AN Earnest Call To those Nonconformists, Who really Believe the Doctrine OF THE Holy, Blessed, and Glorious TRINITY, To come into the Communion OF THE Church of ENGLAND; THAT By their Constant Regular Confession of the Christian Faith, they may Confound the Devices of those GAIN-SAYERS, WHOM By their Separation they have so much Encouraged.  Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love, and to Good Works: Not forsaking the Assembling of ourselves together, etc. Heb. 10. 24, 25. 
London Printed, and are to be Sold by Randal Tailor near Stationers-Hall, 1691.   

AN Earnest Call To those Nonconformists, etc.  
My dear Brethren,  
So I call you all, who Believe the Doctrine of the Blessed TRINITY Sincerely and Practically, who Worship the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose Name we are BAPTISED. I beseech you by the Meekness and Gentleness of our Lord Jesus Christ, That you would lay aside all Prejudices against me▪ who have so often declared to so many of you, That it can hardly be imagined, that the Father of Lies could ever find out a readier way to prepare the Populace for the Reception of that most damnable Doctrine of the Antitrinitarians, than by the contempt of the COMMON-PRAYER. We have often heard a senseless Clamour, that the Common-Prayer, is an Idolatrous Worship: Now we are told, why it is charged with Idolatry. In a Book Entitled, Essays towards a Union between Divinity and Morality, Part 5. Chap. 4. are these Words: The first Commandment settles Supreme Worship wholly on the Father, and makes the communicating of it, Idolatry; as for our Honour, we are to pay to the Son, the Scriptures call Mediation. As for Worshipping the Holy Ghost, there is no Mention made of it in the whole Scripture; and when there is no Ground for such Worship, one had as good make 100 Persons in the Godhead, as Three: But yet, tho' such Worship be Idolatrous, and consequently Odious; yet ought it not to deter us from our reasonable Liberty: thus I have formerly manifested, the Socinian may communicate with the Church of England, etc.  
Thus you see this most Impudent TEACHER of the grossest Hypocrisy, charges the public Worship of the Church of England, with Idolatry, because we Worship the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as we do the Father, as being with the Father the only True, and Eternal GOD. In a late Pamphlet, Entitled, A Vindication of the Unitarians, page 3. we find the like Expressions: If we err, says this Professed Arian, indeed, we Blaspheme the Son, and Holy Ghost, which, we hope we do not; but if you err, Do not you both Blaspheme and and Commit Idolatry in Worshipping them as Coequal to the Father? You see here, What Spirit it is that Instigates so many People to cry out against the Common-Prayer, as if it were Idolatry, etc. I beseech you to consider these Words of T. Cartwright, and the Answer given thereunto by the most Reverend Father in God, Archbishop Whitgifte. The Defence of the Answer to the Admonition, page 496. T. C.  

The like may be said of the Gloria-Patri, and the Athanasius' Creed, it was first brought into the Church, to the end, that men thereby should make an open Profession in the Church, of the Divinity of the Son of GOD, against the detestable Opinion of Arius and his Disciples, wherewith at that time marvellously swarmed almost the whole Christendom: Now that it hath pleased the Lord to quench that Fire, ●here is no such cause, why these things should be in the Church; at the least, why that Gloria-Patri should be so often repeated.  
Jo. Whitgifte.   
Even as convenient now, as it was then: For it is as necessary to maintain Truth, and make it known, as it is to suppress Errors; and yet it is not unknown, that even in our Days, and in this Church there have been Arians, and I pray God, there be none still. I must suspect the matter, not well understanding whereunto those glances of yours at Gloria-Patri, and Athanasius' Creed do tend. Gloria-Patri, besides that, it containeth a brief Confession of the Trinity, and of the Divinity of Jesus Christ; it is a Magnifying, and Glorifying of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Three Persons, and One God; and Athanasius's-Creed, is not only an excellent Confutation of Arius' Heresy, but a plain declaration of the Mystery of the Trinity, such as is necessary for all Christian men to learn and know; and therefore he that is offended with the oft repetition, or saying of either of them, I cannot tell what I should judge of him. But undoubtedly, there is great Cause, why I should suspect him at the least of singularity and unquietness.  
You see this Prudent Man, did SUSPECT, that some Cunning Antitrinitarians had a hand in the Inflaming of some  Persons, with an unreasonable Indignation against the Liturgy of the Church of England, particularly those most Excellent Parts of it, the Gloria-Patri, and the Athanasian-Creed. I do not charge T. C. with Arianism, but I charge him with a gross Defect of that Zeal, which Christianity requires, to that Principal Article of Sanctifying Truth, which the Arians, and all other sorts of Antitrinitarians so eagerly endeavour to Suppress. That Gloria-Patri is so often repeated, is so far from being a Vain Repetition, that 'tis impossible any man should ever conceive a good Thought, but when he has in his Heart the Power and Efficacy of those Words: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. Therefore doth our Mother, the Church of England, Order, that the Gloria-Patri shall be repeated at the end of every Psalm, because the Conforming of our Hearts to those Divine Affections, which are expressed in every Psalm, proceeds only from the Efficacy of the Sense contained in those Words, Glory be to the Father, etc. in which consists the Life and Reality of all Christian Virtue. No wonder that any man slights the LORD's PRAYER, who hates the Doctrine of the TRINITY, and consequently denies the Author of that Absolutely Perfect Form of Prayer to be the True and Eternal GOD. One of the late Blasphemers of the Godhead of our Blessed Saviour, in his Book Entitled, Essays, etc. Part 6. Chap. 4. has these words: The Lord's Prayer was but as an Example to show the proper length, and matter for Prayer, and undoubtedly, that Service is weak and superstitious, that deals too much in repetition of it. He plainly reflects upon the Divine Service of the Church of England, which in another place he charges with Idolatry, as he does here with Superstition. Another of these Antichristians, in a late Pamphlet, Entitled, Doctor Wallis' Letter, etc. Answered by a Friend, Belches forth this horrid Blasphemy in derision of the Blessed TRINITY: Suppose one Woman, Mary, to be Married to Three Men at once; Peter, James, and John; I Marry, take thee Peter, James, and John to be my Wedded Husband, etc. Here are indeed Three Persons, but only One Husband, the Husband-hood is but One, tho' the Persons are Three.  
Hear, O our GOD, for we are Despised. Hear, O our GOD, for Thou art Despised. Arise, O God, plead thine own Cause, remember how the Foolish Man reproacheth thee daily. Oh, My dear Brethren, consider, I beseech you, that every True and Living Member of England, seeing his Blessed LORD thus Crucified afresh, and put to an Open Shame, Cries out to you: Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow! But that it may not be said by any of my Adversaries, that I do nothing but make Exclamations, I shall here show you in one Instance, how I deal with this sort of GAIN-SAYERS, in a way of the strictest kind of Argumentation. They Boast themselves in the Title of Unitarians, and pretend a mighty Zeal for the Honour of the UNITY of the Divine Essence; and yet one of them in a late Pamphlet, Entitled, Some Thoughts upon Dr. Sherlock's Vindication, etc. plainly Blasphemes that TRANSCENDENT UNITY in these Words: By GOD we understand a Divine, and Supreme Person, one Numerical Being, and Spirit, having the same Notion of that Unity, which we have of an Angel, a Man, a King, etc.  

Answer,  
IT cannot be properly said, That the Divine Essence is Numerically One: Numerical Unity, implies a possibility of Multiplication. That which is Numerically One, is One of Many, as an Angel, or a Man, etc. 'Tis true, the Son is Numerically One, but 'tis for this reason, because the Plurality of Suns, does not imply a Contradiction, as it does that there should be more than One GOD, or Being absolutely Infinite. That the One Infinite Being, is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Holy Scriptures do abundantly Testify. And it is most Reasonable to Conceive that in the One Infinite Essence, there may be a Certain Trinity, or Triplicity, which cannot in any wise Appertain to any Three Persons of a Finite Nature. Neither can the UNITY of the Divine Essence, be communicable to any Finite INDIVIDUAL: So that for any man to have the same Notion of that Unity, which we have of the Unity of an Angel, a Man, etc. is to Err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the Power of GOD. That you may constantly retain the right Notion of the Infinity, and consequently of the Absolute, and Incommunicable UNITY of the Divine Essence, I shall Advise you frequently to Meditate on the 40. Chap. of the Book of the Prophet ISAIAH.  
I shall not detain you any longer at present, but only to Entreat you to Join with me in that Devotion, which we are Directed unto, by the Right Reverend Father in GOD, ARTHUR LAKE Bishop of Bath and Wells, in the Prayer he subjoins to his Excellent Sermon on these Words of that Blessed Prophet: And His Name shall be called, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty GOD.  
LORD, Guide us by thy Counsel, Support us by thy Power, that we be neither Circumvented, nor Quelled, but by thy Direction and Protection, we may escape both the Craft, and the Force of all our Enemies. So shall we ever Glorify thee, as our Admirable Counsellor, and our most Mighty GOD, Amen.   
FINIS.