A

LETTER

TO THE

COMMON PEOPLE,

IN ANSWER TO SOME

POPULAR ARGUMENTS against the TRINITY.

BEING AN

APPENDIX

TO THE

CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY.

.A

LETTER

TO THE

COMMON PEOPLE.

MEN AND BRETHREN,

S Chriftians and members of the Church of England, you have been taught, that the True God, whom you are bound to believe and worship, is a Trinity in Unity. In the Name of these three Perfons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, have been baptized: and in the Litany are directed to pray to this Holy, bleffed, and glorious Trinity, three perfons and one God, that he would have mercy upon us miferable finners.

you

From the first propagation of the Gospel, there has been a fort of men in the Chriftian church, who had too high an opinion of their own knowledge and wisdom to fubmit quietly to this doctrine. They pretended it was contrary to their Reason and common fenfe, and impoffible in the Nature of Things, that the true God fhould be made manifeft in the flesh for the Salvation of the world; and hence they argued, that the Incarnation must either have been a delusion, a fact brought to pass only in fhew and appearance; or that the Perfon incarnate must have been fome created Being, far inferior in power and dignity to the divine Nature itself.

About three hundred years after the death of Chrift, when Paganism, or the worship of idols, was losing its influence in the Roman empire, this Herefy, being come to its full growth, did immediately supply the place of it, and profpered to such a degree, that it overfpread the greatest part of the East, and ended at last in the imposture of the false prophet Mahomet; whose doc

trine was readily embraced wherever Arianifm prevailed, and no where elfe among Chriftians; and his difciples do at this day most zealously deny that Trinity which you worship.

When the Teachers of the Church found themselves difturbed, and their people corrupted, more and more by the daily increase of this herefy; upwards of three hundred Christian bishops, many of whom had been tortured and maimed in the heathen perfecutions, affembled together at the city of Nice, in Bithynia, and one Arius, a principal promoter of this wickednefs, was fummoned to appear before them: his doctrine and writings were condemned; the Faith which these holy men had brought with them to the council was declared, and is now preferved in the Nicene Creed; which form we make ufe of in the church because it comprehends the fenfe of our faith in a few words. But we do not rest our belief upon the Authority of any human form, because the doctrine therein expreffed is fecured by the unquestionable authority of the Old and New Teftaments.

The Evidence of this faith, as it is found in the Scripture, I have endeavoured to extract and methodize in the best manner I' could. The work was made public rather with an humble and charitable defire to affift the ftudies of the younger clergy, than to inftruct the common people; and therefore it was first printed at Oxford. Nevertheless, I am well perfuaded, that fo many of the arguments therein contained are level to all capacities, that an unlearned reader may thence be able to fatisfy himself, and inform his Chriftian neighbours. I fhall therefore have no occafion in this place to urge any new evidence from the Scripture, but only to refer to some of the old; it being the design of this Address to obviate a set of popular arguments, which have been made use of by fome nameless writers to turn your affections from the doctrine of the Trinity; most of which might be applied with as much propriety to prejudice you against any other article of faith in the Chriftian Religion.

I. You know, my dear brethren, that pride is a very prevailing paffion in human nature; and unless we are very much upon our guard, and are fortified with the true principles of Christian humility, we are all of us in danger of being enfnared by it. Men are proud of their clothes, and proud of their riches, and proud of their titles; but, above all, they are proud of their understanding. Some men are endued with a strength of mind which enables them

4

to bear up with cheerfulness under the common trials of ficknefs, and loffes, and difappointments; while, perhaps, the fame men cannot endure the thought of being cheated and impofed upon, because it is a reflection upon their understanding. Our adverfaries, therefore, hoping to make the ftronger impreffion, apply themfelves first of all to your pride, and inform you, that this doctrine of the Trinity is impofed upon your confciences by Church Authority. But if the fact be laid before you, it will foon appear that no point of faith is thus impofed upon you by the Church of England. The points of faith which you are required to believe are interwoven with all the forms and offices of our public Liturgy. They are collected together for the younger fort of people in the Church Catechifm; and for all teachers, whether clergy or laity, they are drawn out more at large in the Articles of Religion, generally printed at the end of the Book of Common Prayer. So that all the articles of faith being impofed in the fame manner, it will follow, that they are all imposed by Church Authority, or none of them. Let us put it to the trial, and begin with the first article. of the Creed-I believe in God the Father Almighty. How is this article impofed? Does the Church determine by her own authority whether there is a God or not? And fo for the reft. Does the Church determine whether there is a Chrift, or an Holy Ghoft? whether there will be a refurrection of the dead, and a life everlasting? Certainly the Church neither does nor can pretend to determine any of these things for us; because where any thing is determined by authority, such authority must be superior to what it determines: to fuppofe which, in this cafe, would be equally falfe and prefumptuous. Therefore the truth of the matter is this; that the Church does only declare that faith which it has received; and instead of her impofing, this faith is impofed upon the Church by the uncontrolable authority of God in the Holy Scripture, to which every private Chriftian is referred for the proper evidence of any particular doctrine, and for that of the Trinity amongst the rest. Thofe articles which are of a nature inferior to the Church itself, are the only fubjects of Church authority. Thus, as the body is more than the raiment that is worn upon it; fo the life and being of the Church is fuperior to those outward regulations, which serve only to the order, decency, and well-being

See the title-page of a pamphlet called "An Appeal to the Common Senfe of all "Chriftian People," &c. printed for Miller, in the Strand.

of it; and which the Church may, for this reafon, appoint, alter, and improve by her own authority. But if any man informs you, that points of faith, or moral practice, are impofed upon your conSciences by the fame authority, he has either miftaken the cafe, or is himself endeavouring to impose upon your understanding.

II. But the Gofpel," they fay, "was defigned for perfons of all capacities," and unless all persons of common fenfe are qualified to understand what the Lord requires of them, we must

charge Now

Almighty God with dealing unfairly with his creatures." if the Gofpel be so easy, that nothing but bare common serife is wanted for the understanding of it, why do these authors write fo many books to help you to understand it in the Arian fenfe? If you are able, as they flatter you, to inftruct youfelves out of the Gofpel, then their practice is a contradiction to their principle, and their labour is fuperfluous by their own confeffion. My bre thren, we do not argue in this manner; we know that you have fenfe and ability to understand the merits of a cause, and are ready to hear reafon, when it is plainly reprefented to you: but if you were able to make all things intelligible to your ownselves, we should neither preach to you, nor write books for you.

When God appointed Teachers in his Church (1 Cor. xii. 28.) he certainly did not suppose that the congregation would be equally. capable of teaching themfelves. If this were true, then indeed God would seem to have dealt unfairly with Christian people, by appointing a ministry of learned men, and providing for their inftruction, as if bare common fenfe, with the Bible in its hand, were not fo fufficient as our adversaries would have you believe; in oppofition to us, but not to themselves.

The Duty of a Chriftian Minister is to teach; his ftudies are intended to qualify him, and his time is set apart for that purpose. For the bulk of the people, God hath appointed labour and business of another kind, as neceffary to fupport themselves and their families; and their duty is to hear. But if God has required you to do our work and your own too, then your lot is hard indeed. You will not, therefore, think it any reflection upon your common fense, that God has appointed an order of Teachers in his Church, who will never defire you to believe what they are not at all times ready to prove; but will rather beseech him that these Teachers

1 Ibid, p. 2.