of them a perfect God all of them but one God are real Contradictions to the human Reason as we now have it No but he says our Reason because 't is so narrow and corrupt is not to be heard against God Right but we expect it may be heard against Men that is concerning the Possibility or Consistency of mere Inferences made by Men from God's Word In a word we contend that the human Reason is as qualified to judg of Inferences as to frame them We insist upon this as a full Answer to this usual Subterfuge and great nay only Defence of all our Opposers We call every body to witness that 't is not only frivolous but wholly impertinent When they have declamed never so long upon the Corruption and Narrowness of the human Reason if it may not be a Judg of Inferences from Scripture neither should it presume to make contrive or draw any such Inferences Our Opposers dare not say this latter therefore neither can they with Consistency to themselves say the former But because this is a famous Topick I will say something farther upon it Secondly When they infer Doctrines from Scripture which by their own Confession imply manifest Contradictions that is seem to our Reason as it now is to imply manifest Self-Contradictions and these Inferences when once made become so sacred with 'em that they must not be judged of no not by that human Reason that made ' em I say when this is the case do they not say hereby that very Reason is infallible which in the same Breath they decry as corrupt narrow and uncapable of making a right Judgment The Doctrines inferred by Reason from the Word of God are certain and sacred they say but when the malepert Unitarian offers to examine the Consistency or Possibility of those Doctrines which Reason inferred from Scripture all on the sudden they surprize us with a contrary Pretence that Reason is narrow and corrupt and therefore has no Right of Suffrage in things of this nature they are above Reason not to be judged by it Methinks there cannot easily be a more apparent Contradiction than this very Defence of our Opposers implies they give and take back in the same Cause and Thing They exclude Reason from a bare Suffrage and yet make it a Judg they allow it to stamp an infallible and sacred Character on the Inferences it makes but will not permit it should re-examine those very Inferences or should review its own Acts to see whether they are consistent yea or no. Reason according to them is all Eye and at the same time 't is Cimmerian or Egyptian Darkness When 't is wire-drawing Doctrines from Scripture its Deductions are as sacred and certain as their Divine Original but it loses all its happy Dexterity and Ability so soon as it presumes to re-examine those Deductions whether they are consistent with themselves or are truly made But this once more How strangely has the Divine Wisdom dealt with Men in the Hypothesis of these Gentlemen He requires us in his Word they say to believe there are three eternal and infinite Spirits and that tho each of them is a perfect God yet all of them are but one God but he has set up in us another Light even Reason that shows us the quite contrary namely That there can be but one infinite all-perfect Spirit and that if there were three such Spirits there would be three Gods and not one only that is he requires us by the written outward Word to believe and by the inward Word to disbelieve he imploys the Authority of his Revelation to tell us one thing and makes Faith impossible by clearly showing us the contrary by Reason It is a most certain Truth in Heaven they say what on Earth seems an over-grown Absurdity the most dangerous as well as the flattest and most obvious Contradiction I grant Divine Revelation is infallible and the human Reason sometimes fallible by Accident as when it makes too much haste in judging and when it soars to Objects that are above it But it has always been held that the Veracity of God is concerned in it that our Faculties should be true and be able to judg truly of what they distinctly and clearly perceive And if this be denied the Doctrine of our Opposers is upon no better bottom not only than ours but than the most Chimerical Figments that Fancy or Invention can advance They can have no degree of Certainty in the clearest Inferences that Reason at any time makes either from the Nature or Revelation of God and consequently also not of their Trinity of the three eternal and infinite Spirits there will always lie this Exception that the Deductions made are indeed clear and distinct but they are concerning Objects above the human Reason Besides it ought to be consider'd that how much soever an Object may be above us yet the things affirmed or denied concerning it may lie within the Sphere of Reason and be as subject to its Cognizance as any other Matters are God is infinitely above me I am infinitely far from knowing all that God is but if I am taught either in express Terms or in Words that imply it that there are three Gods and not one only I can as easily judg of those Words and Expressions and as certainly as if they were said of a finite Being I can as certainly know that to say three eternal and all-sufficient Spirits or to say three Spirits each of which is a perfect God amounts to this or implies this there are three Gods and not one only as I can know three Angelical Spirits or three human Beings implies or amounts to this three Angels and three Men. The mere Sublimity of an Object doth not annul or so much as weaken the Certainty of those Affirmations or Negations concerning it that are common to such Object with other Objects that are the proper and immediate Subjects of Reason If the Definition of God even this an eternal and all-perfect Spirit is multiplied by our saying three eternal all-perfect Spirits We thereby as truly and also as plainly and certainly multiply Gods as when we multiply the Definition of the Sun or Earth or other created and finite Beings we thereby multiply Suns and Earths In a word Propositions that are eternal Verities are also infinite Verities and are as much a Rule by which to judg unerringly concerning an infinite Object as concerning a finite As for the rest of Monsieur De Luzancy's Book or four Letters I know not whether we are concerned in it till I know more certainly in what Sense he holds a Trinity of Divine Persons and the Divinity and Satisfaction of our Saviour He pretends to examine the late Prints of the Unitarians Those Prints are of two sorts or have two Parts one part of 'em contains the Arguments from Holy Scripture or from Reason which evince the Vnity of God by which we mean that there is but
hand the Books whether they be Answers or Attacks of the Men of superiour Learning and Wit as his Lordship compliments himself and Friends at p. 45. of his Preface bless me how like old German Monastries or Inquisition-Prisons do they look such is the Intricacy of the Subject How dusky dim and dark are the Rooms and Passages Between Obscurity and Ruggedness a Man cannot forbear to hug himself so soon as he is got out and while he is within he can discern nothing or however not with ease to himself or Satisfaction in the thing I cannot but complain that his Lordship's Vindication is somewhat of this Nature for tho it has much of that same superiour Learning and Wit yet when he argues or answers but especially when he explains I do not take his meaning under two or three Readings And when I have strained my Jaws and hazarded my Teeth to break the Shell most commonly it proves nothing but a Shell that I am tempted to renounce Nuts for ever As to the Contents of his Book he shows that neither Antiquity nor Reason nor Scripture is at all for us they are all against us He has up and down some Offers at an Explication of the Trinity the which we throughly approve We judg him to be as Catholick and Orthodox in that matter as any of our own number Tho he has called us as many Names and imputed as many bad things to us as Dr. Wallis himself whether in his Letters or Vindication did he is for all that no more our Enemy in Doctrine than Father Wallis himself is or than our Brother S th Farther he takes up the Quarrel between Dr. S th and Dean Sherlock he shows that they are both of 'em good Catholicks the one in Intention the other in Reality and sober Sadness 'T is a very reconcilable Difference according to his Lordship whether it be said namely in words only while the Intent is Orthodox and Catholick that there are three Divine Persons who are three eternal Spirits three All-perfect Minds three infinite Substances with so many distinct Understandings Wills and Omnipotencies which is the Doctrine of Dean Sherlock or whether it be said there are three Divine Persons in the Metaphysical and Critical Sense of the Term Persons that is which are but one infinite All-perfect Spirit with one only Understanding Will and Omnipotence one self-same infinite Substance or Essence with the three Properties to be of none to be begotten and to proceed I will go over these parts of the Vindication in the order I have proposed them Of Antiquity OF Antiquity we claim in the first place the vast Period from Adam to our Saviour being a Tract of 4000 Years That is two parts in three of all Time The Patriarchs are ours the Prophets ours Adam Seth Enoch Noah Sem Abraham Moses David ours so ours that they are yielded to us on all hands 't is not so much as pretended that these believed otherwise than the Unitarians do concerning God 'T is an Argument of our Opposers themselves that if Adam or the Antediluvian Patriarchs bad believed or known the Trinity understand here of the Realists namely three Almighty Eternal Spirits it would have descended to Noah to Sem and from Sem to Abraham from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob and their Posterity the Jewish Church especially to Moses But it appears clearly by Scripture that Moses or the Church of the Jews knew it not therefore neither did the afore-mentioned Patriarchs whether Antediluvians or Postdiluvians But Dr. Bull and the Bp. of Worcester fearing that such an Advantage as the whole Old Testament-time on the side of the Vnitarians should furnish them with unanswerable Arguments and Considerations for the Doctrine they maintain answer That tho the Trinity does not appear to have been known to the Patriarchs or the Jews by any of the Books of the Old Testament it is to be remembred that the Jews had also a Kabbala or Oral Tradition derived to them from Moses and from God and the Trinity was a part of this Kabbala Where is Conscience or is Religion nothing but a Name Do the Bp. and Dr. Bull believe the Kabbala that 't is derived from Moses and from God No more than they believe the Alchoran that it was given by Angels as the Impostor the Author of it pretends They contend for the Trinity and the Kabbala 't is certain that they believe not the latter how then will they now perswade any Man that they believe inwardly the former They dare to set up a Fiction of the Pharisees and which one cannot imagine but they believe to be a Fiction as of Divine Original and as the unwritten Word of God after such a Prevarication who shall take their Words for what they pretend to believe or not to believe I scorn to argue with 'em about the Truth of the Kabbala for which they have nothing to alledg and the Credit of which is eternally overthrown by the Author of the Answer to Dr. Bull I shall only mind 'em that if they are Jews or rather if they are Pharisees for the sounder part of the Jews the Karaites disclaim the Kabbala they disown their being Protestants for 't is a Fundamental Article of Protestantism that there is no other Word of God but only his written Word Well but supposing the Kabbala doth it say any thing of a Trinity or an eternal Son of God Not the least Word Why then is it alledged Because the Chaldee Paraphrases speak of the WORD as God and how should those Paraphrases come to know the WORD or speak of him as God but out of the Kabbala But if the Kabbala has nothing of the Trinity or the WORD how should the Paraphrases take what they say of the WORD from the Kabbala But after all what is it that the Paraphrases say of the WORD do they call him God or speak of him as a Person Of the Places produced by the Bp. at p. 128 129. not one of them does so much as seem to the purpose but only the first They speak either of the Ten Commandments or of the Law or of the Command or Order of God to Moses or of the Power of God which in the Books of the Old Testament is expressed by the Word or Mandate of God because God effects whatsoever he wills by only willing commanding or saying that it shall be But the first Text alledged by his Lordship I know not what to say of it for he quotes Gen. 20.21 when there are but 18 Verses in that whole Chapter nor is there any thing in the whole Chapter that bears the least Resemblance to what he quotes out of it Therefore so much for Chaldee and Kabbala despised by all Learned Men Jews as well as Christians and never used but when the People are to be gull'd with noisy Nothings The next is the important Period from our Saviour's beginning to preach to the taking of Jerusalem by the
Lastly after all I believe tho the aforesaid Articles are all necessary to make a Man a Socinian yet the Belief of only one is enough to make a Man a Christian and that one Article is that Jesus is the Messias In which it is not included whether he be God or Man or whether he satisfied Divine Justice for our Sins by his Death but only that a Man of Nazareth was ordained and sent of God to be a Saviour I see all Mr. Edwards's Colts-teeth are not yet out of his Head he cannot forbear dealing sometimes in Railery and Wit but I must seriously desire him to name me any Socinian or Unitarian Writer that ever said no more is required to make a Christian but only that he believe that Jesus is the Messias The Truth of the matter is this Mr. Edwards has been lately very much foiled first by a Learned Gentleman then by a Divine of the Church of England upon this Question Whether it be of the Essence of a Christian as a Christian to assent to more than this one Article that Jesus is the Messias sent by God to instruct and save the World They do not doubt that 't is a Christian's Duty to learn by degrees all the other Articles of the Christian Creed and to believe them but if he hath attained or by occasion of Impediments of any sort that were not caused by his own Negligence or Perversness he can attain to no more Knowledg or Faith yet this one Article doth make him a Christian It doth not satisfy Mr. Edwards that upon all the Points in question they have declared themselves to be Anti-Socinians he resolves for all that they shall be Socinians and this Opinion which they maintain against him a new Article of the Socinian Creed It may be one way he thinks to reduce them to Silence if he calls their Opinion Socinianism and if after that they will not pull in their Horns in his next Book it shall be Irreligion or downright Atheism or at least Abnegation of Christianity or Popery his other Compliments to those whom he is pleased to attack I have now answered concerning all the Articles of our Religion with Sincerity without any the least disguise or reserved or unusual Meaning or Meanings And I am not sorry that Mr. Edwards almost constrained us to explain our selves concerning these Points For as unsincere and untrue as his Imputations are and as scurrilous as his manner of representing 'em and discoursing upon them sometimes is the Retortion or Answer here made will be judged by indifferent and discerning Persons to be home and satisfactory As to the Man himself Mr. Edwards has been serviceable to the common Christianity by some learned Books therefore I wish to him whatsoever Good himself desires to himself these Concertations between us notwithstanding In Answer to the Vindication of four Sermons of his Grace Archbishop J. Tillotson by my Lord the Bishop of Chichester HIS Lordship's Preface is for the bigger part of it an angry Perversion of the Respects paid to the Archbishop and other Persons of Dignity and Learning by the Author of the Considerations through his whole Answer to them But I doubt as to that we must always hold our selves content for in the Holy War against reputed Hereticks what in poor Laicks would be censured as want of Urbanity and Charity in Ecclesiasticks is the Zeal of thy House In one Place of his Preface his Lordship objects to the Considerer that there was a time when Paulus and Photinus Unitarian Archbishops flourished and their Followers abounded every where Well what then Why he will tell it us as a Secret they did not treat the Trinitarians as Fathers their Children but like tyrannical Judges Violences and Outrages Fire and Faggot were in Fashion among them Bishops were deposed exiled and slain and the whole Roman Empire put into a Combustion by these infamous Practices His Lordship does well to tell us this as a Secret for 't was never heard of till he published this Vindication of the Archbishop's Sermons I desire him to name the Authors from whom these Calumnies have been taken up and because I am perswaded he has none to cite I will adventure to say he cannot avoid the Imputation of too hasty taking up a Reproach Paulus and Photinus were indeed as his Lordship says Unitarian Metropolitans The former succeeded tho not immediately to the Apostle St. Peter in the Patriarchal Chair of Antioch The other was Primate of Illyricum It is true also what his Lordship adds that their Followers abounded every where In the time of the first Nicene Council or the Year 325. they had their Bishops and Presbyters their Deacons and Deaconesses like other Denominations and Sects of Christians as is intimated in the 19th Canon of that Council But they never were Persecutors but the persecuted Paul and Photinus were both of them ejected out of their Bishopricks Paul by a Pagan Emperor at the instance of a Council of Heretical Bishops who denied Homo-usios Photinus by an Arian Emperor at the Request of a Council of Bishops no less heretical for they contended for Homoi-usios And for their Followers the other Unitarians it never was in their Power to be Persecutors for they never were the prevailing Party but always lived sub Cruce they chearfully took up and imbraced the Cross in hopes to inherit the Promises Whereas his Lordship pretends that Fire and Faggot were in fashion when the Followers of Paulus and Photinus abounded and as he would have it thought prevailed every where 't is certain that sort of Church-Discipline was not known to the Antients whether Trinitarians or Unitarians it was not introduced till about the Year 1216 and was exercised first on the Albigenses by Dominic Founder of the Order of the Dominicans He concludes his Preface that he will not ask Pardon for what he has imputed to us that we have been great Persecutors even as far as Fire and Faggot And I answer when he proves his Imputations we will ask his Pardon and besides will most willingly undergo any Penalty or Shame how great soever The Body of his Lordship's Book is divided into two very unequal Sections the first concerning the Divinity of our Saviour the other concerning his Incarnation The Section concerning our Saviour's Divinity is part of it laid out in asserting the Authority of St. John's Gospel the rest on some Texts cited by the Archbishop either for the Divinity of our Saviour or for his Pre-existence I will first say something in general concerning the Blessed Trinity the Deity of our Saviour and his Incarnation and then make Application of it to his Lordship's Vindication Of the Trinity Divinity and Incarnation of the Lord Christ I Am perswaded that the Questions concerning the Trinity the Divinity of our Saviour and the Incarnation so long controverted between the Church and the Unitarians are a Strife mostly about Words and Terms not of Things and Realities And
Doctrines may be both of 'em true when shall any Proposition but a mere Nullity be yielded to be false seeing as I said Falshood is nothing else but a Contradiction to what is true And if Propositions that imply Contradictions to one another may yet both of them be true they must both be true while they are also both false for while they contradict one another and yet both of them are true each denies the other to be true In short I intreat Mr. L. to answer would he believe a Doctrine said to be revealed in Scripture which Proposition or Doctrine himself judged to be a clear and certain Contradiction Or if he would yet are clear and incontestable Contradictions to be believed that are not clearly and incontestably revealed but are founded on Authorities of very disputable Credit and Verity and most uncertain Sense in the Judgment of some of the ablest Orthodox Criticks and Interpreters And lastly can a Doctrine consisting of contradictory Parts be true is it Truth or is it Falshood that contradicts certain Truth I would not have Mr. L. to hope he may elude the first and last of these Questions by saying that real Contradictions or Doctrines that consist of Propositions really contradictory cannot be true but it may happen that what shall seem to us to our corrupted and narrow Reason a Contradiction is not so As for Instance three eternal Spirits each singly and by himself a perfect God and all of them together but one God seems indeed a Contradiction to our corrupted Reason but is therefore not a real Contradiction because 't is revealed in the Word of God For 1. He says Three infinite Spirits each of them a God are all of them but one God This is no real Contradiction because 't is found in Holy Scripture Suppose now he should also say Three finite Spirits each of them an Angel are all of them but one Angel Is it not a Contradiction in what Book soever Mr. L. may pretend to discover it If this latter is a real Contradiction so of necessity is the former because the two Propositions as to the formal Reason of them are identically the same they differ only in their Application One is falsly affirmed of God the other not more falsly affirmed of an Angel but the thing that makes them to be false every one sees is this that concerning one and the same Subject we affirm different Numbers one and three 2. Mr. L's only Elusion to so much sound Sense as the Unitarians object to him is that human Reason is narrow and corrupt and therefore we must not make it a Judg of what is revealed in Scripture but silently adore and believe the Scriptures notwithstanding all the idle Clatter made by Reason concerning Contradictions and Impossibilities I answer First If the Question were concerning something that is expresly delivered in Holy Scripture it might be plausibly alledged that our narrow and as Mr. L. pretends corrupted Reason should silently submit to the Revelation of God infinitely wise If it were said in express Terms There are three eternal infinite Spirits and tho each of them is a perfect God yet all of them are but one God Mr. L. might colourably object the Narrowness of the human Reason when Men offer'd to reject the express Declaration of God as if it implied some obvious Contradictions But the case is otherwise it is this Some People require us to believe there are three infinite Spirits each of them a God and all of them but one God It seems to us a Belief contradictory to it self and inconsistent with the numerical Vnity of God delivered every where in Scripture To the first part of this Exception that the Belief propounded to us by some that falsly call themselves the Church is contradictory to it self Mr. L. answers No Matter for that for the human Reason is narrow and corrupted and therefore must not be allowed to judg of what God has revealed to us in his Word We challenge this Answer of Mr. L. and others of manifest Impertinence because it supposes that we pretend to charge with Self-contradiction a Revelation or Declaration of God and that we reason against something delivered expresly in Holy Scripture which is the Word of God If Mr. L. could show us the Belief he exacts of us set down in express Words in the Word of God his Answer were just and to the purpose but seeing it is confessed to be only an Inference that some Men draw from Scripture Mr. L. in vain insists on the Narrowness or Corruption of the human Reason by occasion of our denying what is only an Inference from Scripture I do not think he will say that the Reason of the Unitarians is narrower or more corrupt than their Neighbours if not what Trifling is it to urge the Narrowness or Corruption of the human Reason for if Mens Reason being so narrow and corrupt as Mr. L. pretends is not to be trusted in judging of or arguing upon a Divine Revelation may it not be as fallible in drawing Inferences from Scripture as in judging the Consistency or the Self-Contradiction of those Inferences Briefly let Mr. L. show me these Words in Scripture There are three eternal and infinite Spirits And again these Words three infinite Spirits each of which is perfect God yet all of them but one God He will say he cannot show me these very Words but there are in Scripture other Words from whence those Propositions may be rightly inferred and the human Reason is too corrupted and narrow that it may be set up as a Judg of what is delivered in the Word of God whatsoever Contradictions or Self-Contradictions Reason pretends to find in the Doctrines of Scripture it is too fallible because 't is both narrow and corrupted to be heard against the infinite Wisdom of God speaking in his Word We reply let the human Reason be as corrupted and narrow as Mr. L. and others fancy it to be yet still it will be as able and fit to judg of the Consistency or Self-Contradiction of Doctrines or Propositions not expresly contained in Scripture but only inferred by Reason from Scripture as it is to infer or draw those Propositions or Doctrines from Scripture If Reason may not be trusted to judg of Doctrines that are but only Mens Inferences from Scripture it can as little be trusted to frame or draw those Inferences from Scripture its Narrowness and Corruption must be distrusted as much in the one case as in the other If Mr. L. hopes to set aside the Contradictions that Reason finds in this Creed there are three infinite Spirits c. we claim it as our Right to set aside that Creed because 't is only an Inference drawn from Scripture by the human Reason which is altogether corrupted he saith and extremely narrow Does Mr. L. deny that the Contradictions we find in this Inference which some make from Scripture There are three infinite Spirits each