no Satisfaction being due to the JUSTICE of GOD for our Sins But Blount goes on Now as Sacrifices were the most Ancient and Universal so the Greatest and most Mysterious Fourbs that ever were invented or imposed upon Mankind What have Sacrifices to do with Sins Could none but their Enlightned Priests make Peace between God and Man when Sins were committed Thus Blount And in what follows he tells you what he would be at That is to throw off all outward Ordinances Sacrifices Sacraments c. and resolve all to Inward Repentance Which is the very Notion of the Quakers whither his great Wit has carried him Now I will shew you how he agrees with his Tutor in all this I will set down their words over against one another As if says Blount as above quoted the Almighty Justice could be no otherwise appeased for the Errors of the Wicked but by the Sufferings of the Innocent In this Dispensation says Tillotson as before quoted in his Sermon of the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ p. 34. of God's Grace and Mercy to Mankind by the Death of his Son God seems to have gone to the very Extremity of things and almost further than Goodness and Justice will well admit to afflict Innocency it self to save the Guilty It looks almost like Hatred of Innocency and his own Son These two Almosts are like two Greek Negatives which make an Affirmative And shew this Dr. to be both almost and altogether such a Christian as his Disciple Blount And indeed without the Doctrine of Satisfaction there can no Rational account be given for the Typical Sacrifices before Christ came and much less for His Sacrifice who was Innocency it self But according to tâ—e Doctrine of Satisfaction He could not otherwise have been an Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin And God's Mercy and His Justice do equally Magnifie one another in this Glorious and most Rational Dispensation But this has been discoursed in the foregoing Observations Wherein has been shewn that Dr. Tidotson's Account of the Legal Sacrifices it as Atheistical and Prophane as this which I have quoted out of Blount Both of them agree that this was a Trick and Barbarous Invention of Wicked and Foolish Men. Buâ— Dr. T. gets I think beyond Blount where he makes the Jewish Religion and Sacrifices as well as the Christian to be a Compliance in God with all this Barbarous Wickedness And indeed says he in the above quoted Sermon of the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ p. 6. a very great part of the Jewish Religion which was Instituted by God Himself seems to have been a plain Condescension to the General Apprehension of Mankind concerning this way of appeasing the Offended Deity with Sacrifices This is the most Irrational and Blasphemous Account which those who deny the Satisfaction of Christ because as they pretend against their Reason are forc'd to give of the Sacrifice and Death of Christ But I have Treated largely of this elsewhere And while they set up for the only Men of Reason they have shewn themselves utterly Uncapable of Reason To think as Blount here that there was no other End or Design in God's Institution of Sacrifices but the pleasure he took in the death of a Beast How blind and wretched is the Reason of such Men How totally Ignorant of the Great Designs of God! Of the Glorious and ever Adorable Methods of His Wisdom and Goodness in the Redemption of lost Mankind In the Satisfaction of His Infinite and exact Justice Together with the Exaltation of equal Infinit Mercy Which things the Angels delight to look into but the wicked Arrogance of poor miserable Men presume madly to Blaspheme measuring the Eternal Wisdom by their short Plummet Void of common sense as well as modesty or any Reverence to that Being whom in words they own to be Almighty and Incomprehensible How just is it in God to suffer these Men to Expose themselves most shamefully even in the point of Reason their Great Diana wherein they so vainly magnifie themselves Which appears very plainly in the present Case of the Account they give of the Original of Sacrifices and the Possitive Institutions of Revealed Religion Perhaps says Blount ibid. Sect. 8. p. 17. Melancholly Men might at first sight upon this Frenzy He means of Sacrifices calling the Institution of God after the Delirium of his own Brain a Melancholly Frenzy and the highest he can derive Sacrifices is from the Egyptians among whom he says they were first used and from them deriv'd to the Hebrews Sect. 15. p. 39 as if he had never heard or did not believe that Cain Abel and Noah Sacrificed long before there were either Hebrews or Egyptians in the World If he lay no greater stress upon the Scriptures than upon other Common Hystories this must betray the most stupid or wilful Ignorance There is nothing more plain than how the Heathen came to the Knowledge of Sacrifices viz. That Cain tho' he corrupted the True Religion yet preserved the Institution and deriv'd that Worship of Sacrifices to his Posterities Tho' in process of time they forgot both the Institution and the true Ends of it as they did of the Creation of the World or their own Origination But they preserv'd along with the Sacrifices so much of the true Import and Meaning of them and of that to which they pointed which was the Expiatory Sacrifice of Christ that they retain'd a Traditionary Belief of the necessity of a Vicarious suffering for Sin which was a sort of implicit and dark Falth in Christ tho' they knew him not nor had any true Notion of him as the generality of the Jews had not no nor the Apostles themselves till after the Resurrection of Christ How far this Intitl'd these very Heathens to a degree of Faith in Christ and of Salvability by it at least till He was Preach'd and more plainly Exhibited to them I will not now dispure The ways of God are unsearchable and with Reverence to the Ador'd even where they exceed our Understandings But thus much we may conclude from hence that the Representation which I have shewn above Dr. T. has given of the Heathen Notion of a Vicarious Suffering as a Foolish and Wicked Notion Groundless and of their own Fancy And then his making this the Reason and Foundation of the Sacrifice of Christ as a Gratification and Compliance with such Vnreasonable and Bloody Notions and Practices I say all this shews the Dr's exceeding Ignorance of the true Principles of Christianity and the Brutality of these his Disciples and Followers who give this senseless and malicious Account of the Gentile Sacrifices on purpose to wound Christianity under that Cover And tho' they have no Account from the Heathens how their Sacrifices began yet these Gentlemen are very sure they were first introduced by Priest-Craft That is the word And every thing must be laid upon that Tho' in this they fall out among themselves And are not constant
as strongly against themselves as to the Death of Christ For which upon their Principles of No-Satisfaction being due to the Justice of God for Sin there can no tolerable Account be given for a Prophet might have Taught and Preach'd and been a good Example and Intercessor too and Perform'd every one of the Conditions and Ends which they Assign for Christ's coming into the World and for the Sacrifice of his Death upon the Cross This of Denying the Satisfaction is the Heart of Socinianism and the Mill-stone which will sink it into the Sea for without this there was no Need or Necessity either for the Incarnation or Death of Christ But the Doctrine of Satisfaction being Established infers the Necessity of the Divinity of Christ without which an Adequate Satisfaction could not be â—ade and the Divinity of Christ does necessarily infes the Plurality of Persons in the Deity which is the whole of the Difficulty alledg'd against the Trinity So closely are these Divine Principles of the Christian Religion link'd and joyn a together The denial of any one of them breaks the whole Chain Dr. Burnet in the abovesaid Vindication of himself p. 101. Instead of Recanting his former Error proceeds expresly to Dispute yet farther against the Satisfaction and says that It is no part of the Doctrine of our Church our Articles say he are the only Standard to Judge of our Doctrine as far as they go but they have Determin'd nothing in this matter but rest in the General Notions of Expiation which the Dr Expounds not to mean SATISFACTION and of Reconciling us to God Thus this Learned Doctor But my last Topick with which I close my Observations upon his Discourse has sufficiently disprov'd this and shewn the Doctrine of the Satisfaction to be expresly taught in the Homilies and that they account not him who denies is to be a Christian-Man but an Adversary to Christ and his Gospel Now shall we suppose it possible that this Dr. never Read the Homilies which he has Subscrib'd No nor they very Articles which he Quotes Or that the Homilies are not contain'd and all expresly nam'd in the said Articles Or otherwise shall we think that he meant hereby to Impose upon unwary Readers and thus to Belye and Falsifie the Doctrine of our Church on purpose to conceal the more effectually his own Apostacy from it But tho' every Body is not well acquainted with the Homilies through an inexcusable neglect of reading them Publickly as it is enjoyn'd yet none can come to the Sacrament without taking notice that in the very Prayer of Confecration Christ is said to have made full Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World The Dr. has forgot this too Lastly I will shew you the Advantage which the Socinians make of these seeming Defences of the Christian Religion which of all other Methods do most effectually undermine and betray it See how they Glory and Exult in this Performance of Dr. Burnets Furthermore say they Considerations p. 15. The Socinians and all other small and envied Parties of Christians are in his Debt for Owning and Espousing Publickly Divers such Truths as others perhaps see as well as he but have not Sincerity nor Generosity enough to avow them Here they detestably insinuate that all are Hypocrites who in good Earnest do oppose Socinianism And gather from the Account which Dr. T. and Dr. B. give of the Christian Faith that others are of the same Opinion while they see them not Oppos'd nor Censur'd for these their Blasphemous Heresie but on the contrary they are Vindicated Excus'd and their vile Sophistry Palliated and cover'd by the Divines in Fashion What the Consequences of this may be is dreadful to apprehend This Dr. B. has so Explain'd the Doctrine of the Church as that the Socinians may close with it It is say they Considerat p 31.32 the very Doctrine of the Socinians which they have own'd from the beginning in all their Books And speaking of the Satisfaction they truly say That his Lordship himself Professedly dislikes it and Argues against it Which they there prove from p. 135. of his Discourse In brief say they were the Questions about the Trinity and the Divinity of our Saviour adjusted there would be no longer Dispute about the Satisfaction as his Lordship has stated it Nor to say true have we Controversy with him about the two former Questions for he contents himself to say the Three and when he says most the Holy Three disclaiming expresly the word Persons in the Sense says he that is commonly taken To say all at once concludes that Socinian Author I have not made this Reply to oppose it to his Lordship's Discourse but to testifie our Respects to his Lordship and that we submit to his Doctrine His Lordship as this Socinian stiles him in his Vindication p. 99. calls this an Imputation upon him but yet does not clear himself from it for which I refer to what followes where it is Examined I conclude this Preface with giving the Reader a needful Caution against these Horrible Socinians that they are going about to Vndermine the Authority of the Holy Scriptures because they cannot Reconcile them to their Damnable Heresie They have now Considerat p. 50.51 Publickly assauted all the whole Works of St. John his Gospel Epistles and Revelation This was the shortest way of Answering them and at the same time of confessing that they were no otherwise Answerable by them I say nothing here to their Arguments because they are sufficiently Confuted in Dr. William's Vindication Only let me Observe that if their pretences against these parts of Scripture which make most against them and which therefore they Reject do hold the whole Canon of the Scripture is rendered precarious andour FAITH Uncertain Which must be the consequence if these most Execrable of Hereticks should prevail Which God of his Mercy preventâ— THE Charge of Socinianism AGAINST Dr. TILLOTSON CONSIDERED c. F. SInce our last Discourse upon the Famous Sermon of Hell preach'd before the Queen 7th of March 1690. upon Matth. 25.46 and Printed by Their Majesties Special Command The Author has this Year 93. publish'd 4 Sermons two of them preach'd An. 79. and two An. 80. upon John 1.14 This he has done to clear himself from Socinianism C. He says in his Advertisement to the Reader That he has Revis'd and Enlarg'd them so that we cannot tell what Part of them was preach'd at the time Specified or what added since to clear his Reputation now that he is got into an higher Station so as to make such a Vindication necessary For it is to be presum'd that he did not think it worth his while before otherwise he would not so long have lain under the Imputation of having been neither Christened nor a Christian in his Principles Both which have not only been loudly Clamour'd but objected in Print against him many years ago Wherein only he truly Exercis'd Non-Resistance For he
see whether this Author gives a more favourable Character of his Disciples to make good the High Eulogiums above told Serm. 2. p. 69. speaking of Schlictingius one of the first Form in his School our Author says he carry'd himself with more Confidence but much less Decency than his Master That he spoke so Extravagantly and with so much Contempt of these Great and Venerable Names who were the chief Propagators of Christianity in the World and to whom all Ages do so justly pay a Reverence That he said those Ancient Interpreters went so far from the Apostles meaning as if they had Rav'd and been out of their Wits And the Dr. says in general of the Socinians Serm. 1st p. 39. That their Interpretations of the Holy Scriptures were strange and extravagant p. 44. did contradict not only the Ancient Fathers but the General Consent of all Christians for 1500 years together p. 61. That they avoid the plain and necessary Consequence of Holy Scriptures by strain'd and forc'd Arts of Interpretrtion p. 62. Than which nothing can be more unnatural and violent p. 65. Which I dare say no Indifferent Reader of St. John that had not been preposess'd and byas'd by some violent prejudice would ever have thought of p. 75. The plainest Text for any Article of Faith how Fundamental and Necessary sâ—ever may by the same Arts and ways of Interpretation be cluded and rendered utterly ineffectual for the establishing of it p. 92. 93. This is so Arbitrary and Precarious a supposition that I must confess my self a little out of Countenance for them that Men of so much Wit and Reason should ever be put to so sorry and pitiful a Shift p. 96. This is so Inartificial not to say Absurd a way of avoiding a Difficulty that no Man of common Ingenuity would make use of it p. 99. A Sense so very flat that I can hardly abstain from calling it Ridiculous p. 113. We may plainly see by this That they can Interpret a Text right when necessity forceth them to it and they cannot without great Inconveniency to their Cause avoid it But when Men have once resolv'd to hold fast an Opinion they have taken up it then becomes not only Convenient but Necessary to understand nothing that makes against it And this is truly the present Case But in the mean time where is Ingenuity and love of Truth p. 115. They Triumph without Modesty and without Measure p. 125. Do they see no Absurdity in all this Nothing that is contrary to Reason and Good Sense Nothing that feels like Inconsistency and Contradiction p. 129. Which way the Socinians way of dealing with them the Holy Scriptures seems to be really more Contumelious to those Holy Oracles than the down-right rejecting of their Authority And single Serm. p. 18. He that can deny this the Doctor 's Argument against the Socinians is perverse to the highest degree and I fear beyond the possibility of being Convicted p. 20. Men may generally wrangle about any thing but what a frivolous Contention what a Trifling in serious matter what Barretry in Divinity is this p. 30. So little do Men in the heat of Dispute and Opposition who are resolv'd to hold fast an Opinion in despight of Reason and Good Sense consider that they do many times in effect and by necessary Consequence grant the very thing in express terms they do so stifly and pertinaciously deny p. 32. And this for no other reason that I can imagine but because they have deny'd it so often and so long F. These so different Characters which the Dr. gives of Socinus and the Socinians may be Reconciled by saying as I suppose the Dr. means that this later Evil Character belongs to them only in this present Controversy of the Trinity the Divinity and Satisfaction of Christ But that the former High and most Extraordinarly Excellent Character is due to them in other matters of Religion as against the Church of Rome which the Dr. seems to intend 2. Serm. p. 79. where he says That the Socinian Writers have managed the Cause of the Reformation against the Innovations and Corruptions of the Church of Rome both in Doctrine and Practise with great acuteness and advantage C. And yet in the very next words he says That the Socinians have put into their the Papists hands better and sharper Weapons than ever they had before for the weakening and undermining of the Authority of the Holy Scriptures And p. 129. That nothing hath given a greater force to the Exceptions of the Church of Rome against the Holy Scriptures being a sufficient and certain Rule of Faith than the uncertainty into which they the Socinians have brought the plainest Texts imaginable for the Establishing of Doctrines of the greatest Moment in the Christian Religion by their Remote and Wrested Interpretations of them And p. 124. That to avoid the shaddow and appearance of a Plurality of Deities they ran readily into it And into downright Idolatry Now how invalidating the Holy Scriptures and introducing Idolatry is managing the Cause of the Reformation with Accuteness and Advantage against the Church of Rome I leave to the Worthy Dr. to Explain And likewise how Men can deserve such extravagant Commendations for Wit and Modesty and all Discretion and Temper in one point of Controversy and in another to be quite void of all these to fall into all Ridiculous Absurdities and Contradictions and to manage either without Reason or Modesty to be so Wedded to their own Opinion as rather to Renounce the Holy Scriptures than endure to be convinced by them in their most foolish and groundless Errors taken up against the whole Christian World since the days of Christ. Modesty and Sweetness in a-Mans Temper will shew it self in all his Actions And a strong Reason cannot overlook a Contradiction in one case more than another at least not to be obstinately so Wedded to it as to be deaf to all Conviction But we have spent too much time upon this Author's Character of these Socinians which is not material otherwise than to shew his own Unconstancy and Inconsistency with himself How unwillingly he is brought to appear against them And what Salvoes and Shifts he makes use of to make them understand him That he might not lose their Favour God grant Him and Them true Conviction and Save Unstable Souls from their Snares POSTSCRIPT SInce this was wrote the Author before spoke of Dr. T. has Printed A Sermon concerning the Vnity of the Divine Nature and the B. Trinity And here if ever we might expect full Satisfaction in this point But it is so far from it that of all the others we have consider'd this Sermon does most palpably bewray his wretched Socinianism if not something worse for he not only speaks the very Socinian Language of the Trinity but he really undermines the Vnity of God by his setting it up upon a Foundation which he himself in this same Sermon quite overthrows
that you may see the Thread and Progress of this horrid Mastery of Iniquity the like sure never known or Tolerated in any Christian Countrey let me give you a short view of this Book of Blounts Then I will shew how this new History of Religion agreet with it or was taken out of it And how exactly both do square with Dr. T 's Notions and Scheme of Religion which I have laid down in the Discourse going before First Blount makes it known That there are no Martyrs in their Religion for he tells you Sect. 11. p. 23. That they are too wise to hazard their own Ruin for the Instruction of foolish Men knowing that if any Man should be so vain as to oppose the Common Belief the Mobile would as they did to Socrates Oppresi and decry him for an Atheist Therefore the Wisest among the Heathens followed this Rule in their Converse LOQUENDUM CUM VULGO SENTIENDUM CUM SAPIENTIBUS SI MUNDUS VULT DECIPI DECIPIATUR And in the next words he Blasphemously brings in our Saviour as observing the same Poor and Wicked Craft and that this was his Reason for speaking to the People in Parables He Instances almost in every Circumstance of our Saviour's Life and Death his Miracles and Proofs of his Divinity by telling over the Story in something that he finds or makes like it among the Heathens and for which he gives all the ill Names can be to the Heathen Worship as being contradictory to Reason with a But the Christian Religion is not so when he has made them the very same and no more Grounds for believing the one than the other and that so plainly that none who have but half an Eye can help seeing that the whole is meant to Ridicule and Blaspheme the Christian Religion in this most Malicious and Provoking manner p. 39. He thus Ridicules our Commemoration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament As all Entertainments says he the Company are apt to drink the Founder's Health The whole Book from beginning to ending is of the same strain that I must Transcribe it all if I should undertake to set down all his Blasphemies and Prophaneness And I am very glad to be released from the Repetition of such Wickedness as curdles my Blood and shakes all my Frame And the less that others hear of it the better Would God it had never been heard or wrote that there might have been no necessity of ever mentioning of it Having thus made Christ himself to be Belzebub the Great Deceiver you cannot expect he should treat his Church and Servants better than their Master And indeed he deals more roundly with them He spares not to Name them plainly and above board By which he puts it out of doubt that it was the Christian Religion which he Battels through all this Book Sect. 18. Telling one of the Politick Ends of the Institution of Sanguinary Sacrifices to be the enuring People to War and Blood But says he p. 45. The Primitive Church did prohibit the Christians such Bloody Sights they chose another way i e. To Govern in the Spirit of Meekness and Innocence Hopeing thereby to gain a greater Submission So that Ambition was the whole End of all that Meekness and Innocency which is taught in the Christian Religion Hopeing thereby to gain a Greater Submission And this he meant against Christ Himself tho' Here he only names the Primitive Church for Christ first taught that Meekness and Innocency which they afterwards Preach'd and He was the Head of the Church whom this Black Infidel traduces and he downright names the Christians that you may know against whom he writes And that not only these later corrupted Times but the Primitive Church in which the Times of Christ and the Apostles are included And it is of these and all other Christian Priests that he means what he says in the same page under his Cobweb Vell of the Heathen Priests who were certainly says he the Wickedest and the Craftiest of Men. You must know he never Convers'd with any in his life except Dr. Tillotson because he was a Politician and those of his Recommendation Sect. 10. p. 22. He argues against Future Punishments but not Rewards at least the Eternity of them Exact Dr. Tilletson's Notion in his Sermon of Hell before spoke of and Disputes as Dr. T. does as If they were inconsistent with the Goodness of God And from their Invisibility deduces their Vncertainty He makes them nothing else but the Invention of Government to keep their Subjects in Awe Which Dr. Tillotson words in the said Sermon of Hell That God is under no other Obligation to Justice or the Proportioning the Punishment to the Crime than so far as it may tend to secure His Government Nay he says that to Proportion the Punishment to the Crime does not belong to Justice at all but is only a Consideration of Politicks to secure Government Thus while these bold Miscreants are straining their Wit to turn all Revealed Religion into Priest-Craft they have reduced the whole Notion of Justice which is God who is justice in the Abstract into nothing else but a piece of State-Craft And have in all their lewd Harangues but Copied after the old Roman Atheists Primos in orbe Deos Timor fecit Which Blount repeats in the same page above quoted in these words Animo tortore Eagellum And having made the Belief of Eternal Punishments to be contrary to the Goodness of God and so Irrational and altogether Pracarious as being Invisible and Imperceptible by any Natural means he tâ—en in his Method above-told lays the Absurdity upon the belief of the Stygian-Lake But So Rational says he thrusting out his Tongue and so Natural is that Article of our Christian Faith In like manner he deals with the Institution of Sacrifices Sect. 7. p. 15. which Superstition as he calls it suffers neither God nor Man to live at rest as evidently appears by thâ—se Heathen Sacrifices But instead of Reproving them for that wherein only they were faulty so far as they were Aberrations from the Divine Institution and were Offer'd to Devils and not to God I say instead of this he vents such Reasons against them as equally involve the Sacrifices of the Jews which were made to God and by him Commanded and consequently the Sacrifice of Christ our Lord. This Wild Beast's Reasons against Sacrisices are in the words Immediately following those above quoted viz. What could be more Sottish and Irational than to think that the slaughter of a poor Innocent Creature who followed the simplicity or his own Nature without ever offending God should be so Grateful to the Deity as thereby we might Expiate our Sins and render a sufficient Attonement for the most exerable Villanlei of Mankind As if the Almighty Justice could be no otherwise appeased for the Errors of the Wicked but by the Sufferings of the Innocent This I desire his Tutor Dr. T. to Answer upon his Scheme of
THE Charge of Socinianism AGAINST Dr. TILLOTSON CONSIDERED In EXAMINATION of some SERMONS He has lately Published on purpose to clear Himself from that IMPUTATION By way of a DIALOGUE betwixt F. a Friend of Dr. T 's and C. a Catholick Christian To which is Added Some REFLECTIONS upon the Second of Dr. BURNET's Four Discourses concerning the Divinity and Death of CHRIST Printed 1694. To which is likewise Annexed A SUPPLEMENT upon Occasion of a History of Religion lately Published Supposed to be Wrote by Sir R. H d. Wherein likewise CHARLES BLOVNT's Great Diana is Considered And both Compar'd with Dr. TILLOTSON's Sermons By a True Son of the Church EDENBVRGH Printed MDCXCV ☜ N. B. When the Reader meets with this Mark * P. 6. C. 2. line 51. He must cast his Eye to the next Col. to this Mark ** and read that Four Line-Paragraph which was left out by Mistake in Composing and thro' haste misplaced in Correcting at the first Mark. ERRATA PAge 3. Col. 2 liâ— 50. read Subtily p. 4. C. 2. l. 3. r. which by thâ—â— l. 46. after of dele r. p. 6. C. 2. l. 51. r. permission ibid. l. 57. d. a p. 7. C. 1. l. 55. r. are not now p. 7. C. 2. l. 53. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. â— C. 1. l. 29. r. Imperfection l. 37. r. Till-n Col. 2. l. 37. r. Exult l. 39. for That r. Thus p. 10. Col. 1. l. 3. r. Mountain that l. 22. r. there is no more C. 2. l. 49. r. lends p. 11. C. 1. l. 19. r. his C. 2. l. penul for generally r. Eternally p. 12. C. 2. l. 2. r. run l. 13. r. without either l. 21. r. so obstinately p. 13. C. 2. l. 34. r. as to p. 14. c. 1. l. 21. for to r. do p. 15. col 1. l. 9. r. Christ's col 2. l. 10. r. Justifies l. 27. for to r. the p. 16 col 2. l. 25. r. over p. 18. col 1. l. 49. for Naturer Honour p. 19. col r. l. 21. f. He r. there p. 21. c. 1. l. 3. f. or r. as c. 2. l. 42. f. by r. upon p. 22. c. 2. l. Antep r Conceive p. 23. l. ult f. put p. 26. c. 2. l. 42. f. it r. is p. 27. c. 1. l. 24 for fight r. light The PREFACE THat which I have to Advertise the Reader of by way of Preface is That the following Animadversions upon Dr. Tillotson's Sermons were wrote before the Death of that Unhappy Man and should not now have been Published were it not that his much Mistaken and Pernicious Principles have surviv'd him and are Recommended by the Authority of his Name Yet the Respect I bear to the Dead might have restrain'd some Sharpness if any such be found in the following Sheets had they been wrote since his Lamentable Exit I am likewise to tell the Reader that the Socinians have Publish'd an Answer to what they think or pretend makes against them in the Four Sermons hereafter Examin'd of Dr. Tillotsons and the 2d of Dr. Burnet's Discourses which I have taken into Consideration Their Treatise bears this Title Considerations on the Explication of the Doctrine of the Trinity occasioned by Four Sermons Preach'd by his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury A Discourse by the Lord Bishop of Salisbury c. Printed 1694. To this there is a Reply by Dr. Burnet for himself in a Letter to Dr. Williams and by the said Dr. Williams in Vindication of Dr. Tillotson Published since his Death both Printed together 1695. and carries this Title A Vindication of the Sermons of his Grace John Arch-Bishop of Canterbury coucerning the Divinity and Incarnation of our B. Saviour From the Exceptions of a late Book Entituled Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity To which is annexed a Letter from the Lord Bishop of Sarum to the Author of the said Vindication on the same Subject The License for Printing this Book is Dated at Lambeth 17. Nov. 1694. the very day before Dr. Tillotson was struck with that Fatal Apoplexy which carry'd him out of this World the fourth day after and made Room for another Comprehensive Latitudinarian who look'd over Lincoln to Succeed him But the Books above mentioned came to my view after some of the following Sheets were sent to the Press otherwise I had made more particular Observations upon them for the present I had only opportunity to make some short mention of them in some of the remaining Sheets And here I must take notice that whereas the abovesaid Considerations p. 63.64 Objected against the Account which Dr. Tillotson had given of the Grounds of Christian Religion viz. That the Mysteries of our Religion were only a Gratification to the Humour of Mankind who were fond of Mysteries That the Incarnation of Christ was to Comply with their Notion of a Sensible Deity And his Passion with their Custom of Human Sacrifices His Exaltation with their Custom of Deifying Men His Intercession with their Common Apprehension of Mediators between the Gods and them c. which are a main Subject of the ensuing Discourse I say these being thus Objected together with some other Exceptions against Dr. Tillotson's Doctrine in the fore-quoted pages his Vindicator Replys to some of the others but leaves these above-mentioned totally untouch'd Vindication page 61.62 Whether they were Material to be Answer'd I leave to what follows and whether they are Answerable upon any Christian Principles I refer to the Judgment of the Reader and this sort of No-Vindication of them Doubtless Dr. Tillotson would read this Vindication of himself before he Licens'd it to be Printed And if he could have given any Answer to these most Monstrous Objections made against him be would certainty have done it Wherefore we must conclude him Self-Condemn'd and yet he has not at least Publickly as he ought Recanted these Blasphemous Errors He ought to have Recanted and Abhorred them both in Print and in Pulpit as he had Published them But he has receiv'd his Sentence Here let me Reply tho' not for Dr. Tillotson yet against these Socinians They Argue that there was no Necessity for the Incarnation of God and for this they Quote Dr. Tillotson's own words Considerations p. 63. That the Gospel and the Pardon of Sin might have been offer'd to Mankind by a Prophet in the Name of God And because he says it they charge it upon the Church Our Opposers say they Grant it his GRACE Grants it See the mischief of this Man's Prevarications and his Advancement to the Throne of Canterbury But to the Argument First the Vindicator p. 61. and consequently Dr. Tillotson himself does shamefully give up this Cause and Plead for the No-need or Necessity either of CHRIST's Incarnation or of his Death But yet it was the Height of Impudence in the Socinians to Object the No-necessity of the Incarnation against the Divinity of Christ when that same Argument Militates
the word Person and in the same Sense in this Question which is put upon it by us at this day as one of the distinct Subsistences of the Divine Nature or Substance whom he did own to be Tres Personas Subsistentes But that what scruple he had was concerning the Greek word Hypostasis which yet he did not absolutely reject nor refuse to make use of it but thought it needed some Explanation or rather Caution in the use of it But this Author whatever scruple he may have which he signifies in Hints very plain will not too nicely abstain from the Word Person or any other word since he can make it signify what he pleases only a Difference or a Somewhat or a No-what by a Mental Reservation tho he knows those he disputes with and those he speaks to take it in another sense The great Art of the Socinians is in altering the meaning of Words so that no words almost can bind them And this Dr. does very subtlely recommend their Interpretations of Scripture by bringing them sometimes to prove the Divinity of Christ that so he may take you off the much more strong and full proof which lies in the true and plain meaning of the words For example Serm. 2. p. â—0 He brings Phil. 2 6. c. as a Proof of the Divinity of Christ who being in the Form of God thought it no Robbery to be equal with God But instead of he thought is not Robbery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Dr. would have the Sense to be He did not arrogate to himself to be equal with God tho' it is quite contrary to the words which are literally translated He thought it not Robbery to be equal i. e. He did make himself equal He did not arrogate to himself to be Equal i. e. He did not make himself Equal Senses which are in terms opposite He did says the Text He did not says Dr T. This is the Impudent answer which the Brief History of the Vnitarians gives to this Text and which the Dr. here recommends And he says that that Phrase is used so by Plutarch But he names not the words nor Quotes the Place which he would have done if he had thought it for his purpose For he cannot deny that the words are rightly Translated and they cannot bear two opposite Senses But now to bring himself off from seeming to favour the Socinians in this Intepretation He pretends to prove the Divinity of Christ from it thus Christ did not arrogate to himself to be Equal with God i. e. He made no Ostentation of his Divinity and this the Dr. says He takes to be the true Meaning of that Phrase But it means much more easily That Christ had no Divinity to make Ostentation of that he did not so much as pretend to it or arrogate it to himself By this Socinian Interpretation of the Dr's Here is first a very weak Argument brought for the Divinity of Christ which is the most effectual Method to destroy a Cause Secondly Here is a very strong Argument for his Divinity diverted and eluded For let the Text lie in the plain and Grammatical Interpretation of the words and they are not to be answer'd by the Socinians For if it was no Robbery in Christ to be Equal with God it follows unavoidably That he was True and Real God by Nature F. Let us come now to the other great point of Socinianism the Doctrine of Satisfaction They deny that the Death of Christ was a Satisfaction paid to the Justice of God for our Sins for the Dr. has Clear'd himself in this Point likewise C. He hath Clear'd himself indeed not only to have been but still to continue a rank Socinian in this Point even where he endeavours most to make a shew as if he were come off it He mumbles it like Thistles For tho the Great point be the Satisfying God's Justice Yet he is so very Careful to avoid coming upon that Question That he names it but once in all those 4 Sermons And that after such a manner as plainly discovers that he is still of the Opinion he told us in his Sermon of Hell of which he says there is no Certainty Because there was no need of any Satisfaction to Gods Justice at all And that God's Justice is to be Consider'd no otherwise than as a Politiâ—uâ— to secure his Government and therefore does not infer any punishment of Sinners But that his threats may be only in Terrorem or so far to be inflicted as may secure his Government from the Rebellion and Vsurpation of wicked Men. As if God were afraid of being Deposed by them A strange Notion of the Justice of God! But this New Doctrin of making Hell precarious does totally overthrow the Doctrine of the Satisfaction of Christ and plucks it up Root and Branch For if there be no certainty of a Hell there can be no Necessity of Satisfaction for Sins which this means are remitted without it But your Author thinks to put us off with a Complement in this matter Serm. 4. p. 211. He says that this way of Remitting Sins by the Death of Christ was a way indeed very Honourable to the Justice of God and the Authority of his Laws And this is every word he says as to the Justice of God in all these 4 Sermons He comes off like a Courtier I confess and will let it be very Honourable for God that is Civil if we would let alone any Arguments as to what the Nature of Justice requires which makes it more than Honourable even Necessary That a full and adequate Satisfaction be made to Justice otherwise Justice can be no more Justice and God is no more Justice Besides it will appear that if there was no necessity of satisfying Justice it was not only not very Honourable in God but even not reconcileable to any Notion we can have of Justice to take the life of an Innocent Person without any necessity in the world F. You are a sort of People hard to be pleas'd Therefore this good Dr. in Compliance to your Infirmity and because indeed he has treated very slightly of the Satisfaction in these 4 Sermons he has since preached a Sermon before the Queen at White-hall 9th of April 93. upon Heb. 9.29 on purpose Cencerning the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ and it is publish'd by Her Majesties Special Command and was put into the Gazette C. All this Honour had his Sermon of Hell above told of which we have formerly discours'd at large and this shall have as fair dealing from me to be Impartially and honestly examin'd without any Flattery First therefore I will shew the most Barbarous Absurd and Blasphemous Notion he has of the Christian Religion in General And then as to the Doctrine of Satisfaction that he is Expresly Socinian His Notion of the Christian Religion in these first Four and this single Sermon express'd did I confess amaze me beyond any thing
ever I read except of the same Author And if no name had been affixed I should have guess'd no other than Muggleton it is exactly his Size of apprehending the Scriptures or rathe ofr a Lucian or a Julian to mock and slander Christianity out of the World But that you may know whether there be Reason for all this First I will shew you That he makes the Foundation of Christion Religion to be some foolish and wicked Fancies which got into People's heads he knows not and says no matter How and instead of Reforming these and commanding us to Renounce and Abbor them which one would have expected and which Christ did to all other Wickedness The Dr's Scheme is That God in Compliance with these and to indulge Men in these same Wild and wicked Phancies did send Christ Took his Life and Instituted the whole Aeconomy of the Christian Religion This appears so Dreadful and astonishingly Impious that you must have patience to take it in pieces and see by what degrees the Dr. arrived at this New pitch of Super-Hobbism First Those Revelations which all the Christian World has hitherto believ'd God gave at the Beginning to Adam and after to the Patriarchs and Prophets more expresly of the Promised Seed and those Types and Institutions which God from the Beginning did appoint as Shadows and sensible Representations of the Expiatory Death of Christ upon the Cross such as Sacrifices which for this End were commanded to Adam practised by Cain and Abel his Children and descended by uninterrupted Tradition even to his Heathen Posterity tho they knew not their Original more than they did their own or that of the World's All these the Dr. thinks to be only Fancies and Imaginations which came he knows not how into Men's Brains And that to comply with these was the End of Christ's Incarnation Death c. Whereas on the Contrary it has been the Received Opinion that instead of God's imitating or following the Inventions of Men or Inspirations of the Devil That the Institutions of false and Idolatrous Religions were but Corruptions and Imitations of the True Religion Instituted by God and that in this the Devil was but an Ape of God Almighty whence arose the saying That where God has a Church the Devil has a Chappel i. e. That the Devil does Ape and Imitate the Institutions which God has appointed in his Holy Religion Hence the Devil had his Sacrifices his Feasts his Priests c. Not that these Institutions were of the Devil's Invention He did only imitate God's Institution in all these things as the Feast to his Calves was in imitation of God's Feast in Judah 1 Kings 12.32 But this Author turns the Tables and would have the Devil or wicked Men by his Inspiration to have first invented these Religious Rites And then that God did follow their Steps and framed his Religion after the Pattern of theirs or in Condescension to their wicked Phancies or Imaginations as this Author words it By which means instead of the common Opinion That God was the Author of all Religious Worship and the Devil the Corrupter of it This Author would persuade us That the Devil was the Author and first Inventer of it and that God came in but at the second hand in imitation of the Devil and to graft upon his Stock So that if the Devil and Foolish men had let alone their Inventions as of the Necessity of Sacrifices and Vicaricus Suffering of a Mediator and of Mysteries we had had no need of a Mediator of a Christ to have been a Sacrifice for us or of any Mystery or Religion at all For all these the Dr. tells us we owe to these Phantastical and even Diabolical Prejudices and Gross Conceptions of Mankind And this was not out of Forgetfulness of what is said above of their Institution by God No He mentions it several times but so slightly and with that Contempt as if no stress at all were to be laid upon it Page 5. of the single Sermon He says This Notion of the Expiation of Sin by Sacrifice whether it had its first Rise from Divine Revelation and was afterwards propagated from Age to Age by Traditiouâ— I say from whencesoever this Notion come And P. 11. He God seems either to have possessed Mankind with this Principle or to have permitted them to be so persuaded that Sin was not to be Expiated but by Blood that is either by the Death of the Sinner or of the Sacrifice Serm. 4. upon John 1.14 p. 185. It is not easie to give a certain account of the true Original of some Notions and Prejudiees concerning God and Religion which have generally obtained in the World Several of these Notions he mentions in the same place as Expiation of Sin by Sacrifices The Necessity of Mediators to God Reverence to Mysteries c. And these Notions however come by He does not make to be grounded upon any Truth any solid Reason but to be meerly Phantastical to be common Prejudices of Mankind Nay to be not only weak and foolâ—sh but wicked and abominable Hear his own words Beginning of Sermon 4th p. 179. He calls these The Weaknesses and Common Prejudices of Mankind very weak and gross apprehensions p. 189. very edd and Phantastical very Lewd and Impious very Inhuman and Cruel and every way unworthy of the Deity p. 206. Inveterate prejudices Single Serm. p. 7. Barbarous and Inhuman p. 29. Enormities and Cruelties Vnreasâ—nable and Bloody way of Worship p. 35. Inhumne and Ineffectual way of Sacrificing one another whereby instead of Expiating their Guilt they did inflame it and by thinking to make Atonement for their Sins they did in truth add to the number and heinousness of them Serm. 4. p. 186. He calls this Worship the Worship of Devils and not of God And Serm. 3. p. 155. He confesses The Devil and the World to be the two Great Enemies of our Salvation which Christ came to Conquer and Triumph over Now who would imagine that the End of Christ's Coming should be to gratify these Enemies of his whom he came to Destroy To comply and condescend to these and to indulge these Wild and Diabolical Notions of Mankind But this subtle Doctor has found it out Serm. 4. p. 179. The Wisdom of God thought fit thus to order things in Great Condescension to the Weakness and common Prejudices of Mankind P. 184. For the Religion and Laws which God gave them were far from being the Best and most Perfect in themselves In which Sense some understand that passage in Ezek where it is said That God gave them Statutes which were not good p. 187 God seems likewise to have very much suited the Dâ—speâ—sation of the Gospel and the Method of our Salvation by the Incarnation and Sufferings of his Son to the common Prejudices of Mankind especially of the Heathen World by Gratifying them in some measure and in a gracious Compliance with our Weakness by
bending and accommodating the way and method of our Salvation to our weak Capacity and imperfect Conceptions of things p. 186. God seems to have had great Consideration of some very weak and gross Approhensions of Mankind concerning Religion p. 206. And he hath in great Goodness and Condescension to our Inveterate Prejudices concerning these things appâ—ared in the end of the World to take away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Single Serm. p. 5. Anether reason of this Lispensation seems to have been a Gracious Condescension and Compliance of Almighty God with a certain apprehension and persuasion which had very early and universally obtained among Mankind concerning the Expiation of Sin and appeasing the effendid Deity by Sacrifices p. 6. God was pleased to comply so far with these Notions and Apprehensions of theirs as to make his own Son both a Priest and a Sacrifice Serm. 4 p. 192. And indeed a great part of the Jewish Religion and Worship was a plain Condescension to the General Apprehensions of Men concerning this way of Appeasing the Deity by Sacrifice p. 193. And with this General Notion of Mankind whatever the ground or foundation of it might be God was pleased so far to comply as once for all to have a General Atonement made for the Sins of all Mankind by the Sacrifice of his Only Son p. 195. The World was mightily bent upon Addressing their Requests and Supplications not to the Deity immediately because their Superstition thought that too great a Presumption but by some Mediators between the Gods and them who might with advantage in this humble Manner present their Requests so as to find Acceptance This Notion of theirs he calls Superstition to think that there needed any Mediator betwixt God and Man They indeed mistook the Mediator and therein was their Superstition and Idelatry But the Notion was Right and Necessary and deduc'd to them from Adam to whom it was Reveal'd tho' they knew it not But if their Notions of a Mediator and Sacrifice for Sin was wicked Abominable c. as this Author says was it not wicked and abominable to comply with such a wicked and abominable Notion Nay were not the very thing of a Mediator or Sacrifice for Sin a wicked and abominable thing How otherwise was the bare Notion of it so wicked and abominable I see not how he can escape upon this Scheme either to justifie the Heathen Sacrifices or Condemn that of Christ Either to say that there was no need of a Mediator or to Confess that their Notion of it which he calls Superstition was just and good But if it was Superstition is it not Superstition still If a Mediator in General be Superstition is not this or that Mediator the same Superstition Is not appointing any Mediator a Superstition And must it not be Superstition in any to think it necessary As the Heathens did And yet to Comply with this Superstition of theirs the Dr. maker the end of Christ's coming to be our Mediator p. 196. In a Gracious Complyance with this common Apprehension God was pleas'd to constitute and appoint One in our Nature to be a perpetual Advocate and Intercessor in Heaven for us Again we know the Socintans are much offended that there should be any Mystery in our Religion And for this the Dr. gives the same Reason viz. That it was only to comply with an odd Notion the World had got to have Mâ—steries in their Religion Serm. 4 p. 188. The World was much given to admire Mysteries in Religion p. 190. Since the Wâ—rld had such an Admiration for Mysteriâ—s God gave them a Mystery indeâ—d The Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh c. 1 Tim. 3.16 Otherwise we needed not have had any Mystery in our Religion norany Mediator nor any Expiatory Sacrifice Blessed God! This Man makes no more of the Mysteries of our Religion than to satisfie Men's foolish Curiosities He that will have a May-Pole shall have a May-Pole Since you will have Mysteries here 's one for you God manifest in the Flesh This is to satisfie their foolish longing after Mysteries and to give you your fill of Mysteries Was there ever so impious a Burlesque upon God and upon the Religion of Christ As if he was Incarnate for no other end but to make People wonder and Gaze and because of the Mystery forsooth And that he was Crucify'd only to outdo Raw-Head and Bloody Bones the Inhumanity of the Hâ—athen Sacrifices That is to Cure the Wickedness and Folly of Men by Overacting them in both For what are Mysteries without any further Consideration than as Mysteries that is Wonders and strange things but the height of Folly perfect Rary-Shows And what an account is it of Religion to say That God was manifest in the Flesh to satisfie such Childish Curiosity and because the World was given to admire Mysteries They were given likewise to Sacrifice not only Beasts but to Sacrifice one Man for another an Innocent Person for the Guilty But was not this a very wicked and inhuman Custom Yes The Dr. confesses it to have been even Diabolical And yet to comply with this wicked and Diabolical Custom and in Imitation of it he would have to be the reason why God Sacrific'd Christ an Innocent Person for the Guilty It makes all my Flesh creep and my Soul to tremble within me but to repeat such Blasphemous Schemes of Divinity which makes God to be the Devil's Ape and to have follow'd his wicked Inventions in the Institution of the Christian Religion But on the Contrary Christ himself assures us That he came to destroy the works of the Devil not to Compound with the Devil much less to Gratify him in following his wicked Suggestions which he had put into the Minds of Men and to carry them to greater heights of wickedness than ever the Devil himself could have done or so much as have imagin'd viz. Instead of the Sacrifices of Beasts or of Men which the Heathens practis'd to sacrifice the Sâ—n of God himself F. The Dr. puts this Objection p. 28. of single Sermon And gives two Answers to it First That God did not command his Son to be Sacrific'd but his Providence permitted the wickedness and violence of Men to put him to Death And that this is no moâ—e a Reslection upon the Providence of God than any Enormities and Cruelties which by his Permission are daily committed in the World 1. But if there was no more than God's bare Permissions in the Sacrifice of Christ as in all other wicked Action How was his Death a Sacrifice more than the Death of any other Man You say that God's Govenant with him for Remission of the Sins of the Penitent was grounded upon his Death and made with him before his Death was not this a more than a bare Permission of his Death How did God make him both a Priest and a Sacrifice by his Death as the Dr. says he did if he
Reflections upon their Adversaries They generally argue matters with that Temper and Gravity with that Freedom from Passion and Transport which becomes a serious and weighty Argument And for the most part they Reason closely and clearly with extraordinary Guard and Caution with great Dexterity and Decency and yet with Smartness and Subtilty enough with a very gentle Heat and few hard words A Man could hardly describe his Mistress in a softer Air. The Socinians must be very ill natur'd if they take any thing amiss which this Gentleman has said against them It was meer necessity they see how unwillingly and artificially he has done it and when rightly understood no doubt they understand him what he has said is with a design to give a better account of them than has been done to take off that frightful Character with which some have painted them not allowing them the very name of Christians Whereas alas The Dr. has told us that there is nothing betwixt them and us but a meer Controversie about words which all mean the same thing And then that they are the best Temper'd the Goodest sort of People in all the World So that we need not be afraid of them nor stand upon our guard against them And then they are the most Ingenious and the Sweetest Men that we should love to Converse with them and Read their Writings all the Christian writers are but Scolds and Bunglers to them This is our Author's Method of opposing Socinanism nor are they behind him in their Civility and due Respect in the Answer they have Publish'd this year 1694. to his abovesaid four Sermons with other Discourses against them He say they that is Dr. Tid whom they call Arch Bishop of Cant. is the Common Father of the Nation Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity Occasion'd by four Sermons Preached by his Crace the Lord Arch Bishop of Cant c. p. 43. and has Instructed the Socinians themselves with the Air and Language of a Father not of an Adversary or a Judge He is Respected and Lov'd by All but those that are also known to Hate their Country He hath no other Maligners but the Enemies of the Nation it self c. CLAW ME AND I 'LL CLAW YOU Here is Love and good Correspondence in abnudance These Gentlemen know their Friends And the Cause of Christianity is like to be well Defended when it is maintain'd by some of a Party on purpose that it may be soundly an-swer'd by others of them who play Booty to one anothers Hands And commend and recommend one another to all Mens Esteem and Veneration But that this may not be discover'd they Argree sometimes like Counsels at the Bar to fall foul upon one another even to Scold and call Names which to the wise Observers serves only to expose either their Contradictory Banter or otherwise their Hypocritical Malice and Deceit Thus notwithstanding of Dr. T 's Honey Words above told and all his Love-fits to the Socinians he sends them a Bit and a Blow Amantium Ira He plays with his Clog First I will give you his Character of Secinus himself the Head and Founder of that Order and then of the Socinians his followers 1st Serm. p. 17. 18. He tells the method of Socinus in Interpreting Scriptures which was meerly by Criticising upon words and searching into all the Senses they are possibly capable of till he can find one tho' never so forc'd and forreign that will save harmless the Opinion which he was before hand resâ—lved to maintain even against the most Natural and Obvious Sense of the Text which he undertakes to Interpret p. 44. That he puts quite another Sense upon the Scripture than the Dr. believes was thought of by any Christian Writer whatsoever before Socinus p 45. He accuses the Novelty great Violence and Vnreasonableness and utter Inconsistency of Socinus's Interpretations of Scripture And that it may not be forgot he repeats all this again 2 Serm. p. 57. and in p. 58. he calls Socinus's Interpretations Strain'd and Violent Pitiful and wretched shifts Precarious and Arbitrary without either Reason or Modesty p. 68. And as to the Novelty of it Socinus himself makes no difficulty to own it nay he seems rather to rejoyce and Applaud himself in it Vnhappy Man That was so wedded to his own Opinion that no Objection no Difficulty could divorce him from it p. 77. Socinus Imposing a new and very odd and violent Sense Contrary to the Sense of the Christian Church in all Ages down to this time And all this only to serve and support an Opinion which he had entertain'd before and therefore was resolv'd one way or other to bring the Scripture to comply with it And if he cou'd not have done it it is greatly to be fear'd that he wou'd at last have call'd in question the Divine Authority of S. John's Gospel rather than have quitted his Opinion And to speak freely I must needs say that it seems to me a much fairer way to reject the Divine Authority of a Book than to use it so Disingeniously and to wrest the plain Expressions of it with so wuch straining and violence from their most Natural and Obvious Sense for no Doctrine whatsoever can have any certain foundation in any Book if this Liberty be once admitted without regard to the plain Scope and Occasion of it to play upon the Words and Phrases p. 80. Socinus by a dangerous Liberty of imposing a forreign and forc'd Sense upon particular Texts has brought the whole H. Scriptures into uncertainty p. 82. Any one that reads him may see he was sufficiently conscious to himself of the Novelty and Boldness of his Interpretation p. 83. Socinus was the first Author of this Interpretation because it was impossible he could ever have been so fond of so ill favour'd a Child if it had not been his own p. 114 Of which Antiquity as Socinus had but little Knowledge so he seems to have made but little account This is our Author's Character of Socinus a Man of no Learning despising Antiquity because Ignorant of it Arrogant and Conceited past all Modesty Boasting that none in the World understood the true meaning of Scripture before himself Of which the Dr. gives several Quotations out of his own words 2 Serm. p. 69. Yet that his Shifts were Pitiful and Wretched Strain'd and Violent Precarious and Arbitrary without either Reason or Modesty That he was so positive an Opiniator that he wou'd rather have deny'd the Hâ—ly Scripture than been convinc'd of his Error that he dealt so Disingeniously with the Holy Scripture wresting the plain Expressions of it in such a manner that the Dr thought it preferrable to reject their Divine Authority rather than to abuse them as he has done Nay that no Writing whatsoever can have any certain meaning if Socinus's Liberty be allow'd of playing with the VVords and Phrases Thus much for Socinus himself Let us now
His great Proof is p. 10. The General Consent of Mankind concerning the Unity of God that the Vnity of the Divine Nature is a Notion wherein the Greatest and the Wisest part of Mankind did always agree p. 4. And yet speaking of the Heathen Idolatry which was all the rest of the World except the small Nation of the Jews he says plainly p. 9. that The generality were grosly guilty both of believing more Gods and of worshiping false Gods p. 10. And did terminate their worship there in the Idol as being the very Deity it self which was certainly says he the Case of the greatest part of the Heathen World And yet upon the Belief of this Greatest part he builds the Vnity of God when he confesses that this Greatest part did not believe the Vnity of God All the Salvo for this most palpable Contradiction is what he offers p. 9. viz. That the Vnity of the Divine Nature was the Primitive and General Belief of Mankind and that Polytheism and Idolatry were a Corruption and Degeneracy from the Original Notion which Mankind had concerning God I do not doubt but Adam worshiped the True God And it is as true that Idolatry came in very soon some say Cain introduc'd it And that there was a very great defection so quickly made that it is Recorded of the Birth of Enos That then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 4.29 as if they had never done it before And the Scripture tells of the General Corruption before the Flood After the Flood we know the whole World was swallow'd up in an Vniversal Idolatry except only the Family of Abraham and after him of the Jews who also were continually lapsing into it what then becomes of this Author's Greatest part of Mankind And his always That this Greatest part did always agree in the Notion of the Vnity of God Whereas he in the same place makes this Greatest part to have been always since the World was Peopled Believers and Worshipers of more Gods and false Gods in such gross Idolatry as I cannot believe ever befel one Man since Adam or that it is possible to besal any Man being so apparent a Contradiction viz. to terminate our Worship in the Image or Idol as being the very Deity it self For how can any Man believe such a thing to be the Image or Picture of another thing and yet to be that very thing of which it is the Image Or is it in any Man's power to believe that a thing can be the Image or Idol of its self Cou'd Solomon believe this Or was not he an Idolater We know whom this favours and there may be a time to Recant even our Nestrum against Transubstantion It won'd be no greater change than what has been already And there is no stop in Art nor are we ever too old to learn Thus much for his betraying the Unity of God by placing it upon a Foundation which he himself hath overthrown Next to shew that as to the Trinity of God he speak the very Socinian Language All that he says of it is in Sect. 3. p. 19 20. Because he must say something He is soon weary of it and first he gives a Broad-side against it in direct Opposition to what the Divines say of it He desires not or deserves not to be reckon'd one of the number for the Dispute is not about the words Trinity or Person but as to the Sense of these words in which they are used by Divines The Socinians own a Trinity and they have lately Re-printed and Published Bidle's Confession of Faith touching the Holy Trinity But all the matter is in what Sense the word Trinity is us'd by our Divines and by the Socinians and in this he peremptorily determines against the Sense of the Divines as Anti-Scriptural He says That neither the word Trinity nor perhaps Person in the Sense in which it is used by Divines when they treat of this Mystery are any where to â—e met with in Scripture This is directly opposing the Doctrine of the Trinity as taught by Divines Put he brings himself off thus Yet it cannot be deny'd says he but that Three are there spoken of by the Names of Father Son and Holy Ghost this no Socinian in the World denies in whose Name every Christian is Baptized this is likewise granted by the Socinians and to each of whom the highest Titles and Properties of God are in Scripture Attributed Neither does this offend the Secinians who Plead the same in answer to Jâ—hn 1.3 as you have it in the Brief Hâ—â—â—ory of the Vnitarians which solves that Text All things were made by him i. e. by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or word thus The word says he begins here to be spoken of as a Person by the the same figure of Speech That Solomon saith Wisdom hath hath builded her House and heuen out her seven Pillars Prov. 9.1 And that David calls Gods Commandments Councellours Psal 119.24 And in conclusion this Author is willing to Compound for the word Person of which we have spoke before So long says he as we mean by it neither more nor less than what the Scripture says in other words But he has told you before that there is no such thing to be found in Scripture in the sense in which it is used by Divines And what other sense he means is easie to tell For the present Controversie is only betwixt the two senses of the Divines as he calls them and the Socinians unless he means something else by the word Divines and so makes the whole a Banter upon us For he does not explain himself nor say one word more in all that Sermon touching the Blessed Trinity of the difference ' twxit the Socinians and us concerning this great Fundamental of our Faith And whether this be or whether it be not a sufficient clearing of himself as to what side he inclines when he could find no more to say against the Socinians upon this point in a Discourse which he Entitles and so would make us believe to be A Vindication of the Christian Doctrines to the Blessed Trinity against that of the Socinians I leave to the Impartial Reader And now for a Conclusion upon the whole that has been said of all his Sermons they are all the Genuine effects of Hobbism which loosens the Notions of Religion takes from it all that is Spiritual Ridicules whatever is called Supernatural it reduces God to Matter and Religion to Nature In this School Dr. T. has these many years held the First Form and now diffuses his Poyson from a high Station It is many years ago since the E. of D. one Sunday that Dr. T. Preach'd at White-Hall told K. C. 2d that Mr Hâ—bbs was got into the Pulpit his Politicks are Leviathan and his Religion is Latitudinarian which is none that is nothing that is positive but against every thing that is positive in other Religions whereby to reduce
all Religions to an uncertainty and determinable only by the Civil Power against whose Command Dr. T. does not think it lawful to Preach the Gospel Preach'd before K. C. the ad at White-Hall the 2d of April 80 upon Jâ—sh 24.15 without such extraordinary Commission as the Apostles had and that we were able to vouch it with Miracles as they did which is as much as Hobbs himself could have ask'd if he had got into the Pult it in Person and not sent his Deputy He is own'd by the Atheistical Wits of all England as their true Primate and Apostle They Glory and Rejoice in him and make their publick Boasts of him He leads them not only the length of Socinianism they are but slender Beaux have got no father than that but to call in question all Revelation to turn Genesis c. into a meer Romance to Ridicule the whole as Blunt Gildoâ— and others of the Doctor 's Disciples have done in Print They now cry there is nothing but Natural Religion All that which is called Revealed is at most but Gods Compliance with the Superstition of the vulgar and what does that concern Men of Wit and Sense Since Religion has no deeper a Root what Reverence what Veneration is due to it All the Ordinances and Constitutions of the Law and Gospel are but Politicks to secure Government and the threatenings even of Hell it self are no more and therefore there is no necessity no certainty that they will be inflicted as our Primate has boldly asserted in the very Face of the Government and his Sermon was Printed by their Majesties special Command Thus to the Deists Triumph And thus actum est dâ— Religione if none dare oppose these depths of Satan and the Spiritual wickednesses which are now set up in high places When this Sermon of Hell was first Published it was handed about among the great Debauchees and small Atheistical Wits more than any new Play ever came out He was not a Man of Fashion who wanted one of them in his Pocket ot could not draw it out at the Coffee-House and read a Lecture of the Priest-Ridden Ages who were frighted with the Eternity of Hell only to keep them in absolute subjection to the Church forsooth And then to run two or three Divisions in praise of Dr. T. as a Man of Sense and Reason and not afraid to undeceive the World and break off from a Company of formal and narrow-spirited Church-men who going on in the track of their Fathers durst not understand the Scriptures out of the ancient Roade in a Generous Latitude over the Pailes of any Church or Profession whatsoever but crept on still in their straight and narrow way to Heaven which Dr. T. like another Prómetheus having stole the Divine Secret has opened so broad and wide as to let in the Latitudinarians that is all the World and after some reasonable time even Hell it self For God has only threatened that they shall not enter into his Rest and the Dr. has determined in that Hellish Sermon p. 13. and 15. That God is not obliged to Execute his Threatenings tho' he is to perform his Promises But having spoke at large of this in a former Conversation with you I will not Repeat I am now only from the câ—nstant Tract of all his Sermons as well before as since this Revolution but now highly improved and grown bolder shewing you what a Face he puts upon Religion he gives it quite another turn from what all other Divine Ancient and Modern except those infected with Hâ—bbism have told us They make the chief business of Religion to respect another World tho' it is likewise highly useful and the most efficacious of any other means whatsoever to preserve the Peace of this But Mr. Hobbs Dr. T. c. make its chief and indeed almost onely consideration to respect the Peace and Quietness of this World Which is largely set forth in his Sermon before the House of Commons the 5th of November 1678. upon Luke 9.55 56. where as if Religion were good for nothing else but to secure Temporal Government and Peace in this World He demands Magisterially and with great vehemence in these words And for God's sake what is Religion good for but to Reform the Manners and Dispositions of Men to restrain Human Nature from Violence and Cruelty from Falshood and Treachery from Sedition and Rebellion And then In the very next words he roundly and without mincing the matter comes to the Objection That if this be all the end of Religion it were better to have no Religion at all than to disturb our outward Peace and Tranquility for it Because the End is always to be preferr'd before the Means And therefore if the End of all Religion be only to preserve the Peace of this World it follows necessarily that Religion must give place to the Peace of this World so that if both cannot stand together we must part with our Religion to preserve the Peace of this World Here the Dr. does distinguish and puts in a Salvo for his dearly beloved Natural Religion because he can make of that what he will But he plainly and in terms gives up the Cause as to all Revealed Religion That it were better have no such thing that is no Christ or Christianity rather than to disturb our Peace in this World for it Better it were says he there were no Revealed Religion and that Human Nature were left to the Conduct of its own Principles and Inclinations which are much more mild and merciful much more for the Peace and Happiness of Human Society than to be acted by a Religion that is continually supplanting Government and undermining the Wellfare of Mankind This is their outward Wellfare he is still speaking of And above in the same page aggravating the mischiefs of disturbances upon account of Religion viz. setting a keener edge upon Mens Spirits and making them more Cruel and Bitter to one another he concludes thus For let any Man say worse of Atheism and Infidelity if he can Here is a bold Challenge and the Dr. could not but foresee the Answer which would be ready in every Man's Mouth That Hell and Damnation which are threatened as the punishment to Atheism and Infidelity were much worse than any Embroylments could be in this World But he has made Hell precarious and consequently Religion to look no further than this World at least with any certainty But it is not only matters of such consequence as Government which the Dr. prefers to Revealed Religion But to shew his utmost Contempt of it he has found out so very mean a thing to compare to it and prefer before it as must surprise and astonish every Christian Reader He makes a Womans giving out her Child to Nurse to be a more heinous matter than to renounce Christ and all Revealed Religion His words are these And this says he that is a Womans Nursing her own Child
is a Natural Duty and because it is so Six Sermons Prined together 1694. Serm. 3. Concerning the Education of Children p. 103. of a mere necessary and indispensable Obligation than any positive Precept of Revealed Religion Now the Belief of Christ is nothing else but a positive Precept of Revealed Religion Christ is the only truly Revealed Religion God never Revealed any other For the Gospel was Preach'd to the Jews as well as unto us Heb. 4.2 The Law and the Prophets taught Christ to come as the Gospel shewed him when he was come From the first Revelation of him Gen. 3.15 to the end of the World it is the same Gospel the same Christ that is Revealed And Dr. T. even since he came to Cant has Printed it and Published it to all the World that he thinks a Womans Nursing her own Child is more necessary than the Belief of Christ and of more Indispensible Obligation And his poor Reason because it is a Natural Duty will advance every Passion or Vice that we think to be Natural above all the Commands of God in Scripture We know what sins the Libertines do plead for as Natural and they think that Marriage which is but a Positive Precept ought not to supersede the Natural Freedom These Men measure Good and Evil by their present corrupted Nature and thereby give their Lusts the Ascendent and a Superior Authority to the Written Word of God By which means they have shaken themselves loose from all Discipline of Religion But what they know Naturally as Brute Beasts Jude 10. in those things they corrupt themselves What our Nature was before the Fall we cannot nâ—w tell And that only can be truly called Natural that is what was agreeable to our Nature in its Purity and in its Perfection not now in its Broken and Corrupted Condition Which is therefore much more safely conducted by unerrable Revelation from God than to have those Sacred Oracles over-rul'd and superseded by our very Fallible Notions of Nature which every Man may make to mean what he pleases For what is counted very vile and abominable in some Nations is practised without scruple among other People and thought very Natural and therefore very Good Nay a Man may think that to be Natural to day which to morrow he may think quite otherwise Which shews the Fallibility of this Rule Even this great Natural Dr. himself in the Reign of K. C. 2d thought at least Preached it before the K. that Sedition and Rebellion Perfidiousness and Perjury were contrary to the Natural Notions 3d Vol. of his Serm. 3d Serm. upon 1 John 4.1 p. 76. 77. and therefore that no Revelation was to be credited which did but Allow of them no not tho' even Miracles were done in confirmation of any such Revelation And yet this notwithstanding he justified the Present Revolution from the visible Finger of God in it Thanksgiving Serm. for our Deliverance by the P. of O. p. 68. 69. 70 71 72. and the plain Signatures and Characters of a more immediate Divine Interpositon Such as the uncertainty of the Weather the Infatuation of the Jesuits Councils and other such like Signatures of a Divine Interposition which he mentions And from such Miraculous Interpositions he Justifiers those whom he calls The Worthies of our Nation who Deserted Betray'd and took Arms against K. James So that we find the Doctors Nature and his Natural Notions vary'd in a very little time and upon a small variation of Circumstances insomuch that what one day he would not trust to Revelation or Miracles for the next day the turning of the Wind shall be Argument sufficient For some Mens Notions of what is Natural are suited to what they find agreeable to their Nature that is to their Ease their Convenience or sometimes to their Lusts and Pleasures or even their Resentments and basest Passions I would not here be misunderstood as if I meant to Decry all Natural Religion and Reason No doubt there is such a Light imprinted in our Nature by God But it is much darkened since to Fall and needs the assistance of Revelation to direct our way to Heaven And it ought to be subservient to Revelation which is all I plead for and not set up against it and prefer'd before it as this Dr. and others of his Principles have rashly done I compare our Natural Light or Knowledge to the Creation of the First Day And it is the Light of the First Day which we enjoy still But not as it was that day Created It was Regulated and Modeled the Fourth Day into the Sun Moon and Stars And now we have no Participation at all of the Light of the First Day but what we have from its Regulation on the Fourth Day and conveyed to us from the Sun Which I compare to Revealed that is the Christian Religion God is called Light 1 John 1.5 and Christ Mat. 4.2 is called the Sun of Righteousness and tho' there is a Precedent Natural Knowledge of God like the Light of the First Day yet now that Christ is Revealed the true Knowledge of God is to be had as the Scripture speaks only in the Face of Jesus Christ For none know God truly but the Son and he to whom soever the Son will Reveal him Mat. 11.27 And to go back now from the Revealed to Natural Religion is as if we should forsake the Light of the Sun to grope after the Light of the First Day And as Christ is Superiour to our Natural Light or Reason so the Institutions of his Revealed Religion do take place of our Natural Instincts Thus shall a Man leave his Father and Mother which are Natural Relations and shall cleave to his Wife which is a Positive Institution Kings and Bishops our Governors both in Church and State our Spiritual and Political Fathers have greater Authority over us than our Natural Parents So far is it from being true which Dr. T. has set up as a Maxim that what he calls Natural Duties are of more necessary and Indispensible Obligation than any Positive Precepts of Revealed Religion On the contrary the Precepts of Revealed Religion as they are of far Greater and Higher Authority than our own meer Natural Notions So are they the surest Indication of what was the First and Original Pure and Vncorrurted Dictates of our Nature I have here only mentioned these short passages out of some of Dr. T 's Sermons to shew his plain and down-right Hâ—bbism upon which I could enlarge and shew you the same Thread to run through all his Works But this I intend for a Task by it self my present Work being his Socinianism And I think it an Indispensible Duty to warn the World especially this poor Kingdom of this Man 's Diabolical Principles because he is got now into so high a Sphere as to be able to do much mischief among the Clergy by preferring those of his own Principles the Latitudinarians and by this means
us And through all that and the following Homily it is insisted on as necessary to the Pardon of Sin that Christ himself should come down from Heaven be Incarnat and Dis and that no Prophet or Angel or less than the Eternal Son of God could have wrought our Deliverance And this is agreeable to the Scripture Language as before told That Christ OUGHT to have suffered that it BEHOVED Him to suffer Luke 24.26.46 That thus it MUST be Mat. 26.54.39 That it was not POSSIBLE the Cup should pass from Him if He wou'd compleat the Redemption of Man In the Homily of the Salvation of Mankind c. you have these words God sent his Son to fulfill the Law for us and by shedding his most precious Blood to make a Sacrifice and Satisfaction or as it may be called Amends to his Father for our sins And whereas iâ— lay not in us to do that he provided a Ransom for us And so the Justice of God and his Mercy did embrace together and fulfilled the Mystery of our Redemption He would not by his Mercy deliver us clearly without Justice or Payment of a Just Ransom but with his endless Mercy he joyned his most upright and equal Justice Vpon God's part his Great Mercy and Grace Vpon Christ's part Justice that is the Satisfaction of God's Justice So that in our Justification there is not only God's Mercy and Grace but also his Justice The Grace of God doth not shut out the Justice of God in our Justification And whereas all the World was not able of themselves to pay any part toward their Ransom It pleased our Heavenly Father of his Infinite Mercy without any of our desert or deserving to propare for us the most precious Jewels of Christ's Body and Blood whereby our Ransom might be fully paid the Law fulfilled and his Justice fully satisfied This Faith the Holy Scripture teaches us is the strong Rock and Foundation of Christian Religion This Doctrine all Old and Ancient Authors of Christ's Church do approve This Doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true Glory of Christ and beateth down the vain Glory of Man this whosoever denieth is not to be accounted for a Christian Man but for an Adversary to Christ and his Gospel Yet these Adversaries Rear in the midst of our Congregations and set up their Banners for Takens O God in what a Condition is this poor Church these miserable misled People of England when such Doctrine is taught from the Throne of Canterbury When Addresses are made to the Clergy by their Bishops publickly and in Print to teach and propagate these Damnable Heresies When these Men are made Primates and Bishops of our Church whom our Homilies think not fit to be accounted as Christian Men but Adversaries to Christ and his Gospel The whole Head is sick and the whole Hears faint It is for the fins of these Nations that such Priests are sent to them according to the words of the Prophet Hos 4.9 There shall be like People like Priest 9.7 The Prophet is a Fool the Spiritual Man is Mad for the multitude of thine Iniquity and the great Hatred 8. The Prophet is a snare of a Fowler in all his ways and Hatred in the House of his God Jer. 23.9 My Heart within me is broken because of the Prophets all my Bones shake For the Land is full of Adulteries for because of SWEARING the Land mourneth 5.31 Their cause is Evil and their force is not Right A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land The Prophets Prophesy falsly and the Priests bear Rule by their means and my People love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof POSTSCRPT I Am the more encouraged in what I have here undertaken that Dr. Sherlock who formerly was so rankly Socinian as to the Doctrine of Satisfaction not only to Blaspheme but Ridicule it as Dr. S. has severely shewn from his Book of the Knowledge of Christ has now at last come off from these two Doctors and Disputed expresly against them upon this point and answered their Arguments against the Doctrine of Satisfaction in his Sermon Peached at White-Hall last Trinity Sunday 1694. which it is much desired that he would Publish tho' he could get no License from Lambeth It gave great satisfaction to many of his Auditors from some of whom I had a very good Account of it Particularly in answer to Dr. T 's main and he thinks unanswerable Objection where he Dares any Man to say that God could'not save Man otherwise than by the Death or Satisfaction of Christ. To which Dr. Sherlock Reply'd as it was Represented to me that if this was understood of any Compulsion from without God could not be Compell'd or Oblig'd in any Case But if the necessity proceeded from what is Internal and consequently Eternal in God that is his Justice it was no Imperfection to suppose such a Necessity in God of requiring Satisfaction c. But I will not Anticipate nor Prejudice the Dr. We desire it in his own words FINIS A SUPPLEMENT upon Occasion of A History of Religion lately Published supposed to be Wrote by Sir R. H d. Wherein likewise Charles Blount's GREAT DIANA is Considered And both Compar'd with Dr. TILLOTSON's Sermons READER THis comes to you upon occasion of a Book Published this year 94. since the foregoing Observations were wrote It is call'd A History of Religion And gives a like account of Religion as what I have already told out of Dr. Till but in somewhat another Form And it quotes him with great Applause in the Preface as the true Pattern of Orthodox Divinity that is such Principles as he there sets forth and so much in the Doctor 's Stile and Air that if he be not the Author it comes from some of his Disciples that have Copy'd after him very exactly He Ridicules all Reveal'd Religion and turns it into what he calls Priest-Craft This was but borrowed from a work of that Execrable Charles Blount one of the Atheistical Club and very intimate with Dr. Tillotson It was Printed in London Anno 1680. and is Intituled Great is Diana of the Ephesians Or The Original of Idolatry together with the Politick Institution of the Gentiles Sacrifices The Design and whole Import of that Book is under the Name of the Gentile Sacrifices and Religion to Blaspheme and like a Mad Dog to Curse and Reproach the whole Institution of God as well under the Law as the Gospel And he Builds upon the very same Foundation as Dr. Till in the Sermons above Quoted of Sacrifices and all the other Institutions of Revealed Religion being meerly an Invention of Men. Though he does not go the length of his Master Dr. Till to make the Sacrifice of Christ and other Institutions of the Christian Religion to be only a Complyance with the Wicked and Diabolical Fancies of Men in their Bloody Sacrifices of Beasts and Human Kind c. But
God had committed to the Civil Magistrate who Beareth it not in vain but is a Revenger to execute Wrath upon them that do Evil. Rom. 13.4 And that Blasphemy is not one of the Evils which is within his Commission to Punish I believe will not be found in all the Gospel Christ urg'd no such thing when He Himself was Condemn'd for alledg'd Blasphmy But on the contrary He Confirm'd the Magistate's Power in that very Case and own'd that it was given Him from Heaven John 19.11 Christ Commands if a Man smite us on one Cheek to turn the other If a Man take our Coat let him have our Cloak also and not to avenge an injury done to us Will any Man say that these are Rules for Judges to go by in distributing Justice 'twixt Man and Man There is no better pretence from the Injunctions of Meekness and Forgiving of Injuries to conclude against the Power of the Magistrate in case of Blasphemy or to call this a Persecution But they are in no fear of the Laws at present They cry before they are hurt But they think by this Argument to raise an Odium against Kings as well as Priests and to Curtall the Power of both for they are equal Enemies to both There are none of these Latitudinarians that are not Commonwealth-Men They are against Monarchy in Heaven or on Earth and indeed against all Government if they could tell how that is all that is not in their own Hands They cannot bear to be under the Discipline of any other This is the true ground of their Quarrel at Religion It is not the Mystery of it that they would not trouble their Head with nor spend their Breath to undeceive those Fools as they call them who believe it they would not concern themselves at Priest-Craft or care if Priests wore Fools-Caps so they were not under their Correction It is the Law not the Doctrine of Christ which is Grievous to them They would break his Bonds asunder and cast away his Cords from them Psal 2 3. And they will flie in the Face of the Civil Government if it tie these faster upon them or restrain their Libertinism in this or in any other Instance Religion enforces and strengthens Government and Government Protects and Encourages Religion therefore both are equally Obnoxious to these Filthy Dreamers who Defile the Flesh Despise Dominion and speak Evil of Dignities of those things which they know not Jude 8. But what they know naturally as Brute Beasts in those things they corrupt themselves 10. Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain 11. and ran greedily after the Error of Balaam for Reward and perished in the gainsaying of Core 12. Clouds they are without Water carried about of Winds Trees whose Fruit withereth without Fruit twice dead plucked up by the Roots 13. Raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame wandering Stars to whom is reserved the Blackness of Darkness for ever Is not this a lively Description of these Men And are these Men to be Tolerated in any Government Will God Bless that Church or Government Is it a Christian Lenity to Indulge this sort of Men God Commends the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2.6 because they hated the Deeds of the Nicolaitans who gave way to the sins of the Flesh tho' under colour of Religion which I also hate says God And he threatens to fight against the Church of Pâ—rgamâ—s because they had amongst them those that taught that Doctrine 15. And who held the Doctrine of Balaam to cast a Stumbling-Block 14. before the People and are not these Stumbling-blocks which I have mentioned out of these Mens Works The Church of Thyatira 20. was condemn'd for suffering that wicked Woman Jezebel to seduce the Servants of Christ Who will spue those out of his Mouth Chap. 3.16 who have no more Zeal for his Religion who are neither Hot nor Cold who have a Latitudinarian Indifferency Let every Man go his own way I would thou were either Cold or Hot â— 15. being perfectly Cold. That is having no Religion at all is preferable to this Luke-warm Loadicean temper to profess â—â—e Religion of Christ and be so careless and unconcern'd what becomes of it The Kings of Israel were Blam'd and severely Punished by God for permitting of Idolatry which could not be if it did not belong to their Office to Restrain it And those Kings must be very weak indeed who will be gain'd by the sometimes servile soothings of these Priest-Craft-Men and not see that all they Belch out against the Priests is equally levell'd against them They cannot keep it always Conceal'd â—lount bestows his loving Glances upon them Sect. 16. p. 41. where he represents them under the Figures of Beasts of Rapine Lions Dragons c. But for petty Princes says he a Fox may be the better Emblem And these Men who cry out of Persecution at the same time endeavour to raise all Mankind against those whom they Hate or Fear They would stir up Persecution against those whom they call Persecutors That is to say Persecution is only Evil when it touches them And of all Mankind none were more violent Persecutors than the Arians that is the Socinians when they had the Power who now speak against Persecution because they have not the Inflicting of it yet go in it as far as their Power reaches that is their Wit and Malice But tho' the Sword of Justice be at present otherwise employ'd than to Animadvert upon these Blasphemers is the Cause of God is the Christian not to name the Protestant Religion so sunk that none must oppose and that boldly and openly such loud Contempt of all that is Sacred And when the Chief and Father of them is advanc'd to the Throne of Canterbury and thence infuses his deadly Poison through the Nation Preaches it Publickly at White-Hall and gets it Printed by Their Majesties Special Command to give it greater Countenance and Authority and another Collegue of his at Salisbury Recommends the same in Print to be Preach'd and Taught through the Diocess which Indignatione Divinâ is committed to his Charge and all the other Bishops and Clergy of their Communion let it pass with at least Silent Consent When the Braves of this at best Theistical Junctâ— Place Dr. Tillotson's Name not only in his private Capacity but as Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the Front of their Anti-Christian Haranguea in Print and he shews no Displeasure in it And to Recapitulate a little of what is said before He himself has exceeded them in the Barbarous Account he has given of the Rise and Foundation of the Christian Religion They make Religion to be the Invention of Wicked Men or of Devils and he improves it making the Christian Religion only a Compliance with that Wickedness As before is sufficiently shewn When he dares so openly and bare-fac'd Attack all Revial'd Religion as to make it good for nothing but to preserve outward
Peace in this World As he does in his Seâ—â—on upon Luke 9.55 which is quoted with Magnificence in the Preface to this History of Religion But this Historian himself had the Modesty or Cunning to leave out those broad words of the Doctors which I have shewn above viz. That it were better there had never been any Revealed Religion that is that Christ had never come than to make uneasiness in the World and disturb Government for it And tho' as I have shewn above The Christian Religion is the greatest Security to Government and the outward Peace of this world yet that Notion could never have come into the Head of a Christian that we had better never have had any Christ than that any Worldly Government should be disturb'd Nay farther when as I have shewn above this Dr. makes a Mother Suckling her own Child to be of a more Necessary and Indispensible Obligation than to believe in Christ that is than any possitive Precept of Revealed Religion which are his words for the Belief of Christ is nothing else but a Possitive Precept of Revealed Religion When He Disputes openly against the Satisfaction of Christ and makes all our Thirty Nine Articles or the Belief of any particular Church but the Jargon of a Party and Commands all the Children of the Nation to be bred up loose from any such Narrow Principles When He makes not only the Eternity but the Being of a Hell wholly Precarious And lastly when as I have shewn from Dr. Burnâ—t Licens'd by Dr. Tillotson That Christ is made to be no otherwise God than the Cloud of Glory in the Temple When such Wickedness is set up in our High Places shall we not give warning First to the Clergy in these Mens Communion quickly and speedily to separate from them I meddle not Here with the point of Schism That stands a Dispute by it self but as the 15th Canon of the Synod of Constantinople which was omitted in Mr Hody's Edition of the Baroccian MS. expresly ordians That if any Bishop though a lawful Bishop do hold Heretical Opinions and shall PUBLICKLY Teach and Preach the same bare-fac'd in the Church all even the meanest Laick is Obliged to Separate from such wicked Teacher even before Synodical Condemnation And whether the Opinions before told are not in the grossest manner Heretical And whether Preaching them at White-Hall and Printing them be not a publick Teaching and Preaching the same is left to the Judgment of the Reader And then what an Indispensible Obligation must lie upon all the Clergy especially in their Communion to Separate from them and as publickly and openly as they have done to Disclaim Renounce and Confute their Damnable Heresiel Otherwise the Blood of all those Souls who shall be infected by them and of all their Posterities whom they shall likewise infect will be required of every single Clergy-Man who but by his Silence and continuing in their Communion shall so far giue Countenance to their Errors Silence can never be an excuse in a Watch-Man whose Office it is to cry aloud And if he â—low not the Trumpet he cannot deliver his Soul And tho' immediate Death attended it this he ought to do But there is not that Hazard The Government is not concern'd in this It is the Common Cause of Christianity And I see no Reason but to expect that every such Clergy-Man would be esteemed and valued even by this Government which would besides think it some sort of a Vindication of the Government from what share it may be supposed they have in the Abetting or Encouragement of such Heterodox Principles Preach'd before them by those in such High Place with them and said to be Printed by Their Special Command And for the People such Clergy would certainly be greatly regarded by them as Men of Conscience and Zeal for their Religion But if the Clergy which God forbid should prove so Laodicean as not to think this worth their while and so leave the Imputation to fall upon their whole Communion Then I must Admonish all the Godly Laity that they are obliged in their Station as much as the Clergy in theirs to Separate from such wicked Teachers and that by the above quoted Council of Constantinople they are not to be Reputed Schismaticks for so doing but aâ— Preservers of the Unity of the Church whose Unity consists chiefly in the Unity of their Doctrine But they have a greater Authority than that of any Council Gal. 1.8 Tho' we says one of the Apostles or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be Accursed And as all the Laity are hereby oblig'd under the penalty of Sin to Separate from the Church-Communion of these Heretical Bishops and of all who Communicate with them so is it likewise required of them to abstain as much as is possible even from their private Conversation with such a one says St. Paul not so much as to eat And let them think that these are Trying Times sent on purpose to distinguish God's Elect from the Reprobate to Separate His Little Flock from the World of Iniquity For there must be also Heresies among you that they which are approved way the made manifest among you 1 Cor. 11.19 FINIS
upon him the Nature of Man and not the Person of any Man that he might make Satisfaction for Mankind and not only for any particular Person Hence he took all our Natural but none of our Personal Infirmities He was subject to Sleep Weariness Grief Pain and even Death all which are incident to our Nature But not to Sickness Blindness Lameness or any Personal infirmities Since therefore it was necessary that our Redeemer must be God-Man I think it will follow that it could be none other but Christ Again I think this Question is decided Matth. 26.39 where Christ prays That if it were possible that Cup might pass from him Which shews that it was not possible for him to accomplish the Redemption of Man which he had undertaken without suffering death Otherwise no doubt God wou'd not have refused the Petition of his Well beloved Son And it is no impeachment of the Wisdom of God to say there was no other way possible But on the contrary it is carrying the notion of Wisdom to the utmost height that when there was but one possible way Wisdom should find it out And the Dr. himself stumbles upon this unawares it is hard to be constant in Error which is it self all unconstancy p. 10 of single Serm. he said That nothing less than the perfect Innocency and Holiness of him who was to be a Sacrifice for us could have explated the guilt of our sins and purchas'd eternal Redemption for us Secondly Great Sufferings likewise in our nature even to the suffering of Death were requisit to the perfect expiation of Sin I say even to the suffering of Death These are the Doctor 's words From whence I argue That none had perfect Innocency and Holiness but God and therefore that none but He COVLD have Explated the Guilt of our Sins Secondly The Sufferings for Explating the Guilt of our Sins must be in our Nature therefore the Expiator must be likewise Man Thirdly These Sufferings must be even unto Death From all which it follows that none cou'd be this Expiator but Christ God and Man and that he must Suffer even unto Death If all which be true then I desire the Dr. to answer his own Objection and tell us how it was possible for the Redemption of Man to have been effected any other way I would recommend to him his own Advice upon this very matter Serm. 4th p. 181. which he says he follows All along to take the express Declarations or at least the pregnant Intimations of Scripture for his Ground and Guide it being always safest to take the Reasons of the Divine Counsels and Actions from God himself Now we wou'd gladly know for he has no where told us in what place of Scripture it is reveal'd that God's sending his Son and all the Aeconomy of the Gospel was to Gratifie and Indulge the Senseless and Wicked Prejudices which Men had pick'd up concerning Religion For that is the account the Dr. gives us of his Faith And it is more Monstrous by far than any ever I heard set up even by the Socinians themselves Yet the Dr. does not forsake them tho' he thus advances sometimes in stretches beyond them For single Serm. p 21. He sets up in express terms the account the Socinians give of the Remission of Sins by Christ viz. That it was not upon account of any Satisfaction made by Christ for our sins but only an Arbitrary Covenant they cannot tell why which God made with Christ that if he wou'd be Crucified God wou'd remit the sins of the Penitent And that there was no need nor necessity for this Covenant because God might have remitted sins as well without this Covenant or upon any other Covenant the turning of a Straw or what you will or upon no Covenant at all So that this Covenant with Christ was wholly Causeless Needless and Arbitrary The same Socinian Covenant this Author sets up in the page above quoted where he says That upon the Sufferings of Christ God thereupon entered into a Covenant of Grace and Mercy with Mankind wherein he engag'd himself to forgive the sins of these who Believe and Repent Thus this Author holds with the Socinians by excluding the Satisfaction from being any part of the Covenant or consider'd at all in it F. You wou'd make one think it strange how the Dr. came to Preach and Publish such a Sermon as this with a design against the Socinians C. It was really to do them service And reconcile Men more to their principles by lessening the Differences which are conceiv'd betwixt them and us a Topick much in practice with the Jesuits in their Disputes with the Protestants as Mahomet went to the Mountain which wou'd not come to him which he makes so small as to consist in nothing but words p. 32. to signifie just nothing p. 31. For an account of this you will find pp. 16. 31. and 32. He sums up the difference 'twixt the Socinians and us as to the Doctrine of Satisfaction to consist only in this That the Socinians say Christ suffered for us or for our Sake whereas others wou'd have it understood that Christ suffered for us that is in our stead Which the Dr. proves p. 32. to be a meer Controversie about words And so the matter is shortly reconcil'd which has so much taken up the Christian Church And that very undeservedly and uncharitably if the difference be no more than this Author wou'd have us believe Out of Friendship to which Party is easie to discover for he has turn'd the Doctrine of Satisfaction which is the whole of this Controversie to be no part of the Controversie and indeed without it all the rest is a Contest about words and he wou'd make you believe that there is more betwixt the Socinians and Vs than whether Christ died for our Sake or in our Stead which he says are the same Having thus cleverly brought off his belov'd Socinians Witness the sweet and gentle Epithets of Brutal False Nonsence c. which in one page of the History of the Vnitarians p. 24. are bestow'd on us That our Faith is absurd and contrary both to Reason and to it self Impossible inexcusable and that not to disern it is not to be a Man Ibid. Besides many other the like Endearing Complements in other places As Impudent Blasphemous and even Diabolical and Idolatrous Polytheisme Depths of Satan Thus they call the Christian Doctrine which we profess he no longer conceals his Dear and Intimate Affection to them He prefers them before all sorts of Men in the World and says 2 Serm. p. 72. That even the Protestant the Popish nay the very Jesuits themselves are in Comparison of them but meer Scolds and Bunglers And p. 70 71. He says To do right to the Writers on that side The Socinians I must own generally they are a Pattern of the fair way of Disputing and of Depating matters of Religion without Heat and unseemly