Primitive Church or any one of the Inferiour Clergy with the Allowance of his Bishop did ever undertake to perform the Public Worship of Almighty God without the Use of the Lord's Prayer I do most confidently Aver That the want of the Practical Understanding of the Lord's Prayer is the chief Cause of all the Sins and Errours in the Christian World Wherefore I earnestly beseech all those that have Named the Name of Christ to joyn with me in the daily Contemplation of the Divine Sence of these Words deliver'd unto us by our Blessed SAVIOUR as a Compleat Directory for All Our Desires OUr Father which art in Heaven Hastowed be Thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our Daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A Vindication of the LITURGY of the Church of England THE Author of these Reflections most stedfastly resolves by the Help of Almighty GOD to embrace Truth and to reject Error wheresoever he finds it He desires That the Friends of R. B. would take these Reflections into their deepest consideration with the same candour and benevolence to all Mankind with which he communicates them to the World I am glad to find these words pag. 233 234. I would not be understood as if I intended the putting away of all set Times and Places to Worship God forbid I should think of such an Opinion Nay we are none of those that forsake the Assembly of our selves together but have even set Times and Places in which we carefully meet together to wait upon God and worship him These words following in the same Page require our Animadversion But the Limitation we condemn is That whereas the Spirit of God should be the immediate Actor moreover Perswader and Influencer of Man in the particular Acts of Worship when the Saints are met together this Spirit is limited in its Operations by setting up a particular Man or Men to preach and pray in Man's Will and all the rest are excluded from so much as believing that they are to wait for God's Spirit to move them in such things and so they neglecting that which should quicken them in themselves and not waiting to feel the pure Breathings of God's Spirit so as to obey them are led meerly to depend upon the Preacher and hear what he will say Answ. I shall undertake by God's assistance to vindicate the Use of the Liturgy of the Church of England the principal parts whereof are the Lord's Prayer and the Holy Psalms I say the Psalms for they are to be us'd in our Religious Assemblies as the Means or Instruments to lift up our Hearts unto God I would here avoid all Disputes concerning the Ordination of Ministers In our Assemblies the People bear a part with the Minister or Preacher in using their Voice in worshiping Almighty God The Spirit cannot be limited in its Operations by any thing that is taught or practised according to any Order of the Church of England We are taught not to Pray in Man's Will but according to the Will of GOD which is our Sanctification We are taught to wait for God's Spirit to move us to the performance of any thing He would have us to do but we are taught also to believe that God's Spirit is always ready to assist the Sincere those who desire above all things to do His Will to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth in Saying or Hearing the Words of our Liturgy in the Congregation The very moment that any Soul truly devout waits for or expects the assistance of the Spirit of Christ to help her to perform any known Duty towards GOD or towards Man she never fails to receive it Concerning the Psalms I shall speak hereafter It is the Duty of all Christians at all times and in all places to retain in their Hearts the Habit Ground or Principle of all those Holy Desires which are exprest in the Lord's Prayer this 't is to pray continually When the words of this Prayer are recited in the Congregation it is impossible but those who have the Habit of those Holy Desires in their Hearts should worship God in Spirit and in Truth viz. in the act or exercise of those Desires by the inspiration of the Divine Spirit whose operation never ceases but when Man in his own Will or Self-love doth suppress or totally extinguish such Holy Desires or Aspirations I am very sorry to see so ingenious and learned a person as R. B. err so grosly about the Lord's Prayer in which he shews himself tainted with that Impurity of Mind for which Dr. Owen has been so often corrected p. 245. We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us c. Rom. 8. 26. But says R. B. If this Prayer had been such a prescribed Form of Prayer to the Church that had not been true neither had they been ignorant what to pray nor should they have needed the help of the Spirit to teach them p. 245. To this I answer That it is impossible that any man should actually know as they ought to know the sence or meaning of any word in the Lord's Prayer but by an actual Influence of the Divine Spirit upon his Heart and Mind I must therefore proclaim to all the World That it was the Spirit of Error which suggested these words to R. B. If this Prayer had been such a prescribed Prayer to the Church that had not been true neither had they been ignorant what to pray nor should they have needed the help of the Spirit to teach them By what I have already said it appears that if by these words our Adversaries c. p. 264. he means all those who worship God according to the English Liturgy he 's very Uncharitable Our Adversaries says he whose Religion is all for the most part out-side and such whose Acts are the meer product of Man's natural Will and Abilities as they can preach so they can pray when they please and therefore have their set particular Prayers Answ. We acknowledge that we can never pray as we ought but by the assistance of the Spirit of God but his Assistance is always ready for us If at any time we fail of it we our selves are the cause we have it not As to set particular Prayers we own no Prayer but the Lord's Prayer further than the sense of it is implied in some part of that Compleat Body of Vocal Prayer that Divine Summary or Breviary of the Expressions of all holy Desires p. 266. Because this outward Prayer depends upon the inward as that which must follow it and cannot be acceptably perform'd but as attended with a superadded Influence and Motion of the Spirit Therefore
cannot we prefix set times to pray outwardly so as to lay a necessity to speak words at such and such times whether we feel this Heavenly Influence and Assistance or no for that we judge were a tempting of God and a coming before him without due preparation To this I answer That whatever feeling we have or have not in the Sensitive Powers or Faculties of our Souls if our Heart our Will or Spiritual Appetite be rightly affected towards God our Prayers will most certainly be acceptable unto Him And His Holy Spirit is always ready to assist every man that believeth in Iesus so to order and dispose his own Spirit that it may comply with the Will of God in all things It cannot be a Tempting of God to depend upon him for his gracious Assistance to do his Will And it is his Will that in our Religious Assemblies we should use Words in Prayer When ye pray say Our Father c. Luk. 11. 2. p. 268. To desire a man to fall to Prayer e're the Spirit in some measure less or more move him thereunto is to desire a man to see before he open his Eyes That is an irreverent Expression To fall to Prayer but most certainly it is our Duty to call upon all men who profess Christianity to observe the Times of the Public Worship of Almighty God and to testifie to them that if they will sincerely trust in God for Christ's sake to assist them by his holy Spirit they shall never fail of his gracious Assistance He will help their Infirmities and enable them to cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15 26. P. 275. As for the formal customary way of Singing it hath in Scripture no foundation nor any ground in true Christianity yea besides c. Answ. If by the formal customary way of Singing he mean that way of Singing Psalms in Metre or the reading of them in prose which the Church of England is accustomed unto It is a gross Errour to say there is no foundation for it in the Scripture Have we not received a Precept from our Blessed Lord by his Apostle to sing and make melody in our Hearts to the Lord And can there be any better means to do this than what the Apostle prescribes in these words Speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Can there be any better Psalms c. than those which were most certainly and unquestionably compos'd by Divine Inspiration Yea says he besides all the Abuses incident to Prayer and Preaching it hath this more peculiar That oftentimes great and horrid Lyes are said in the sight of God for all manner of wicked prophane People take upon them to personate the Experiences and Conditions of blessed David which are not only false as to them but also as to some of more Sobriety who utter them forth as where they will Sing sometimes Psal. 22. 14. My heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels Ver. 15. My strength is dryed up like a potsheard and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought me into the dust of death And Psal. 6. 6. I am weary with my groaning all the night make I my bed to swim I water my couch with my tears And many more which those that speak know to be false as to them To this I answer That all the Prayers of wicked prophane People that is of those who persist in their Wickedness whatever words they use in Prayer are an abomination to the Lord. What then Must they be forbid to pray No surely But in Praying they must cease to be wicked And indeed it is impossible that any wicked man should cease to be wicked before he begins to pray Prayer has always that Priority to ceasing to be wicked which Logicians call Priority of Nature Before any man can be justly esteemed to be a Member of any Christian Assembly or Congregation he must profess that he believes the Holy Scriptures were written by Divine Inspiration and consequently that they contain nothing but Truth And also that he resolves by the help of God to take the Truth therein contained to be the Rule of his Life and Conversation If he be Sincere in this Profession and God only can judge whether he be so or no unless he violate his Profession by some notorious contrary Practice then most certainly he has in his Heart those Holy Desires which are exprest in the Lord's Prayer And as for the Psalms I pray God to make all the Adversaries of the Church of England duly sensible of this most important Truth That though indeed there are many Passages in them which none of us can apply to himself as to the Particularity of his own Person yet there is not one Passage in the whole Book but what every true Christian may and ought to apply to himself upon account of the Communion of Saints of the relation He has to the Head and to every Member of the Holy Catholick Church which is in Heaven or in Earth So that every Expression in the Book of Psalms every sincere Christian so far as it is intelligible unto him may use as the Means to stir him up to Sing and make Melody in his Heart to the Lord to form such Thoughts and Affections as shall be most acceptable to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly every Man that is confirm'd to the Image of the Son of God who was all his days here upon Earth A man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief I say every Sincere Christian does most certainly pour out his Soul before the Lord in such Affections as are here exprest in the words of the Psalmist My heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels c. I am highly delighted with many Passages in Robert Barclay's Apology particularly with this p. 370. It is plain that men that are taken with Love whether it be of a Woman or any other thing if it hath taken a deep place in the Heart and possess the Mind it will be hard for the man so in Love to drive out of his Mind the person or thing so loved Yea in his eating drinking and sleeping his Mind will always have a tendency that way and in Business or Recreations however intent he be in it there will but a very short time be permitted to pass but the Mind will let some Ejaculations forth towards its Beloved And albeit such a one must be conversant in those things that the Care of this Body and such-like things call for yet will he avoid as Death it self to do those things that may offend the Party so beloved or cross his Design in obtaining the thing so earnestly desired tho' there may be some small use in them The great Design which is chiefly in his Eye will so balance him that he will easily look over and dispense with such petty Necessities rather than endanger the loss of the greater by them Now That
me with your Translation of my long Elegy into Latine which 't is hard to do well and so the more likely to commend your command of the Latine Tongue if the Poem does not loose very much in the Translation I acknowledge the great Authorities you alledge for the practice and use of Poetry and 't is laudable in all who are so much above their proper Business as to suffice both for That and their Recreations Such were Nazianzen and Grotius but the most excellent Dr. Hammond and Bishop Sanderson were none of that number much less am I That you can discharge all the Duties of your Priest-hood to write in Prose against the Errors of Iansenius and to write Verses at the same time and the hardest of the kind too a Latine Translation of arrant English gives me occasion to say with Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I grow in Indispositions as well as Years and am so much more modest or more timerous or more judicious than when I was Younger for I know not well what it is that I can seldom do any thing which I can readily approve of and have contracted an averseness to divers things such as Poetry and Musick in special manner wherein I formerly most delighted and thought I had the most skill in But if you send me your Translation as you say you do intend I will tell you what I think of it as I did divers Friends what I thought of their Translations of my Sermon against the Papists The Thesis you held at Oxford was very modest and very safe Iustin Martyr does go much farther who yet you know was too Primitive to be a Pelagian St. Augustin is cited by the Remonstrants and Antiremonstrants as a Patron of both those ways into which he was betray'd by the usual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his contrary disputes against the Pelagians and the Manichees so that reckon his Authority none at all in those Points all things consider'd And having cloy'd my self formerly with Disputes on that subject I am grown averse to that also But you it seems have now that Youngness and Inclination which I had then and may with more plausibility oppose those Errors in Iansenius a Papist than I did in Calvin Dr. Twiss Dr. Reynolds Dr. Barlow Dr. Bernard Mr. Barloe Mr. Whitfield Mr. Baxter Mr. Hickman and some other Writers who had the advantage of being Protestants which made my Writings ill resented by a Protestant Party tho well received by the most and best of Men amongst us yea by a multitude of the Party I writ against who have publickly thank't me for their Conversions if so I may call their Change of Judgment I think you will do well to consider Mr. Sherlock a stranger to me before you condemn him because I perceive he has the best Men's Approbation and may be taken by the wrong handle as many Orthodox Men have been They that quarrel Dr. Hammonds Letters to Dr. Sanderson whose longest Letter was to me altho I sent it Dr. Hammond in whose Friendship we long had met are hardly worth a wise Man's Anger and you need not purchase them yours Sir the Sickliness you speak of has invaded these parts too and the share I have lately had of it does make this Employment the less in season to Your Affectionate Brother and humble Servant Tho. Pierce Sarum Jan. 9. 1676. Reuerend SIR AT my return out of a Berkshire Visitation I met with yours at Sarum of the 12th of this month wherein I read your Translations of Montross his Epitaph on the King into good Greek Verse and better Latine These last being the happiest I have yet seen of yours and so the fitter to be the last too For you will never do better and 't is filthly to perform worse and worse which makes me fearful of ever more verfifying my self and a dissuasor to other Men who are grown in years and have a greater as well as graver Vocation to pursue Your weekly or frequent Preaching and your ingaging in the Quinquarticular Controversy will require your whole man whilst yet in health and be too hard for all your Faculties when you grow valetudinary as you will by much Study do what you can in prevention of it All your Iansenists and Calvinifts are well-performing Writers against Pelagius and the Massibienses and so far useful only they spoil the good they do and make themselves more obnoxious by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which carry'd them into the contrary and in my opinion the worse extream We are led between both by the Church of England and I congratulate to you the happiness of being one of her Sons Such I hope I shall die as I have liv'd and as such I subscribe my self Your Affectionate Brother and humble Servant Tho. Pierce Sarum May 19th 1676. To Dr. SHERLOCK 1691. SIR I Have seen a Printed Paper wheren I find your pretended Vindication of your Error in saying That the Three Persons in the Holy Trinity are three infinite Spirits Tho I was the first say you who had made use of those Terms in such a sense yet I ought not to be reprehended in opposition to such a Practice as you conceit to be so excusable the Learned Isaac Casaubon produces these most important Sayings of Plato Epictetus and Galen Pl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certainly no Christian Schollar was ever guilty of a greater piece of INSOLENCE than this To use Terms in a Discourse concerning the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity in such a sense which they were never us'd in by any other Man Is not this to boast in your Singularity in a conceit of a kind of Superiority to the Communion of Saints whose consent in this matter is exprest in these words of Saint Augustin Epist. 174. Spiritus est Deus Pater Spiritus est Filius ipse Spiritus Sanctus nec tamen tres spiritus sed unus spiritus sicut non Tres Dii sed unus Deus I do not say you reprove the use of the word Person but it were to be wish'd that those who first introduc'd this term into Divinity had given us a clear and proper notion of it Answ. Their Notion of it plainly imports That a Person is THAT or SOMEWHAT which has an Intelligent Being or Essence Now it implies no contradiction that in the one absolutely infinite and incomprehensible Being there should be the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost of each of which Three it may be said He is THAT which has an infinite intelligent Essence But it may not be said That the Father is the Son or the Holy Ghost or that the Son is the Father c. And yet we must acknowledge that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost have one Essence absolutely infinite that is to say that these Three are the one true and eternal God The Father is God the Son
I know you have good Nature enough to pardon this hasty Scrible from SIR Your most humble Servant RO. SHARROCK July 21. 1662. In Obitum DOCTISSIMI Viri FIDELISSIMI AMICI THOMAe PIERCE S. T. P. Decani Sarisburiensis SAnctus Amor Mihi Te cum tot conjunxerit Annos Tu certe nec jam Morte Revulsus eris Morte mori vostra videor Doctissimi Amici Hac ratione etiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1691. GReat Good and Just could I but rate c. Montross Iustitia Bonitate ingens Si quantus in imo Corde Mihi Dolor est Si Qualia Fata ferebas Aequo Animo possem Factis ostendere Flerem Quae Totum Obruerent Lachrymarum Flumina Mundum Sed cum suppetias poscat Vox Sanguinis Alta Non quas ARGI Oculi sed quas praestare BRIAREI Vis Manuum poterit Cantus Tuba clara Sonabit Funebres Titulos Defuncti Sangâ—â—â—e Scribam A Letter to the Author of a Book Entituled An Enquiry into the Constitution Discipline Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church Reverende Domine QUis quis es Erudite Vir Mihi certè videris esse Rerum in Ecclesiâ Novandarum Avidus Nos Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Inimicum esse judicamus istius modi hominem qui cum Professus sit semetipsum esse Ecclesiae Anglicanae Filium hominibus Anglicanis Persuadere Velit ut animum inducant Credere non adeo esse Necessarium Orationis Dominicae Usum ut eum existimat Ecclesia Anglicana Si tu Mecum non Consentias in omnibus quae in hac Dissertatiuncula exaravi Te rogo per istum quem in Proefatione Tuâ Professus es Candorem ut mittas mihi aliquam à Te Scriptam Oppositionem Ex Collisione Adversantium Sententiarum Veritas clariùs Eluscesoet Vale. Reverende Domine DIssertatiunculam quam mihi misisti perlegi ac in toto meo Libro me contra Patres quos citâsti aliquid soripsisse non memini sed è contrario ad probandum Dominicae Orationis usum eosdem Patres aut saltem aliquos eorum in testes adduxisse Non sum Domine Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Inimicus Perfectioni Orationis Dominicae assentior nec aliter rerum in Ecclesiâ Novandarum avidus nisi ut Lites Nostrae componantur Ecclesiae nostrae Divisae unitas tandem reddatur Hoc quidem nitar Deum Pacis semper invocabo ut det Pacem in diebus nostris ut caeptis Amorem Unitatem quaerentium Benedicat Vale. Nov. 4th 1692. Honoured SIR I Thank you for your Letter in which you shew so great Candour and Civility That I hope your Design is not so ill as I feared it was tho I am very averse from several of your Assertions particularly that concerning the LORD'S PRAYER viz. that the Primitive Church did not always use it in their Solemn Worship To which I Answer That it cannot be prov'd That any Bishop of the Primitive Church or any one of the Inferiour Clergy with the Allowance of his Bishop did ever undertake to perform the Publick Worship of Almighty God without the Use of the LORD'S PRAYER Some of the greatest Enemies of the Church of Christ in this Kingdom are those Men who pretend to be True Ministers of the Gospel without true ORDINATION and in their Congregations never use the LORD'S PRAYER I shall here recite some of my own Words that have been published in two several Papers It is most evident that those Men are guilty of Abominable Iniquity who endeavour to seduce any People from the Communion of the CHURCH of ENGLAND in which the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion are so clearly and fully exprest and those most important Expressions so frequently repeated That Persons of the lowest Intellectuals who do not Rebel against the Light in frequenting our Religious Assemblies may more easily attain to the Knowledge of All Things that are necessary to their Salvation than by Hearing or Reading the best Sermons that have been or shall be preached by any of the Nonconformists to the End of the World which Assertion is as Evident as it is That any Illiterate Persons may more easily meditate on Truths plainly exprest and frequently suggested to their Remembrance than Collect the same Truths out of divers large Discourses if they were therein implyed So that it can hardly be imagin'd how any Man can be in any thing more serviceable to the Destroyer of Souls than by Teaching People to dispise Our CATECHISM and COMMON PRAYER SIR If you sincerely desire the Peace of the Church I beseech you by the Meekness and Gentleness of our Lord Iesus Christ That you would deeply consider what I have here written in Conscience of my Duty at all Times and in all places to love the Truth and Peace Your faithful Servant E. E. Nov. 26th 1692. SIR I Shall not give you the trouble of any Preface to what I shall write in Vindication of this most important Truth That the Primitive Church in the Publick Worship of Almighty God did always use a Liturgy or Form of Sacred Words namely the LORD'S PRAYER the PSALMS and the GLORIA PATRI You say That Origen prescribing a methed of Prayer speaks not a Word of the LORD'S PRAYER De Oratione Sect. 22. I Answer That in the former part of his Treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He speaks very much of the LORD'S PRAYER and plainly shews That 't was us'd by all Christians in their Religious Assemblies I Pray SIR bestow your second THOUGHTS upon these Words Page 66. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 132 133. He plainly shews That in what he speaks of the LORD'S PRAYER he would be understood to have Respect in a Special Manner to the PUPLICK WORSHIP 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 4. Contra Celsam Edit Spenc. pag. 178. He speaks expresly of COMMON PRAYERS in which he certainly implies the LORD'S PRAYER of which he discourses so largely in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How great Regard the Primitive Christians had to the Gloria Patri is manifest by that Holy Aspiration of Polycarpus which you cite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And by those Words of Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 135. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You say As to these prescribed FORMS there is not the the least mention of them in any of the Primitive Writings nor the least Word nor Syllable tending thereunto that I can find which is a most unaccountable Silence if ever such there were but rather some Expressions intimating the contrary as that famous controverted place of Iustin. Martyr who describing the manner of the PRAYER before the Celebration of the LORD'S SUPPER says That the Bishop sent up Prayers and Praises to God with his utmost Ability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. that is That he pray'd with the best of his Abllities Invention Expression Judgment and the like Answ. This famous place of Iustin
So prayeth for you and for all Men as he desires that all Sincere Christians should pray for him Your faithful Servant in the love of the Truth Edmund Elys Tho' I grant that the Truth of those Seven Propositions may be known without external Revelation yet I assert That 't is Ten thousand times more casie to come to that Knowledge by the Revelation which Almighty God has given us in the Holy Scriptures than without it And therefore we ought to give continual Thanks to the God of Truth for vouchsafing to us so great a Blessing The Seventh Proposition is this That when we err from the Rules of our Duty we ought to repent and trust in God's Mercy for Pardon What it is to Repent no Man shall ever practically or effectually understand unless he be taught of GOD And 't is Ten thousand times more likely that such a Man will be taught of God who with an honest Heart reads or hears the Holy Scriptures than he who is altogether ignorant of them or who having read them will not believe that they were written by Divine Inspiration To Repent is to cease to live unto our selves and to live unto Him that dy'd for us and arose again of which Repentance we become capable only by the Death of Christ whom the Holy Scriptures call the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World The Apostle says expresly 2 Cor. 5. 15. That he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them and rose again In the Ninth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews are these words If the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the livingood From this Concession of the Deists That God is infinitely just and insinitely merciful I infer That His Hatred to Sin and his Love to Sinners are both Infinite I suppose they will grant that He is Infinite in Goodness in Wisdom in Power and in all Perfection From hence I infer That in His Infinite Wisdom he hath-contriv'd some way by his Infinite Power to make a demonstration to Sinners of his Infinite Love Benevolence or Communicativeness of the True Good even to them so far as they are capable of it But it implies a contradiction that they should be capable of or in a power to receive the True Good or Intellectual Satisfaction but only by Repentance or turning of their Will or Intellectual Appetite to God as to its principal or ultimate Object It implies a contradiction to say That Infinite Wisdom could contrive a better way than this to bring Sinners to Repentance viz. to demonstrate to them that tho' the Hatred which the great and good God has to every Sin is Infinite nevertheless his Love to every Sinner capable of Repentance is also Infinite And this demonstration of the Infinite Justice and Infinite Mercy and Goodness of God those that believe the Gospel clearly perceive in the sacrifice of the Death of Christ. Whatsoever we find in the Holy Scriptures concerning the Death of Christ and the Benefits which we receiue thereby is most perfectly agreeable to all those notions of the Divine Justice and Mercy which are suggested unto us by the Innate Idea of God to the contemplation whereof I earnestly exhort all those Men who call themselves Deists beseeching Almighty God the Father of Mercies and God of all Consolation to lift up the light of his countenance upon them to give them the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I declare to all the World that I have not such Indignation to these Open Enemies as I have to such Traytors to the Church of Christ as the Author of that most execrable Pamphlet entituled The Naked Gospel I shall here impart to the candid Reader some of my Reflections on that Infamous Scribler tho' it has been already sufficiently confuted I consider that Saying of the Wise Man Prov. 10. 19. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin And therefore I would rather chuse to be blamed by my best Friends for using so few words in any Theological Controversie than be ever guilty of publishing of any one Assertion especially concerning the Doctrin of the holy blessed and glorious Trinity which I should not be able to vindicate against a more subtile Sophister than Socinus himself A strange Confidence it is in this Anti-trinitarian to scoff at us for saying That the Doctrin of the Trinity is a Mystery Does not the holy Apostle say expresly 1 Tim. 3. 16. Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the Flesh c. Is not the Nature of God incomprehensible to any Finite Understanding And shall any Man undertake to determine how GOD could be made Man how the Creator could assume a Created Nature But that Christ is GOD and Man is a Truth as certain and unquestionable as it is that these Texts of Scripture were written by Divine Inspiration Iohn 1. 1 2 3. Col. 1. 16 17. Acts 20. 28. I shall here recite some of the words of this Antitrinitarian whom surely we may most justly call Anti-christian P. 48. To this Objection of the Romanists and to others of the Unitarians we have found an Answer That we must not infer from our own Nature to God's for that ours is Finite and Gods is Infinite Three Persons among Us are three Men because they agree in one common nature but the Divine Nature is not a common one but a singular and therefore three Persons do not make three Gods If you understand not this you must not wonder at least you must not gainsay it for it is a Mystery which Reason may not presume to fathom Is there any thing more reasonable than to conceive that in God the One Infinite Essence there may be a certain Trinity which cannot in any wise appertain to any Three Persons of a Finite Nature Can there ever be a more impious Absurdity than this to deny the Truth of that which the Almighty and Incomprehensible GOD Father Son and Holy Ghost in whose Name we are baptised has reveal'd unto us concerning Himself because we cannot find any thing perfectly like it even amongst the best of his Creatures To say That we ought not to believe any thing but what our Reason can fathom or comprehend is in effect to say We ought not to believe there is a God it being Essential to the Deity to be infinitely beyond the comprehension of our Reason P. 40. The great Question concerning the Godhead of Christ is impertinent to our Lord's Design 2. Fruitless to the Contemplator's own purpose 3. Dangerous P. 53. There is danger of Blasphemy in examining the silly Question concerning
the Eternity of the Godhead of Christ. Answ. Certainly it was most pertinent to our Lord's design that we should worship the Father Son and Holy Ghost as the Only True God and this we cannot do unless we believe Him to be Eternal To question the Godhead of our Saviour is not only fruitless and dangerous but diabolically impious and pernicious But nothing can more require the greatest ardency of our most zealous Endeavours than to suppress the confidence of those Men who pretend by their Reason to baffle the Divine Wisdom and by the force of a little Sophistry to eclipse the Eternal Brightness of the Glory of the Father of Lights It is fruitless to the Contemplator's own purpose to consider that He whom he believes to be his Saviour is a Person of Infinite Power and Majesty Will not the genuine force and efficacy of this consideration produce in a true Believer the Fruit of the Spirit viz. Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Most certainly he 's in great danger of Hell-fire that calls this Truth into question that our Lord Iesus Christ is the true and eternal God But nothing can more conduce to our Safety and Everlasting Consolation than a firm adherence to this Assertion That our Saviour is Almighty which he could not be if he were not the True and Eternal God For as there is but One Eternal so there is but One Almighty I have seen divers Excellent Books that have been written against this wicked Pamphlet therefore I shall say no more of it but only this That I wish its being burnt may mind the Author of that Fire which shall never be quenched Since the writing hereof I have read a Pamphlet with this fantastick Title The Antapology of the Melancholy Stander-by In Pag. 41. I find such a scandalous Objection against the Creed of St. Athanasius that I think it my Duty with all possible speed to publish my Answer to it and Resentment of it as coming from one who professes himself to be a Son of the Church of England He recites these words of the Creed The Father is eternal the Son eternal and the Holy Ghost eternal and yet they are not Three eternals but One eternal As also there are not Three Incomprehensibles nor Three Uncreated but One Uncreated and One Incomprehensible Suppose now says this Anonymus a Man should thus argue hence If there are Three yet not Three Uncreated but One Uncreated then Two of the Three must be Created for the Three must be either Created or Uncreated that is eternally existent I affirm That if any Man should thus argue the Answer would be ready That the Epithets Incomprehensible and Uncreated are attributed to the Father Son and Holy Ghost as these Three are One and have one Essence Uncreated Infinite or Incomprehensible It does no more follow That if there are Three yet not Three Uncreated but One Uncreated and then Two of the Three must be Created than that if there are Three yet not Three Gods but One God then Two of the Three must not be God Here the Anonymus plainly discovers the falseness of his Heart whatever he pretends he is a Deserter of the Catholic Faith As for his most Impious Endeavours to make his Reader to disgust that most wholsome Petition in the Litiny which being rightly used cures the Soul of all Sin and Error O holy blessed and glorious Trinity Three Persons and One God have mercy upon us miserable Sinners I shall say no more at present but only this That if this Writer receive any Temporal Benefit as a Priest of the Church of England he deserves the Character of a Thief and a Robber And as I profess my self to be a True Son of the Church of England and consequently of the Universal Church of Christ I make my Appeal against him to the King of kings and Lord of lords who is ready to judge both the Quick and the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 BOOKS Printed for John Everingâ— at the Star in Ludgate-street 1. MIscellany Essays by Monsieur De 〈◊〉 mont upon History Philosophy 〈◊〉 Morality Humanity Gallantry c. 〈◊〉 with a Character by a Person of Hono◠〈◊〉 England continued by Mr. Dryden 2. A new Family-book or the true 〈◊〉 of Families Being Directions to Pa◠〈◊〉 Children and to those who are instâ—ad of 〈◊〉 shewing them their several Duties with 〈◊〉 and Meditations To which is annexed 〈◊〉 course about the right way of improvin◠〈◊〉 Time with a Preface by Dr. Horneck 3. An Answer to the brief History of the 〈◊〉 tarians called also Socinians By William 〈◊〉 Rector of St. Swithin London 4. An Enquiry into several remarkable 〈◊〉 of Scripture in the Old and New Testamâ— which contain some difficulty in them with 〈◊〉 probable Resolution of them By Iohn Edwarâ— B. D. sometime Fellow of St. Iohn's College in Cambridge 5. Moral Maxims of Reflections in four Parts Written in French by the Duke of Rochefoucault now made English 6. The Gauger and Measurer's Companion being a compendious way of Gauging Superfice and Solids with the Reasons of most Multiplicators and Divisors used in Measuration all difficult Points made easie with a way to Gauge all Quantities under a Gallon also a brief Description of the Gauge-point with a Direction to find the same and the Content of a Circle in all its parts The exact Method of measuring Land Board Glass Pavement Stone be it of what form soever together with a Globe and Round Timber with a Table of Cylinders c. 7. The Royal English School for Their Majesties three Kingdoms being a Catalogue of all the Words in the Bible with a Praxis in Prose and Verse all beginning with one Syllable and proceeding by degrees to eight divided and not divided whereby all Persons both Young and Old of the meanest Abilities may with little help be able to read the whole Bible over distinctly easily and more speedily than in any other Method with Directions to find out any word together with an Exposition on the Creed and variety of Pictures By Tobias Ellis late Minister of the Gospel 8. Monarchia Microcosmi The Origin Vicissitudes and Period of Vital Government in Man for a further discovery of Diseases incident to Human Nature By Edw. Maynwaring M. D. 9. The Divine Art of Prayer containing the most proper Rules to Pray well with divers Meditations and Prayers suitable to the Necessity of Christians useful in every Family with several Prayers for Souldiers both in Their Majesties Army and Fleet. By Marius d' Assigney B. D. 10. Phrascologia Generalis A full large and general Phrase-book comprehending whatever is necessary and most useful in all other Phraseological Books hitherto here published and methodically digested for the more speedy and prosperous progress of Students in their Humanity-Studies By William Robertson M. A. * T.P. H.M. S. T. Doctores