THE Socinians hold a Trinity as well as we: They have late­ly Published Bidle's Confession of Faith touching the Holy Trinity. But in the Explanation of this is all the diffe­rence: [Page 4] He, and one part of the Socini­ans, make the Second and Third Per­sons to be Creatures, wherein they are guilty of a very gross sort of Idolatry, beyond what was acknowledged by any of the Heathens, To join Creatures into one Holy Trinity with God, and to Baptize Men into the Faith and Wor­ship of Creatures. The Arians could never answer the Charge of Idolatry in giving Divine Honour to Christ, while they acknowledged him to be but a Creature: Nor can the VVorship of Christ, supposing him but a Creature, be excused from Idolatry, by any manner of way, which will not at the same time justifie the Excuses not only of the Church of Rome, but of the Heathens themselves for their Idolatry.

Another sort of Socinians deny the Second and Third of the Trinity to be Persons: And make them no more than the Power and VVisdom of God, one [Page 5] call'd his VVord, the other his Spirit, but yet that they are nothing different from God; as by a Man's Spirit, you mean the Man himself. Thus the Brief History of the Uni-tarians.

But, by this Rule, they cannot stop at a Trinity in God, but must go thro' all his Attributes, Justice, Mercy, Provi­dence, Omnipotence, Eternity, and Twen­ty more; and instead of the Three in Heaven (which they acknowledge) they must go to a Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and without End.

In the next Place, where it is said, John 1.14. The VVord was made Flesh, they say that no Person was made Flesh: This Second of the Trinity they say is not a Person, but only God's Power, or the Manifestation of his Pow­er, which they say Inhabited an Hu­mane Person; i. e. the Person of Jesus Christ.

[Page 6] So God Inhabited or Inspired the Pro­phets, Apostles, &c. but this did not make Him to become Flesh.

But he inspired Christ in a Higher Degree.

The Degree signifies nothing as to the being made Flesh. No Inspiration or Inhabitation of God, or any thing less than an Impersonation; i. e. taking our Flesh into his own Person, so as to be one Person with him, nothing less than this can make him to be Flesh.

And it is certain that nothing can be made Flesh but a Person. A Mani­festation of God, or of any thing else, is nothing in it self; it is but our man­ner of Apprehending what is manifested or shewn to us: And to talk of this being made Flesh, is the grosest Non­sence and Contradiction: Therefore if there be but One Person in the Tri­nity (as this Sett of Socinians do hold) then the whole Trinity was made Flesh; [Page 7] and then they must come to Muggleton, who says, as they do, that there is but One Person in the Godhead, which is God the Father; and that He was Incarnate, and really Died, so that there was then no God: But Muggle­ton says that Elijah govern'd in his ab­sence, Rais'd him from the Dead, and Restor'd him his Throne, and then He was God again.

But, on the other hand, if there be Three Persons in the Holy Trinity (as the rest of our Socinians do hold) But the Second and Third only Creatures, and that the Word (the Second Person) was Incarnate; then they must answer for their Idolatry, in Worshiping a meer Creature; and answer the Cloud of Texts which require and attest Divine Honor to be due to Christ, and Command the very Angels of God to Worship Him.

[Page 8] But, to turn again to those Socini­ans who will have but one Person in the Trinity, they put this Meaning upon Matth. 28.19. that we are Bapti­zed in the Name of the Father, and of the Son (who is the self-same Person with the Father) and of the Holy Ghost (who is the same Person with them Both.)

Again, Matth. 12.32. if you sin against one of these you shall be for­given; but if you sin against another (who is the very same with that one) you shall not be forgiven.

Now, I pray you, compare their Trinity and ours. They make Three in Heaven who are not only Three, but may be Threescore, and yet all but one and the self-same Person.

We acknowledge the Three in Hea­ven, whom the Scriptures tell us of, to be only Three, and that they are Three Persons.

[Page 9] One of these was made Flesh, the other not, yet they will not allow them to be different Persons, but that He who took Flesh, and He who did not take Flesh were the same, or that they were not Two.

These are the Men who cry out upon Mysteries; and pretend to Ex­plain their Faith wholly by Reason and Demonstration, and to make it easie and intelligible to the meanest Under­standing!

Besides, they differ more (if more can be) betwixt one another, than they do from us. What greater dif­ference can there be concerning the Object of our Worship than one to make it GOD, the other but a Crea­ture? As it is among the Socinians, in their Opinion of the Second, and Third in the Holy Trinity. What greater difference, than for one to say they are Persons, another no Persons? One [Page 10] to say they are Adorable, the other not? Must not one of these think the other Idolaters? And the other think them Profane, and Erroneous in Faith, who deny Divine Honour to whom it is Due?

These call themselves Unitarians; yet there is not, nor can be in the World, greater Division, and at far­ther distance, than betwixt the several sorts of these, who own themselves by one Name, and would have the World believe that they have the same Faith: Which, when so con­tradictory to it self, it can be Ill ex­pected to agree with the Holy Scri­ptures, and with the Holy Catholick Church.

We acknowledge a Great and Sub­lime Mystery in the Holy Trinity of GOD: That is a Mystery to us, which exceeds our Understanding. And many such Mysteries there are, [Page 11] to us, in the Nature of God which we all acknowledge; A First Cause with­out a Beginning! A Being which nei­ther made it self, nor was made by any other! Infinite without Extension! In every place, yet circumscrib'd in no place! Eternal and Perpetually Existing, without any Succession! a Present, with­out Past, or Future! and many other such un-Explainable, un-Intelligible, In­comprehensible Mysteries; which yet hinder not our Belief of a God. And therefore not being able fully and clearly to explain the Trinity, which is the most hidden and secret Attribute of the Nature of God, can be no Reason for us to reject such Revelation which God has given us of Himself. Yet do we not want several Shadows and Resemblances of one Nature communi­cating it self to many Individuals, with­out either a Multiplication or Divi­sion of the Nature. We say that the [Page 12] Soul is all in all, and all in every part of the Body; yet that the Soul is neither Multiplied nor Divided among the several Members of the Body. It is impossible for us either to Explain this, or to Deny it; for we feel it to be so, though it is wholly unconcei­vable to us how it can be. Now if the Soul, which is but an Image of God, at an Infinite distance, can commu­nicate it self to several Members, without breach of its Unity; why should it be Impossible for the Eternal and Infinite Mind to communicate it self to several Persons, without breach of its Unity; I will be bold to say, you will not find so near a Parallel in Nature whereby to conceive of God's Eternity, or his Infinity, as this, and a great many more, whereby we may conceive of His Trinity and Unity, by what we feel in our selves, and see in a thousand things that are [Page 13] before us. We see Extension not Divided but Distinguish'd into its three Dimensions; and Communicating its whole Nature to each of the Three, for Each is Extension; and yet there is but one Extension in all the Three.

The Soul is not Divided betwixt its several Faculties; they remain per­fectly distinguish'd, though not divi­ded from one another: To understand what is present, is a quite different thing from Remembring what is Past; and to Love or Hate, is different from both of these; yet these Three Fa­culties, the Understanding, the Me­mory, and the Will, partake all equally of the same Soul.

Light and Heat are so different, that some are capable of the One, who are not of the Other; and yet they are not Divided in the Sun; but flow equally and naturally from it without any Division of its Nature.

[Page 14] I say not that any of these Parallels do come up to the full explanation of the Communication of the Divine Nature to several Persons, without any Division or Multiplication of the Nature: But I am sure they take away the Contradiction alledged to be in it, while we see the same Difficulty in our own and other Natures, which we can as little Explain.

But, instead of solving this diffi­culty, the Socinians have made it a downright and Irreconcileable Con­tradiction. They would have Three to be One and the self-same Person. This cannot be sav'd from a Con­tradiction. They acknowledge the Three in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. If these are one and the self-same Person, they cannot be Three. If they are one Nature, and several Persons; this is a Diffi­culty, it is a Mystery; but it is no [Page 15] Contradiction, because they are not One and Three in the same respect; for that is necessary to make it a Contradiction. In one Respect, that is of their Nature, they are One; in an other Respect, that is, of their Persons, they are Three. But if they are One in Person, as well as in Na­ture; and yet are Three (as these So­cinians do confess) then they are Three and One, in the self-same Respect, which is a full Contradiction.