to Think Will or Do any good thing 3. It is the continued Assistance and help of the Holy Spirit according unto which the Holy Ghost does excite and stir up the Regenerate unto Good by infusing into them Spiritual and Heavenly Thoughts inspiring them with good Desires and enabling them actually to Will that which is good yea more according to this Grace the Spirit doth Will and work with the Man that what he Wills he may be enabled to Perfect After this manner I ascribe unto Grace the Beginning Continuation and Consummation of all Good even so far that a Regenerate Man without this Preventing Exciting Continued and Co-operating Grace can never think will or do any good nor resist the feeblest Temptation to Evil. How then can I be said to be injurious to the Grace of God or attribute too much to free Will The Controversie is not about the Actions or Operations ascribed to Grace I am for as much as any Man whatsoever but it is only about the Mode or Manner of its Oprations whether it be by an Irresistible Force or not Here indeed I do with the Holy Scriptures hold that many resist the Holy Ghost and reject the offer'd Grace And in his Letter to Hypolitus à Collibus Concerning Grace and free Will according to the Scriptures and consent of the Orthodox I do declare That Free Will without Grace can neither begin nor perfect any true Spiritual good Work and least any think I do as Pelagius did play with the Word Grace I mean that Grace which is the Grace of Christ and belongs to Regeneration which I hold to be simply and absolutely necessary for the inlightning the Understanding regulating the Affections and inclining the Will to what is good that infuses saving Light into the Mind inspires the Affections with Holy Desires and boweth down the Will to act according to that saving Light and these good Desires This Grace Prevents Begins Accompanies and Follows It stirreth up helps and works that we may Will and that we may not Will in vain Co-operates with us It secures us from Temptations Assists and helps us against them upholding us against the Flesh the World and the Devil In the Conflict it gives us the Victory and if at any time we are overcome and fall in the Temptation this Grace recovers us establishes and gives new Strength making us more watchful It begins the Work of Salvation promoves perfects and consummates it The mind of a Carnal Man is I confess dark'ned his Assections vile and inordinate his Will disorderly yea he is dead in Sin and that Preacher is most highly esteemed by me who attributes most to Grace if so be that whilst he is extolling Grace he doth neither Impeach God's Justice nor take from Man Free Will to what is Evil What any Man can desire more I know not About the Justification of a Man in the sight of God Jacoh Armin Decla sentent p. 127. I am not sensible saith he that I either teach or hold any thing but what is Vnanimously received by the Reformed Protestant Churches and most exactly agrees with their Sense There hath been I know a Controversie in this particular between Piscator and the French Churches as whether the Obedience or Righteousness of Christ which is imputed to Believers and in which the 'r Righteousness before God doth consist be only Christ's Passive Obedience as Piscator affirmed Or whether it be also his Active which all his Life he rendred to the Law of God and that Holiness in which he was conceiv'd as the Gallick Churches hold But I never interested my self in it And how oddly soever he expressed himself in this place he would still be thought a good Calvinist Armin. Decla ubi sup For saith he whatever I have in this Point delivered I differ not so much from Calvin but that I am ready with my own Hand to subscribe what he hath on this Subject in the third Book of his Institutes In his Disputations Armin. Disput Thes 48. Sect. 5. he is more particular speaking distinctly of the several Causes of Justification Of the Meritorious and Material thus That Christ by his Obedience and Righteousness is the Meritorious Cause of Justification who may therefore be deservedly called the Procatartick Cause The same Christ in his Obedience and Righteousness is also the Material Cause of our Justification that is as God gives to us Christ for Righteousness and imputes his Obedience and Rignteousness unto us in respect to this double Cause namely the Meritorious and Material we are said to be constituted Just or Righteous by Christ's Obedience In this place Arminius you see doth distinguish between the Meritorious and Material Cause of Justification the One being Extrinsick belonging to the Efficient the other Intrinsick or made the Matter of our Justification The first is Christ by his Obedience the other is Christ for Righteousness Christ Given and his Righteousness Imputed He was too Learned to confound the Material and Intrinsick with the Meritorious which is an External and Efficient Cause asserting that as Christ is the Meritorious Cause so he as an Efficient justifieth us by his Righteousness As he is the Material he is given by God for Righteousness and his Righteousness is imputed to us for Justification His Thoughts touching the Instrumental Formal Cause he expresses in these Words Faith is the Instrumental Cause Armin. ubi sup Sect. 7 8. or Action by which we apprehend Christ and his Righteousness offered unto us by God according to the Order and Promise of the Gospel where it is said That whoever Believes shall be Justified and Saved The Form of Justification is the gracious Estimation of God whereby he imputes the Righteousness of Christ unto us and imputes Faith for Righteousness that is God doth forgive unto us who believe our Sins for the sake of Christ apprehended by Faith and esteems us as Righteous in him which Estimation hath annexed unto it the Adoption of Sons and a Collation of Right to the Inheritance of Eternal Life And among the Corollaries deduced from what he had asserted in his Disputation he is positive That it is impossible for Faith and Works to Concurr to Justification that Christ did not Merit that we be justified by the Dignity and Merit of Faith much less that we be justified by the Merit of Works But the Merit of Christ is opposed to Justification by Works and Faith opposed to Merit These Appeals to the Catechism and Confession and the consent of the Reformed Protestants his recommending Calvin's Commentaries and Institutes to his Pupils and these and such other Passages make it clear That Arminius would fain be thought an Orthodox Calvinist which was also the desire and endeavour of his endeared Companions and Followers even of Vytenbogart Borrius Poppius Grievenchovius Arnoldus Corvinus and Episcopius at their Conference A. D. 1611. with Ruardus Plancius Becius Fraxinus Bogardus and Festus Homnius at the
am I hereby instructed to believe and hope that though the Saints shall never know the Almighty to Perfection yet shall they be raised to a clearer and more distinct knowledge of those now unconceiveable as well as ineffable Glories And when I read in the Writings of some Men who in Reasoning about other things are strong and nervous yet weak and feeble in their arguings against the profound Mysteries of Christ's Gospel I cannot but clearly perceive a Truth in those words of the Apostle the Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him 1 Cor. 2.14 neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned for which reason these Men are rather to be pityed than envyed prayed for than Reviled that 2 Tim. 2.25 if 't would please the Lord they might come to the acknowledgment of the Truth and see how great their Folly was in making their Confin'd Understandings the measure of all Knowledge which undoubtedly is done by them that reject all things as Absurd and False which are above or beyond their Reason But the Deist adds 'T was once to serve a Turn against the Papists that our Church held all Doctrines necessary to save Souls were plainly Revealed in Scripture How could you say plainly revealed unless you understood the Revelation And why to serve a Turn and that once 't was so as if we had now forsaken our Principles and profess'd to believe unintelligible Revelations whereas 't is our constant Judgment that the Doctrines necessary to Salvation are not dark and obscure but Clear Evident and Perspicuous that what is not clearly delivered in the Scripture is not of indispensible Necessity to be Known and Believed and Consistently assert that the Mysteries our Adversaries reject are clearly revealed The Revelation is very Plain Clear and Open though the things Reveal'd are Mysterious Inscrutable and past finding out And yet these Mysterious Points are in themselves Great Glorious True and Evident and only because our Understandings are Finite Weak and Feeble are we unable to comprehend them This Truth is by a Learned Divine thus Illustrated We can see other things by the Light of the Sun better than we can see the Sun it self not because the Sun is less visible and discernable in it self but because our Visive Faculty is too weak to bear its Resplendent Light The Deists mistake therefore into which the Socinian hath led him is complicated and lyeth in a Confounding the Revelation with the thing Revealed and in a Perswasion that because the Mystery is past out Knowing to Perfection therefore not in it self Evident Clear or Knowable And if not to be fully known by vain Mortals it cannot he thinks be true but must be False Absurd and Irrational And thus according to the Scripture-Revelation being Puff'd up in his fleshly Mind Col. 2 1â— intrudes into those things which he hath not seen and contrary to the Apostolical Prohibition thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think Rom. 12.3 is resolved to penetrate into the Secrets of the Almighty to make his own mistaken fanciful and narrow Understanding the Measure Rule and Standard of Truth and like a Man who is so weak as to imagine his visive Faculty able to bear the Resplendent Light of the Sun looks on it till his Eyes are so Dazled that he cannot rightly judge of Colours even to the Presuming Deist and Ami-Trinitariants who think they can look into the Deep things of God and Comprehend the Divine Perfections are overcome by the Glory of Divine Mysteries their Minds darkened and they plunged into the Depths of Error and thus in a Measure 't is with others that have Erred from the Truth CHAP. II. Radicated Prejudices against Gospel Doctrines the Cause of Error This seen in the Opposition Man makes to Christ's Righteousness for Justification II. ANother thing that occasions Error is a Radicated prejudice against Gospel Doctrines as their Tendency is to Exalt God Depress man and engage him to Acts of greatest self-denyal The Holy Ghost having with much clearness shown the insufficiency of Mans best Righteousness for Justification and his inability to think a good Thought or do the least good Work and that the Righteousness of Christ who is God-Man can alone justify a believing Sinner and the Omnipotent Spirit alone enable us to believe these Doctrines though they are a display of the manifold Wisdom of God of the Glory of his Holiness Justice and Mercy and an illustrious Evincement of the satisfaction and Merit of the Death and obedience of Christ God-Man as also of the Powerful Operation of the third Person in the Blessed Trinity yet because they lay us low discovering the Imperfection Insufficiency and Vanity of our own Endeavours they reject these Truths exposing them as if hereby a Door had been open'd to let in all manner of Vice and Licentiousness and rather than they will submit themselves to the Righteousness of God or be owing to the power of the Holy Ghost they 'll venture first to publish that the believing in God the Son and in God the Holy Ghost is not necessary to Salvation and at length go on to deny the Personality both of Son and Spirit As Adam on the Fall instead of seeking unto God leaned to his own understanding and strength so it hath been ever since the way of his Off-spring In the Old Testament instances of Mens Glorying in their own Power and performances are innumerable and the Apostle Paul assures us in the New that this was the way of his Kindred the Jews And ever since those days it hath been the general method of Hereticks to trust in their own Righteousness and despise others This they found to be a Notion as plausible as it was to their Corrupt Minds agreeable and because the Orthodox who pressed a Holy Life and Conversation as necessary to Salvation could not put their own Obedience into the place and room of Christ's it hath been the common practice of the Erroneous to reproach them as Enemies to Holyness and Mortification as tho' they held that we might live as lewdly as we listed and die as we lived yet in the end obtain Salvation through the Death and Righteousness of Christ And as this was the burden of their Writings in like manner 't was the care of the most Eminent Heresiarchs to give an agreeable Exemple by which means Multitudes of the weaker but more zealous sort were ensnared to embrace their Errors And tho at this time the Professors of Arminian and Secinian Errors have in this respect degenerated and thereby have lost the advantage of this pretence yet Socinus and after him Slichtingius with many others valued themselves upon the Holiness of them of their way which they assign'd to the hower and Influence of their Principles However these Gentlemen not being able intirely to crase those Idea's which at first were implanted in their Souls
Frieseland for the supp essing all Socinian Prints and Conventicles which they sent out in pursuance of the Supplication made unto them by the Deputies of the Synod of South and North Holland approved of by Triglandius Heidanus and Cocceius Professors at Leiden I say in this Apology he doth his utmost by using Orthodox Phrases to make their Errors look as though they differd but little from the Common Faith For saith he 't was never in our thoughts to deny the Unity of the Trinity that we do with our whole Heart Believe and openly own the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be One that we confess Christ to be God ascribing to him that Divinity which appertains to the Son of God the like of the Holy Ghost And whereas we are charg'd for Denying Christ's Satisfaction Apol. pro verit accusat p. 12. if it be meant of the thing which in the Holy Scriptures is assigned unto it we do most firmly believe that Jesus Christ to the end he might obtain for us the Remission of Sins hath so far satisfied the Divine Will P. 24. that there is nothing wanting to a most full and Compleat Satisfaction As to the Merit of Christ if by it they mean his Perfect Obedience and Righteousness we do freely confess that Christ's Obedience for our obtaining Eternal Life doth much more abound to us than Adam's Sin to our Condemnation Apol. 25. not excluding our Obedience which all that have received Faith and the Spirit of Christ have more or less whose Defects are through the Grace of God supplyed by Christ's most Compleat and Perfect Obedience We acknowledge that we are Sinners Apol. p. 53. and fall very short of the perfect Rule of Righteousness and therefore sly unto Christ that we may be justified by him without the Deeds of the Law nor do we by the Faith of Christ destroy the Law as it respects Moral Precepts which is the true Righteousness but establish it That Conversion is by the Power of the Spirit we never denied unless as held by such as make Men to be but as Stocks utterly rejecting and banishing from the Christian Religion all Vertue and Vice Reâ—â—ards and Punishments P. 26. leaving it destitute of all Encouragements to true Piety P. 87. We trust not to the Strength or Power of our own Will knowing that unless it be excited cherished and helped by a Heavenly Power we cannot so much as Will much less Perform any thing and seeing we can neither begin P. 65. nor finish any thing without the help of God's Grace we lift up our Prayers and Thanksgivings unto God â—or do we deny the Resurrection P. 76. but with the Apostle we have our Hope in God touching the Resurrection of the â—â—â—d both of the Just and Vnjust believing that the Just shall be raised to the Joys of an Eternal Life and the Unjust to the Punishment of Everlasting Fire wherefore knowing the Terrour of the Lord we perswade Men. â—ruâ—peorius a â—niâ—ht and Counsellor of the Flector of â—randenlurg Przipâ—â—v Apol. 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—cen in his Apology for afflicted Innocence directed to the Fâ—â—â—lar and Supreme Prince of Prussia seems to speak as Ortho loxly as any one could wish For saith he we with due Honour receive the Doctrine of the Triatry the Father Son and Holy Spirit in whose Name we are Baptized Concerning the Divinity of our Lord We acknowledge him to be properly and truly speaking the only Begotten Son of God not meerly because of the I ominion and Omnipotence given to him but because of that Divine Nature which he received by the voluntary Generation of his most loving Father in which the Character and Image of the Divine Sub stance of the Father shines and so we Worship Adore and Invoke him as the True God even by Nature in a proper Sence now and for ever Blessed Then of the Holy Ghost he says Nothing can by any Man be said so sublime concerning the Holy Spirit which we do not willingly admit so that the Name and Title of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ remain peculiar to the Omnipotent Person of the Father Then concerning the Merit of Christ's Death We acknowledge the Merit of the Death of Christ and our Redemption effected by his most precious Blood poured out but so as that the Grace and Favour of Forgiveness remain owing to his most merciful Father He is positive that touching Magistracy they confess with the Apostle Paul that the Magistrate is the Minister of God to Punish by the Sword evil Doers and protect the Innocent and that they are not to be removed out of the Church of Christ that in the other Articles of Religion they hold nothing Blasphemous Heretical or Absurd not daring to deviate in the least from the Apostle's Creed and Holy Scriptures Whoever considers that what is here delivered by this Author is done Apologetically to put a stop to the troubles they endured or at least to get 'em mitigated cannot but concur with me in concluding that He uses these Orthodox Phrases to the end He and they might be esteemed as Men Sound in the Faith far from holding the Heresies they were charged with and therefore no way deserving the Severities that were only due to Blasphemous Hereticks and yet as we shall hereafter shew as there is a mixture of Unfound Expressions even in the Places where he speaks thus of the Trinity and Christ's Divinity so doth he otherwhere deny these Doctrines â—nyedinus Superintendent of the Vnitarian Churches in Transilvania in his Preface to his Explication of those places in the Old and New Testament produced by the Orthodox to prove the Trinity doth positively aver Enjed. Praesâ—ad explicat Loc. V. N. Test That the whole they believe is owned by Papists Lutheran and Calvinist Namely That Jesus Christ called the Son of God the Father Almighty Maker of the Heavens and the Earth even he who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and Born of the Virgin the Man Christ Jesus is the One and only Mediator between God and Men by whose Death Salvation is procured for us and through whom both Jew and Gentile have Access to the Father and in whose Name by the Holy Ghost we obtain a Pardon and an Assurance of Eternal Life This is the summ of the New Testament-Doctrine and the Faith which we constantly Profess and Defend And who dares deny it Do the Papist Lutheran or Calvinist No by no means I could easily add many other Socinian Authors speaking after this very way as if they Dissented not from the Orthodox in any Important Points But these being enough to Evince the Truth of my Assertion I will go on to shew that notwithstanding these seeming Approaches towards the Truth they are at the utmost distance from it denying those glorious Doctrines they would be thought to embrace SECT III. The real Distance there is between the Socinian and Orthodox That
time Further their vacating and making void the Fourth Commandment which is attended with a neglect of the Lord's Day is an in-let into all manner of Vice and the very Notions they frame of God to support their other Errors are such as lessen the Fear Men ought to have of God's Judgments And as Dr. Edwards hath well observed Socinus by denying the Divinity and Satisfaction of Christ hath plainly over-turn'd the Foundation Preser against Socin p. 42. 43. upon which the Christian Church and Religion have been built and by his other Methods hath given a shrew'd blow to all Religion whatsoever whether Natural or Revealâ—d so that an unwary Reader by perusing his Writings may find himself an Atheist before he well perceives how he comes to be so as he saith in another Case viz. His Opinion against Hell Torments that he had so contriv'd the Matter Vt lector prius sentiat Doctrinam istam sibi jam persuasum esse quam suaderi animadvertat When I most impartially weigh these things I mean their deceitful Attempts to ensnare the Unwary to favour their Opinions their Contemptuous Treatment of the Blessed Mysteries of the Gospel and its Advocates together with their assuming to themselves the Character of being the most Rational Divines and Men of Excelling Piety and Holiness even when none do more contradict the plainest Maxims of Reason and lay a surer Foundation for the utmost Immoralities When I lay these things together I am so far from thinking as those great Men do who represent them to be the fairest Adversaries that I rather incline at least to fear that the Account given of them by the despised Lubbertus which I will lay down in his own Words is most true They are saith he Arrogant and Proud who measure all things by vaâ—n Glory and empty Names of Honour when they see that those who in other Disciplines invent some new Notions to be Commended they think it will be Laudable in them to Innovate in Sacred Theology And being unskill'd in true Divinity they despair of gaining a Name by Explicating or Defending the Orthodox Doctrine But burning with a desire of Praise they disturb every thing that they may be Famous and had rather be talk'd of for breaking of Churches than grow old without Fame in the true and Orthodox Religion When they perceive other Learned Men to be preferr'd before them they are angry and what is most base they Dissemble and Counterfeit the Orthodox Religion pretend to a Zeal for defending sound Doctrine Lubbert Praef. ad lib. de Jesu servat cont Socin p. 2. swear to our received Confessions and Catechisms and with their own Hands subscribe to what they swore and yet they with utmost Endeavours oppose the Sound and publickly embraced Doctrine and craftily instill a new and wicked One into their Disciples and carry about Calumnies against the Orthodox Thus much touching the Methods used by Foreign Socinians to insinuate and spread their Errors I will in the next place show how exactly they are followed by the Remonstrants and then acquaint the Reader with the Arts of out English Socinians SECT V. The Arminians imitate the Socinians They pretend an Agreement with the Orthodox THE Arminians to the end they might with the greater Success insinuate their Errors do also their utmost to cover them Nothing therefore they say can be found amongst their Assertions but what is conform to the Holy Scriptures the Heidelberg Catechism established A. D. 1578. by a Synod of Dort for the publick use of their Churches the Belgick and other Reformed Confessions Armin. Epist ad Hypolit Arminius in his Epistle to Hypolitus à Collibus protests that he never either in the Church or University taught any thing but what was according to the Holy Scriptures the Belgick Confession and Heidelberg Catâ—echism In a Letter to Johannes Matthisius These things which I have at this time delivered as they do agree with the Holy Scriptures so they are not contrary to our Confession and Catechism for which reason I do the more freely express my self In another to Sebastian Egbert I do publickly preach to a numerous Auditory and frequently dispute when my Reverend Collegues are present at which times I have used the greatest freedom in the Answers I have return'd to Objections Besides I have a private College at which thirty Students or more attend and yet never hath there been the least mention that I ever uttered any thing contrary to the Holy Scriptures or our Confessions and Catechism although some of my Collegues whose Zeal is such for the Purity of Doctrine that they would never have been silent had they whereof to accuse me have been instigated thereunto And whereas it 's spread abroad that I direct my Pupils to Read the Writings of the Jesuits and Coornhertius the slander is so gross that I cannot find softer Words to express it by than to say It is a down right Lye for I never advis'd so much as one to any such thing But this indeed I do after the Reading of the Scriptures which I do most earnestly press yea more than any other as the whole Academy can testifie I do direct to the reading of Calvin's Commentaries which I praise much more than Helmichius himself ever did as he hath confess'd For I do esteem them to excell all others so much in the Interpretation of Scriptures that there are none to be compared with them in the Bibliotheca Patrum that there was a more excellent Spirit in him than in any other As for Common Places I Recommed his Institutions to be read after the Catechism as containing the best Explication of it For the truth of this I can bring a multitude of Witnesses In a Declaration of his Sentiments made to the States of Holland and West-Frâ—ezeland wherein are the Reasons why he declin'd to give any Answer to the Questions propos'd by Lansbergius Fraxinus and Dolegius Deputies from the Synod of South-Holland and by Eogardus and Rolandus Deputies from the Synod of North-Holland his endeavour is to show an Agreement between his Notions in each of the controverted Articles and the Belgick Confession and Catechism I will give you what he saith touching the Grace of God in Conversion and the Justification of a Sinner in the sight of God What concerns the Grace of God I do first of all saith he believe it to be that gracious and free Affection whereby God doth take pity on a miserable Sinner by which he doth in the first place give his Son that whoever believes in him may have Everlasting Life then doth he justifie him and give him the Privilege of a Child by Adoption even a Right to Salvation 2. This Grace is an infusion of all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit which are for the Regenerating and renewing of the Vnderstanding as well as Will and Affections such as Faith Hope Charity c. without which Gifts of Grace no Man is able
to be Hereticks who Affirm him to be so If we take the word Heretick in the most common Acceptation for one who is without the Pale of the Church in which Sense it 's manifest that Volanus himself uses the Word in this Place that they do greatly Err I firmly Believe But I do not therefore Exclude them from the Fellowship of the Saints so long as in other Respects they Persevere in the Right Way to Salvation approving themselves Obedient unto Christ Nor were they so Fond of the Mahometan Religion as not to think it a Reproach to be numbred amongst its Favourers This is sufficiently Cleared by Ruarus For whereas Beza Epist 16. â— 122 123. in an Epistle to Peter Statorius mentions Valentilis Gentilis his Accusing Paulus Alciatus for turning Turk Abraham Calovius no sooner mentions this Story in a Letter to Ruarus but Ruarus as one who Abhorr'd the Mahometan Religion Epist 47. p. 225 226. doth what he can to Vindicate Alciatus from so Vile a Calumny Most Worthy Sir saith he to Calovius Forgive me that I attempt to Free you from a Mistake in a Point of History It is about what is Reported of Paulus Alciatus and Nuserus closing with the Turkish Religion as if they had abandon'd Christianity and had taken up with the Alcoran I am apt to think Beza in one of his Epistles lead you into this Mistake when he mentions what Gentilis accused him of before the Magistrates of Bern. But this might be done by Gentilis only to Ingratiate himself with the Magistrates especially seeing he knew Alciatus did acknowledge only the Father of Jesus Christ to be the most High God And he himself after a sort making a Profession of Three Gods might be the more easily Induced to load him with the reproachful Charge of Turcism But whatever Gentilis imagined you know very well that Alciatus did for many Years in this City lead a Pious Life according to the Christian Rules and when he dyed he commended his Soul to Christ the Saviour Thus much hath been Attested by many and some now Living c. But tho' Socinus and Ruarus were so kind as to clear us from the Guilt of Idolatry and Heresie Reckoning us to be Members of that Church in which Salvation may be had yet so much Candor must not be look'd for from the English Socinians For They esteem us so Byassed against their Religion by Prejudices and the like Exhort to â—ice Enqu p. 3. that we use not a reasonable Diligence to obtain the Knowledge of what they call Truth and therefore we are told That as to the Jenâ—s and Turks Nâ—tes on Athanas p. 3â— who Believe and Worship the One True God and him only perhaps they are in a Nearer Proximity to Salvation than such as against sufficient Opportunities of a right Information and for Worldly Interests have Apostatized from the Christian Faith to the Athanasiam Thus they make us Apostates from Christianity further off from Salvation than Jews or Turks And that we may see what Charity they have for the Mahometans and their Religion they add Divers Historians will have it Reâ—â—lâ—â— coâ—â—â—â—â—ng the Tâ—â—â—iâ—â— and Incarnat p. 18 19. that Mahomet meant not his Religion should be esteemed a New Religion but only the Restitution of the true Intent of the Christian Religion They affirm moreover that the Mahometan Learned Men call themselves the True Disciples of the Messias or Christ intimating thereby that Christians are Apostates from the most Essentians Parts of the Doctrine of the Messiah This Plea our English Socinians make for Mahomet and his Religion Representing the Turkish Topperies to be a more Refined Christianity than that Embraced by the Orthodox brings to my Remembrance an Old Prophecy of Simler which on the Reviving of the Errors of Servetus by â—oelius Socinus Blandrata and others he wrote Anno 1568. A part of it is to this Purpose When Matters Religious are in Agitation I would not willingly Immix with them what are of a Civil Nature nor would I rashly Fore bode Evil to any Man However if we may make a Judgment of things Future by what hath heretofore fâ—ln out I am afraid this Doctrine viz. of the Socinians will prepare the way for Mahometanism and Portend Ruin to those Flourishing Countries in which it is sown c. The whole Prophecy is in the Close of that Historical Preface which Cloppenhurch hath set before his Conâ—rtation of the Compendiâ—lum â—ocinianismi supposed by him to have been Written by Ostorodius and â—oidovius but as Sandias hath it by Conradus Vortius To return The Malignity of these English Socinians runs higher they can't consent themselves to throw us into a worse state than the Turks are in Placing us in the next Rank to them But to vent their Spight they make our very Religion as bad as the Impostures and Dotages of the Egyptian and Roman Pagans Touching the Mystery of the Trinity they say There is no Parallel for it in all Trinitarian Scheme p. 7. either History or Nature but the Mysteries of the Egyptians For as the Egyptians were at prodigious Cost in making and setting up a great number of Images in and about their Temples by which Lieroglyphicks they pretended to Teach men the Secrets of Natural Philosophy But when ask'd to Explain their meaning they gave a very mean and triffling sense or a sense very absurd and false So after Trinitarians have long Amused their Disciples with Terms as mystical as the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks such as Trinity We would easily forgive them the foll of their Mysteries if their Hieroglyphick Language were not as False and Contradictory as it is Vain and Trifling A little after this speaking of the Blessed Trinity This is Egyptian all over 'T is the very Genius and Spirit of the old Mystical Hieroglyphicks That is to say Partly Foolish and Partly False Once more For my Part I never think of these whether Dotages or Impostures without such an Inclimation as I hardly Resist of applying to our Athanasian Doctors what Cato said of the Roman Augures and Aruspices He knew their pretended Learning and Discipline was the Religion Establish'd by Law warranted by Custom and Prescription and Authâ—rized by the Consent of Laws For all that 't was a Cheat so Gross and Palpable that he could not but Admire the Augures were such stark Fools or such perfect Knaves that meeting they could carry a grave look upon one another This is the Kindness the English Socinians have for the Orthodox and more especially for the Religion by Law Establisht They make us worse than Turks and as bad as Pagans as if all we teach were a Gross and Palpable Cheat. And by their Complaints of the Evils arising from Church Preferments Considâ—◠〈…〉 p. 44. and the Care and Favour of a Wealthy Mother they show they have an aking Tooth at the Church Revenues Let the Bishops Deans and Chapters