only as a Tryal and Exercise of our Faith and the more implicit that is the fuller do we express our trust and relyance upon God Nay farther There are those who do not scruple to say the more Contradictions the better the greater the Struggle and Opposition of Reason the greater is the Triumph and Merit of our Faith But there 's no likelihood of suppressing any of our Doubts or Disputes in Religion this way For besides the Natural Propension of the Soul to the search of Truth and the strong and impatient desire we have to know as much as ever we can of what immediately concerns us 't is generally and very justly look'd upon both as the Priviledge and Duty of Man to Enquire and Examine before he believes or judges and never give up his assent to any thing but upon Good and Rational Grounds And therefore 't would be a very hard thing to perswade the World to stifle and restrain so many Powerful Motives of Action But should they be farther prevailed upon to go directly contrary to their Reason 't would be much more difficult to Conquer the uneasiness of the Reluctance And indeed 't is well the difficulties of subduing the Understanding are too great to be master'd For a slight Reflection will serve to convince us that the necessary Consequences of a blind Resignation of Judgment would be far more Fatal to Christianity than all our present Divisions What Blasphemies and Contradictions may and have been imposed upon mens belief under the Venerable Name of Mysteries And how easie are Villainous Practices derived from an absurd Faith This is matter of common Observation and has brought a just Scandal upon a large Party of Christians and given occasion to Men of light undistinguishing Capacities to deny and scoff at the Saving Truths of the Gospel because they were accompanyed with a ridiculous mixture of Errors No doubt therefore we may and ought carefully to Examine the Faith and Principles we design for the Rule of our Lives and endeavour to understand all our Religion so far as to be able to Justifie it both to our Selves and Unbelievers We ought indeed to proceed with all the Caution and Humility imaginable and take a just Estimate of our Task and Abilities But to deny us the Liberty either of using or obeying our Reason is a suspicious as well as an unjust Restraint 2. There are others who call the Doctrine of the Trinity an Incomprehensible Mystery and yet are at a great deal of pains to bring it down to a Level with Humane Understanding and are all very earnest to have their own particular Explications acknowledged as necessary Articles of Faith But the number and disagreement of the Expositors plainly discover the vanity of such Pretences This has proved so unsuccessful a way that instead of uniting the different Judgments of Christians in one Point it has broke the Controversie into a Thousand more For Zeal and Opposition raising up a great many Assertors of the Common Belief and every one looking out for some new Terms and Modes of Speech which should be fuller and more expressive than those in Question the Differences and Disputes were by consequence proportionably multiplyed For the Terms and Forms of Speech made use of being capable of several sences and each of them attended with other Accessory Idea's Mistakes must necessarily arise and divers new Thoughts be suggested to such whose Heads were employed upon the same Subject And thus it came to pass that Defences and Vindications of the Orthodox Faith produced more Heresies Wherefore in all such Matters as these which are too big to be grasp'd we had better sit down contented with what we have firm hold of than tire our selves with vain Endeavours to take in more 'T would certainly be the truest and the safest way strictly to confine our selves to Scripture Expressions and never speak of Supernatural Things but in the Language of Revelation which being the proper Standard of all other words that shall be used on these Occasions 't is in vain to shift the Measure when there 's never another to be found which can or ought to reach farther It may however sometimes be necessary to change this Method and introduce New Terms to secure the True Faith against the False Interpretations of such as pervert Scripture For if Hereticks will make use of New Expressions to contradict the received Doctrine we must have New Terms to express the same Truth in in Opposition to their Heresie And in this case the Church may very reasonably require her Members to shew their steady continuance in the Ancient Faith by the use of such Terms as plainly infer their denyal of any later erroneous Inventions set up against it 3. There are a Third sort of Men in the World who pretend That there is no Mystery proposed to us as an Object of Faith and in order to make this of the Trinity appear to be none they bring a Cloud over the whole Bible and with strange forc'd Criticisms and Allegories give the very plainest Texts such an unusual Mysterious turn as neither the Language will bear nor is any ways consistent with the Design or Character of the Holy Writers But this is a very odd preposterous Method of Explaining Scripture by darkening a great part of it to illustrate the rest and as ridiculous a Project of healing Divisions as pulling down a whole side of standing Wall to mend a Breach And after all the Socinian Hypothesis seems to me to have more of Mystery and Contradiction to Natural Reason in it than what is objected to the Catholick Doctrine I am not for clogging the Faith nor multiplying Mysteries yet we ought not presently to deny what we do not understand but soberly and impartially consider how much we are able to Comprehend and how far we are obliged to Believe what we do not The Method therefore I design to observe in the following Discourse shall be different from any of those now mentioned I shall not go about to press Men to a Blind Veneration or Presumptuous Belief of any thing without Examination or in Defiance to Reason I shall not offer to impose any New Arbitrary Explications of my own upon other mens Consciences but confine my self wholly to the usual warranted Forms of Expression I will not wrest and strain Scripture to help out a Private Notion nor do any thing to betray the Just Rights and Priviledges of our Common Reason but carefully endeavour to distinguish How far the Doctrine of the Trinity is a Mystery and how far a Mystery may become an Object of Faith From whence I hope to make it appear that nothing hard or unreasonable is required of us by our Church for the belief of this Article In order to which I shall rank all my Reflections upon this Subject under these Three Heads of Enquiry I. What it is that perplexes and obscures our Faith in the Trinity II. What is sufficient for
fully in the following Discourse We are therefore in the first place to consider how far 't is possible to believe a Trinity and next to examine what the Scripture requires us to believe in this matter Now there are two Conditions requisite to make it possible for us to believe a thing 1. That we know the Terms of what we are to assent to 2. That it imply no contradiction to our former Knowledge such Knowledge I mean which is accompanied with Certainty and Evidence First then we can believe a thing no further than we understand the Terms in which it is proposed to us For Faith concerns only the truth and falshood of Propositions and the Terms of which a Proposition consists must be first understood before we can pronounce any thing concerning the Truth or Falshood of it which is nothing else but the agreement or disagreement of its Terms or the Idea's expressed by them If I have no Knowledge at all of the meaning of the terms used in a Proposition I cannot exercise any Act of my Understanding about it I cannot say I believe or disbelieve any thing my Soul is perfectly in the same state it was before without receiving any new Determination If I have but a general confused Notion of the Terms I can give only a general confused Assent to the Proposition So my Faith will always bear the same Proportion to my Knowledge of the Subject-matter to be believed To make this plainer by an Instance suppose I am required to believe that A. is equal to B. If I don't know either what A. or B. stands for or have no Notion of Equality I believe nothing more than I did before this was proposed to me I am not capable of any new determinate Act of Faith All that I can believe in this case can amount to no more than this That Something has some respect to something else that the Matter I am required to believe is affirmed by a Person of great Knowledge and Integrity who ought to be credited in what he says and therefore the Proposition here laid down is probably true in that sense the Author means And what am I the wiser for all this What addition is there made to my Faith or Knowledge by such a Proposition But farther suppose I know that A. and B. stand for two Lines and that by Equal Lines is meant Lines of the same length such Knowledge can produce only a general confused belief that there is some certain Line imaginable just of the same length with some other Line But if by A. and B. are meant two right Lines which are the sides of a given Triangle and I take a Mathematician's Word for it without demonstration that they are equal or of the same length this is a particular distinct Act of Faith by which I am satisfied of the Truth of something which I did not believe or know before From whence it follows that Terms and simple Idea's must be clearly and distinctly understood first before we can believe any thing particular of the respects and relations they bear to one another which is the only proper Object of Faith Another Condition necessary to render a thing capable of being believed is that it implies no Contradiction to our former Knowledge I cannot conceive how 't is possible to give our assent to any thing that contradicts the plain Dictates of our Reason and those evident Principles from whence we derive all our other Knowledge As for Example I do not see how any Authority of Revelation can overthrow the Truth of this Proposition That the Whole is bigger than any of its Parts For First I cannot more clearly and distinctly perceive any external Impressions made upon my Soul nor be more certain that such Impressions proceed from God than I can perceive and be assured that the Idea's I have of Whole and part bear this relation to one another Secondly The nature and constitution of things makes it impossible that this Proposition should be false for such and such Things or Notions being supposed such and such Habitudes and Respects must necessarily result from them So long therefore as I have the same Idea's of whole and part and the same Faculties of Perception I shall always perceive the same relation betwixt them And if my Idea's of whole and part were changed or a new Texture and Frame of Soul given me I should indeed perceive different relations betwixt these new Idea's but this would by no means destroy the Truth of my former Conceptions 't would still be certain according to the Idea's I had before of whole and part that the whole was bigger than any of its parts Which Idea's will always unalterably have the same relation to one another But Thirdly Was it possible this Proposition could be false considering only the nature of the things themselves the Nature of God furnishes us with other Arguments of the Truth and Certainty of it And 1st It is not consistent with the Justice Wisdom or Goodness of God to require us to believe that which according to the Frame and Make he has given us 't is impossible for us to believe For however some Men have advanced this absurd Paradox that God can make Contradictions true I am very certain that upon an impartial Trial of their Faculties they would find 't were perfectly out of their power to believe explicitly and in the common Sense of the Terms that a Part can be bigger than the Whole it is a Part of But 2dly Admitting it possible for us to be deceived in such Propositions which have a constant uniform and universal appearance of Truth and Evidence this would destroy all manner of Certainty and Knowledge and leave us wholly in Darkness Ignorance and Despair or which is more Injurious to the Divine Goodness to imagine under an absolute necessity of being deceived For 't is not only impossible for me to believe that such a Proposition as this That the VVhole is bigger than any of its Parts is false but I cannot deny my positive express assent to it as true The Light and Evidence in this Case is so clear and strong that I am not at Liberty so much as to suspend my Judgment 3dly 'T is Blasphemy to think that God can contradict himself and therefore right Reason being the Voice of God as well as Revelation they can never be directly contrary to one another Now to apply all this to the present Case suppose I am required to believe That One and the same God is Three different Persons I only suppose it here because I have not yet proved how far and in what sense we are obliged to believe a Trinity If this I say be the Proposition I am required to give my assent to 't is plain by what has been proved before that I can believe it no farther than the Terms of which it is made up are known and understood and the Idea's signified by them consistent In
this to be wonder'd at that we should have confused Notions of things which no particular Idea's our Minds are furnish'd with can render clearer to us For if we consider the Degrees and Limits of our Knowledge and take a strict Survey of our whole stock of Thoughts we shall find there are very few things that we know fully and distinctly Most of our Notions differ only as more or less confused more or less general There is a certain Scale of Knowledge wherein every thing is so fitted and proportioned to our Faculties that we cannot descend below such a determinate pitch in our Conceptions or Explications of any Object proposed to us As for instance suppose a Blind-Man has a desire to know what Colour is 't is certain he can never form a true distinct Idea of it but yet he is capable of a general confused Knowledge which wants but one degree of Particularity to be clear and perfect Conception He may know that Colour is not any Substance but some Mode or Determination which owes its Existence and Support to some other Being that it is not Extension or any other Accident or Quality perceivable by any of the Senses he enjoys He may further be made to understand that it is some kind of Sensation produced by the impression of other Bodies upon that part of a Man's which is called the Eye which other Men perceive though he does not Now 't is plain that such a Man knows a great deal of the Nature of Colour more by far than another Blind-Man who has not made the same Enquiries and Reflections about it and so much as will secure him from having any other Idea imposed upon him for that of Colour which is so distinguished and circumstantiated to him that should he now receive his sight he would presently acknowledge the marks before described to him And yet after all it may be truly said while he continues blind he has no manner of Idea of Colour because he has no distinct Idea of that particular kind of Sensation to which his general Idea's are applyed And therefore he can go no lower in his Explications of the Notion he has of Colour For if he explains it by any Sensation which he receives from his other Senses the Idea's he has then in his Mind are indeed more particular and distinct but the Judgment he makes upon them must be utterly false whereas before his Knowledge was only general and confused but yet true I have made choice of this plain familiar Instance of Sense to shew the unreasonableness of those who in higher Speculations complain that the terms brought to explain them are too general and abstracted and demand a further Explication of what we cannot possibly know beyond such a degree of Particularity which the Terms already made use of do express In vain therefore and unjustly are we urged to explain the Doctrine of the Trinity more particularly when we have brought it down to the utmost Particularity we are capable of conceiving and at the same time freely acknowledge we don't know it so distinctly as 't is capable of being known For then only is the Use of general abstracted Terms to be condemned either when the subject we are upon will admit of a more particular and sensible Explication or if it will not when by too much Refining and Abstracting we deceive our selves and think some Terms we have found out make the Thing clear to us tho' we have not really more distinct Conceptions of it than we had before and at the same time these very Terms make it more obscure and difficult to others And this is what I remarked before as a Prejudice to be avoided in an impartial Search after Truth But so long as we acknowledge we have only a general confused Notion of the Trinity or such a Three-fold Distinction in the Godhead as is consistent with the unity of the Divine Nature we may be allowed to explain this Notion in general abstracted Terms because we lay no greater a Stress upon the Terms than they will truly bear and require only a Faith proportionate to our Knowledge that is a general confused Faith which we expect a clearer and more distinct Revelation of hereafter And thus I have dispatched the first Branch of my Discourse wherein I proposed to consider how far 't was possible for us to believe a Trinity II. I come now to my Second General Enquiry viz. What it is the Scripture requires us to believe in this Matter For a distinct Resolution of which Question I shall observe the following Method First I shall barely and positively lay down the Doctrine of the Trinity so far as I judge it expresly contained in Scripture Secondly I shall endeavour to prove the Truth of what I assert Thirdly I shall consider the particular Additional Explications that have or may be given of the Scripture-Account of this Article 1. In speaking to the First it must be allowed that there is no such Proposition as this That One and the same God is Three different Persons formally and in Terms to be found in the Sacred Writings either of the Old or New Testament Neither is it pretended that there is any Word of the same Signification or Importance with the Word Trinity used in Scripture with relation to God There is one Text which plainly enough affirms without the help of Inference or Deduction that God is Three and One But this being a disputed Passage and no where else repeated in the same or the like Terms I shall not insist upon it Nor do I think such a Trinity as we profess to believe stands much in need of the Support of this Text the Matter and subject of our Faith in this Point being frequently largely and circumstantially mentioned and as it appears to me interwoven into the very Design of the Scriptures Now the Summ of all that the Scriptures plainly and expresly teach concerning a Trinity is this That there is but One only God the Author and Maker of All Things but that One God ought to be acknowledged and adored by us under those Three different Titles or Characters of Father Son and Holy Ghost Which Terms whatever they signifie according to my Judgment upon a fair and impartial Consideration of all Circumstances that can determine their Sense are evidently applied to God in many Places of Holy Writ and consequently are truly and properly applicable to him 2. The Proof of which Assertion is the Second Thing I undertook But here I find my self forestalled by the successful Endeavours of a great many Learned Men who have carefully and nicely examined every Text that can be brought either for the Establishment or Confutation of the Doctrine of the Trinity I shall not therefore trouble my Reader with a particular detail of all their Arguments but only acquaint him truly and fairly what were the chief Motives which influenced and disposed me to make such a Judgment as I have
just before declared Now the Reasons which determined my Opinion in this Matter were such as freely offered themselves upon an unprejudiced reading of Scripture and considering the Design Connexion and Analogy of those Writings And I am apt to believe if any Man else took the same Method and considered Things togegether and not only in loose Texts and Passages the first Result of his Thoughts would be the same viz. These Terms Father Son and Holy Ghost must all be so understood as to include the same God in their Signification and that any other Sense or Explication of the Words would be attended with greater Difficulties But this being a Reflexion which is founded upon the Agreement and Coherence of all the Parts of Scripture 't would be a very improper and ineffectual Design to go about to confirm the Truth of it from some particular Passages Omitting therefore all those Texts which are a great many where any of these Terms Father Son or Holy Ghost appear to be directly affirmed of God according to a fair Construction of the Words I shall only observe Two or Three Passages from the History of our Saviour and his Gospel which to my Apprehension do as strongly prove what I have advanced as the most formal Expressions and are less liable to be perverted by the Criticisms of Language The first Observation I have to make concerns the common Forms of Baptism Salutation and Blessing used in several Places of the New Testament Now these are Matters no way controverted That our Saviour commanded his Disciples to go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost That St. Paul makes use of such Salutations as these The Lord be with you The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Grace be to you and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ And particularly closes his Second Epistle to the Corinthians with this 〈◊〉 and fuller Blessing The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all From whence I infer that all these Terms Father Son and Holy Ghost signifie God because I cannot possibly conceive 't is agreeable to the Nature of the Christian Religion that the Ministers of it should Teach Baptize or Bless the People in any other Name but God's It cannot be imagined but the People must equally believe in those in whose Names they are Baptized or Bless'd They must believe that those who are call'd upon to bestow Graces and Blessings upon them are able to give what they are called upon for And whatever is meant by Baptizing in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it seems very plain that these Three are all equally concerned in what 's done in that Sacrament Whether by this Form of Baptism be signified on the Minister's Part the Authority or Commission by which he acts in his Administration or whether on the Part of the Person baptized be meant any Acknowledgment or Confession Submission or Dedication of himself or whether this Phrase in the Name or as in the Greek into the Name does imply all this and more the whole Force and Importance of the Expression does in the same Extent belong to Father Son and Holy Ghost The Power and Authority here received is derived from all Three They are all to be acknowledged as Authors of our Salvation all infallible and to be believed in what they Teach have all the same Title to our Submission and Obedience and are Joint-Parties in that Covenant we make in Baptism The Inference from hence is very Plain and Easie That if any one of these Terms signifie God they must all Three signifie God and if all Three signifie God they must all Three signifie one and the same God for God is but One. Now that the One Supreme God the Lord and Maker of All Things is here meant by the Word Father is a Thing not questioned and therefore Son and Holy Ghost are Terms expressive of the same Divine Nature Should we but suppose the contrary That by Son was meant only a meer Man or some Heavenly Being of highest Rank under God and by Holy Ghost was signified only some created Spirit inferior to the Son or the Power Efficacy Love Favour or Vertue of God how strange would such a Form of Baptism appear I Baptize thee in the Name of God Peter the Apostle and the Power or Love of God or I Baptize thee in the Name of God Michael the Archangel and Raphael a Ministring Spirit There needs no more but a bare Mention of such an Exposition to shew the Falshood of it What absurd Consequences may be drawn from it I shall leave to every Man 's particular Reflexion Another Thing which mightily confirmed me in this Belief that the Father Son and Holy Ghost so often named in Scripture are One and the same God under those Three different Appellations was this That the Son who is the same with him that is in other Places called the Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ and sometimes only Jesus or Christ was worship'd with a Religious Worship by those that followed him and embraced his Gospel For if he that was called the Son of God or Christ was thus to be worship'd it plainly and evidently follows from hence according to all the Notions we have of God and Religion either from Nature or Revelation that the Son was also God the same true and only God with the Father And if the Son be allowed to be God as well as the Father it will be easily admitted that the Holy Ghost is so too who appears in Scripture invested with all the same Characters of Divinity For Father Son and Holy Ghost are as consistent with the Vnity of the Godhead as Father and Son only and besides there 's greater difficulty in conceiving the Son to be God than the Holy Ghost because of his Humane Nature But that he was God manifest in the Flesh is I say apparent from the divine Worship that was pay'd to him For that God only is to be worship'd is an evident Principle as well as an indispensable Duty and I can as soon believe a thing to be and not to be as that any thing that is not God should be worshipped as God Now that Christ received the Honour and Worship due to God only is plain from abundance of Places of Scripture where we find he was not only adored with all the outward Expressions of Reverence and Devotion but confess'd and acknowledged to be God by an Application of the Divine Attributes to him such as agree only to God and are incommunicable to any other as might be proved at large if it had not been done already But this being fully insisted upon by others I shall only name Two Passages to this Purpose the one Phil. 4. 13. the other Act. 7. 59. which if there were no other are of