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A70687
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Doctor Wallis's letter touching the doctrine of the blessed Trinity answer'd by his friend.
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Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing N1506A; ESTC R211864
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15,046
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16
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Three first Centuries nor even in the Three next without much opposition 3. I think that Curcellaeus has proved as well as any thing can be proved out of Ancient Writings That the Doctrine of the Trinity about the Time of the Council of Nice was of a special Union of Three Persons in the Deity and not of a numerical as it is now taught and has been taught since the Chimerical Schoolmen were hearkned unto 4. I wonder how Dr. Wallis reckons the Christian Church since he knows there were divers Arian Councils and one of them that of Ariminum consisted of 550 Bishops the most numerous Assembly of Bishops perhaps as ever was except he accounts A ians for Trinitarians which if he do then he cannot chuse but reckon Mr. Biddle for one too for he Titles his Book The Apostolical and True Opinion concerning the Holy Trinity revived and asserted 5. According to what I have given my self leave to read in the Controvertists of these Times concerning that Matter I mean Curcellaeus and Maresius Sandius and Gardner and Bull Petavius Biddle Estwich and Le Clerk I reckon Curcellaeus Biddle and Le Clerk to be the more free and ingenuous Writers and therefore more likely to give a true Judgment concerning the Matters they enquire of But 6. I conclude my Judgment with that of the great Protestant Champion Chillingworth chap. 6. n. 56. By the Religion of Protestants I do not understand the Doctrine of Luther or Calvin or Melancthon nor the Confession of Augusta or Geneva nor the Catechism of Heidelburgh nor the Articles of the Church of England no nor the Harmony of Protestant Confessions but that wherein they all agree and which they all Subscribe with a greater Harmony as a perfect Rule of their Faith and Actions that is the BIBLE the BIBLE the BIBLE only is the Religion of Protestants whatsoever else they believe besides it and the plain irrefragable indubitable Consequences of it well may they hold it as a Matter of Opinion but as Matter of Faith and Religion neither can they with coherence to their own Grounds believe it themselves nor require the Belief of it of others without most high and most schismatical Presumption I for my part after a long and as I verily believe and hope impartial search of the true Way to Eternal Happiness do profess plainly that I cannot find any rest for the sole of my Foot but upon this Rock only I see plainly and with mine own Eyes that there are Popes against Popes Councils against Councils some Fathers against others the same Fathers against themselves a Consent of Fathers of one Age against a Consent of Fathers of another Age the Church of one Age against the Church of another Age. No Tradition but only of Scripture can derive it self from the Fountain In a word there is no sufficient certainty but of Scripture only for any considering Man to build upon I would not have Dr. Wallis think to impose upon us in this Reign of a Protestant King and Queen the Doctrine of Tradition he had better have done it in the late King's Time then it would have been acceptable to the Court. Sir I hope proceeded my Neighbour you are by this time convinced how unjustly and unlike a Scholar the Doctor pardon I pray my Resentment has drawn so black an Indictment against the Socinians upon false Grounds taken for granted by him to be true I am ashamed to read his words Nor do the Anti-Trinitarians insist on any other Ground why they deny it the Trinity or Three Persons of One God save only That it seems to them absolutely impossible and therefore think themselves bound to put another sense on all places of Scripture how clear soever they be or can be which prove or favour it It 's the contradiction of that Doctrine to a Thousand clear places of Scripture which they insist upon as I have shew'd before But I will pursue it a little further Will the Doctor deny that the Person of the Father is God No his Opinion asserts it Will he then deny That he who is God is not All-sufficient or Almighty If that One Person be All-sufficient and he is not God if he be not then all other Persons besides him must of necessity be superfluous and the introducing them into the Godhead is plain Polytheism and a direct Contradiction to the first Commandment of the Decalogue and to all those Texts that assert God to be One and consequently to those Scriptures that speak of God as One Person which are without number No they first devis'd an Opinion which is contrary to the clearest Scriptures and the most evident Reasons and then they would perswade us it is a Mystery either which we cannot understand and therefore must be blind to the Contradictions that are in it or if we will not be so satisfied they call us Clamorous and Importune and persecute us with the most odious Imputations they can invent and then with Fire and Faggot But that they may seem to give some Answer to those plain Scriptures and Reasons that shine in their Eyes they soar aloft quite out of sight with Metaphysicks or so near out of sight that we can see nothing but a Cloud The Notion of One God and One Person that is that One God every Man and Woman can understand that is they know perfectly that One Person that is God cannot be Two Persons each of which is God and except they had been us'd from their Infancy to say like Parrots that Three Persons are One God and each One of them is that God they would easily see the Contradictions of it And indeed the Common People do worship God far more agreeable to his Will than the Learned for these are obliged by the Athanasian Creed in worshipping One God to mind him as Three Persons that is to have in their Mind the Idea of One Almighty and only wise Person who is One God by himself and in the same Act to Adore two other Persons each of which is as much God by himself as the former To worship Three that are equal one to another and at the same time and in the same Act to worship but One. But the Common People worship One only Almighty and most Merciful Father through the Son as Mediator except they confound them with express Mention of Two other Persons and then they worship expresly Three Gods as the Learned do always more subtilly God Almighty even the Father knows he has given us a Commandment That we should worship him as One the only Wise the only Good the only True the only Holy the only Potentate and none other as God besides him which Commandment is as easy to be known by all the People that have Reason enough to understand Numbers the difference between One and more than One as it is necessary to be observed but is impossible to be observed because impossible to be apprehended by the Common