrepresent what I said according to your usual Fidelity My Words were An Answer would only breed a Reply that a Rejoinder that a Triplication and so in infinitum But I did not say there would be a Reply if there were no Answer nor a Triplication if no Rejoinder nor any eternal Disputing if as I desired some Writers would desist neglect their Adversaries or forbear insolently to exasperate them Now as to the Questions he asks me I will take the Liberty
of the said Lords and Commons But that it ever came before the Convocation cannot be proved When even eight Bishops in the House of Lords protested against it no one can believe that it would then have pass'd a Convocation and therefore no doubt it was never brought before them And thus proceeded the two first Years of King Edward the Sixth his Reformation as far as I can collect from my afore-mentioned Authors which two Years broke the Ice and made way for perfecter Work For by these Proceedings the Eyes of the Clergy no less than of the People who had both need enough began to be opened many of both sorts got a Taste of the Truth and took a Relish of the Reformation which by the Vigilance of the Government and indefatigable Diligence of the Reformers but chiefly by the prevailing and victorious Power of the Truth and the Influence of God's Spirit daily grew and advanced insomuch that a happy Forwardness towards a Settlement presented it self in the succeeding Part of this Reign But I may truly say Had not the Reformers taken Time by the Forelock and they not begun with the Dawn of the Day Had the King Council and the immortal Archbishop staid for such a Convocation which would have approved their Reformation in all likelihood we had had little or as I affirmed no Reformation at all in King Edward's and God only knows whether in the second following Reign For how the next of all might have strengthned Popery as Bones broke and once well knit again are they say the stronger in that Part we are not able to guess Sure it is could the Body of the Clergy in the Beginning have crushed the Designs of the Reformation they would have done it and by many sad Instances shewed their good Will Wherefore as to the later Years of King Edward and the Corrections and Additions made to the Liturgy near towards the End of his Reign I am not concern'd to speak Only ex abundanti I will Part 2. p. 169. add it appears by Dr. Burnet the making these was the Work of the Reformers not of the Convocation And it is supposed saith Dr. Heylin Hist Reform Anno 1552. pag. 126. the Convocation durst not canvass or alter what was before settled by the King's Authority and Act of Parliament Indeed all Men know that ever since the Submission of the Clergy in Henry the VIIIth's Time the Convocation hath been cut off from meddling with the State of Religion except as they are authorized by the King And had there been any such Authority given no doubt we should have found the Footsteps thereof I do not think it needful to speak more largely on this Point What I have said will sufficiently evince I did not speak without Book in what I hinted If any one else use to do so let him look to it After this Endeavour to expose my Ignorance Mr. Dean intimates his §. 27. Regret that I had not made my compassionate Suit in a severer Age than this the Reign of our merciful and gracious Princes for which Kindness of his I only return my Prayers that he may never feel the Severity of such Hands into which he could be content others should have faln And then he proceeds to tell the World I conclude with a heavy Charge upon himself and Dr. Wallis a greater Person would have said Dr. Wallis and himself that they have receded from the Doctrine taught even in our own Church about the Holy Trinity The whole of this is not true I never charged Dr. Wallis with receding from the Doctrine taught in our Church but rather expresly alledging his Words We mean by Persons in divinis no more but somewhat analogous to Persons I said this has been ever held by all learned Trinitarians All I mentioned which troubled me as to the Doctor 's explaining of the Trinity was an indecent Expression of which I have no mind to speak more But as to Dr. Sherlock I did produce not broken Passages as Mr. Dean stiles them but his intire Definition or Description of a Person in divinis which he gives in his Vindication of the Trinity and as I have said the Sum of his Hypothesis in his very own Words which I read in and transcribed from his Book And I do now expresly avow though I did not then do it so directly that he has receded herein from the Doctrine formerly taught not only in our Church but in the whole Christian World in this Point And I think I have already made it out as far as is consistent with the Brevity I here design But whereas he says that that very Account Pag. 30. which I give of the Trinity out of Mr. Hooker ' s Book is owned and particularly explained by his Hypothesis I must acknowledg he has indeed owned it in his Book but in the same contradicted it both in express Terms and by his Hypothesis And I add 't is impossible by his Hypothesis to explain it He contradicts it in express Terms One Substance and three Properties was Mr. Hooker's Language and whence taken I have shewn Three real substantial Beings which if it signifies not Vind. pag. 47. Pag. 83. three Substances I cannot tell what it signifies and three proper distinguishing Characters had it not been for Affectation of Novelty he might as well have said three Properties are Mr. Dean's Terms And these I take to be Contradictions For one Substance and three Substances that is three Substances and not three because only one Substance with three Properties is a Contradiction if any in the World His Hypothesis contradicts that is destroys it For his Definition or Account what we are to mean by a Person in the Holy Trinity is part of his Hypothesis But that makes the three Persons three real substantial Beings Vind. p. 47 48 49 50 c. three distinct infinite Minds three uncreated Spirits that is immaterial Substances three intelligent Beings having each Vnderstanding Will and Power of Action Now this as before made out is contradictious to the Doctrine brought by Mr. Hooker And because his Hypothesis in the very first fundamental Point of it namely the Definition he gives of a Person contradicts the former Explication of the Trinity therefore 't is impossible to explain that by his However we will take the other Part of his Hypothesis and try whether we can find therewith any more Consistency As he supposes these three uncreated Spirits to be distinct by Self-consciousness so to be one numerically one Essence or one God by mutual Consciousness But by the former Part of his Hypothesis each Person had and to use his Words knew and felt himself to have an Vnderstanding Will and Power of Action of his own Now though the Supposal of mutual Consciousness may in some measure explain how each thereby may have or be possess'd of one anothers Knowledg or Vnderstanding yet that any can have or be