The Blasphemous Socinian HERESIE Disproved and Confuted WHEREIN The Doctrinal and Controversial Parts of those Points are handled and the Adversaries Scripture and School-Arguments answered WITH Animadversions upon a late Book called Christianity not Mysterious Humbly Dedicated to Both Houses of PARLIAMENT By J. GAILHARD Gent. And many other things blasphemously spake they against him Luke 22.65 And we know that the son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life 1 John 5.20 Textus non fallit multos speciosa fefellit Glossa Dei verbo nitere tutus eris LONDON Printed for R. Wellington at the Lute in S. Paul's Church-Yard and J. Hartley over against Grays-Inn-Gate in Holborn 1697. TO THE Lords and Commons NOW IN PARLIAMENT Assembled Right Honourable and Honourable AT this time God's Providence hath brought you together to consult about the great Concerns of the Nation and the Matter I now do most humbly offer to your serious Consideration is one of if not the most important that can be laid before you for it doth conduce to the Glory of God the Peace of the Church as by Law established the Asserting and Defence of its Doctrine and to the Welfare of the Kingdom Though I presume to appear upon so high a Stage and draw upon me the Eyes of as August and upon every account as famous an Assembly as any in the World Yet the Subject I go upon holding so near a Proportion with the Station and Dignity wherein God hath placed you will I hope secure me from being aspersed with Rashness and Vain-glory or accounted a Busie-Body I offer you a Field of Honour and an occasion of exercising your Piety towards God Love to Truth your Justice and Wisdom with putting a stop to and a Curb upon a boundless and blasphemous Impiety which seems openly to defie Heaven and Earth Psal 111.3 'T is God's Work which as David saith is honourable and glorious 't is good necessary and great but Time is short and uncertain therefore must be well improved for the Opportunity may happen to be lost never to be recover'd so 't is wished the thing be done whilst it may and before it be too late to time things well is one of the best parts of Prudence and one of the most Essential Circumstances of our Actions Among the several Seasons and Times mention'd by Solomon we read of two Eccles 3.7 a time to keep silence which I look upon to be over and a time to speak which I take now to be fully come There ought to be a proportion between the Distemper and the Remedy thus extream Distempers require extream Remedies and an extraordinary Necessity doth vindicate an extraordinary Method in the Use thereof When the Watchman whose immediate Duty is to give warning doth through Sluggishness or other Cause at the approach of the Enemy neglect to blow the Trumpet then every one concern'd in the Community hath right to do 't for the Preservation of the whole That Passage of Craesus's dumb Son who one day perceiving how some went about to kill his Father was so much stirred as to cry out Murther though trivial may well be admitted upon the present occasion for no true Christian having before his Eyes the near and great Danger which our holy Religion lies under upon the account of some damnable Heresies now more than ever brought in again but must be moved and cry out against it But what do I talk of danger when the evil it self the Philistins are upon us The Enemy is not only at the Gates but in the very body of the place and in the Bowels of the Church and to speak in Moses's words Num. 16.46 There is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun for blasphemous Socinianism attended by Atheism Deism Prophaneness Immorality yea and Idolatry c. doth bare and brazen-faced walk in our Streets as much as in it lyeth to deprive us of our blessed Lord and Saviour so it strikes at no less than the Head and Author of our Salvation And men are puffed up and have not rather mourned 1 Cor. 5.2 that they that do this deed might be taken away from among us To what purpose is Popery or Idolatry expelled if Socinianism or Blasphemy be let in But I am not so hasty as to affirm Popish Idolatry to be turned out for we know too much of the contrary witness those Swarms of Priests which are in and about the City and the many places where I shall not say in private for 't is publick enough the Wafer-Idol-Worship is performed against the Laws of God and of the Land which some that should do not mind nor care for whereupon we have much cause to renew the Apostle's Complaint All seek their own Phil. 2.21 not the things that are Jesus Christs And in the Country almost every Popish Family of any note hath a Priest when able to keep it all this for want of due care to see Laws against them put in execution Upon this account a thing there is which doth so much lie in my way as that I cannot avoid taking notice of it and indeed the thing is so publick that many have and do daily with a kind of Indignation wonder at it As in this World nothing is free from God's Jurisdiction so when we have an occasion to speak of his Cause nothing hath Immunity or Privilege to plead for Here we have an Ambassadour who for himself and Family hath a private Chappel in his own House and a publick one in a Street not far from it for any one that hath a mind to come to it We know it to be a Privilege as good as grounded upon the Right of Nations for every foreign Minister to have within his doors the free Exercise of his Religion for his Person and Houshold but a Plurality hath no ground to plead for Here it hath been unknown and unheard of since the Reformation that any foreign Minister was at any time allow'd two Chappels In the supernumerary one I and many more besides to whom it is an Eye-sore have on Mass days seen and still can see Three or Four Hundred People going in and out not the Ambassador or his Family if you except the Priest and his Clerk with may be some inferiour Servants but generally all English and perhaps some few Irish and others We may well remember how under a Reign which never was commended for Piety I mean of Charles II. when the Parliament complained and the People grumbled about the growth of Popery that Prince not only said Gentlemen offer what you think fit for the Security of your Religion and Liberty and I will give my Consent to 't but withal he sent to all foreign Ministers to desire them to receive none of his Subjects within
first-born into the world let all the Angels of God worship him before he was set upon his Throne after his Ascension So the Command was antecedent to that Session of his upon the Throne in Heaven And this sitting at the right hand of God puts me in mind now to add something to what I said upon that Text and it is this how we and our Adversaries ought to consider the usefulness and importance of that Testimony Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand for the confirmation of the Dignity and Authority of Christ the Messiah is evidenced by the frequent quotations of it in the New Testament as by our Saviour himself Matth. 22.42 by Peter in Acts 2.34 35 and by Paul in 1 Cor. 55.28 And Heb. 1.13 David was the Pen-man of the Psalm not about himself for him whom he therein doth treat of he calls my Lord as indeed the things therein spoken of belong not to him God did never swear unto David that he should be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek and the Jews knew well how David had nothing to do with the Priesthood as being not of the Tribe of Levi but of Judah We read That David was a King and a Prophet Jeremiah a Priest and a Prophet but the three Offices Prophet Priest and King never met in one Person but in the Lord Jesus CHAP. X. Objections Answer'd THough now and then on our way we refuted some of their Cavils yet now we must by the Grace of God come to the last part but one of our Discourse hear what they say against these Divine Truths and answer their chief Objections against the most holy Trinity the Divinity of Christ his eternal Generation c. As first They would have this Doctrin of the Trinity to be contrary to Reason Because it gives Turks and Jews an aversion against the Christian Religion But it must not be concluded that a Doctrin is contrary to Reason because some men by reason of the corruption of their Nature do not receive it When the Gospel was preached by our blessed Saviour and by his Apostles many refused to receive and believe it though it was very good and not contrary to Reason They that are Servants to their carnal Reason do not receive that which is above it and in this matter there are other Causes of the blindness and hatred of Jews and Turks Hereticks ought to be ashamed to joyn with Infidels to overthrow a Doctrin which in all Ages hath by general Consent been lookt upon as the Foundation of our Religion In four things they would have it to be contrary to Reason the first One is not Three yet say they we affirm God to be One yet Father Son and Holy Ghost to be God and yet the Person of the Son not to be that of the Father nor of the Holy Ghost The second A thing is or is not But say they you say the Paternity or Fatherhood really to be the same with the Essence and the Essence really with the Filiation therefore the Paternity is the same with the Filiation or Sonship and is not the same Thirdly By the Rule of the Tertium the things that are the same in another or in a third are the same among themselves Fourthly 'T is contrary to the Principle of the expository Syllogism which is this The Essence is the Father the Essence is the Son therefore the Father is the Son In these four things say they your Doctrin is contrary to Reason In answer to this First in general we say that such things as gainsay the Principles of true Reason are contrary to it but not those which exceed and are far above Reason Now things objected against by Antitrinitarians do neither fight against nor contradict Reason only are above it then these Principles or Rules are ill applied because they compare God the Author of Nature with natural things Now we answer in particular as to the First Axiom It is not overthrown inasmuch as there is no opposition according to the same thing nothing that is one as it is one and in the same respect may be called three but God is one in Nature and three in Persons the manner of subsisting doth distinguish the Persons but multiplieth not the Essence In the Second there is no Contradiction for the Paternity and Filiation are distinguished among themselves in one way and from the Essence in another it is only a modal distinction between Paternity and Filiation the least degree of distinction is between the thing and the manner of it between the Essence and the Paternity or Filiation wherefore Essence Paternity and Filiation are distinct but not different things We never said 'tis the same but 't is of the same and because they are of the same they differ not as thing and thing And if the Adversaries would argue thus the Father is the same with the Essence the Essence is the same with the Son therefore the Father is the same with the Son they would thereby conclude nothing against us for we affirm the Father and Son not at all to differ as to the Essence but the self-being of the Essence doth not conclude for the self-being of the Person wherefore we say it is and it is not in a different respect upon a different account As to the Third the Paternity and the Filiation are not the same with the Essence but Father and Son have the same Essence Now their Rule doth not here fit their Purpose for if they say Paâ—â—â—ity and Filiation are the same with or in the Essence it is incongruous for Paternity and Filiation are modes or manners of the thing that is in the Essence are not the same with the Essence because the thing and manner of it are not altogether the same But if they say Father and Son are the same in uno tortio inâ—â— third we agree they are the same in this third the Essence though not altogether As to the Fourth they are mistaken for this is no expository Syllogism for in that way of aâ—guing the middle term must be singular and incommunicable But here the term Essence is not simply but instead of an universal and is communicable so then the strength of the major Proposition lies in this Some who is or hath divine Essence is the Father Some that hath divine Essence is the Son Ergo if it be universally construed the proposition is false as thus Every one that hath the divine Essence is the Father or else they are meer particulars Besides that there are four terms for in the major the word Essence is unâ—erstood in relation to an active generation in the minor to a passive They would forge Contradictions where are none at all and the ground of their Error is that they would judge of an infinite Nature by a finite one when the reason of both is very different here the infinite Essence is individual
their Chappel Doors also Men were sent thither to watch who went in and out to give an account of it And if we well look into the thing in hand we may find it is like to be of ill and troublesom Consequence for the Party in question is of a Nation which when once they have been in possession of a thing will willingly never part with but for ever lay a claim to 't when this Man is gone his Successor will according to their Maxim never fail to pretend to Two Chappels and this will be a Precedent for other foreign Popish Ministers to lay claim to Two for if one hath it why not another Which may happen to engage us in some Difficulties Besides that here common People love not to see unnecessary Popish Monuments and God knows whether or not at one time or other may not into their Head come some fancy of being rude besides those are Meeting-places for Papists to plot against the Government which Inconveniencies I humbly conceive it were both Piety and Prudence betimes to prevent and upon this Motive only with Submission to Superiors I speak of it though Blasphemy be the thing I now chiefly aim against Yet both Idolatry and Blasphemy are the two greatest Abominations of all in the sight of God for which he destroyed the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and overturned the Assyrian Babylonian and other great Empires And to come home to the Toleration of those Two transcendent Wickednesses among others I think we may chiefly attribute the cause of the heavy Chastisements which make the Nation uneasie and he is very blind that doth not see and insensible that takes no notice of both I mean Sin and Chastisement and I most humbly beseech God to avert from us that terrible Threatning by his Prophet for at least we are as bad as those whom 't is directed to Isai 26.11 Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed What a matter of unexpressible Grief is it for true Christians to see in a Nation an Incorrigibleness under great and many Judgments as we read enumerated by the Prophet and withal the greatest of all a Hardness of Heart as if the Anvil should say to the Hammer strike as often and as hard as thou wilt Amos 4. from 6. to 12. I will never be the softer Yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord Men will consider neither God's Work nor his Word the Dispensations of his Providence nor his Ordinances the Workings of God nor the Words of Men the Prophet's Counsel is worth following by every one in his station Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Lament 3 40. In comparison of the utter Destruction of Jerusalem and Judah our Chastisements here are but like Whips instead of those with Scorpions but let us have a care lest we hear Isai 5.25 for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still We have been threatned with Insurrections and Invasions the danger is not over we have Enemies at home and one potent crafty and faithless at our Doors a Nation as bitter hasty Habak 1.6 and insolent as ever the Chaldeans were God hath made use of them to chastise others and so they are a Rod in his hand when he pleases against us and besides I tremble at the reading of this Threatning Zech. 11.6 for I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land saith the Lord but lo I will deliver the men every one into his neighbours hand and into the hand of his late King who very likely would prove a tearing and furious Lion broke loose out of his Den full of Hatred and Vengeance However we must fear God more than them for 't is usual when Men fear any thing more than God that very same thing doth befal them and if they walk contrary unto God Levit. 26.28 then saith the Lord I will walk contrary unto them also in fury which Fury is a consuming Fire and knowing therefore the terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 5.11 saith S. Paul out of a consideration of a Judgment to come we would persuade men who generally act out of fear of Punishment more than out of love to that which is good If Men should hold their peace the stones Luke 19.40 saith our blessed Saviour would immediately cry out for God never wants Instruments but can and doth fit them for his Work and never leaves himself without Witness We read how he rebuked Balaam for his iniquity 2 Pet. 2.16 the dumb ass speaking with mans voice forbad the madness of the prophet much more doth God make use of Men whom he hath endu'd with Reason and the knowledg of himself and of his Grace whom he will have not to halt between two opinions if Christ be God follow him if he be not follow him not To deny the most holy Trinity and our Saviour's Divinity is as much as in a Man lieth to go about to pull our Religion up by the very root and quite to overthrow it Yet Men are concerned to know that Religion is the Basis and Foundation that bears up and supports the Civil Government The true Church of God shall at last be seen truly to uphold the State seeing the World it self stands and shall continue only till the Number of the Elect be filled up and then it will come to an end in the mean while without Rewards and Punishments no Society whether Civil or Ecclesiastical can stand any long time Seeing the most holy Godhead it self is stricken at all are concerned to know who are the detestable Wretches that made themselves guilty of so impious an Attempt The Devil hath his Instruments of several sorts which concur with him in that wicked Work those Achans the Troublers of our Israel are some among us which upon the account of Novelty Acts 17.21 always like the Areopagites in Athens spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing Others out of a vain Glory or Affectation of Singularity and Self conceit of Learning Others whom the Father of Lies hath disposed ever to oppose the Truth Some others that have been perverted by the Conversation and Books of such Seducers wherein that Poyson as I hope I made it clear is through Sophistry spread in a specious shape and plausible manner and to suffer such Books stuffed with Blasphemies to be imported and here printed and sold publickly is dangerous and against Law Others of a bold and confident Spirit are ready to own any thing and some others out of different Motives but all out of ill Principles But withal here we have a Generation of Men openly allow'd who as much as their Predecessors are violent and bitter Enemies to the Lord Jesus I mean the Jews who are used not to be wanting in their endeavours to
of the Godhead The Blasphemer was by God's immediate Command stoned to death by the whole Congregation Levit. 24.24 because as the Sin and Scandal were publick so was the Punishment to be and here the Law alloweth the Ecclesiastical Courts to proceed against Offenders in the Capital Cases of Heresy and Blasphemy Capital I call them for if in human Things Treason and Rebellion be so then fundamental Heresy and Blasphemy are such in those of a Divine Nature * Sir Tho. Ridley's View of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws p. 59. see the Margin against such is provided Sentence of Death which here hath actually been executed upon some thus one Bartholomew Legat for these Arian and Socinian Blasphemies was on the 18th of March in 1611. burnt in Smithfield and in the following Month of April Edward Wightman was for the same burnt at Litchfield Queen Elizabeth having heard of some of them in her time said She was grieved to hear she had such Monsters in her Kingdoms If Bishop Hall was now alive how much more cause would he have had to say Irem Sect. 23. hoc avo c. In this Age the Souls of Christians are seduced not only by Papists Anabaptists Antinomians and Pelagians sed per infernalem Socinianorum haeresim but by means of the hellish Heresy of Socinians Anti trinitarians New Arians we have cause here in England to fear the utmost and last Destruction of Christian Religion Let upon this account no just Cause be given to renew that Lamentation of Jeremiah the Law is no more chap. 2.9 least out of a just Judgment of God this should follow the Gospel is no more for us I tremble to think how at last God will with a witness take notice of those who now take no notice of him nor of his Concerns We read the Character of a wicked Man in the Person of Pharaoh Exod. 5.2 when he said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Well saith God I will make thee know me before I have done with thee wherefore in Scripture by the Prophets especially by Ezekiel in so many places God's usual Stile when either he threateneth or executeth Judgments is this and they shall know that I am the Lord Ezek. 30.19 chap. 20.26 he saith thus will I execute judgments in Egypt and they shall know that I am the Lord and sometimes these Punishments are inflicted to the end they might know that I am the Lord. God grant none in this Land for want of performing their Duty in his Station do provoke God in the way of Judgments to make them know he is the Lord who both acts and speaks with a strong hand Isa 8.11 Whether or not the Ecclesiastical Court hath in this occasion of Socinianism acted its part according to Laws I must not take it upon me but leave it for the World to judge but this I now do insist upon that whether or not it be done in conformity to Law the Magistrate is about it to be addressed to for in such cases he at last is to act his part as ever 't was practised by those Christian Emperours who upon the like occasion minded the Glory of God But here we must stop a little for fear of being thought to insinuate to our Superiours any thing relating to the Duty of their place which we are not so vain as to think of in the least but one of the Grounds we go upon is out of the Book called the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws began in the days of Henry VIII and continued in the time of Edward VI. under the Head of Judgment against Heresies these words are positive Tùm consumptis omnibus aliis remediis ad extremum ad Civiles Magistratus ablegetur puniendus Every other Remedy proving useless the obstinate Heretick must at last be sent to the Civil Magistrate to be punished De judiciis contra haereses c. 4. de contumacibus Haereticis and as to the point of Blasphemy in the first Chapter under that Head is pathetically expressed the detestableness of that most wicked and in some Sense unpardonable Sin in Chap. 2d quomodo sit punienda blasphemia 't is said sit igitur hoc à nobis constitutum ut haec execrabilis blasphemiarum impietas quà m primùm de eà ritè constiterit ab Episcopis nulla ratione toleretur sed eodem supplicio confixa sit quâ pertinax haereticorum insania plectitur c. wherefore we order thus that the execrable Impiety of Blasphemy assoon as the Bishops have found it out shall by no means be tolerated but shall suffer the same Punishment as is inflicted upon obstinate Hereticks the constiterit is not so much in relation to Blasphemy it self which is easily known when either things belonging to God as Infiniteness Eternity Unchangeableness Holiness c. are denied him and attributed to the Creatures or when things contrary to his Nature as to lye to deny himself c. are fathered upon him or when Men do curse him but the constiterit doth regard the Blasphemer and guilty Wretch when he is found out according to this Ridley in his View c. p. 35 36. Bishops are to take Cognizance inquire into and declare whether or not the Person or Persons be guilty of Blasphemy which being clear he or they are to be delivered into the Civil Magistrates hands but if through neglect or otherwise any of the Bishops happen not to act their Part but stop the Course of Justice certainly the Magistrate is to look into 't and do his Duty though others do not theirs 't is nothing but what is very Just that every Man's hand should be against those Ishmaels whose hand is against every Man As to the Laws I mentioned just before they were by the Excellent Persons named by the King collected and finished under Edward VI. the Pious Josiah of that Age and so were then received with great and general Approbation both Kings Father and Son by right of their Supremacy as we may see 't in both their Letters gave them a Character of Authority and if they were not passed into an Act the only Cause was the untimely Death of that young Prince who designed it and the Business had already been proposed in Parliament as we see 't out of these words of his Epistle to Archbishop Cranmer c. Cum vos triginta duos viros ad leges nostras Ecclesiasticas perlegendas componendas juxta vim formam effectum cujusdam Acti Parliamenti in tertio regni nostri anno c. So that there is something of a Parliament's Authority and if there be any thing wanting it lyeth in your Power to set a Parliamentary Stamp upon it especially those Heads that relate to the Divine Moral Law as do those about Heresy Blasphemy and Idolatry wherein God's
of acute Parts but a Sophister and consequently fit to perfect the Heresie which the other was broaching He with his Uncle went first to Geneva afterwards to Zurich at Basil he made acquaintance with Sebastian Castellio of whom he learned something in the Hebrew and Greek Languages and the * That Christ is merely Man and had no Being till his Incarnation Samosatenian Heresie His Uncle being dead in Zurich in 1562. the 37th of his Age at which time Faustus was 23 years old as soon as he heard of his death he went to the place to secure his Manuscripts which he had desired him to publish in due time for fear they should fall into other hands with these Faustus went into Italy where for about Twelve Years he lived about the Duke of Florence's Court whence he returned to Basil in 1574. the 35th of his Age and there lived Three Years thence he went into Transylvania about 1577. lastly into Poland in 1579. about the 40th of his Age where he made it his whole business to propagate his Uncles Opinions There he publish'd Castellio's Pelagian Dialogues about Predestination Election Free-Will and Faith with a Preface of his own under the Name of Felix Turpio which Book Arminians because it served their turns caused to be reprinted with Additions at Gouda in Holland in 1613. He also in the Year 1582. being in Cracovia published a Tract of his upon a part of the Seventh Chapter to the Romans wherein he endeavours to prove how in that place S. Paul speaks of himself not as being a regenerate Man and in that too he disguiseth his Name as the manner is among pestilent Heresiarks the more easily and safely to spread the Poyson and wound Souls with an unknown and invisible hand in that Book he calls himself Prosper Dysidaeus which answers to his true Name Faustus Socinus as also doth his other borrow'd Name of Felix Turpio for the three Latin Words Prosper Felix and Faustus signifie the same also the Words Dysidaeus Turpio and Socinus have the same signification the first is Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth filthy and deform so doth the Latin Turpio also the Italian Socinus from Sozzo Thus though his true and borrowed Christian Names be not proper for him because such a miserable Wretch may not be called happy yet his Sur-Names whether true or borrowed are to signifie his filthy hellish and monstrous Blasphemies Sozzo whence comes the Word Socinus as by him owned in the Names which in his Books he calls himself by in Italian signifies foul nasty filthy and here we may say conveniunt rebus nomina saepè suis for in his Opinions he was as impure a Man as ever was born of a Woman He lived in Cracovia in Poland whence towards the latter end of his Life he removed to a Country Town about Nine Miles distant called in Latin Luclavicia and in Polonish I think Luklow or Luklowiâ—z where he dyed in 1604. and of his Age 65. This I have been the more particular upon because he is look'd upon as the chief Promoter and Publisher of an Heresie which of all the rest amongst Christians is the most unworthy of the Name of Christ whereof it hath but the shadow and in some respect is worse than Heathenism makes way for Mahometism Judadaism and Atheism and under a false Notion of Piety laughs at despiseth and perverteth all Articles of our Faith and in short goes about to form a new Religion Hereunto I shall add only this how these Heresies had some other Followers which made some noise in the World George Blandrata of Saluzze and Paul Alciati of Milan both Italians and Physicians after Servetus's death and Gentilis's Recantation fled into Poland Bernard Ochinus a true Disciple of Socinus as the other two were of Gentilis who for some impure Dialogues of his had been expell'd out of Zurich and Basil all of them were in the Year 1565. banished out of Poland by reason of their Heresie Alciati went into Turky and embraced Mahometanism Ochinus into Moravia to the Anabaptists and Blandrata fled into Transylvania where by the Favour of one Francis David he was entertained as Physitian to the Prince this David differ'd from Socinus in that he denyed Jesus Christ should be adored or any Prayers to be made in his Name This is that hellish Covy of abominable and pernicious Fowl and that Generation of Vipers out of which sprung since and now more than ever many of the kind so that Den is like Babylon to speak in Scripture Language * Revel 18.2 become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird for the profane Deists and Atheists c. fall into them But that Poyson infected not only those fore-named Parts it also spread into Hungary and Germany nay as far as Heydelberg where one Neuserus with two or three more privately taught those Heresies yet at last boasted he had Seventy Five unanswerable Arguments against the Trinity but through the care of Prince Frederick III. the guilty being punished the Infection ceased there a Precedent for other Princes and States to follow And from such Wretches what else can be expected but Overturnings and Confusions in Church and State Thus having said something of the Persons We must name some of their â—hief Opinions and then speak of the Cause As to the first they have much confounded the whole Doctrine of Religion from first to last They believe that Man before his Fall was naturally mortal so God's threatning the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely dye was frivolous then that by the Light of Nature no Man can have the knowledg of God that Man before his Fall had no original Righteousness and that there is in us no original Sin as it imports Deformity of Nature They say there is in us free Will to that which is good that the Causes of Predestination are not in God but in Men and that he doth not predestinate to Salvation any particular and certain Person and that Predestination may be frustrated As to Providence they assert that God hath no fore-knowledg of Contingencies determinately but alternatively and as to most of these Matters of Grace and Providence they are agreed with Arminians Further they say that God could justly pardon our Sins without any Satisfaction that Christ by his Death did not satisfie for us but only obtained for us Power to satisfie for our selves by our Faith and Obedience that Christ dyed for himself that is not for his Sins but for the Mortality and Infirmities of our Nature which he took upon him Christ became not our High Priest nor immortal nor impassible before he ascended into Heaven that everlasting Death is nothing else but a perpetual Continuance in death or Annihilation that Eternal Fire is so called from its Effect which is the eternal extinction or reducing to nothing of the Wicked which shall be
they come This is the rational Man who will dive too far the Apostle for his pains calls him a Fool thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die so in Matter of God's Decrees thou wilt then say unto me why doth he yet find fault The Apostle's Answer is * Rom. 9.19 20. Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God This is to curb that idle and presumptuous Curiosity of vain and foolish Men who work their shallow Brains to find out things which can be known no otherwise than by Revelation wherefore let us stick to that Rule about the Holy Trinity we can and must know no more than is revealed in Scripture and herein we must follow the Example of the Doctors of the pure Primitive Church who borrowed no Arguments of Philosophy against the Hereticks that troubled them but only out of Scripture the more because in Matters of so great a Concernment as are the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the Devil hath used his strongest Batteries but he that trusteth to his own Reason will fall short of the necessary Knowledge thereof and in this case I may say what is spoken in another that if Men had been satisfied to make use only of their own Eye without any other help they could never have found out the magnitude of the Sun c. if so in the Secrets of Nature much less in Things of Divine Concernment and of Deity it self in human and finite Things we conceive well enough how in the same Nature are many Persons to whom it is communicated but that that Nature is but one and the same and that so many Individuals make but one Man in the kind no Mind can conceive but in Men the Reason of the Multiplication is in the finite Individuals which are not only distinct one from another but also have their several Bounds and that universal Nature is as if it were rented into so many Parts but as God is Infinite the Father Son and Holy Ghost is Infinite the Infinite cannot so much as in thought be separated wherefore it must not be thought an absurdity if in Divine Things there is no multiplicity of Gods as there is of Men in human Nature but still after this reasoning I return within the Circle to consult Scripture more than to stretch our Reason with Job let us say †Job 11.7 8 9. Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection c. O ‖ Isai 55.8 9. my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. Every Man may in this Matter apply to himself what is said in the Book of Proverbs * Chap. 30.2.3 4. Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended who hath gathered the winds in his fists who hath bound the waters in a garment who hath established all the ends of the earth what is his name and what is his sons name if thou canst tell This is by way of defiance In this Controversie Three several things are to be taken notice of first The truth of the thing namely that there is a God but One God and Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost which to hold is necessary to our Faith Secondly the Explanation thereof relating to the Doctrine which we already have said several things about whereunto we now shall in part repeat and in part add these few things Divine Essence communicable to Three Persons is neither multiplyed nor divided as 't is in Men and Angels for though their Natures be but one and the same in Species yet 't is different in Number but in the Deity not so for the same Nature in Father Son and Holy Ghost is but one and the same in Number in the Persons is an order of origine according to which proceedeth not Essence from Essence absolutely consider'd nor Person from Essence nor one God from another God but one Person from another Person and from other Persons very God of very God for the Three Persons are One God and every Person is perfect God in every Person is to be consider'd the common and the proper Mode in God we may not conceive any thing besides One Essence and Three Modes whereby with the Essence are constituted Three Persons in these Persons one is not before or after the other only in order and manner of subsisting whatsoever is essential is common to the Three and what is personal is proper to every one of the Three the Mode or Personality is the Abstract but the Mode with the Nature is the Concret Here is no Accident no Genus no Species no Difference no specific Unity in God but an essential and individual Nature The Difference of Hypostases or Persons in Divine Nature is from the different relation and manner of Subsistence which cannot be confounded There are essential and relative Properties the first belong to every Person because every Person hath the same Nature but not the second whereby they are distinguished one from another the Son is not the Father nor the Father the Son This also is to be taken notice of that a finite Nature is capable of Division which an infinite is not or else it were not infinite therefore in this God's Nature admits of no Comparison with any created one whatsoever The Third thing to be observed in this Controversie is the Proof not to be taken out of Nature or Reason but out of Scripture of both Old and New Testaments and herein we must be very cautious how we draw and press Consequences from the Creature to the Creator because there is an infinite Disparity and Disproportion between them as there is between a finite and an infinite Nature this last filleth all when the other is confined within narrow bounds for the infinite as we said being communicated is neither divided multiplied nor alienated Scripture calls God the True God God's own and proper Son yet Socinians have rather in the Christian Religion to admit two Gods whereof one is a made feigned titular God than a plurality of Persons in the Unity of Essence which Opinion of theirs is really more absurd than they would have the Truth we own to seem to be because it doth quite destroy divine Nature for a made and secondary God is absurd and a mere Contradiction as good as to say God no God This is a Notion borrowed from the Heathens who had their Semi-gods that is Men who in their life-time having done some great Actions were after their death by Apotheosis deifi'd and reckon'd among their gods According to this fancy our Saviour may be such a Heroe and God as their Hercules was This is their good Christian Doctrine The ground of their Error is that they think the number of Persons doth multiply the
for the unjust as a Lamb without Blemish and without Spot It seems these Socinians set their Hand and Seal to his Condemnation the same Question as was between our Saviour and the Jews is now between Socinians and us he said he was Son of God equal and one with the Father which Socinians no more than Jews are willing to believe and do flatly deny in the sense for which he was condemned namely for calling himself the Son of God and making himself equal with God when the Devil himself was not so peremptory for he made it but questionable when at the time he tempted him he said if thou be the son of God yet at several other times those wicked Spirits owned him to be the Son of the living God But Socinians give him the lye when he doth several times call and suffer himself to be called Son of God in the true sense and contrary to that of Socinians Surely he who is the Truth would not have spoken against it nor allowed others to tell a lye Now 't is most certain that he calls himself Son of God not only in the fore-quoted place of John where he owns he calls himself the Son of God according to the sense which the Jews had given his words and had made himself God in opposition to man that is God by Nature which no man is but also in other places as when he asked the blind Man Dost thou believe in the Son of God Which he declared himself to be in whom the Man ought to believe and to worship him as he did and 't is certain that Men must believe in and worship the only true God Also Martha * Joh. 11.27 declareth she believes him to be the Christ the Son of God by a gradation from his Office to his Person for the Christ or Messiah which should come into the world The antient Jews according to several Prophecies believed the Messiah to be the true Son of God and God by Nature which that Second Psalm doth clearly prove among many others thou art my Son wherefore the Psalmist v. 10. exhorteth kings to be wise and the judges of the earth to be instructed and to serve the Lord with fear and to kiss the Son to kiss his Feet in token of Obedience and Submission lest he be angry and they perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little a little Wrath is sufficient to break the Heathens and the uttermost parts of the Earth and to dash them in pieces like a Potter's Vessel All this is spoken of him to whom 't is said Thou art my Son and in the latter end of the last Verse the Prophet declareth blessed are all that put their trust in him and Men are not to put their trust in any but in the true God by Nature in which sense Scripture sheweth how Christ is called God and Son of God not only in that positive Text I and the Father are one but also out of this other * John 8.19 Ye neither know me nor my Father for if ye had known me ye should have known my Father also because we are one and he that sees me seeth him that sent me because he is the express Image of him that sent him And all this is confirmed in that other notable place †John 12.45 ch 14.9 10 11. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father for I am in the Father and the Father in me this truth must needs be very important for 't is affirmed in one Verse and confirmed in the next which truth appears yet farther v. 7. If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him the reason must needs be this because ye have seen me and in the same Chapter to shew that Oneness and Sameness of his in Nature and Power with the Father he saith Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that I will do which for greater assurance and confirmation is repeated in the next Verse If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it I my self there being no need for you to go to any one else S. Paul speaking of the Mystery of Godliness * 1 Tim 3.16 whereof the first part is that God was manifest in the Flesh saith it is a great one by his Expressions the thing is unquestionable and most certain for he saith Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness but Socinians are of another mind for they make not only a great Controversie but give a flat denyal of God being manifest in the Flesh and one of them here among us hath lately reprinted and set his Name to a Book with this Title Christian Religion not mysterious as it were to give the Apostle the lye on which I intend by the Grace of God to make some few general Observations towards the latter end of my Discourse we must do our Duty tho others neglect theirs and endeavour out of Scripture to convince or confound the Enemies of the Truth who are suffer'd with bare face to sow their Tares and spread their Poyson and Blasphemies as if it be only a Problem and a disputable Case whether or not the Lord Jesus did justly or unjustly suffer for Blasphemy for having affirmed himself to be Son of God Good Lord what times are we come to and how great a Darkness is the Nation falling into after so much light And now we are upon the matter of Blasphemy let me observe how in Scripture there is enough said about it to prove Christ to be the Essential Son of God let the Etymology and Derivation of the word Blasphemy be what it will it is most certain that in Scripture * Rev. 13.5 6. it is used to express when any thing is said or done against God in his Nature or Attributes or when one doth assume and arrogate unto himself that which belongs to God alone in the first sense we read when Hezekiah heard the words of Rab-shakeh 2 Kings 19.3 6 22. he said This is a day of Blasphemy and God called it so within few Verses after The servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me and again whom hast thou blasphemed In the second sense the Jews called our blessed Saviour Blasphemer We stone thee not say they to him ‖ John 10.33 for a good work but for blasphemy and because that thou being a man makest thy self God and so after his Confession before the Chief Priests they said ye have heard the blasphemy Wherefore if Blasphemy be against God truly and essentially taken may we not conclude the Lord Jesus to be truly essentially God He calls Blasphemy what the Jews had said against him * Mark 3.22 23. that be did cast devils by Beelzebub prince of devils the Evangelist lays upon occasion of the Abuses put upon him after he was brought before the High Priest †Luk. 22.65 And
by the Prophet was foretold should come to his Temple how the Temple is the place for Adoration and the Lord of the Temple is to be adored and the worship proper for God is due to him We are equally baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost for in the words of the Institution and form of Administration there is no other difference but of order the names are jointly used without any sign of distinction as to Nature or Power all three are therein called upon there being in them an equal Majesty and Authority I read how in the heavenly Jerusalem Rev. 21.22 the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it yet but one Temple as they are but one God But that men were in the practice as by the institution they ought to be baptized in the name of Christ it appears out of what Peter said to the new Converts be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ Acts 2.38 where we see he takes notice only of Jesus Christ not to exclude either Father or Holy Ghost but strongly to insinuate into their minds and hearts how Christ was their God Lord and Saviour which to Preach and perswade was his great end and this he would have them to make open profession of in their being baptized in his name whereby he shews the necessity and comprehensiveness of Christ's name used in the administration of that holy Sacrament and the end thereof is for the remission of sins that is to obtain pardon of sins yea and to receive the gift of the holy ghost So when the Centurion's family was baptized Acts 10.43 chap. 19.5 1 Cor. 1.13 't is said only they were baptized in the name of the Lord. The name signifies the authority of the Lord which in this case Paul was so much concerned for upon the occasion of the contentions that were among the Corinthians which makes him so sharply expostulate with them were ye baptized in the name of Paul This point must needs be one of the highest importance in our Religion seeing he is so earnestly concerned as to say I thank God I baptized none of you c. and he gives his reason for 't lest any should say I baptized in my name Whence we may conclude that to baptize in the name of Christ is one of the most fundamental points of Christian Religion and I think it a rule and practice highly commendable in those Churches where in baptism the word name is prefixed before every one of the three persons thus I baptize thee in the name of the Father in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Ghost distinctly pronounced to prevent the abuse of some wretched Socinians which by reason of the affinity which in some Languages the words name and none or not have do confound them and to baptize in the name of the Father not of the Son not of the Holy Ghost Then it is Essential in baptism to have it administred in the name of the Son as well as of the Father wherefore John who by reason of this office is called Baptist did it not in his own name on the contrary declared himself but a Minister when he pointed at Christ and said I indeed baptize you with water but he that comes after me and is mighter than I he shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire as if he had said his Servant can administer only the outward sign but the thing and grace signified he alone can give Hence I conclude that Christ in our being baptized in his name is by us therein worshiped as our God equally with the Father Here they make a difficulty because 't is said the Fathers were baptized unto Moses in the Cloud but that signifieth not to be baptized in the name and authority of Moses but to be settled in the faith to be given to Gods word spoken by the Ministery of Moses Exod. 14.31 Joh. 5.45 46. so they are said to have believed the Lord and his Servant Moses Thus our Saviour saith Moses in whom ye trust and believe so they have Moses and the Prophets that is the Law and Doctrine of Moses When God saith a thing tho but once we ought to believe him as if he had confirmed it many times because in some places things are said which seemed to have been left out in others Another particular is we hope and trust in Christ Matth. 12.21 We hope in Christ Isa 11.10 Rom. 15.12 Ephs 1.12 13. 1 Cor. 15.19 in his name and in his name shall the gentiles trust as it had been Prophesied of long before in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles seck hope and trust in him for mercy As 't is by St. Paul explained in him shall the gentiles trust among others such were the Ephesians for saith the Apostle to them That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ if we must believe the same Apostle not only in this life but also in another to come we must and do hope in Christ or else we are of all men most miserable that is we cannot he happy except we hope in Christ for indeed that hope is the ground of all our Comforts and in that hope whereby we manifest our dependency upon him we own him to be he from whom we expect all manner of help and relief in our necessities for in him are all our Springs we hope in him for all and from him we expect all manner of good and therein we worship him as the Author and Fountain of all the good we receive and hope for now to trust in him is not only our duty but also our blessedness and happiness Psal 2.12 for blessed are all they that put their trust in him which is spoken of Christ the Messiah Now if he was a meer man far from being Blessed they would be Cursed for a dreadful Curse is thundred against any that trusteth in man Thus saith the Lord cursed be the man that trusteth in man Jerem. 17.6 and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. These three several expressions signifie the same and go together for to depend upon the Arm of Flesh for Wisdom Strength and Help is to must in Man and whosoever trusteth in Man his heart departeth from the Lord it is incompatible to trust in God and in Man and the heart is not to be divided one of the two it must adhere to for to both it is impossible Wherefore in this same place as we see a Curse against Man-Trusters so there is a blessing for those who trust in God verse 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Here again we meet with detestable Socinus and his jugglings God saith he proclaimeth a Curse