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A59831
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A modest examination of the authority and reasons of the late decree of the vice-chancellor of Oxford, and some heads of colleges and halls concerning the heresy of three distinct infinite minds in the Holy and Ever-blessed Trinity / by William Sherlock ...
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Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing S3303; ESTC R14301
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29,861
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49
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did not stint themselves in the Number of their Gods they were Polytheists not Tritheists even the Platonists themselves though they own'd a Trinity a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or one Divinity which extended it self to Three which was essentially distinguish'd from all created Nature and from all their Creature Gods but they worshipped many Gods besides as the rest of the Pagan World did Tritheism was never charg'd upon any Men but the Worshippers of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity and it was charg'd upon them from the beginning by Pagans and Hereticks The fear of this made Noetus and Sabellius deny three real substantial Persons in the Trinity and made Arius deny the true eternal Divinity of the Son and Holy Spirit But the Catholick Fathers despis'd this Charge and owned three distinct real substantial Persons each of them by himself to be true and perfect God but not Three Gods but One God For thus the Scripture had taught them to believe and speak that there is but One God and there are Three Father Son and Holy Ghost who have all the Perfections of the Deity distinctly in themselves So that this Tritheism is a Christian Heresie if it be one and was never charged upon Christians by Christians for several Ages but only by Hereticks The most Orthodox Christians were always most charg'd with it and some to avoid this Charge turn'd Hereticks and were condemn'd for such by the Catholick Church It is true in the declining Monkish Ages of the Church we sometimes hear of these Tritheists but it is a very dark part of Story and I never cou'd find a satisfactory Account what their Opinions were or why they were call'd so It is not improbable but that they might fall into the Hands of some malicious Animadverter who by Zeal and Faction might procure a new Name and Heresie to be decreed them for there is no new thing under the Sun But this has made me apt to suspect that those who have been charg'd with Tritheism for professing the Faith and Worship of the ever blessed Trinity have been the most Orthodox Believers and that those who have so minc'd the Matter as to escape the Charge of Tritheism from Hereticks have been Hereticks themselves A real substantial Trinity in which each Person is by himself perfect God has always been charged by Hereticks with Tritheism for Three each of whom is true and perfect God they say are Three Gods and yet this is the true Christian Trinity But though Men may laugh at a Trinity of Modes you shall never hear them charge it with Tritheism and what Hereticks who own but one personal God cannot charge with Tritheism is no Christian Trinity that is has not Three Persons each of which is true and perfect God So far are those Gentlemen mistaken who think it a piece of Art and Prudence to avoid all Expressions which Hereticks charge with Tritheism for then they must renounce all Words which contain and express the ture Catholick Faith At least I think this should warn all Men who are not disguis'd Atheists and Infidels under the profession of Christianity to have a care of ridiculing Father Son and Holy Ghost to be reveng'd of these Tritheist Hereticks as the Animadverter profanely does who so often scoffs at me for my Three Gods who never own'd any other God than Father Son and Holy Ghost and pities the Socinians as an unequal Match for me because they have but One God and I have Three nay compares Father Son and Holy Ghost to Pagan Gods when he tells the World that I curse him by my Gods which is a manifest and impious Allusion to Goliath's cursing David by his Gods Can he think that the Dispute about Three Modes or Three Minds in the Unity of the Godhead can justifie such Blasphemies as these against Father Son and Holy Ghost or is this to be suffered in a Christian Church Whether I curse him or not and I thank God I curse no Man but pray for my worst Enemies he may justly fear that such Blasphemies will bring the Curse of the ever Blessed Trinity on him and that will be no Jeast No Man who believes but One Divine Nature which is originally in the Father and is substantially communicated by the Father to the Son as a distinct subsisting Person by an eternal and ineffable Generation and to the Holy Ghost by an eternal and substantial Procession from Father and Son can be a Tritheist whatever inconvenient Expressions he may use unless the Doctrine of the Trinity it self be Tritheism But let us consider the reason of this Charge a little more particularly They ask us Whether an eternal and infinite Mind be not ture and perfect God Yes most certainly and for this reason we must assert that the Son is an eternal infinite Mind because he is true and perfect God But if one infinite Mind is true and perfect God are not Three infinite Minds Three Gods This is easily answer'd as far as we are concern'd to answer these Men only by changing Minds for Persons Is not an eternal infinite Person true and perfect God and if every eternal Person as a distinct Person be true and perfect God are not Three such distinct Persons Three Gods The Objection is the same and let them but answer for themselves and they answer for us But if each distinct Person and each distinct Mind is true and perfect God why may not the Term God be number'd and distinguish'd as Persons and Minds are Why may we not say that there are Three Gods as well as that there are Three Persons or Three Minds This is the true Difficulty which as much affects the Doctrine of the Trinity it self as any Terms or Expressions about it whether Three Persons or Three Minds Nay though we give no Name to these Three the Difficulty is the same for if we own Three each of whom is true and perfect God why are not these Three three Gods when each of them is distinctly and by himself true and perfect God Now not to dispute this Matter with the Socinians which is not my present Business there is a very plain Account to be given of this to those who acknowledge a Trinity why we may say that there are Three infinite Minds and Spirits each of which is true and perfect God and yet must not and ought not to say that there are Three Gods The Reason why we may say that there are Three distinct infinite Minds is because there are Three each of whom is a distinct infinite Mind and Three each of whom is a distinct Mind are Three distinct Minds but the Reason why we must not say there are Three Gods is not because there are not Three each of whom is distinctly and by himself true and perfect God as every infinite Mind is for that is Sabellianism but because there is but one and the same Divinity or Godhead the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them all and
the Censure which these Oxford Heads have made of these Propositions There are Three Infinite distinct Minds and Substances in the Trinity Item That the Three Persons in the Trinity are Three distinct Infinite Minds or Spirits and Three Individual Substances That is I suppose as much Individual Substances as they are Individual Persons It is evident that all this relates only to the Notion of the Trinity and to the Notion of a Divine Person and of Three Divine Persons in the Trinity and therefore the Unity of the Godhead is not concerned in this which belongs to another Question How these Three are One of which more when I examine the Heresy charged on these words 1. But the first charge is that they are false I wish they had told us what in them is false but since they have made no distinction we must suppose they mean that all these words are false Is it false then that each Person in the Ever-Blessed Trinity is by himself in his own Person a Distinct Infinite Mind Spirit or Substance Is not God the Father an Infinite Mind or Spirit Is not God the Son the substantial Word and Wisdom of the Father an Infinite Mind or Spirit Is not God the Holy Ghost that Eternal Spirit which knoweth the things of God as the Spirit of a Man knoweth the things of a man an Eternal Mind or Spirit Or is not an Infinite Mind and Spirit a Substance the most real perfect Substance that is in the world which gives Substance and Subsistence to all other things Is not the Father considered as an Infinite Mind and Spirit distinct from the Son and the Holy Ghost the Son distinct from the Father and the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost distinct from the Father and the Son To deny any thing of all this is downright Sabellianism and destroys a real substantial Trinity which is as Essential to the Christian Faith as the Unity of the Godhead is The only Quarrel then that I can imagine against these words is this That tho the Father be a distinct Infinite Mind and the Son a distinct Infinite Mind and the Holy Ghost a distinct Infinite Mind yet according to the Catholick Form of Speech we must not say that there are Three distinct Infinite Minds but one Infinite Mind or Spirit or Substance Now I grant that in the sense of the Homoousion or Consubstantiality this is very True and Orthodox in which sense St. Jerom condemned Tres Substantias or Three Substances and St. Austin who allowed that the Father is a Spirit the Son a Spirit and the Holy Ghost a Spirit yet denied that there are Three Spirits but One Spirit but when we apply this to Persons it is gross Sabellianism to say that there are not Three Personal Minds or Spirits or Substances but only One Mind Spirit or Substance for then there can be but one Person too for one Personal Mind is but One Person Let us consider what a Mind is and how we can know whether there be but One or more distinct Minds The Substance of a Mind I know nothing of no more than I do what the naked Substance of Body or Matter is but the true Notion of a Mind is a thinking Being and therefore where ever we find the Acts of Knowledge Understanding and Will there is a Mind and where there are distinct Personal Acts of Knowledge and Will there are distinct Personal Minds Now if we believe the Scripture the Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father the Father wills and the Son by a distinct Personal act wills with the Father and what the Father wills the Father works and the Son works and sees all that the Father doth and doth the same things Thus the Fathers proved against the Sabellians the real and substantial distinction of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead from those distinct personal acts which are attributed in Scripture to Father Son and Holy Ghost which having a mutual relation to each other require distinct Persons for their Subjects and since all the instances they give as may be seen in Tertullian against Praxeas Novatian in his Book of the Trinity Athanasius against the Sabellians St. Hilary St Austin and all that have writ on this Argument are acts of a Mind as well as of a Person they must prove if they prove any thing distinct Minds as well as Persons for if one singular Solitary Mind may be the Subject of such distinct acts as necessarily suppose more than one One Person may be so too and then there is no possible way left to confute Sabellianism or to prove a real Trinity of distinct substantial Persons It is very evident that both the Sabellians and the Catholick Fathers in this Controversy understood the same thing by Person which we do by Mind or Spirit By Person the Sabellians meant such a Person as is true and perfect God and therefore the most real Substance an Infinite Mind and Spirit and for this reason they rejected Three Persons for fear of Three Gods which always was and is still the Objection against a real substantial Trinity for there is no danger that Three Names or Notions or Modes should be a Trinity of Gods Notwithstanding this the Catholick Fathers allow their Notion of a Person and prove against them such a Trinity of Persons as they rejected each of which is true and perfect God Now since Person is the Catholick word which long Ecclesiastical use has made familiar I should by no means allow of any other word in this Mystery could we retain the old Catholick Faith together with the word But when men make no more of a Person than a meer Mode and a Trinity of Modes in one singular Nature and Substance must pass for a Trinity of Divine Persons which was the Heresy of Sabellius who contended for One Singular Solitary Nature or Subsistence in God and was not much concerned by what name you called the Three so they were not Three Substantial Subsisting Persons for he never dreamt that there could be Three Real Substantial Persons in One Singular Nature I say when this Heresy is reviv'd under a new Name we are under a necessity of saying in more express words what the Fathers meant by Person if we will retain the Catholick Faith as well as the Word Would Men but give themselves a little Liberty of thinking they would see how impossible it is to find a Medium between a real Trinity and Sabellianism however disguis'd The Three Persons in the blessed Trinity are either Three Substantial Persons or they are not to deny them to be Substantial is Sabellianism whatever else we call them There must be either One singular solitary Substance in the Deity or Three distinct Personal Substances The first is the fundamental Article of the Sabellian Creed and a direct Contradiction to the Doctrine of the Trinity for One singular solitary Nature or Substance is but One Person for which reason the