had not been desperate I should have heard from them before this for 't is well known that our Modern Unitarians court all opportunities of setting the Press on work And they had time to do it before his Majesty's Injunctions were publish'd not to say that some of them have ventured to the Press since Besides these Injunctions I conceive debar them not not from clearing themselves if they could from those substantial Objections and Exceptions which have been made against their Assertions Wherefore I take it to be an unquestionable verity that these men who were voted such Champions by the Party are vanquished and that they have not Answered because they could not But from all hands I hear that their more retired language and countenances speak their extraordinary disturbance and disorder of Mind It is observed that some of them cannot conceal their great Regret and Passion but in a Raving Manner express their dislike of what I have writ Which I take to be an Infallible Argument that they are baffled that they are wounded under the fifth rib For they having no supports from Reason and Arguments therefore they fly to down-right Raillery Thus they let their Cause die because they cannot keep it alive And indeed as it is observ'd of less perfect Animals which are hastily form'd and produced that they are short-lived so fares it with Opinions that are defective and imperfect and found out of a sudden they are generally exploded in a short time and scarcely survive their Chief Authors This it is probable will be the fate of the foresaid Deficient and Maim'd Opinion about One Article this Mushrom Notion that hath no root and foundation will soon decay and come to nothing Another Dangerous Notion relating to the Christian Religion is that every thing in it is to be submitted to the exactness of Reason and what will not bear that Test is no part of Christianity Socinianism was first of all founded on this basis this was the main thing that was insisted upon Socinus makes it his business to destroy the doctrines of Original Sin of the Holy Trinity of Christ's Satisfaction of Baptism c. by force of Reason Demonstrations are to be required in all things that concern our Salvation saith Smalcius And even at this day this Suggestion of theirs is as useful to the New Socinians as the Rain-deers of Lapland to the inhabitants of that Country which serve them for all uses They can evade plain places of Scripture they can overturn the foundations of Religion they can settle their own Opinions they can impose upon the belief of mankind by this one Artifice It is but setting up this Idol and then presently they sacrifice all the Great Mysteries and Truths of Christianity to it When the Trinitarians assert the doctrine of Christ's Divinity when they maintain the Incarnation of the Son of God when they affirm that there are Three Personalities or Subsistencies in the Deity and when they profess their assent to other the like Articles of the Christian Faith they are cried out against because they are not level to humane conceptions no Idea can be formed of them they contradict our Natural Notions and for this reason alone they are laid aside by them as Contradictions Absurdities Impossibilities Pure Non-sense for so they are wont to express themselves in their late Writings They boast that theirs is an Accountable and Reasonable Faith when they deny the Trinity In an other place they reject this doctrine because it is against the dictate of Reason and they argue from this against the Incarnation or the Union of the Two Natures in Christ. At an other time they are for reducing all things to Common Sense And lastly they peremptorily determine that what is above our Reason to apprehend is also above our belief and consequently because the doctrine of the Trinity as well as some other sublime Points is above their Reason it staggers their belief nay which is more it is utterly renounced by them I thought fit to add these passages out of their Modern Prints to those which I had occasion to mention before in my Discourse concerning the Causes of Atheism that it may appear whatever the Late Unitarians pretend that they own this Maxim that every thing in Religion is to be submitted to the searches of Reason But certainly this is a Principle that destroys Christianity for a great part of this is founded on mere Revelation and the discoveries of God's will which transcend our reasonings and therefore it is a vanity to think that Reason must determine all in the Christian Religion It is true Natural Reason was placed in us by Him who is the Father of Lights and we must not attempt to extinguish it but neither must this Candle presume to take upon it the office of the Sun to act beyond its proper strength and power Reason is like the Rule with which we measure things to know the length or breadth of them we apply the Rule to them and so find out the just dimensions of them But then we undertake to measure Bodies which are of a certain length and breadth such as our Rule will serve to measure else there is no use of the Rule In a resembling sort what we would measure and comprehend by the Rule of Reason must be Finite i. e. proportioned to our Reason The things which are Infinite and Immense are not to be measured by this Scanty Rule such are the Divine Nature the Sacred Trinity the Union of God and Man c. Reason must act according to its due Measures and be employed according to the Strengths which are allow'd it It must not determine in those things which are not of its cognizance and such are Supernatural and Divine Mysteries There are no Demonstrative Arguments in things of this nature neither are they necessary We are to acquiesce in God's Word that is sufficient Reason And accordingly all the Great and Wise Men of this age as well as of former ones all persons of the most penetrating judgment of the most extraordinary sagacity rest in this and are satisfied But the New Disciples of Socinus pretend to be men of greater sense and understanding and demand of us to make out every thing in the Christian Religion even the profoundest matters of it by strict rules of Reason and Logick Thus as I had occasion not long since to observe they joyn with the Deists to root out Christianity and use the same methods and art that they do They irrationally extol humane Reason and extravagantly oppose it to Reveal'd Religion so as to exclude this latter and to vilifie the Author of it And thus it will appear at last that Atheism lurks under the refined name of Deism This very Notion of the excessive sway of Natural Reason in matters of Religion hath had a great and malignant influence upon some Others who are not Profess'd Socinians as a Learned Writer
though of a different perswasion from the Church of England hath observed In pursuit saith he of the same Principles with those of the men of this way not a few begin absolutely to submit the Scripture and every thing contain'd in it to the judgment and sentence of their own Reason which is the true Form and Spirit of Socinianism visibly acting it self with some more than ordinary confidence What is suited unto their Reason they will receive and what is not so let it be affirmed an hundred times in the Scripture they will reject with the same ease and confidence as if they were Imaginations of men like themselves Both books that are written to this purpose and the common discourses of many do fully testifie this advance of the Pride of the minds of men And he is careless about these things who seeth not that the next Stage is downright Atheism This is that Dunghil which such blazing exhalations of Pride at last fall into It seems there are Others besides me that have had an apprehension that Socinianism tends directly to Atheism But see the mighty Prevalency of Truth It will forcibly make its way even from the mouths of its professed Adversaries The Old and New Socinians as you heard before agreed in this that Reason is the sole Judg in matters of Faith and that what is above Reason is not the object of our belief And yet both these sorts of men at other times abjure these Propositions as false and erroneous and thereby palpaby contradict themselves Smalcius expresly avers that Faith is above though not contrary to Reason And in his Catechism he lets us know the knowledg of the way to immortal life and happiness far exceeds humane Reason and he quotes 1 Cor. 2. 14. for it Again he grants that there are things which we ought to believe though we cannot render any reasons of them And in the Margin things expresly written are to be believed although the reasons of them appear not And more fully yet in the name of the Racovian Brethren he makes this Confession We freely acknowledg that there are many things in the Christian Religion which surpass Reason but yet they are of necessity to be believ'd by us on this very consideration that though they exceed Reason yet they are deliver'd in Sacred Scripture and they are very agreeable to that Reason which they exceed But how do our late Penmen approve of this Very well for they declare that Revelation is to be preferred before the clearest Demonstration of our Reason Whence it appears that the Unitarians deny what they have in other places affirm'd they disown what at other times they assert And so they betray their own Cause and patronize ours so Truth discovers and defends it self though for a while stifled or disguised And thus it is manifest that We are in the right even our Enemies themselves being judges Only here it is worth observing how fliâ—…ting how shifting how changeable Sozzo's Pupils are Are they not to be deem'd very slippery Gentlemen when they thus say and unsay They have alter'd the Racovian Catechism more than once and they may do it again when they see occasion And it is visible how our English Socinians vary their Note and affect to differ from themselves Whereby they let us know that they are unmindful of the Jewish Proverb When occasion serves we may gainsay others but at no time must a man contradict himself The Third Beloved Conceit of theirs concerning Christianity is that there are no Mysteries in it Which indeed follows upon the former Opinion for if nothing is to be believ'd in the Christian Religion but what is made out by Exact Reason then there is nothing Mystical and Obscure in it This is a Point mightily urg'd of late by our homebred Racovians and their Adherents who have publish'd a small Essay entituled An Impartial Account of the word Mystery as it is taken in the Holy Scripture where they cantingly tell us that MYSTERY is the Tutelar God of the New Systems framed by Worldly Christians and it is the Vail of Absurdities and such like foolish representations they make of it and think themselves very Witty and Piquant when they call the Trinitarians Mystery-men as doth the Examiner of the Exceptions against Mr. L's Reasonableness c. But which is far worse they pervert the meaning of the Sacred Writ and wilfully I fear represent the word Mystery otherwise than it is used in the New Testament of which I hope to give the Reader an account some other time and to settle the true sense and import of the word as it is applyed in those Holy Writings All that I will say at present is that True and Substantial Reason informs us if we attend to it that God's bare Word is sufficient to determine our assent and belief and the Holy Scriptures acquaint us that there are Unsearchable Mysteries in the Christian Religion that there is hidden wisdom 1 Cor. 2. 7. that there are deep things of God v. 10. that there are things hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3. 16. that we know in part and see through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. All which and many other passages in Sacred Writ assure us that there are Unfathomable Depths Unconceivable Abstrusities in Christianity and that it is out of our ken and reach to apprehend them Therefore we are obliged to believe some things which are unaccountable to our knowledg and reason Yea indeed the proper matter of Faith are those things which we cannot have any notice of by the mere natural exercise of our faculties Revelation here is enough as was said before and we ought and that with the greatest Reason to depend upon it entirely because we know it is Infallible But because I intend at another time to insist particularly on the proof of this Proposition that Christianity not only was but is a Great Mystery I will not prevent my self here Let it only suffice at present that I have caution'd the Reader against our Adversary's groundless Assertion that there is nothing dark and obscure in the Christian doctrines that there is no such thing as Mystery in any of the Articles belonging to this Holy Institution They pretend to oblige the world by divulging and laying all open to the Vulgar Others are dark intricate perplex'd and muddy but they only are the Authors that are Clear and Bright and write with shining Japan Ink. In brief they and the Deists talk much of the Oracles of Reason and brag of their making all things out by these though generally they prove as vain and idle as the Reasons of Etymologists and the common Rationale's of the Roman Service and Rites But here perhaps it will be Objected that I have in this and the foregoing particular misrepresented these men for it will be said that in one of their Writings it is positively asserted that there are some Mysteries and incomprehensible
the custom and manner of Reformed Churches and more particularly of Ours And that he makes himself merry with the Protestant not Popish manner of administring the Lord's Supper is evident further from this that he mentions not only the giving a bit of Bread but a sup of Wine which latter is not given to the People in the Church of Rome as is well known and this Author knows as well as any man Wherefore he must of necessity speak of the Sacraments as they are administred in the Protestant Churches and you see what jolly work he makes of it Mother-Church is with him a term for any Eminent Reform'd Church as it is indeed the Style of these men they in their late Writings usually call any Church of Note that differs from them Mother-Church The Lawful Minister that attends on the Sacred Institutions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper hath no better Title with them than the man in black Baptism forsooth is the Churches Water and the other Sacrament cannot be more decently express'd by him than by a bit of Bread and a sup of Wine and the words of Institution pronounc'd by our Saviour himself are scoffingly call'd the wonder-working words and which is yet more prophane and impious an Incantation a Charm a Spell Then he scandalously uses the terms of Devil Hell and Heaven as if he believ'd no such things and to confirm us in this perswasion concerning him he proceeds after he had jeer'd the Elect to compare the Solemn and Evangelical Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to the Lewdest Vilest and most prophane things imaginable yea to the Feats of Magick Art It is no wonder that the most Sacred matters of our Religion are derided by this sort of men who by such passages as these discover themselves to be of a very unsanctified temper It is no wonder that those who give themselves up to this wild and prophane way of talking blaspheme even the Son of God and the Holy Ghost vilifying the blessed undertaking of the former and disregarding the powerful assistance and aids of the latter and denying the Divinity of both It is no wonder that they abuse and debauch Christianity and all the Excellent Principles of it when they give themselves this Liberty and let fly against all that is Sacred and Venerable Who will not say and that on just grounds that here is more than a Vergency to that cursed genius which I have before mention'd But let us go on and enquire more particularly into their apprehensions about Baptism Concerning this they have espoused this groundless conceit that now among Christians it is an Insignificant Rite The determination of their Great Master is this Baptism was prescribed to none but Heathens among those who make publick profession of Christianity there is no need of it at this time it doth not concern the Church at all but is a mere indifferent thing Most of his followers represent it after the like manner and say there was no Command for Water-Baptism as they call it Baptism is ceas'd saith Volkelius it belonging only to those First Times And if you urge the express words of the Institution of it Mat. 28. 19. Go teach all nations baptizing them Socinus answers that it is not meant of the Baptism of Water And in the same place he undertakes to prove that this was not enjoyn'd by Christ but was only freely taken up by the Apostles and was a Temporary Rite To which their Chief Doctors say Amen And if you ask the Reason why it is not obligatory now they will put you off by saying the Christian Religion is Internal and Spiritual and admits not of such an external and corporal Ceremony as Baptism And yet these Sons of Reason apply not this to the Other Sacrament but acknowledge it to be perpetual in the Christian Church though it be an Outward Sensible Rite this interferes not with the Spirituality of the Christian Religion Which lets us see how Partial they are in their Arguing Further let us mark the inconsistency of these men notwithstanding there is no Precept for this Sacrament notwithstanding it is a mere Ceremonial Rite notwithstanding it is abolish'd for all this they hold and maintain yet they defend the Lawfulness of retaining it It may be used they say in the Christian Church especially when they have any Turkish or Jewish Proselytes for they mention these particularly for because they are come over to the Turks in the point of the Trinity they expect I suppose that some of them will return the kindness and be Converts to some parts of their Religion So it seems the Sacrament of Baptism is kept up only for the sake of some Mahometans and Jews who are expected to honour Socinianism with their Conversion But though Baptism as it hath respect to Adult Persons is in some sort tolerated by these men yet the Baptizing of Infants is utterly condemned by them all as a practice founded on no Precept or Example They agree with the Old Pelagians and Anabaptists that Children have nothing to do with this Rite and they give the same Reasons if we may call them so for their Tenent that they did as appears from the very words of the Racovian Catechism which excludes Infants because they cannot themselves by reason of their age acknowledge Christ for their Saviour And one of their Chief Rabbies determines in brief thus Infants not knowing what they do or what is done to them are not to be baptized And therefore an other calls it a Vain and Childish action And he thinks he is facetious when a little after he stiles it the Childish Baptism of Children And this is the sense of the Unitarians of the last Edition The Baptists or Anabaptists say they worthily labour in the vindicating of Baptism to those that are capable of it from those that are uncapable of it They determine that Baptism was appointed by Christ to initiate Jews and Heathens into the Christian Church and consequently none but these are to be enter'd into the Church by this Rite herein exactly following their Master Socinus who tells us that if any heretofore left their Judaism or Paganism they were to be baptised but those that are born of Christian Parents are not to be baptised Then they add in the same place that no person is capable of baptism but such as can profess and intend the thing signified by Baptism viz. a clean conscience and a new life consequently all Infants are excluded And now who would not think that Paedobaptism were wholly discarded by the Socinians and that they cannot with a safe Conscience allow of it But behold yet a farther proof of their Repugnancies of their jarring with themselves as well as with the Truth of their contradicting their own sentiments as well as those of the Christian Church Though they have spoken so contemptibly of this Sacred
Institution though they openly confess that Children are not capable of it though they publish to the world that there is neither Command nor Practice for it yet some of their Authors whom I have mention'd hold it may be practised in the Church What therefore is it that these men will not say or do if they have a mind to it The whole Sect of Anabaptists are against Paedobaptism and so far they are to be commended that they approve not of that in others which they are perswaded is unlawful in it self But here is a sort of Religionists that cry down the Baptising of Children as an empty and childish Ceremony as void of all Allowance from Scripture and unreasonable and absurd in it self and yet the practice of it is not unlawful in the Church He that hath a Talent of solving Contrarieties let him use it here for here is great occasion for it But this must be said indeed that some of the High-fliers among them who are most consistent with themselves and their own principles cry out against the Baptising of Children as Anti-Christian and not to be tolerated by any means in the Christian Church for truly if it be of that nature which we have heard it represented to be there is no reason it should be suffer'd any longer Wherefore those of the Party before mention'd are guilty of a double Irreligion first in slandering this Sacrament in prophanely scoffing at this Institution this Evangelical Rite ordain'd by our Lord himself Secondly in allowing the administring of it in the Church notwithstanding they have thus reproach'd it and represented it as a thing utterly unlawful What will the Impious Despisers of Religion what will the Atheists say to this Are they not hereby confirm'd in their dislike and contempt of what is Sacred Are they not taught to open their mouths against God and whatever is Religious and yet notwithstanding that to make some shew of outward allowing them Is not here an Example set them for this purpose and do we not see it daily followed Thus it appears that these men strike at Religion yea strike it down and then would pretend to raise it up as it were but this is only adding Dissimulation to their gross Impiety which renders their Guilt the greater and mightily aggravates their Crime CHAP. VIII The Socinians deny that there is any Distinct Order of men in the Christian Church This is disproved from the Evangelical Writings Though they are for Gather'd Churches yet they contradict this in their practice They can give no account of this and of their censuring other Congregations Their Indifferency in Religion is inferr'd from their having no Publick Assemblies As also from their concealing their Names and Persons Something worse than Cowardize is taken notice of in them They hold Officious Lies to be lawful The ground of this Opinion is shewed to be unreasonable Socinus's Explication of Mat. 5. 28. justly censured They assert that Immodesty Intemperance Wantonness Impure Desires and Lusts were not forbid under the Law The Badness of this assertion laid open They are enemies to the Civil Powers They will not permit them to punish any Offenders no not Murderers with death Herein they oppose themselves to the authority of the Old and New Testament The reason guessâ—…d at why they take the Sword out of the Magistrates hand They condemn all going to War as unchristian and unlawful HAving dispatch'd Two of the General Heads which I propounded I pass to the Third viz. Ecclesiastical Discipline or Government The Socinians deny that there is any Distinct Order of Men in the Church to whom it peculiarly and solely belongs to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments Socinus indeed grants that one Man may be chosen out of the rest to preach the Word of God and he sees no reason to the contrary he saith But neither he nor his followers admit of any Call or Mission requisite in order to this The †Racovian Catechism positively determines it so for though it seems to grant that it is more fitting and decent that professed and set Ministers should perform the publick offices in the Church and the Primitive Churches they grant observed this yet they assert that it is not Necessary because the Scripture doth not require it Smalcius expresly maintains this Volkelius gives us his judgment in these words That the Pastor or Minister should dispense to the rest the Supper of the Lord is wholly an indifferent thing seeing it is not commanded us by Christ nor can there be any reason given why it ought to be done at all It cannot be proved saith an Other that it is lawful for no man to do those things which he mention'd just before viz. preaching baptizing administring the Lord's Supper unless he be call'd and sent for that purpose and he endeavours to prove it by alledging several Arguments The Racovian Catechism hints that the Eucharist may be administred by the hands of Private Christians and such as are not devoted to the Ministry And what saith their famous Master As to the Lord's Supper there is no reason why we should suspect that it may not be celebrated by any one that professes the Name of Christ. And again Any Christian Man may exercise the office of Preaching and administring the Sacraments And the rest of them agree with him that there is not a necessity of a Distinct Order of persons in the Church and that a Layman may administer the Sacraments What their opinion concerning Preaching is may be learnt from the Racovian Catechism which tells us that there is no use of it since the Conversion of the Gentiles and since Christianity is setled in the world There is no Necessity of it saith an other Friend of theirs And yet in the Evangelical Writings which are the infallible Rule we are to direct our selves by and whence we are to learn what Ecclesiastical Constitutions are to take place we find that the Distinction and Peculiarity of the Ministerial Office and its Peculiar Function are settled 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. Eph. 4. 11 12. A peculiar Mission is expresly required Rom. 10. 15. 1 Tim. 5. 5. Tit. 1. 5. A Particular Call is made necessary Acts 14. 23. Heb. 5. 4. Upon which that Article of our Church is grounded It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of Publick Preaching or Ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he is lawfully call'd and sent to execute the same But this is disregarded by our New Modellers of Religion And who could expect any other thing for they who have so abused and perverted Christianity it self would not fail to treat the Ministers of it with contempt and disgrace yea wholly to make void their Office and Charge This is a fresh evidence of the truth and reality of what I formely tax'd them with One thing further I will observe that according to
Clergy of this Nation and they are the far Greatest Part of those that dissent from our Church in the point of Discipline and Ceremonies They are all the Sober Heads of both these Perswasions who unite in the Main Articles of Religion profess'd and subscrib'd to by the Church of England Nay they are the Whole Body of the Protestant and Reformed Churches abroad as well as at home These are the Men of Art who by this Gentleman's friends are at other times call'd Systematick-Men and sometimes Mystery-Men and by way of derision Orthodox These are the Men of Art who are also so called you must know in Contradistinction to the Plain Fellows for so the Racovians stile themselves in their Treatise of the Trinitarian Scheme of Religion But when this writer saith these men of Art are in an Evil Conspiracy what is the meaning of that It is no other than this that they joyntly agree to disallow of and condemn a late upstart Conceit viz. that the belief of One sole Article of Christianity is sufficient not only to denominate but to constitute any Man a Christian. Now would not a Considerate Man perswade himself that this Unanimous Concurrence of all the Learned Wise Sober and Religious in this matter is rather to be deemed a Happy Union than a Conspiracy and that an Evil one And whereas this Writer tells us that the book of the Reasonableness of Christianity is of eminent use to overthrow and ruine Faction p. 51 I must needs declare that I 'm of the contrary opinion and I conceive I have abundantly proved in a late Discourse I publish'd that the Notions which the Treatise of the Reasonableness of Christianity is fraught with administer to Faction and something Worse amongst us which I have been warning the Reader of in the preceding Discourse The short is this Gentleman and I can't agree about Mr. L.'s Book for he at least saith for we are not certain of his Thoughts and that without any Proof that it is one of the best books that hath been publish'd for at least these sixteen hundred years p. 52 but I 'm of opinion and I 'm sure I have Proved it that it is one of the Worst that hath appear'd in the world since the date of Christianity FINIS * Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity p. 3. * Preface to his Discourse concerning Christ's Satisfaction * P. 33 Psal. 11. 3. * Socin de Author S. Script cap. 1. †De Vera Relig l. 5. c. 5. ‖ Cat. Racov. de Scriptura cap. 1. * Institut Theolog. lib. 4. ‖ A brief History of the Unitarians ‖ Socin Epist. 2. ad Dudith * Explicat 5. Mat. 4â—… †Ostorodus in Institut cap. 30. * Smalc cont Frantz ‖ Bishop Stillingfleet's Pref. to the Discourse of Christ's Satisfaction * Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity p. 49 50. ‖ Eccles. Hist. l. 3. c. 24. lib. 5. cap. 8. * Sandius de Script Eccles. †Considerations on the Explications c. p. 49. * Preface to the Discourse of Christ's Satisfaction * An Accurate Examination of the Principal Texts alledged for Christ's Divinity p. 24 25 26. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. hist. l. 1. c. 3. †Sulpit. lib. 2. ‖ An Answer to a Letter touching the Trinity * An Accurate Examination of the principal Texts alledg'd for Christ's Divinity chap. 5. * Socin in Catechesi †De Divin Christi cip 4. Cont. Frantz Exam. cent errorum ‖ In Epist. ad Hebr. cap. 1. v. 6. ** Commentar in Heb. 1. 6. ††De V. R. l. 3. c. 5. ‖‖ An Accurate Examination of the principal texts alledg'd for Christ's Divinity chap. 5. * On the 2d Article of the Creed †Considerations on the Explications of the doctrine of the Trinity * Smalc Hom. 8. in cap. 1. Johan †De Servatore cap. 6. * De Deo Attributis * Disp. de Repub. l. 1. c. 11. †De Deo Attrib cap. 5. ‖ Cap. 6. * H. Grotii Pietas ad Ordines Holland * Praelect cap. 2. * Considerations on the Explications of the doctrine of the Trinity * Crellius de Deo Attribut cap. 15. †Commentar in Johan 4. 24. ‖ Comment in 1. Epist. ad Corinth cap. 15. v. 45. * Scripture Catechism Chap. 2. †Sine corpore ullo Deum vult esse ut Graeci dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Nat. Deor. l. 1. * Tractat. breves de diversis materiis c. †Socin in Catechismo * Cont. Frantz Disp. 1. de Trin. †De Deo Attrib cap. 27. ‖ Institut l. 4. c. 13. ** Bidle Scripture-Catechism Chap. 2. The Exceptions of Mr. Edw. in his Causes of Atheism examined p. 18. * Plin. Nat. Hist. l. c. 7. * Cont. Frantz Disp. 1 and 12. †De Deo Attrib Cap. 24. ‖ Cap. 9. 11. * Socin Praelect cap. 8 9 10. * Praelect cap. 8. †Not. ad Disp. 5. de Deo †De Deo cap. 18. ‖ Considerations on the Explications of the doctrine of the Trinity ** The Trinitarian Scheme of Religion p. 4. Praelect cap. 8. * Socin cont Wiek cap. 9. †Moscorov cont Smiglecium Slichting cont Meisnerum * A Letter to the Clergy of both Universities p. 11. * P. 5. †Lib. 1. de Trinit Error ‖ An Answer to a Letter touching the Trinity ** A Postscript to the Answer to a Letter touching the Trinity * Letter to the Clergy of both Universities p. 15. †P. 24. ‖ P. 26. ** Of worshiping the Holy Ghost p. 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. Orat 32. * Socin de Servat par 1. c. 2 3. †De Servat par 3. c. 5. ‖ De V. R. l. 5. c. 20. ** Praelect cap. 18. ††De Christo Servatore par 3. cap. 4. * Cat. Racov. de Prophet Christi munere †Socin de Servat par 2. c. 15. Praelect cap. 24. Cat. Racov. c. 8. de Prophet Christi munere Item de munere Christi Sacerdotali qu. 8. ‖ Praelect Theolog. ** De Christo Servat ††Smalc de Satisfactione contr Smiglec Cat. Racov. de Prophet Christi mun cap. 8. Crellius contr Grotium * Cat. Racov. cap. eod * Theodoret. de Provid Serm. 6. * Rom. 3. 25. 1 John 22. 4. 10. †Rom. 5. 11. ‖ Chap. 9. 26. 10. 10 12. and other places * Cont. Frantz Disp. 4. †Ibid. ‖ Disp. 6. ** Homil 4. in 1. Johan * De Morte Christi qu. 12. †De Servatore ‖ A Letter of Resolution concerning the doctrine of the Trinity p. 7. * The Antitrinitarian Scheme of Religion p. 18. * Chap. 6. and 8. †Heb. 10. 29. * Prâ—…ct cap. 3. †Instit. cap. 1. * Smalc contr Smiglec de Dei filio cap. 7. * Praelect cap. 4. De Christo Servatore par 4. cap. 6. De Officio viri Christiani cap. 5. †Volkelius de
THE Socinian Creed OR A Brief Account Of the Professed Tenents and Doctrines OF THE Foreign and English Socinians Wherein is shew'd The Tendency of them TO Irreligion and Atheism With Proper Antidotes against them By JOHN EDWARDS B. D. sometime Fellow of St. John's College in Cambridge 2 Tim. iii. 9. They shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men LONDON Printed for J. Robinson at the Golden-Lion and J. Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1697. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God EDWARD Lord Bishop of Worcester MY LORD I Presumed to dedicate my former Writings to two Eminent Persons of your High Order in the Church and now this present Undertaking comes to find shelter under your Lordships Patronage Which I despair not of because you have let the world sufficiently know how greatly you disapprove of the Sentiments of those Men whose Character is offer'd in the following Treatise It was observ'd that even in your Early Years you chose to encounter the Pontifician and Racovian Impostors not unlike Hercules that in his very Minority grappled with Serpents and Monsters Crellius felt the Strength of your Arm and hath laid a Baffled and Prostrate Foe ever since for there never yet appear'd any thing that had the face of an Answer to your Book And lately when Socinus's followers began to take heart again and to lift up their bruised heads your Lordship successfully struck at them and publickly vindicated the Mysteries of the Christian Faith from the bold and blasphemous insults of these persons In your former Attempts you were wont to exceed Others but now you outvied your self such were the extraordinary Acuteness and Sagacity of your Thoughts on this subject such the inimitable Pregnancy of your Reasons such the matchless Weight and Nervousness of your Arguments such your close application of Scripture every where Which the Adversaries were sensible of and accordingly that they might not be thought to be Idle advanced some Feeble Considerations against your Lordship's Excellent Discourse Here to support their Tatter'd Cause they made a stir with trifling sallies and excursions with faint shews of Criticism with Pedantick flourishes of Wit with mean and languid Efforts of Seeming Logick But chiefly these Socinian Sharpers endeavour'd to run down the Truth by their unparallell'd Confidence and by treating your Lordship as well as it with disrespect and disdain But so it is they have shew'd themselves Rude to their immortal shame And yet at the same time by attempting to Lessen your Worth and Deserved Fame they have inhansed them as all Envious and Malicious Persons do when they detract from those of Great Merit All the Learned World unanimously vote your Lordship to be the Chief of this number even those who disagree in all other things agree in your Lordships Praises For without the least Shew of Adulation it may be most truly said that your Name is now not so much the Name of a Person or Family as it is the Name of Profound Learning and Solid Religion But I shall offend against your Lordship's Modesty and call forth Blushes from those Reverend Cheeks which have so boldly look'd your Adversaries in the face if I proceed any further thus wherefore I am forced here to a Period Only let me be permitted to add my Hearty Wishes and Prayers viz. That the Allmighty would vouchsafe to bless Your Lordship with Long Life Health and Vigour to accomplish those Great Things which You have designed against the Church's Common Foes Papists and Socinians that You may be a Terrour and Scourge to Rome and Racovia that You may give an effectual check to the Sly pretences of Deists that You may bridle the Insolence of Atheists and be successful in mortifying all such Sworn Enemies of the Christian Faith and Practise So prayeth Your Lordships most Humble and entire Servant and Honourer John Edwards THE PREFACE SOME Eminent Persons of our Church having been pleas'd to honour me with their Approbation of what I have lately writ against the Socinians in defence of the Orthodox Faith I presume once more to assert and vindicate this Noble Cause And I am further animated and encouraged to such an Undertaking from what I meet with in the Learned Bishop of Worcester 's Preface to his Discourse concerning Christ's Satisfaction lately reprinted where he directly charges the Socinians with the promoting of Deism and promises to make good his Charge against them in a Discourse And in the close of his Preface he tells us that he will let the world know that he is no stranger to the Pamphlets of the Modern Racovians Thus we see the Cause doth not die nor indeed can it when so Able a Person is willing to uphold it and hath engaged himself to do it one whose Name is as terrible to the Socinians as that of Duke D'Alva heretofore to the Dutch Till this Great Champion shews himself anew I will make bold to enter the Lists and to attack our Common Foe and thereby prepare the way for the Conquests of so Renowned a Pen. But let me declare this and that with the greatest sincerity imaginable that it is not from any pleasure I take in contending with any Party of Men or from a desire to provoke and exasperate them for I bear a hearty Charity and Good Will to all mankind and especially I love and honour all Sincere and Good Men all that have the impressions of a Christian Spirit upon them nor is it from any other undue Principle but wholly from a sense of my Duty and that alone that I appear again in this Cause At first I purposely check'd my self and forbore to produce all those Arguments and Proofs whereby I might have evinced the Inclinableness of the Socinians to Irreligion and a spirit of Infidelity And this I did for several Reasons partly to suit my self to the then present Juncture partly to let the world see that I was not Hasty and Forward in censuring any sort of persons and partly to allow my self time to enquire further into the matter both to satisfie my self and others Because what I then suggested was design'd to be in the way of an Essay or Introduction I only offer'd some few Heads of my Charge against them but now I intend to give the Reader a Farther Account of some of them and likewise to superadd Several Articles to the former Charge and Indictment I will set before him Other Different-Demonstrations of that Atheistick Tang that Irreligious Genius which I tax'd them with So then I believe they will have little occasion to say that I mollifie that in a Treatise which was much more Harsh when preach'd in a Sermon Though I must profess to the world that I loath all Harshness and Severity which are inconsistent with the Candor and Meekness of a Christian and which are not absolutely requisite for the vindicating of the indispensable Truths of Religion Our Racovians may remember
done but to give an Impartial Account of them in such Particulars wherein it is plain and evident that they swerve from the Truth and profess such doctrines as have a direct tendency to Irreligion and Impiety Nor do I comprehend all Socinianized persons in this Character I entertain some hope that there are some Innocent and Well-meaning people among them who being inveigled by the plausible pretences of their Leaders have taken up some of their Notions but are ready upon a discovery of the Falshood and Perniciousness of them to lay them down and wholly to abandon them Those that are of this sober disposition will I question not find this Present Undertaking beneficial to them and will be so far from censuring them that they will thankfully acknowledg my setting them Right in Perswasions of so great moment and importance such as are either of the Foundation of Religion or have a near alliance to it or have a necessary influence on our Christian Practice In short when Principles and Truths of the Highest Nature are struck at by bold Assailants when the Main Doctrines of Religion are depraved and perverted and when Christianity it self is endanger'd shall we sit still and not be concern'd * If these foundations be destroy'd if these Forts these Bulwarks these Strong-holds as some render the word be demolish'd what can the righteous do if these Fundamental Principles be overthrown what a wretched state will Religion and the Professors of it be reduced to Which is the very thing which we may justly fear at this time when we behold such a great and signal Defection from the Truths of Christianity from the Faith of the Gospel even in the Christian World How few are there at this day that can endure sound doctrine how many are there that call themselves Protestants and yet grow weary of those Main Articles of Religion which have been owned ever since the Reformation and have been defended and vindicated by the Pens of the Religious and Learned And shall we silently and tamely permit this No certainly That Charity which beareth all things endureth all things cannot suffer this Yea it is the highest Charity in such a dangerous juncture to acquaint persons with the true State of affairs to discover the Methods and Artifices of Seducers to lay open before the world their Cheats and Delusions and to shew what Errors they substitute in the place of Truth And this is that which is design'd in my present Performance wherein I have all along discover'd the Poyson of our Adversaries Doctrines in the first place and then I have been careful to administer an Antidote ERRATA PAge 6. line 1. before is insert it p. 29. l. penult for to the first of r. first to p. 35. l. 10. place ‖ before Episcopius p. 95. l. 13. f. of r. or p. 103. l. 7. r. needs p. 108. l. 13. r. deletion p. 123. l. 14. r. strange p. 125. l. 3. before it insert in p. 126. l. 6. before And begin the parenthesis p. 183. l. 5. f. professed r. pretended p. 184. l. 24. f. this r. that p. 197. l. 16. after as insert to p. 214. l. 13. r. Looks p. 243. l. 5. after it make THE TENDENCY OF THE Socinian Doctrines TO Irreligion Atheism CHAP. I. There is an obligation on the Author to give the World an account of the Irreligious Sentiments of the Socinians Their Abusing of the Holy Scriptures is a proof of their Prophane genius They hold there are Mistakes and Errors in the Bible as to lesser matters They disparage the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Writings of St. John They are wild and extravagant though very crafty and subtile in their interpreting and expounding of Scripture A particular instance of it in their interpretation of I John 1 2. Other instances of their false and perverse dealing Their notion of a Double Ascension of Christ confuted and the Texts which they alledge for it explain'd Their vilisying wresting and perverting of Scripture are tokens of their Irreligion I Am obliged to let the World see that I did not reproach and injure the Socinians when I laid to their charge the favouring and promoting of Atheism and consequently that what I said of them was not as they have suggested hastily and rashly spoken or written without due premeditation And thence it will appear that I am not to be represented as a Censorious or Uncharitable person which are imputations which I always abhorr'd and have carefully laboured to avoid Thus then I make good what I said Some of this sort of men cannot well be thought to have any true and right Sense of God and Religion especially the Christian because they have in their Publick Writings renounced some of the most Considerable things relating to Doctrine Worship Discipline and Practise in the Church of Christ. These are the four General Heads of my following Discourse I begin with the First As to the Doctrinal part of Religion these men are very faulty and upon examination will be found to be favourers of very Irreligious and Prophane Opinions And here I will reduce what I have to say unto these five Particulars viz. Their Notions concerning the Scriptures concerning God concerning the First Man concerning the Future State and concerning Christianity it self First It is no mean proof of their Prophane genius that they delight to vilifie and abuse the Holy Scriptures As to some lesser matters and such as are of small moment the Bible hath Repugnancies and Mistakes saith the Great Founder of Socinianism i. e. He from whom it takes its denomination And herein he is follow'd by Volkelius another Great and Admired Writer among those of the Racovian perswasion Smalcius grants some depravation in Scripture as to things of no great moment Episcopius who is owned to be a Socinian by the Party themselves tells us that the Penmen of the Scriptures were left to their own humane frailty in delivering those things which appertain to circumstances of Fact as time and place and the like And in the same place he attributes these Mistakes and Errors in the Bible to the want of Knowledge or weakness of Memory in the Writers Where then is their Infallibility which hath been owned by all Christian Churches Or can they be Infallible and yet Err What is the difference between these Writers and others but this that they were Immediately Inspired by the Holy Ghost and consequently are not liable in the least to Mistakes and Misapprehensions Those then that deny this must needs deny the Writers of the Holy Scripture to have been Inspired and to have been Infallible yea they must say that they were like other men faulty and erroneous in their Writings This you will say and that justly is an Ill Beginning here is a Bad specimen of their Sentiments concerning the Doctrinal part of Religion of which our Right Conceptions concerning the Holy
and if he doth so he is an Atheist This is a Text that is not question'd by the Socinians though the next clause in the verse hath been doubted of by them and some others These are Words of the Beloved Disciple who lay in his Master's Bosom and had extraordinary communications of the Spirit and was favour'd in a peculiar manner with Divine Discoveries and Revelations This is he that may be called the Great Eagle and that name was given him by the Ancient Christians and much more deservedly than Maimonides was called so by the Modern Jews because he soared so high and was so quick-sighted in the Mysteries of the Gospel and had so piercing and sagacious judgment Therefore on all these accounts I urge this Text upon Socinus's followers wishing them to be sensible of the force of it The denyal of the Son i. e. the denying of his Divinity which consists in his being the Eternal Son of God is a denyal of the Father also They that deny the Deity of the Second and Third Persons in whom the Divinity as truly subsists as in the First deny the Deity of the First Person Whence it irrefragably follows that a Socinian is an Atheist He is so if this Syllogism will prove him to be one He that denies the existence of the True God is an Atheist the Socinian doth the former therefore he is the latter The Major is the definition of an Atheist and therefore can't be question'd The Minor therefore must be proved which is easily done thus He that denies Christ to be the True God i. e. of the same substance with the Father denies the existence of the True God but a Socinian denies Christ to be the true God i. e of the same substance with the Father Ergò The Second Proposition will not be denied by these Gentlemen therefore I am to clear the Major and that is soon done thus If the denying of the Divinity of the Son be the denying of the Divinity of the Father then he that denies Christ to be the True God c. denies the existence of the True God but the denying of the Divinity of the Son is the denying of the Divinity of the Father Ergò The first Proposition will be yielded I conceive therefore I am to take care of the second and that is soon done from the forecited Text which is the very substance of it Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father The Socinians do the former therefore they are guilty of the latter There is such a Connection between these two the Father and the Son they being Co-essential and Co-eternal that if you deny the Divinity of the one you deny that of the other Therefore they are Atheists that deny the Divinity of our Saviour therefore in the interpretation and accounts of the Apostle St. John Socinians are such for they deny the Divinity of Christ and in denying of that deny the Divinity of the Father And this was the Sense of the Primitive Christians and Pious Professors of that Holy Religion for we find that Baptism is called the renouncing of Atheism and the acknowledgment of the Deity because in the Form of Baptism the Trinity is professed and owned or the Deity as it contains in it Three Distinct Persons Those therefore who deny these are chargable with Atheism more especially according to the tenour of St. John's Words and the acception of the Gospel those are to be taxed with it who deny the Divinity of our Saviour Perhaps it may be expected here that I should maintain the contrary Truth and formally prove and defend the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity but because there have been so many Treatises lately published on this subject and because I design a Just Discourse upon it my self among others which I intend to offer to the world upon the Articles of the Creed I will dismiss this Point at present after I have made this one request to the Reader that he would vouchsafe in the most serious manner to consult the Writings of the New Testament and studiously to compare those places together which refer to this Sublime Matter and then he will clearly discover the Truth and Reality of it Nay he will be convinced of this from what our Saviour himself saith concerning it for though for certain good reasons he was not forward to declare his Divine Nature and Dignity yet he often uttered such words as implied that he was the Eternal Son of God as when he said Before Abraham was I am John 8. 58. I and my Father are one John 10. 30. which the Jews well understood when they laid this to his charge Thou makest thy self God v. 32 33. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father because we are but One. John 14. 9. I am in the Father and the Father in me v. 10. And to the very last he owned this Mat. 26. 63 64. Mark 14. 62. whereas the Socinians as resolutely persevere in the denial of it And denying him to be God they consequently disown his Satisfaction which is another Black Crime chargable upon them and that very justly They allow Christ to be a Saviour but on this account only because he shews us the way to Salvation and will afterwards bestow it upon us As to his death they acknowledg that it was to confirm the New Covenant by shedding of his blood he ratified it as before under the Law the Old Covenant was made by effusion of blood But that there was any thing Meritorious and properly Expiatory in his Death they stiffly deny for it is the peremptory decision of Socinus himself that Christ did not merit by any thing that he did and Volkelius expresly saith the same Nay the former of these to explain himself undertakes to shew that Christ had nothing in him that was singular and that he neither did or suffered any thing that was so And elsewhere he hath these very words Whatsoever Christ suffered can have in it no greater vertue than if any mere man whosoever had suffered the same This is the opinion they have of the Passion and Death of our Blessed Lord. And to propagate this they endeavour by all means to vilifie his Priesthood They manifestly confound his Sacerdotal and Regal Office And they would perswade us that his Priestly Office did not commence here on Earth but was first exerted in heaven And such like Inventions they have to evade the Satisfaction of Christ which they resolve never to admit of Accordingly Socinus hath no less than fifteen Chapters against it in one book and the three first Parts of an other Treatise are wholly spent on the same subject and are indeed but a Repetition of what he said before And he again insists upon this in his Disputation with Francken His Friends unanimously assert the same doctrine and professedly declare that Christ did not by his death satisfie the Divine
I say muâ—… needs animate men in their sinful and vitious enterprizes for they will not be backward to make such Conclusions as these we may venture to live as we list seeing there will be no Penalty inflicted upon us that will last long seeing the Punishment of our sins will soon have a period Indeed such an Inference from the Doctrine is genuine and no other could be expected to be made by these persons Wherefore as long as the Premises are entertain'd we must look for no other Deductions It is true it hath happen'd sometimes that their own Principles and Maxims have not had an immediate influence upon them in their Acting they do not follow the natural conduct of them But this is certain the nature of their principles promotes a vicious life these are in themselves apt to excite men to all sin and wickedness As on the contrary the belief of the Endless Punishment which is denounced against Impenitent Sinners quickens men in their Repentance is an Effectual Motive to them to forsake their Sins is a Powerful Incitement to the performance of all Christian Offices and whatever is pleasing unto God Take away this and what a Damp is there to Vertue and Religion Shall the worst and vilest men live here in splendor and in a fruition of all things according to their hearts desire and shall they afterwards meet with no Penalty for all their cursed actions Must they only be deprived of their beings and at the same time of the sense of all that is painful or hurtful In short shall they neither be punish'd here nor hereafter Or is this all their Punishment not to suffer any Then Hell is but a Fable as some of the Poets represented it then Damnation is but a Fiction And who will not add that this is the high Road to Atheism These are the things that make Socinianism so plausible at this day this makes all men of Atheistical Principles and Debauch'd Lives cry it up for it quenches the flames of Hell-Fire which men have been so much affrighted with Hence we may guess that Racovianism will be a Fashionable Doctrine if there be no Check put to it It is no wonder that so many persons favour it that those who defend it are Applauded The reason of this is plain They present them with such a Scheme of Religion for it is likely they 'll call it so as is grateful to their Vicious Inclinations and assures them of Impunity after all the most heinous and enormous actions of their lives These men truly are to be pitied for they can discourse and argue very well if they please some of them have a good Talent that way only they abuse it They are great Admirers of Reason and yet they are so far misled as to imbibe such an irrational and groundless notion as this that not only the bodies but the souls of all the Wicked shall perish and be annihilated Some of the Wise Pagans express'd their belief of the Immortal State even of the Worst Men but these Rationalists absolutely renounce it and thereby shew themselves worse than Pagans and which is worst of all miserably plunge themselves and others into that lake of everlasting fire which they scoff at CHAP. VI. These men have dangerous assertions concerning Christianity as 1. That there is but One Single Article of Christian Faith necessarily requisite to be believed viz. that Jesus is the Messias Some Reflections on the Writer that lately maintain'd this Opinion Remarks upon those that applaud his sentiments His unhappy enterprize briefly described and condemned He and his friends by their Publick Silence confess their Inability to return an Answer But yet they are heard to rage and thereby discover an impotent Passion which argues Guilt 2. They hold that all doctrines in Christianity are to be subject to the strictest Test of Humane Reason This shew'd to be the Sense of the very English Socinians How the Rule of Reason is to be applied What the Foreign and English Unitarians assert at one time they deny at another Thereby they give proof of their Changeableness At the same time they betray their Cause and against their wills befriend the Truth 3. They hold that there are no Mysteries in Christianity The late Asserter of this Opinion reflected on It is against Reason and Scripture Some Exceptions answered Christianity 〈◊〉 self is endangered by this doctrine FIfthly their notions concerning Chrâ—…anity it self are very unsafe and dangerous I will take notice here of three of them The first is an Assertion lately vented or rather lately furbush'd up and in some formality presented to the world by one that is a Well-willer to the Racovian way I mean Mr. Lock for now it is the Catholick belief and vogue of his very Friends and Favourers that he is the Author of the late Treatise concerning the Reasonableness of Christianity And seeing his own Friends and Admirers call it by his name I hope it is no offence in me to do so The Summ of it is this that in all the books of the NEW TESTAMENT there is but One Single Article of Christian Faith necessarily requisite to be believed and assented to by us and this Article is no other than this that JESUS IS THE MESSIAS I have elsewhere proved this to be a Socinian doctrine and it is well known that a Professed Unitarian of a considerable standing in the world hath publickly asserted this Proposition in terminis and hath labour'd to defend it and dedicates his undertakings to Mr. Lock They both confidently aver that the sole believing of this constitutes a Christian and a Member of Christ and there is no necessity in order to salvation that any thing more should be the object of our belief This is the doctrine which they industriously maintain but how Unreasonable and Groundless it is I have made evident in another place to which I refer the Reader where I have shew'd that this is one way to extirpate the Christian Religion out of the world and to introduce Infidelity Only at present I insert it here to make up the Socinian Farce It was not proper to leave it out of the Rhapsody of Heretical Opinions which those men are Professors of Having spoken so largly of it already I will now only make two or three Reflections on it and its Author and so dismiss it It may be observ'd that he began first to deny the Natural Notions and Principles that Mens Minds furnish them with and this was an Introduction to his late enterprize He by no means allows of Connate Idea's those Treasuries of all Natural Knowledg It is remarkable that he that is so much against the Scholastick Way and Systems yet maintains the Old Maxim of the Schools that the Understanding is a mere Blank with nothing written in it Where it might be noted further that herein he exactly agrees with Socinus whose words I quoted before Though these Natural Impressions in all
mens minds are the foundation of Religion and the Standard of Truth as well as of Morality yet he wholly renounces them But if this Gentleman had followed Socinus in nothing but this or matters of the like nature I should never have mention'd it for though it is my perswasion that there are these Innate Notices and Idea's in humane souls yet I censure no man for his mere dissenting from me in this Speculative Point That which I only observe now is that from his laying aside those Natural Principles he proceeds to slight the Christian ones to curtail the Articles of our Faith to ravish Christianity it self from us And whereas he tells us he designed his Book for Novices and Weak Christians he cannot but be ashamed of such an Evasion for whether Christians be weak or strong the Necessary and Indispensable doctrines of Christianity must not be conceal'd from them much less must they be denied for their sake This were to make a Double Christianity which is a strong and unaccountable representation of it not unlike the Conceit of some Jewish Doctors who say there is a Messias the Son of Joseph and a Messias the Son of David a humble and poor Messias and a glorious or pompous one Surely the Gentleman cannot forbear blushing at such pitiful Inventions as these which are so like his own I know nothing can excuse him but what his own Pen hath suggested in another place where he cries out Is there any thing so extravagant as the imaginations of men's brains where is the head that hath no Chimaera's in it Here I would observe likewise what sort of people admire his Notions and applaud his late enterprize about One Article of Christianity only There is very much to be gathered from this viz. what kind of persons are eager to imbrace his Sentiments and to commend them to the world The Author of a late little Piece entitul'd a Letter to the Deists declares that all that Jesus Christ made essential to Christianity is evidently aâ—… improvement of Natural Religion in which words he comprises the Summ of Deism and consequently lets us know what he is and that he writ that Letter to himself To give us a farther insight into his own Character he falls upon Preachers and stiles their Sermons pedantick forms of Pulpit-speeches Pag. 133. and in the same place talks of tricking the Priests out of their Trade which is so much complain'd against And then within a few pages after comes Mr. Lock 's Encomium pag. 136 c. Though the Priests and Pulpit-men of this age be so intolerable yet Mr. Lock makes amends for their defect This Great Figure compounds for those Cyphers Wherefore in a religious fit as it were he blesses God for this Writer's Reasonableness of Christianity and professes he finds it an evidence that he is not able to resist because poor Gentleman he is not willing Then he rehearses Mr. Lock 's beloved Proposition and vouches it viz. that Nothing but this alone namely that Jesus Christ is the Messias is required absolutely to denote and characterize a man a Christian. And this Zealous Proselyte adds further that all are Sectaries that offer other notions than Mr. Lock hath in that book that draught of Christianity as he calls it Thus we see who are Mr. Lock 's Admirers Deism and an Antipathy against Priests i. e. all Professed Ministers and Guides in Religion are necessary qualifications in order to being his Converts An other Writer compares him to David Good King David so he words it and me to Shimei as if the Reasons I had offer'd against his late writings had been no other than Cursing of him But would you know what manner of man this is that is such an Abettor of the Author of the late Reasonableness of Christianity and so severe upon the Animadverter on it You may partly learn it from this Position which he publickly maintains that in the beginning of the book of Job there are odd if not impossible passages told of Satan and the sons of God of Job himself his wife his children and friends And he determines it to be a mere Fâ—…k made by some idle Jew and afterwards he calls it a Monstrous Story And abundance of such like impious stuff you may meâ—… with in the Pamphlet he hath published to the world This may in some pâ—… satisfie the Reader what kind of men they are that defend and patronize Mr. Locâ—… late Assertions A man may for the most part make a judgment of an Author by those that approve of and extreamly magnifie his undertakings And generally those that publish them are of the like kidney If these be for Divine Machiavel it is probable the Writer proves so too I am apt to think well of the Gentleman himself who was the Collector of the Reasonableness of Christianity but I pity him for his unhappy choice of his Notion and his more unhappy and successless defending it wherein he strains upon his Reason and Conscience to support his Cause otherwise he would not have used such Arguments as he doth and repeated them He had got some credit by his former attempts concerning Humane Understanding and Education and now his Name being up he is further tempted to shew his Parts and to discover his great antipathy against Systems which he every where strikes at the design of which is to establish one of his own or to foster Scepticism by beating down all others He unfortunately ingages in a Province above his capacity and boldly attempting to correct and amend Christianity overthrows it He makes our Saviour a Coward he turns the Epistles of the Apostles into wast paper he perverts the plain words of the Gospels and he misrepresents and doubts of the most Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion One would wonder that such wild conceptions should possess any thinking head It is strange that any serious man can believe these things and frame such thoughts of Christianity It is true the Fundamental Articles of our Belief are few but there is a difference between a few and but one only which is the thing that this Writer maintains even with the hazard of his judgment and the forfeiture of his formerly acquired reputation But he and his Friends the One-Article-men seem to have made Satisfaction by their profound Silence lately whereby they acknowledg to the world that they have Nothing to say in reply to what I lately laid to their charge and fully proved against them both with relation to this Gentleman in particular and to the Professed Socinians in common Some of them faintly give out that I have mistaken Mr. Lock If so then they would oblige the world by shewing the Mistake and letting men see wherein and in what instances I have misapprehended his sense and meaning He that pretends to bear such a Love to the bulk of mankind should now shew it and so he would if he could If their case
they shall not be Tried or Judged Only they shall be Punished and their Punishment is this To utterly eease and perish for ever the Unquenchable Fire is nothing but Annihilation I believe as to Christianity it self that every thing in it is to be submitted to the dictates of Humane Reason and what cannot be explain'd and made out by this is no part of the Christian Religion and consequently that there are no doctrines appertaining to it which are Mysterious and Superiour to our Reason I believe as to Divine Worship that it may be given to another besides God that a Creature may if God thinks fit be the object of Adoration and consequently Christ who is but a Creature may be worship'd with Divine Worship even the same that is paid to God the Father I believe that Prayer as eminent an act of Worship as it is was not required in the Old Testament for God's people had no need of Praying then they were able to do all that was commanded them in their Religion without the Divine Assistance and therefore the Invoking of God became not a Duty till Christ's time I believe the Lord's day commonly so call'd is a Ceremonious Observance and abolish'd by the Gospel which takes away all Choice of Days I believe that there is no Spiritual Blessing convey'd or conferr'd in the use of the Sacraments and particularly that Baptism is an useless Rite which the Christian Church under the Gospel hath nothing to do with but more especially the Baptizing of Children is insignificant vain and childish and hath neither Precept nor Example to commend it to us I believe there is no Distinct Function or Office of Ministers in the Christian Church and that the Lord's Supper it self may be administred by any private Christian or Brother As to Moral Points I believe that Officious Lies are lawful that the Motions of Concupiscence are not Vitious that idle or obscene words gluttony drunkenness riot luxury and all impure desires and lusts were not forbidden till Christ's time and consequently were no Sins I believe concerning Magistrates that they have no power of Life and Death it is not lawful for them now under the Gospel to inflict Capital Punishments on any Offenders or Malefactors no not Murderers and Cut-throats Concerning some other Articles I believe as the Church believes I mean the Church of Rome for we symbolize with them in several points of doctrine Lastly after all I believe that though the foresaid Articles are necessary to make a man a Socinian yet the belief of only One is enough to make a Man a Christian and that One Article is that Jesus is the Messias in which it is not included whether he be God or Man whether he satisfied the Divine Justice for our sins and by vertue of his Death purchas'd Life for us But when I say I believe Jesus is the Messiah I mean only this that such a Man of Nazareth was Anointed Ordain'd and Sent of God to be a Saviour and that this is He who was foretold and promis'd to be sent by God This is all I believe and there is no Necessity of believing any thing more This is the Socinian Creed and I have faithfully drawn it up out of their own Admired and Applauded Writers I know it will be said here that some besides professed Socinians hold some of these things To which I answer I made it not my present business to observe what Others say but to represent what that body of men who are known by the name of Socinians profess and own Again it is not one of these Opinions alone excepting that concerning the Blessed Trinity which can give the denomination of Socinian it is the Complication of them that must do it Therefore Iinsist not on any one Single Opinion of lesser importance Those that bear upon them the General and Complex Characters which I have layd down in the preceding Discourse are the Persons that I design'd In short I write not and never will by God's assistance to humour and gratifie any Party of Men but to assert and vindicate the Truth which is pleasing to all Good Men. And therefore if any sort of persons shall censure my freedom I shall have recourse to my own Innocence and Integrity that is my hearty designs and indeavours to advance that Cause which I verily believe hath Truth on its side because it hath the Scriptures on its side If they shall say and what will they not say that the English Socinians give not their suffrage to all these Particulars which I have produced and named and therefore my Charge against the Foreigners doth not reach them I desire these following things may be considered and then this Evasion will be found to be very weak and useless and nothing to their purpose and it will appear that this Scheme of Socinianism belongs to them as well as to the rest First we are not sure that some of those who go under the name of English Socinians are not Foreigners Is not Crellius's Stock somewhere harbour'd among them Have there not been seen strange Outlandish Books at the Press of late May we not suspect some Transylvanians and Polanders employ'd in the work lately Are we not sure that there are some Irish as well as English ingaged in the service Why then are we nice in distinguishing when they are not differenc'd as to their work and design Secondly as for our very English and Native Socinians they borrow'd their Opinions from those Foreigners they fetch'd them from those Writers and they maintain them by the same Arguments that they did They use the very same Texts and urge them after the same manner they follow them step by step vouch their Reasonings applaud their Discoursings only they dress up their notions in an English garb and give them a more Modish Turn than they had before That 's all the difference between those Authors and these of late in England Thirdly though some of the Moderns are so politick as to be silent about some of the Points that I have mention'd yet we have no reason to gather thence that they are not inclin'd to imbrace them It is a remarkable hint of a very Observing Person There is reason to suspect saith he that the Socinians have some other odd Tenents which they think fit rather to conceal than to deny For we must consider this that they would first gain their Main Point the overthrow of the Trinity and all the Maxims that relate to that This is the Leading Card with them and therefore they chiefly insist on this intending we may suppose to urge the rest afterwards For it would be too much to undertake at one time to defend all the other doctrines And besides it would be too odious to reject so many receiv'd Propositions at once Therefore they go not this way to work lest they should be universally cried down It is their cunning to proceed gradually and to undermine Christianity
out of their favour They laugh at the Orthodox as they call them for thundring it from their Pulpits that matters of Faith are above Reason So the Letter to the Clergy of both Universities chap. 10. And those that will not reject the Trinity and other doctrines exploded by the Socinians are Priest-ridden Letter of Resolution p. 19. They adhere to other Enthusiastick Spirits as to their mistaken conceits concerning Magistracy and the Secular Sword They perfectly accord with the Quakers in their opinions about the Trinity Christ's Satisfaction Original Corruption concerning the Ministerial Function and Mission concerning Infant-Baptism the Observation of the Christian Sabbath going to War c. So that any considerate man may observe that Quakerism is the spawn of Socinianism Nay they seem to have given rise to the wild Sect of Muggletonians who from them have learnt to hold but One Person in the Godhead viz. God the Father and to call the Trinity or a God of Three Persons as they speak a Monster as our Gentlemen are pleas'd also to express themselves They have been taught from them to renounce the Power of the Christian Magistrate and the Office of a Christian Minister they are instructed by them in their Tenents concerning the Spirits or Souls of men viz. that they can't act without the body and that therefore they are extinct as soon as they are separated from it They are the very words of this late Party and they are taken from the Racovians An other detachment is that the Bodies of the deceased wherein they lived and died shall not rise again shall not appear any more This is their language whence it is evident that Reeve and Muggleton suck'd their Principle from Faustus Socinus and his Adherents And thus you see that as the Socinians borrow from several Sects so they set up others they receive and distribute Poison and thereby doubly endanger mankind Lastly it is apparent that they borrow from Deists and Atheists and thereby yet further bring mischief upon the world And from the whole it is evident that these persons are corrupted not only in some matters of lesser moment but in those that are of the highest concern not only in merely Speculative doctrines but such as immediately relate to Practise not only in some Principles that respect the Circumstances of Christianity but in those that are Substantial and Fundamental those that are of the very Essence of the Christian Faith Let this be seriously thought of that we may have a true apprehension of the mischief of Socinianism Secondly Observe the strange boldness as well as falshood of these men They are often in their Writings insinuating into their Readers that they build all their Assertions on the Scriptures and thence they require their assent to what they deliver But from the several Particulars which I have insisted upon it is clear that they have no ground to require or claim it upon that account for I have manifestly discover'd the opposition of their Tenents to the plain dictates of the Holy Spirit in the Bible There they are condemned as spurious and adulterate Notions there they are rejected as Pernicious and Poisonous doctrines And yet they have the confidence to ground these on the authority of the Inspired Writings the Sacred Oracles of Truth yea One of them tells the world that he was brought to these Perswasions by reading the Scripture that hereby they may the more effectually impose upon the minds of men who they think will be ready to attend to that which they pretend is bottom'd on the Word of God Thirdly These things which have been suggested may be serviceable to give us a Right Idea of the persons I have been dealing with Surely those who have thus mangled and abused Religion cannot be thought to have a Good Intention in the work which they are about at this day yea they must be thought to have a very Bad one We may argue thus It is no wonder that they that pervert and deprave so many doctrines of Religion do more especially enervate the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity If it were only on the account of all their other wild notions we might have reason to suspect yea to condemn their blasphemous Opinion concerning our Lord Jesus Christ viz. their flat denial of his Godhead and of his Satisfaction c. It is not to be marvel'd at that they proceed thus far having done so much besides having in other Points of Christianity shew'd what a faculty they have of perverting and distorting the Truths of the Gospel What I have said therefore will be useful to enlighten the Reader that he may understand what manner of persons these are that to speak plainly he may be convinced that they are no Christians Whatever pretences they make to that Title it is impossible they should with reason lay claim to it for they neither are baptised into the Christian Faith nor do they make Profession of it as you have heard but on the contrary they subvert Christianity it self and deny the Divine Author of it How then can these men challenge the name of Christians Nay I could observe that they industriously comply with Jews and Turks in opposition to and defiance of all Sober Christians To gratifie the former they think fit to renounce the avowed Principles of the latter Herein they follow their Old Friend Servetus who had convers'd a long time with Jews and Mahometans and had espoused many of their Opinions and was a great Admirer of them Especially he declar'd his approbation of the Alcoran and thought it reconcileable with the New Testament if the doctrine of the Trinity were laid aside It is often mention'd by Socinus and other Racovian Writers that this doctrine and that of the Incarnation hinders Jews and Turks from embracing the Christian Religion And even the late Socinian Penmen in their New Tractates talk much of this that the doctrine of the Trinity puts a stop to the conversion of Jews Mahometans and Heathens and thereupon they are very earnest with their Readers to abandon this Great Point of Christianity in mere complacency with those Infidels And more particularly it is observable how favourably they speak of Mahometism or Turcism they profess themselves forward to believe that Mahomet had no other design in pretending himself to be a Prophet but to restore the belief of the Unity of God which at that time was extirpated among the Eastern Christians by the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation Mahomet meant not his Religion should be esteemed a New Religion but only the Restitution of the true Intent of the Christian Religion Therefore the Mahometan Learned men call themselves the True Disciples of the Messias They further in the same place insinuate their approbation of the Mahometan Religion above that of Christianity they magnifie the Alcoran and the more plausible Sect of Mahomet as the Saracens call'd it and at the same time they represent the
Modern Christianity which professes the doctrines of Christ's Incarnation and the Trinity no better or other than a sort of Paganism and Heathenism These are their very terms P. 19. and they are answerable to what was said by them before viz. that the Trinitarian doctrines are of Heathen descent and original P. 15. and afterwards to vary the phrase of Paganick Extraction P. 16. I appeal now to the Reader whether this be not right Sclavonian whether it be not the very language and dialect of the Polonian Divines which shews that these are identified with the English Unitarians as to this matter and at the same time it yields us a true Pourtraiture of the persons I have been representing to the Reader Fourthly we should be very careful that we entertain none of their foresaid Opinions I question not but the Reader would have made this Inference though I had not But this I request of him that he would out of Choice and Judgment do this as being throughly apprehensive of that Evil and Danger which attend those Principles For this purpose I have display'd them and I hope that Special Hand of Providence for I cannot but acknowledg it as such which directed me to it will back it with a Blessing Fifthly and lastly see the tendency of the Unitarians and of the whole mass of the Socinian Points to Atheism They vilifie the Scipture they adulterate the true Meaning of it they introduce unbecoming sentiments concerning God and Religion they decry the great and necessary Truths of the Gospel they baffle the apprehensions which we ought to have of a Future State and what doth all this drive at but the undermining of Religion yea and Divinity it self So fitly was this Question inserted by a Learned Man above sixty years ago among his other Enquiries at the end of his Compendium of Ecclesiastical History Whether Socinianism be not an Introduction to Atheism So truly was it said lately by an Observing Pen In several respects our Socinians seem to be serving the designs of the Atheists I wish the Christian world would open their eyes and see this betimes and thereby prevent the unexpressible Danger which otherwise will unavoidably follow I offer it to be taken notice of that the Socinian and Atheistical party joyn hand in hand at this time and agree together in a very friendly manner to laugh at and defie the Fundamental Principles of Religion Such a Reflection methinks should be dismal to those of the Modern Penmen of the Socinian Perswasion who are sober and considerate They write whether they know it or no to please and humour the Wild Gallants those in city and countrey that are of Lewd Principles or of none at all Nothing is more evident at this day than that the Socinian Writings are highly acceptable to those that espouse the Cause of Atheism to the profesâ—…edly Prophane and Irreligious These are the men that applaud them and cry them up and think they are fraught with great Wit Argument and Reason I appeal to Impartial Judges whether this doth not shew the near Affinity if not Identity between these persons and those I am mentioning He that doth not see this sees nothing To conclude if what I have said sound harsh in these Gentlemens ears I request them to call to mind how severe they have been in censuring the Trinitarians and particularly in charging them with Idolatry Though Slichtingius and one or two more are unwilling to say in express terms that we are Idolaters yet both he and all the party assert that which is equivalent for they say we worship a mere Figment a Fancy of our own for so they blasphemously stile the Holy Trinity we set up an Idol of our own brain for an object of Divine Worship But our Home-bred Unitarians are yet bolder and speak it out without any mincing that the Trinitarians are Idolaters and Pagans and much worse and this they often inculcate But certainly to tax us with Idolatry when they themselves professedly worship a Creature as hath been observ'd before is the wildest Conceit that ever enter'd into any man's head the Boldness Inconsistency and Non-sense of it are so great that we can't sufficiently stand amazed at it Nay not only Idolatry but Atheism is laid to our charge I find that Servetus calls the Trinitarians Atheists very frequently And even the Modern Unitarians in their late writings expresly fix this Crime upon them for their words are these concerning the doctrine of the Trinity By its natural absurdity and impossibility it did not only at first give a check and stop to the progress of the Gospel but ever since it hath served to propagate Deism and Atheism The doctrine it self cannot do this without its being urged and managed by those that assert it therefore it is as much as if they had said Those who defend the Trinity propagate Atheism Now it will not be denied I think that those who propagate Atheism are Atheists Wherefore according to these men a Trinitarian is an Atheist In an other place they say he may be justly suspected of Atheism and they mention on what account Others of them tell us that Whatever Zeal the Trinitarians may pretend to have for Religion they take the right way to make men Scepticks and Atheists And the last man that wrote in defence of the Socinian Cause complains of us that we make that a Fundamental of Religion which contradicts the best reasonings of mankind whereby they prove the existence of God Thence loose men deny there is any God at all Thus you see what the Socinian Charge is against us Whence you may perceive that Mine is but a Counter-Charge and therefore they have no reason to find fault with the foregoing Retaliation especially when with the utmost Sincerity I declare that my Charge against them was not founded upon theirs or occasion'd by it for it was since the time that I drew up mine against them that I found this Accusation in some of their Papers Which may convince any unprejudiced person that what I have said with reference to the Anti-Trinitarians is not in way of Recrimination for I did not know that their Writings had any thing of that nature against those that defend the Trinity But it was and is from a sense and perswasion of the truth of the thing it self and that alone that I have and do at present thus tax them and turn their Obloquy upon themselves And truly I have done it with a sensible compassion all the while for I cannot rejoyce as some seem to do at finding an occasion of Censuring and Blaming others I submit what I have said to the Consciences of all Sober Faithful and Judicious Men all Sincere Lovers of God and Religion Let these judg between us and our Adversaries And now to shut up all if any one with calmness and sobriety laying aside all levity and scurrility all artifice and