I have all the Reafon in the World to expect your Lordship's Concurrence. And fince your Lordfhip is fo throughly fenfible of the Antichriftianifm of Popery, I would fain know how the Confubftantiality and Coequality of the Holy Ghoft to the Father and the Son, on which foon followed his Invocation, which only stands upon one Letter of Pope Liberius or Damafus, can by your Lordship be look'd on under any other Denomination? That wicked State arofe very gragually and I fear the Reformed Churches have not yet caft out all the Relicks of it till this Day. Your Lorfhip will forgive the Boldness of this Address, on Account of the Importance of the Points concern'd, and of your Lordfhip's Knowledge of the Sincerity of the Propofer, who is with great Submiffion and Respect,

Your Lordships most obliged

and Obedient Son and Servant

WILL. WHISTON.

To this Letter I received no Reply till the following April: when his Lordship was pleas'd to fend me a very long Letter; relating chiefly to fome other Debates between us. What therein directly concerns this Matter I fhall here tranfcribe.

SIR,

IN your Letter of September 18. you tell me you were not a little furpriz'd at the Contents of my Second Letter. I affure you I am very much grieved, at what I read in your Anfwer to it. There are fuch Things as would dishearten me from writing to you any farther concerning

concerning thefe Matters; but that the Mattes themselves are fuch as are of very great concer to the Chriftian Faith, and to the Peace an Unity of the Church. These great and pub lick Concerns are much endanger'd by your ex ceffive gratifying of your Love of Novelty It is plainly Natural to you, as all your Friend too well know. But to our greater forrow it is visibly grown, and daily increases, by your indulging your felf fo much in it. When you came firft to publish this in Writing of Books, you began with Philofophical Matters: From thence you went on to Scripture-Hiftory; and from thence to the Prophecies of Scripture. Now at last you are come to Matters of Faith. Wherein I doubt not to find you are as grofly miftaken as I am fure you are, and I will prove it to you, in every one of the Books you have publish'd hitherto. I except only your first Book, because in that, as I understand, Mr. Keill has taken you to task, and I am told he handles you fomewhat feverely. With what Juftice he does it I leave to the Judgment of the Virtuofi. My grief is much increas d by reading thofe vehement Declarations you make of a full Refolution to go on in the Work that I fo earnestly defir'd you to put a stop to, till you had advis'd with your Friends. And, as it were on purpofe, to take away all hope of your hearkning to any Advice, you tell me, If this proceeding of yours be esteemed Pride, and Vanity, and Obftinacy, and Heretical Pravity, you must be con stent with those Imputations. Would to God there were no Occafion for any of thefe. Indeed I cannot charge vou with Pride and Vanity in any other Inftance than what I have met with in your Writings. But I cannot deny that in them I have feen fo much Appearance of thefe

things, that I know not how to excuse you from either of them. And therefore there being great Reason to believe, that there muft have been fome' Sins of Yours that have provoked God to fend this heavy Judgment upon you, in fuffering you to write and publish fuch Things as you have done, and are now doing, and knowing no other Sins to charge you with but thofe of Pride, and Vanity, I am of Opinion that those are the very Sins that have gi ven that Provocation to God. Pray think of. it, as it highly concerns you to do, before you go any farther in the Work that you have now in your Hands. As for Obftinacy, and Heretical Pravity, I am forry to tell you I fee too much of both these in your fecond Letter now before me. And if the Imputation of Obstinacy be juft, then it highly concerns you to take heed of the laft Imputation, I mean that of Heretical Pravity, for if that be juft alfo, and you think to pass it over by saying as you do, I am content to bear it, nay more, I am refolved to go on, tho' I perish in the Attempt; what will this come to at laft? I tremble to think of it; if God fhould once withdraw his Grace, and give you up to him whofe Work you are doing. God will defend his Church against all you can do: But for your felf, if you go on, your End will be miferable. Yet I hope better; and therefore I will endeavour to make you fee whither you are going. I befeech God my Endeavours may have that bleffed Effect. In what you tell me of the Work you are about, you begin with a very bold Cenfure of that Confeffion of Faith which is often us'd in our Church, and which, as I mention'd to you before, our Church faith is Commonly call'd the Creed of Athanafius. You call it the Creed of Vig. Tapf. though that is more, (c)

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than you know. But be it fo. Vigilius was one. of thofe Orthodox Bishops that were under the heavy Perfecution of thofe Arian Kings of the Vandals, about A. D. 500. and then he did write Books against the reigning Herefie; which, for concealment fake, he put out in the Name of S. Athanafius. Thus did fome of the Jews in Times of Perfecution,

then Idolatry. One ite Books against Hea

that is call'd Wildon of Salomon: Another call'd the Book of Baruch; whereof alfo part is called the Epifle of Feremiah. I cannot commend them, that to conceal themfelves ufed thefe Arts; But nevertheless their Books were highly approv'd. Infomuch that they were read by the Hellenilt Jews in their Synagogues, and fo coming into the Chriftians Hands, they were alfo read in Chriftian Churches, in and next after the Apostles times. The Cenfure you pass upon that Creed is in thefe Words, That Creed is most evidently a grofs Corruption; compos'd under and establish'd by the Antichriftian Church; and a great Shame to all Proteftants that it is not yet excluded. This is indeed a thing not to be endur'd; that any Member of a Christian Church, fhould take the Liberty to himself, to throw fuch a Cenfure upon any part of its Liturgy, especially on a Confeffion of Faith that is enjoyn'd by Authority to be us'd in the publick Offices of the Church; and not only fo, but to cry Shame upon the Church for continuing it. All that can be faid for you in this Cafe, is only that you do it in a private Letter to a Friend, acquainting him with your Opinion of the Thing, and your Reason for it; promifing you will publish nothing of your Opinion, nor of your Reafons, till frit you have communicated them to the two Archbishops of this Church. Upon these Terms I go on with

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you; and come to confider the particular Things that you object against the Confeffion of Faith, and confequently in the Prayers of our Liturgy. I find them toward the end of your fecond Letter in these Words; There, fpeaking of the Antichriftian Corruptions, you fay, I would fain know how the Confubftantiality and Coequality of the Holy Ghoft to the Father and the Son, on which foon followed bis Invocation, which only stands upon one Letter of Pope Liberius o Damafus, can be look'd. upon by your Lordship under any other Denomination. To this Demand of yours I fhall give you myAnswer in as few Words as I can. First,for the Doctrine of the Confubftantiality and Coequality of the Holy Ghoft to the Father and the Son, I take it to be part of the Creed which our bleffed Lord gave us in his Form of Baptifm.. He commanded us all to be Baptized, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft. God was pleafed, when our Saviour himfelf was baptized, to make a vifible and audible Appearance of three Perfons concern'd in his Baptifm. "Our bleffed Saviour gave a plain Intimation of the fame Three, at the Entrance upon his Prophetick Office, Luke iv. He declared them more than once in his last Difcourfes to his Difciples; tho? as yet he could fpeak to them no more than their! Weakness would bear. John xvi. 12. 25. St Jobe tells in his Gofpel what he heard our Saviour fay to the Jews, John x. zo. I and my Father are One, ev tour. The fame Apofle tells us in his Catholick Epiftle, Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, Thefe Three are One, ἱ τρεῖς ἔν εισι. 1 John V. 7. Thefe faft words are quoted by Tertullian, that wrote toward the end of the fecond Century, within an Hundred Years after the Death of that Apoftle. They are quoted alfo by Cyprian that wrote about the (c2)

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