done but to give an Impartial Account of them in such Particulars wherein it is plain and evident that they swerve from the Truth and profess such doctrines as have a direct tendency to Irreligion and Impiety Nor do I comprehend all Socinianized persons in this Character I entertain some hope that there are some Innocent and Well-meaning people among them who being inveigled by the plausible pretences of their Leaders have taken up some of their Notions but are ready upon a discovery of the Falshood and Perniciousness of them to lay them down and wholly to abandon them Those that are of this sober disposition will I question not find this Present Undertaking beneficial to them and will be so far from censuring them that they will thankfully acknowledg my setting them Right in Perswasions of so great moment and importance such as are either of the Foundation of Religion or have a near alliance to it or have a necessary influence on our Christian Practice In short when Principles and Truths of the Highest Nature are struck at by bold Assailants when the Main Doctrines of Religion are depraved and perverted and when Christianity it self is endanger'd shall we sit still and not be concern'd * If these foundations be destroy'd if these Forts these Bulwarks these Strong-holds as some render the word be demolish'd what can the righteous do if these Fundamental Principles be overthrown what a wretched state will Religion and the Professors of it be reduced to Which is the very thing which we may justly fear at this time when we behold such a great and signal Defection from the Truths of Christianity from the Faith of the Gospel even in the Christian World How few are there at this day that can endure sound doctrine how many are there that call themselves Protestants and yet grow weary of those Main Articles of Religion which have been owned ever since the Reformation and have been defended and vindicated by the Pens of the Religious and Learned And shall we silently and tamely permit this No certainly That Charity which beareth all things endureth all things cannot suffer this Yea it is the highest Charity in such a dangerous juncture to acquaint persons with the true State of affairs to discover the Methods and Artifices of Seducers to lay open before the world their Cheats and Delusions and to shew what Errors they substitute in the place of Truth And this is that which is design'd in my present Performance wherein I have all along discover'd the Poyson of our Adversaries Doctrines in the first place and then I have been careful to administer an Antidote ERRATA PAge 6. line 1. before is insert it p. 29. l. penult for to the first of r. first to p. 35. l. 10. place ‖ before Episcopius p. 95. l. 13. f. of r. or p. 103. l. 7. r. needs p. 108. l. 13. r. deletion p. 123. l. 14. r. strange p. 125. l. 3. before it insert in p. 126. l. 6. before And begin the parenthesis p. 183. l. 5. f. professed r. pretended p. 184. l. 24. f. this r. that p. 197. l. 16. after as insert to p. 214. l. 13. r. Looks p. 243. l. 5. after it make THE TENDENCY OF THE Socinian Doctrines TO Irreligion Atheism CHAP. I. There is an obligation on the Author to give the World an account of the Irreligious Sentiments of the Socinians Their Abusing of the Holy Scriptures is a proof of their Prophane genius They hold there are Mistakes and Errors in the Bible as to lesser matters They disparage the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Writings of St. John They are wild and extravagant though very crafty and subtile in their interpreting and expounding of Scripture A particular instance of it in their interpretation of I John 1 2. Other instances of their false and perverse dealing Their notion of a Double Ascension of Christ confuted and the Texts which they alledge for it explain'd Their vilisying wresting and perverting of Scripture are tokens of their Irreligion I Am obliged to let the World see that I did not reproach and injure the Socinians when I laid to their charge the favouring and promoting of Atheism and consequently that what I said of them was not as they have suggested hastily and rashly spoken or written without due premeditation And thence it will appear that I am not to be represented as a Censorious or Uncharitable person which are imputations which I always abhorr'd and have carefully laboured to avoid Thus then I make good what I said Some of this sort of men cannot well be thought to have any true and right Sense of God and Religion especially the Christian because they have in their Publick Writings renounced some of the most Considerable things relating to Doctrine Worship Discipline and Practise in the Church of Christ. These are the four General Heads of my following Discourse I begin with the First As to the Doctrinal part of Religion these men are very faulty and upon examination will be found to be favourers of very Irreligious and Prophane Opinions And here I will reduce what I have to say unto these five Particulars viz. Their Notions concerning the Scriptures concerning God concerning the First Man concerning the Future State and concerning Christianity it self First It is no mean proof of their Prophane genius that they delight to vilifie and abuse the Holy Scriptures As to some lesser matters and such as are of small moment the Bible hath Repugnancies and Mistakes saith the Great Founder of Socinianism i. e. He from whom it takes its denomination And herein he is follow'd by Volkelius another Great and Admired Writer among those of the Racovian perswasion Smalcius grants some depravation in Scripture as to things of no great moment Episcopius who is owned to be a Socinian by the Party themselves tells us that the Penmen of the Scriptures were left to their own humane frailty in delivering those things which appertain to circumstances of Fact as time and place and the like And in the same place he attributes these Mistakes and Errors in the Bible to the want of Knowledge or weakness of Memory in the Writers Where then is their Infallibility which hath been owned by all Christian Churches Or can they be Infallible and yet Err What is the difference between these Writers and others but this that they were Immediately Inspired by the Holy Ghost and consequently are not liable in the least to Mistakes and Misapprehensions Those then that deny this must needs deny the Writers of the Holy Scripture to have been Inspired and to have been Infallible yea they must say that they were like other men faulty and erroneous in their Writings This you will say and that justly is an Ill Beginning here is a Bad specimen of their Sentiments concerning the Doctrinal part of Religion of which our Right Conceptions concerning the Holy
the Socinian Writers there is a Necessity of openly adhering to some Congregation professing Christ's discipline and that Congregation must be such as they think to be purer than the rest This is the whole design and subject of Socinus's book De Officio hominis Christiani to shew that they must be of some Church and particularly of those who were then call'd Arians or Ebionites That is in plain terms those who are of the Anti-Trinitarian perswasion must have a Gather'd Church and there make publick profession of their belief and openly teach those Doctrines which they are perswaded to be true And yet I offer it to be taken notice of that though this be profess'd in their Writings to be an Indispensable Point of Religion c. yet they regard not the practising of it None of our English Socinians have any Set Meetings for the propagating of their doctrine as men of other perswasions have at this day We cannot but take notice that all Parties who think their Way to be True and Good hold distinct Congregations on the Lord's day or at other Solemn times and then make profession of their particular Way and Worship It is well known that this is the usage and practice of all the different Parties of Religion They did it even when they had a Prohibition from the Government but now much more openly when they are not restrained by Publick Authority But there is not so much as one single Meeting in the way of Religion and Worship upheld by the Socinians tho it is certain that their way of worship differs from that of all Other Parties because the very Object of Worship is different I mean as to their consideration of it for they look upon our Saviour as a Creature and no other Which one thing should make them assemble together in a distinct place and manner from all other Professors of Religion They should if they acted according to their own Principles have a peculiar Church and openly preach up their Perswasions and declare against the false and Idolatrous Worship of all Professors of Christianity but themselves for so it seems they esteem it Thus I say they are obliged to do if they will be consistent to themselves They must form an Assembly of their own and if they want Members they know where to have them it is but sending for some more of their brethren in Transylvania Poland c. and so they may be stock'd I do not see how they can possibly omit the Meeting together as a Church suppose in London or some other convenient place for their Principles of Ecclesiastical Government or Discipline oblige them to this If they say that some Prudential Considerations prevail with them to do otherwise then it is clear that their Prudence is of such a sort that it outweighs yea wholly excludes their Duty and surely men of their Reason and Judgment will not boast much of such a Prudence Besides if they pretend Discretion and Prudence for their not Assembling together then in so doing they tax all the Meetings and Congregations of other Perswasions as herds of Imprudent and Impolitick Men and whether such a Charge as this savours of Prudence I leave it to themselves to judg To say the truth these Gentlemen can be as smart upon the Dissenters when they think fit as upon Church-men we are told in the Trinitarian Scheme of Religion that the former have separated from the Church of England for small and inconsiderable causes And in an other of their late Essays they rattle all Dissenters at a high rate charging them with great inconsistency to themselves and their own principles and afterwards they call them Wiâ—…-Worshippers telling them that their worship is without any warrant of Scripture either by precept or so much as one example nay against the full current of Scripture-Worship Then they add their Worship iâ—… of their own invention and soon after they call it a Popish Invention Now one would think that these men who thus condemn all Dissenters and declare forâ—… Purer Congregation and Worship than other men should have Particular and Distinct Assemblies of their own but they have not they mix with others and particularly sometimes with the Churches of the Conformists yea some of them have been and are still professed Members of the Church of England joyning in that Service particularly the Liâ—…any where the Three Persons of the God-head are invoked and the Doxology which is so frequently repeated wherein the Deity not only of the Father but of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is publickly professed and owned Socinus had other thoughts when he endeavour'd to prove that the people of the kingdom of Poland and of the Great Dutchy of Lithuania ought to joyn themselves to the Assemblies of those that were call'd Arians that is those who profess'd Socinus's doctrine Now will not any rational and considerate man infer hence that our English Socinians are very cold and unconcerned in their Religion for though according to the Scheme of their Church-Government they ought to Meet together in a visible and solemn manner yet they are so Indifferent that they will not or so Cowardly that they dare not do it Which breeds a suspicion of them that they only act a Part and that at another time they will be at something else Which appears from this likewise that tho they under hand manage their Cause and write in defence of it yet they conceal their Names and Persons They are against Mysteries but they keep in the Clouds and will not let the world know who they are This evidently convinces us how Indifferent they are for if they were verily perswaded that their doctrine is really True and that it contains in it Substantial and Necessary Points of Faith and Religion they would not they could not act thus under a disguise but they would be sensible that it is absolutely requisite to discover themselves and to deal above board and to be plain and free in their owning of the Cause for if they be Verities of Necessary Concern in Religion as they sometimes pretend then they are worth the Publick owning and these persons may glory in the defence of them But we see they dare not even in this Juncture when Liberty was allow'd them and they might safely speak their minds appear with open face and set their Names before their Writings This shews that they have no true Zeal for their Cause yea that at the bottom they are but little or not at all concerned And if they be not deeply concerned for that which is their Darling Point what can we think of them as to the rest But it is not only Cowardize but something of a worse nature that makes them thus mask themselves These Knights Errant who come not like those of old to do kindnesses to the distressed will not vouchsafe to lift up the beavers of their helmets and let us see who they are because
Clergy of this Nation and they are the far Greatest Part of those that dissent from our Church in the point of Discipline and Ceremonies They are all the Sober Heads of both these Perswasions who unite in the Main Articles of Religion profess'd and subscrib'd to by the Church of England Nay they are the Whole Body of the Protestant and Reformed Churches abroad as well as at home These are the Men of Art who by this Gentleman's friends are at other times call'd Systematick-Men and sometimes Mystery-Men and by way of derision Orthodox These are the Men of Art who are also so called you must know in Contradistinction to the Plain Fellows for so the Racovians stile themselves in their Treatise of the Trinitarian Scheme of Religion But when this writer saith these men of Art are in an Evil Conspiracy what is the meaning of that It is no other than this that they joyntly agree to disallow of and condemn a late upstart Conceit viz. that the belief of One sole Article of Christianity is sufficient not only to denominate but to constitute any Man a Christian. Now would not a Considerate Man perswade himself that this Unanimous Concurrence of all the Learned Wise Sober and Religious in this matter is rather to be deemed a Happy Union than a Conspiracy and that an Evil one And whereas this Writer tells us that the book of the Reasonableness of Christianity is of eminent use to overthrow and ruine Faction p. 51 I must needs declare that I 'm of the contrary opinion and I conceive I have abundantly proved in a late Discourse I publish'd that the Notions which the Treatise of the Reasonableness of Christianity is fraught with administer to Faction and something Worse amongst us which I have been warning the Reader of in the preceding Discourse The short is this Gentleman and I can't agree about Mr. L.'s Book for he at least saith for we are not certain of his Thoughts and that without any Proof that it is one of the best books that hath been publish'd for at least these sixteen hundred years p. 52 but I 'm of opinion and I 'm sure I have Proved it that it is one of the Worst that hath appear'd in the world since the date of Christianity FINIS * Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity p. 3. * Preface to his Discourse concerning Christ's Satisfaction * P. 33 Psal. 11. 3. * Socin de Author S. Script cap. 1. †De Vera Relig l. 5. c. 5. ‖ Cat. Racov. de Scriptura cap. 1. * Institut Theolog. lib. 4. ‖ A brief History of the Unitarians ‖ Socin Epist. 2. ad Dudith * Explicat 5. Mat. 4â—… †Ostorodus in Institut cap. 30. * Smalc cont Frantz ‖ Bishop Stillingfleet's Pref. to the Discourse of Christ's Satisfaction * Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity p. 49 50. ‖ Eccles. Hist. l. 3. c. 24. lib. 5. cap. 8. * Sandius de Script Eccles. †Considerations on the Explications c. p. 49. * Preface to the Discourse of Christ's Satisfaction * An Accurate Examination of the Principal Texts alledged for Christ's Divinity p. 24 25 26. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. hist. l. 1. c. 3. †Sulpit. lib. 2. ‖ An Answer to a Letter touching the Trinity * An Accurate Examination of the principal Texts alledg'd for Christ's Divinity chap. 5. * Socin in Catechesi †De Divin Christi cip 4. Cont. Frantz Exam. cent errorum ‖ In Epist. ad Hebr. cap. 1. v. 6. ** Commentar in Heb. 1. 6. ††De V. R. l. 3. c. 5. ‖‖ An Accurate Examination of the principal texts alledg'd for Christ's Divinity chap. 5. * On the 2d Article of the Creed †Considerations on the Explications of the doctrine of the Trinity * Smalc Hom. 8. in cap. 1. Johan †De Servatore cap. 6. * De Deo Attributis * Disp. de Repub. l. 1. c. 11. †De Deo Attrib cap. 5. ‖ Cap. 6. * H. Grotii Pietas ad Ordines Holland * Praelect cap. 2. * Considerations on the Explications of the doctrine of the Trinity * Crellius de Deo Attribut cap. 15. †Commentar in Johan 4. 24. ‖ Comment in 1. Epist. ad Corinth cap. 15. v. 45. * Scripture Catechism Chap. 2. †Sine corpore ullo Deum vult esse ut Graeci dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Nat. Deor. l. 1. * Tractat. breves de diversis materiis c. †Socin in Catechismo * Cont. Frantz Disp. 1. de Trin. †De Deo Attrib cap. 27. ‖ Institut l. 4. c. 13. ** Bidle Scripture-Catechism Chap. 2. The Exceptions of Mr. Edw. in his Causes of Atheism examined p. 18. * Plin. Nat. Hist. l. c. 7. * Cont. Frantz Disp. 1 and 12. †De Deo Attrib Cap. 24. ‖ Cap. 9. 11. * Socin Praelect cap. 8 9 10. * Praelect cap. 8. †Not. ad Disp. 5. de Deo †De Deo cap. 18. ‖ Considerations on the Explications of the doctrine of the Trinity ** The Trinitarian Scheme of Religion p. 4. Praelect cap. 8. * Socin cont Wiek cap. 9. †Moscorov cont Smiglecium Slichting cont Meisnerum * A Letter to the Clergy of both Universities p. 11. * P. 5. †Lib. 1. de Trinit Error ‖ An Answer to a Letter touching the Trinity ** A Postscript to the Answer to a Letter touching the Trinity * Letter to the Clergy of both Universities p. 15. †P. 24. ‖ P. 26. ** Of worshiping the Holy Ghost p. 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. Orat 32. * Socin de Servat par 1. c. 2 3. †De Servat par 3. c. 5. ‖ De V. R. l. 5. c. 20. ** Praelect cap. 18. ††De Christo Servatore par 3. cap. 4. * Cat. Racov. de Prophet Christi munere †Socin de Servat par 2. c. 15. Praelect cap. 24. Cat. Racov. c. 8. de Prophet Christi munere Item de munere Christi Sacerdotali qu. 8. ‖ Praelect Theolog. ** De Christo Servat ††Smalc de Satisfactione contr Smiglec Cat. Racov. de Prophet Christi mun cap. 8. Crellius contr Grotium * Cat. Racov. cap. eod * Theodoret. de Provid Serm. 6. * Rom. 3. 25. 1 John 22. 4. 10. †Rom. 5. 11. ‖ Chap. 9. 26. 10. 10 12. and other places * Cont. Frantz Disp. 4. †Ibid. ‖ Disp. 6. ** Homil 4. in 1. Johan * De Morte Christi qu. 12. †De Servatore ‖ A Letter of Resolution concerning the doctrine of the Trinity p. 7. * The Antitrinitarian Scheme of Religion p. 18. * Chap. 6. and 8. †Heb. 10. 29. * Prâ—…ct cap. 3. †Instit. cap. 1. * Smalc contr Smiglec de Dei filio cap. 7. * Praelect cap. 4. De Christo Servatore par 4. cap. 6. De Officio viri Christiani cap. 5. †Volkelius de
that they lately presented the world with a Paper entituled The Trinitarian Scheme of Religion and now I hope they will not be offended I am sure they ought not when I publish the Anti-Trinitarian Scheme of Religion if I may so call it or rather to speak plainly and impartially of their Irreligious Opinions and Placits They had no Credible Authors to vouch their Scheme but fill'd it up with what they thought fit But I have taken another course and have all along annex'd the Particular Authors whose Assertions I mention and I have set down the particular places in their Writings I have been very exact and faithful in rehearsing their words that I might neither wrong them nor the Truth And in order to this I have perused the Authors themselves and have taken nothing on trust Nor have I gather'd their Opinions from some few or dubious expressions in their Writings or from some Scraps and Sentences but from the plain Tenour and Scope of what they write So that the Reader may absolutely depend upon what I offer to him concerning their Sentiments All the Socinian Writings till some few of late being in Latin the Learned can consult the places which I have cited when they please and bear witness to my faithfulness in alledging them But I knew it would be of no use to the mere English Reader to transcribe the quotations in that Language wherefore I chose rather to give him them in his own Tongue And besides it is to be supposed that the Learned are not unacquainted with these things but because Others who are the greatest numbers are in great measure ignorant of them I thought it requisite to publish them to the world that it may be known what are the Wild and extravagant Notions which are wafted over to us from Racovia If I had not read their Books I might peradventure have entertain'd a more favourable opinion of them than I now have saith the Excellent Bishop before mention'd And so without doubt many others would have entertain'd a tolerable opinion of these Gentlemen if they had not perused their Writings and found what a numerous train of Unsound Propositions are there upheld and if they had not observ'd that pernicious tendency and drift of them People hear Socinianism much talk'd of of late and one or two of the most Vulgar Points of it are partly known to them and they are sollicited perhaps to give their assent to them But if they had a discovery of all the rest of their Opinions it is probable they would be moved by them to disapprove of those others Most men may think perhaps that the Socinians fail only in their disbelief of the Trinity and particularly their disowning the Deity of the Son of God but that as to other Principles of Christianity they believe and profess the same Divine Truths which are embraced by the generality of Christians For as in the late Reign Popery was misrepresented all its Doctrines were dress'd up in a very specious and plausible garb by the Bishops of Meaux and Condom and other dexterous Penmen in so much that it did not seem to be what it was said to be before for they knew that Popery truly represented would never go down with us therefore when the Roman Catholicks had hopes of gaining this Nation once again to their Church it was thought requisite to set their Religion before us in a wrong posture so hath it fared lately with Socinianism the English Racovians have given us such a Character of it that it appears to be quite different from what it was yea and what it really is they have given it such a gloss and varnish that many are thence perswaded to have a good opinion of it for they were sensible that if it were set forth and known in its true nature few Wise and Considerate persons would imbrace it therefore they found it necessary to give us a False Account of it to render it if possible plausible and acceptable But if we narrowly look into it we shall find it to be another thing than it is pretended to be we shall see that it is a Dreadful Compound of Errors and Heterodoxies a Detestable Farce of Exploded Heresies a Horrid Perverting of the Christian Faith and the Nurse of Irreligion and Prophaness To be plainer yet he that hath any close thoughts and remarks of things at this day must needs be sensible that the great Indifferency and Scepticism which reign among us have open'd a door to Socinianism which is a sure Project for Deism and this for Atheism For it is apparent that the Atheists of our times politickly make use of this Engine to compass their designs that is to banish the Deity and Religion out of the world and to introduce universal Licentiousness Immorality and Debauchery I appeal to any Thoughtful Serious and Observing Man whether this be not a true and right View of our present affairs with relation to the matter in hand I apprehended therefore it would be good service to my Countreymen to represent this Monster to them in its true and genuine Colours in its native and proper features which will certainly acquaint them with its Deformity and as the effect of that render it Loathsome and Abominable as it ought to be to all that are concerned for Religion This is the design of the following Discourse and the Holy and Blessed Trinity whose Cause I defend knoweth that herein I intend not the aspersing of any sort of men I aim not at the exposing of or reflecting upon any Party but my whole business is to assert and vindicate the Truth which hath been owned by the Catholick Church in all ages of Christianity and to obviate the growing Evil and Mischief of Socinianism In undertaking of this I will suggest nothing out of heat and passion I will labour to refute not to reproach our Adversaries I will endeavour to approve my self an Advocate for Truth without being an Enemy to Civility and Candour But yet I shall by the Divine Aid which most heartily I implore and beg the Reader to joyn his earnest Devotions with mine use that Freedom and Plainness which become the Truth and an Unprejudic'd Asserter of it My faults in my former book it seems were Wit and Eloquence if he who wrote the Vindication of the late Treatise concerning the Reasonableness of Christianity be a Judg of either Now I hope I have mended these faults or chang'd them for two others viz. Argument and Down-right Language which yet will be as much disliked by that Gentleman and his Partisans However I will venture it and perhaps this Free and Open dealing may have some good effect even upon the minds of our Adversaries at least on some of those that are in part tinctur'd with their Opinions especially when they shall see that it is not my intention to represent the Disciples of Socinus worse than they are which as to some things can hardly be
being a Sacrifice and thereby making an Atonement unto God for us upon earth which destroys that Senseless Fiction of theirs that he was not a Priest till he came to Heaven This is undeniable that where the Oblation of the Sacrifice is there is the Priest now it was here upon Earth that he was a Sacrifice he offer'd his own blood upon the Cross and therefore he was a Priest upon Earth Therefore it is said When he had by himself purged our sins viz. here by his blood he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1. 3. He first offer'd himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice for us and then appear'd in glory and triumph in heaven Other Texts speak of Christ's ransoming us Mat. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 2. 6. and of redeeming us Rom. 3. 24. 1 Cor. 1. 30. And this Redemption was by his Blood Eph. 1. 17. 1 Pet. 1. 18. call'd the Blood of God Acts 20. 28. This was the Price that was paid for us and so it was a Proper Redemption This Price was paid to God's Justice to free us from the Penalty which was due by the Law to rescue us from eternal wrath and misery This is the doctrine which the Holy Scripture teacheth us and this is the faith of all who rightly understand those Writings viz. that Christ suffer'd and died to satisfie the Divine Justice in our stead and thereby to expiate for our sins and to redeem us from death and hell and to purchase life and salvation for us The Socinians deny this and thereby subvert the whole Gospel turn Christianity upside down ruine the very foundations of our Religion and pluck it up by the roots According to the doctrine of these Men we are yet in our sins for there is no True Expiation for them we are in a State of Misery we are overwhelm'd with our own Guilt we are hopeless helpless creatures and our condition is deplorate for there is no Satisfaction made to God for our transgressions Nay they are not content barely to renounce the contrary doctrine but they explode it with great derision and reproach First as to Christ's Merits we are told by Smalcius that it was taught by Socinus and Ostorodus that the opinion of those is false absurd and pernicious who have invented and feigned that there is any such thing as Merit in Christ. And Smalcius himself is bold to call it the Fictitious Merit of Christ and in another place that Dream of Merit Then as to the Satisfaction it self he is not afraid to stile it a Fiction that hath its rise from the brains of curious men And in his Catechism he hath these reproachful words Though now it is vulgarly thought by Christians that Christ by his death merited Salvation for us and fully satisfied for our sins yet it is a deceitful opinion erroneous and very pernicious Yea this doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction is termed Absurd and Impious by Socinus I appeal now to the Reader whether I need prove that those who use such language deserve the last of these Epithets themselves But are the English and Modern Gentlemen of the same opinion Yes as you may see in Mr. Bidle's Scripture Catechism as he calls it but very unjustly Chap. 12. where he shamefully corrupts the sense of Scripture to render his Opinion plausible If you consult one of their Later Writers you will find him in a deriding manner thus representing the doctrine of the Trinitarians viz. that God the Son being incarnate in our nature fulfill'd for us all obedience by his active righteousness and by his passive one he more than exhausted all that Punishment that is or can be due to Sin Whatever he did was for us and what he suffer'd was in our stead and one drop of his blood was sufficient to ransom a thousand worlds from the demerit of their Sins And then they labour to shew that the belief of such doctrine is of very ill consequence it 〈◊〉 the cause of the decay of Piety and it is thaâ—… which bolsters men up in their wicked courses Afterwards in way of derision they thus express the doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction Because they i. e. the Trinitarians pretend that God was incarnate and suffer'd in our stead they are forced to this conclusion that God hatâ—… freely pardon'd and yet was infinitely overpaid for all our transgressions and sins that of his mere Grace the abundance and riches of his grace forsooth he will pardon and save the penitenâ—… because he hath received for them 〈◊〉 you 'll believe it a price of Redemption c. These Tenents they scoff at aâ—… branches growing upon the Trinitarian Stock these they brand as scandalous absurd and heretical doctrines p. 11. 12 14. Iâ—… an other place they declare that the Oblation which Christ made of himself was not made to the Justice of God or by way of a full reparation to it but as all other Sacrifices of beasts formerly were an oblation or application to the mercy of God and as 't is added by way of humble suit In the same place they represent Christ's Satisfaction as a Monster and scoffingly call it the Trinitarians Fetch-back though presently after they seem to retract this Jargon In a pretended Letter to the Clergy of both Universities these New Racovians again ridicule this doctrine and so they do in some others of their late Pamphlets which makes their Character very wretched and dismal and to be abhorr'd by all Good Men and sincere Lovers of Christianity for it is too manifest that they tread under foot the Son of God and count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing and do despite unto the Spirit of grace Thus you see how the doctrine of Socinianism as it respects God in general and more particularly the Persons of the Godhead and in a more especial manner the Second Person or Lord Christ Jesus and his Undertakings you see I say how extremely vitiated it is and fitted to the conceptions and notions of Prophane and Atheistical Spirits CHAP. IV. They maintain that the First Man was not created in a State of Uprightness notwithstanding the Writings of the Old and New Testament expresly assert the contrary Original Sin though attested in the same Holy Writings is pronounced a Fable by them Their groundless notion concerning the Spirit and Divine Assistance With the Pelagians they hold that Man 's Natural Strength is sufficient in order to faith and obedience What are vain and lying words according to Slichtingius Their strange conceptions concerning the Future State It is their opinion that the Souls of the deceased are void of all Perception and Sense that they Live not yea that they Exist not Which notions are proved to be contrary to Scripture and Reason The Immortality of humane Souls is shock'd by these Men. Which shews their Irreligious and Atheistical Propension Some of them disbelieve the Resurrection of the Wicked
had not been desperate I should have heard from them before this for 't is well known that our Modern Unitarians court all opportunities of setting the Press on work And they had time to do it before his Majesty's Injunctions were publish'd not to say that some of them have ventured to the Press since Besides these Injunctions I conceive debar them not not from clearing themselves if they could from those substantial Objections and Exceptions which have been made against their Assertions Wherefore I take it to be an unquestionable verity that these men who were voted such Champions by the Party are vanquished and that they have not Answered because they could not But from all hands I hear that their more retired language and countenances speak their extraordinary disturbance and disorder of Mind It is observed that some of them cannot conceal their great Regret and Passion but in a Raving Manner express their dislike of what I have writ Which I take to be an Infallible Argument that they are baffled that they are wounded under the fifth rib For they having no supports from Reason and Arguments therefore they fly to down-right Raillery Thus they let their Cause die because they cannot keep it alive And indeed as it is observ'd of less perfect Animals which are hastily form'd and produced that they are short-lived so fares it with Opinions that are defective and imperfect and found out of a sudden they are generally exploded in a short time and scarcely survive their Chief Authors This it is probable will be the fate of the foresaid Deficient and Maim'd Opinion about One Article this Mushrom Notion that hath no root and foundation will soon decay and come to nothing Another Dangerous Notion relating to the Christian Religion is that every thing in it is to be submitted to the exactness of Reason and what will not bear that Test is no part of Christianity Socinianism was first of all founded on this basis this was the main thing that was insisted upon Socinus makes it his business to destroy the doctrines of Original Sin of the Holy Trinity of Christ's Satisfaction of Baptism c. by force of Reason Demonstrations are to be required in all things that concern our Salvation saith Smalcius And even at this day this Suggestion of theirs is as useful to the New Socinians as the Rain-deers of Lapland to the inhabitants of that Country which serve them for all uses They can evade plain places of Scripture they can overturn the foundations of Religion they can settle their own Opinions they can impose upon the belief of mankind by this one Artifice It is but setting up this Idol and then presently they sacrifice all the Great Mysteries and Truths of Christianity to it When the Trinitarians assert the doctrine of Christ's Divinity when they maintain the Incarnation of the Son of God when they affirm that there are Three Personalities or Subsistencies in the Deity and when they profess their assent to other the like Articles of the Christian Faith they are cried out against because they are not level to humane conceptions no Idea can be formed of them they contradict our Natural Notions and for this reason alone they are laid aside by them as Contradictions Absurdities Impossibilities Pure Non-sense for so they are wont to express themselves in their late Writings They boast that theirs is an Accountable and Reasonable Faith when they deny the Trinity In an other place they reject this doctrine because it is against the dictate of Reason and they argue from this against the Incarnation or the Union of the Two Natures in Christ. At an other time they are for reducing all things to Common Sense And lastly they peremptorily determine that what is above our Reason to apprehend is also above our belief and consequently because the doctrine of the Trinity as well as some other sublime Points is above their Reason it staggers their belief nay which is more it is utterly renounced by them I thought fit to add these passages out of their Modern Prints to those which I had occasion to mention before in my Discourse concerning the Causes of Atheism that it may appear whatever the Late Unitarians pretend that they own this Maxim that every thing in Religion is to be submitted to the searches of Reason But certainly this is a Principle that destroys Christianity for a great part of this is founded on mere Revelation and the discoveries of God's will which transcend our reasonings and therefore it is a vanity to think that Reason must determine all in the Christian Religion It is true Natural Reason was placed in us by Him who is the Father of Lights and we must not attempt to extinguish it but neither must this Candle presume to take upon it the office of the Sun to act beyond its proper strength and power Reason is like the Rule with which we measure things to know the length or breadth of them we apply the Rule to them and so find out the just dimensions of them But then we undertake to measure Bodies which are of a certain length and breadth such as our Rule will serve to measure else there is no use of the Rule In a resembling sort what we would measure and comprehend by the Rule of Reason must be Finite i. e. proportioned to our Reason The things which are Infinite and Immense are not to be measured by this Scanty Rule such are the Divine Nature the Sacred Trinity the Union of God and Man c. Reason must act according to its due Measures and be employed according to the Strengths which are allow'd it It must not determine in those things which are not of its cognizance and such are Supernatural and Divine Mysteries There are no Demonstrative Arguments in things of this nature neither are they necessary We are to acquiesce in God's Word that is sufficient Reason And accordingly all the Great and Wise Men of this age as well as of former ones all persons of the most penetrating judgment of the most extraordinary sagacity rest in this and are satisfied But the New Disciples of Socinus pretend to be men of greater sense and understanding and demand of us to make out every thing in the Christian Religion even the profoundest matters of it by strict rules of Reason and Logick Thus as I had occasion not long since to observe they joyn with the Deists to root out Christianity and use the same methods and art that they do They irrationally extol humane Reason and extravagantly oppose it to Reveal'd Religion so as to exclude this latter and to vilifie the Author of it And thus it will appear at last that Atheism lurks under the refined name of Deism This very Notion of the excessive sway of Natural Reason in matters of Religion hath had a great and malignant influence upon some Others who are not Profess'd Socinians as a Learned Writer
Secrets in Religion To which I answer This Author explains his meaning afterwards and thereby shews what he holds for this is one of his Propositions that we must not give the name of Mystery to those doctrines which are contrary to the light of Nature or Reason and he means by these doctrines all those Divine Truths in the Gospel which are above our Natural Reason and which we cannot comprehend and discern by the light of Nature and so it appears that this Writer though he seems to allow of Mysteries yet in reality he disowns them which is no infrequent thing with them But it will be said that another of their Authors is of opinion that there are some things to be believed which we cannot comprehend I answer 1. Whatever he and some of late assert it is certain that it was a receiv'd and acknowledg'd opinion among the Socinians heretofore that nothing is to be believed but what we can comprehend It was a Standing Principle with them all Not to admit any Article into their Creed but what they could make out by exact Reason and therefore it is well known that they rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and other Great Articles of the Christian Faith because they could not fathom them by Reason This was the approved Notion in Socinus's days and in Crellius's as hath been shew'd in another place 2. I answer that this very Author himself in that place where he throws off this Old Socinian doctrine takes it up again and falls to proving that there is nothing in Religion be it never so high but may be comprehended he is so bold and confident as to say that we have as clear distinct and adequate a conception of what is Infinite and Unbounded as of a spire of Grass and that the nature of one is as comprehensible as the other 3. I add this that though this Writer and some others of the Party endeavour at other times to shift off that foresaid Principle yet it is plain that it is Good Socinianism at this very day as I have proved from some express quotations out of the Writings of the New English Racovians But it will be said again that the same Author tells us that the men of his Party deny the Articles of the Trinity and Incarnation of Christ c. not because they are Mysteries or because they do not comprehend them but because they are Contradictions Impossibilities and pure Non-sense But who sees not that Mysteries and Contradictions c. are the same with these persons and that therefore they call them by that former name because as they would make us believe they can't comprehend them they have no idea no notion of them as they speak at other times and what is this but to say They are Mysteries only they choose to cloth it in a more bold and prophane sort of language calling them Non-sense Contradictions c. Thus it is evident that they impose upon the world and whilst they cry out of Contradictions are guilty of them themselves and whilst they make a shew of believing some things above Reason are really of another perswasion It is plain then that it is their business to lift up Reason so as to depress Christianity it is to be fear'd that some of them are very eager against Mysteries thereby to extirpate that which is deservedly stiled by the Apostle the Mystery of Godliness especially they are inraged against the main branch of it God manifest in the flesh One who is no Over-valuer of Mysteries no not of that he treats of tells us that he hath no small reason to believe there are several who strike at Christianity it self under the pretence of bringing down the value of Mysteries much more than by the downright denying of all Mysteries in Christianity By this Polonian Stratagem they undermine all Religion yea the Being Nature and Attributes of God himself which contain great Abstrusities depths and mysteries in them and so in the sequel of this their Opinion which they so warmly defend and stickle for there is a strong biass to Atheism CHAP. VII The Foreign Unitarians hold that Divine Worship may be given to a Creature The English ones do in effect assert the same though they pretend the contrary Reason and Scripture are against them They can't blame either Pagan or Popish Idolatry being Idolaters themselves Their Idolatry is absurd and contradictious They deny Prayer to have been a part of God's Worship commanded under the Old Testament The contrary proved from the Writings of the Old Testament Their Evasions and Objections particularly answered and found to savour of Impiety The Observation of the Lord's day is held by them to be a Ceremonious Rite and therefore abolish'd And yet they allow of the keeping it as lawful The observing of the Seventh day is in some respect Moral The Lord's day is of Evangelical Institution and therefore we are obliged to celebrate it The Sacraments were appointed to be Signs and Helps of some spiritual good things The Socinians oppose this and most Abusively treat those Sacred Ordinances Whence we are not to wonder at their deriding and renouncing of other parts of Christianity Water-Baptism as they call it is voted by them to be unlawful Yet they hold it not unlawful to retain the practice of it in the Church This argues a Double Irreligion AND now I come to the next General Head of this present Discourse viz. to give an account of the Socinian Worship We found their Doctrines to be very bad I believe I shall make it appear that they are as faulty as to their apprehension concerning Religious Service and Adoration For they deny the Divinity of Christ and yet they assert that he is to have the same Honour and Worship given to him that ought to be given to the Father the Eternal Allmighty All-Wise and Infinite God It is said in the Brief History of the Unitarians that the Socinians generally not only grant but earnestly contend that Christ is to be worship'd and pray'd to The Polonian Unitarians were so zealous in this matter that they excommunicated and deposed from their Ministry such of their own party as denied that Christ might be prayed to and worship'd with divine worship Socinus de Invocatione Christi peremptorily asserts the Invoking and Worshiping of Christ though he be a created thing as he speaks In an other place he largely defends the lawfulness and necessity of it And so he doth more amply yet in his Answer to Francis David's Defence of the contrary opinion In one of his Epistles he contends that our Saviour should be worship'd with Divine and Religious Worship and that for this Reason because such Worship may be given to an other besides God Nay not only to an other Person but to an other Thing for his opinion is that God may command a Log or a Stone to be worship'd if he pleases and if he commands
the custom and manner of Reformed Churches and more particularly of Ours And that he makes himself merry with the Protestant not Popish manner of administring the Lord's Supper is evident further from this that he mentions not only the giving a bit of Bread but a sup of Wine which latter is not given to the People in the Church of Rome as is well known and this Author knows as well as any man Wherefore he must of necessity speak of the Sacraments as they are administred in the Protestant Churches and you see what jolly work he makes of it Mother-Church is with him a term for any Eminent Reform'd Church as it is indeed the Style of these men they in their late Writings usually call any Church of Note that differs from them Mother-Church The Lawful Minister that attends on the Sacred Institutions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper hath no better Title with them than the man in black Baptism forsooth is the Churches Water and the other Sacrament cannot be more decently express'd by him than by a bit of Bread and a sup of Wine and the words of Institution pronounc'd by our Saviour himself are scoffingly call'd the wonder-working words and which is yet more prophane and impious an Incantation a Charm a Spell Then he scandalously uses the terms of Devil Hell and Heaven as if he believ'd no such things and to confirm us in this perswasion concerning him he proceeds after he had jeer'd the Elect to compare the Solemn and Evangelical Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to the Lewdest Vilest and most prophane things imaginable yea to the Feats of Magick Art It is no wonder that the most Sacred matters of our Religion are derided by this sort of men who by such passages as these discover themselves to be of a very unsanctified temper It is no wonder that those who give themselves up to this wild and prophane way of talking blaspheme even the Son of God and the Holy Ghost vilifying the blessed undertaking of the former and disregarding the powerful assistance and aids of the latter and denying the Divinity of both It is no wonder that they abuse and debauch Christianity and all the Excellent Principles of it when they give themselves this Liberty and let fly against all that is Sacred and Venerable Who will not say and that on just grounds that here is more than a Vergency to that cursed genius which I have before mention'd But let us go on and enquire more particularly into their apprehensions about Baptism Concerning this they have espoused this groundless conceit that now among Christians it is an Insignificant Rite The determination of their Great Master is this Baptism was prescribed to none but Heathens among those who make publick profession of Christianity there is no need of it at this time it doth not concern the Church at all but is a mere indifferent thing Most of his followers represent it after the like manner and say there was no Command for Water-Baptism as they call it Baptism is ceas'd saith Volkelius it belonging only to those First Times And if you urge the express words of the Institution of it Mat. 28. 19. Go teach all nations baptizing them Socinus answers that it is not meant of the Baptism of Water And in the same place he undertakes to prove that this was not enjoyn'd by Christ but was only freely taken up by the Apostles and was a Temporary Rite To which their Chief Doctors say Amen And if you ask the Reason why it is not obligatory now they will put you off by saying the Christian Religion is Internal and Spiritual and admits not of such an external and corporal Ceremony as Baptism And yet these Sons of Reason apply not this to the Other Sacrament but acknowledge it to be perpetual in the Christian Church though it be an Outward Sensible Rite this interferes not with the Spirituality of the Christian Religion Which lets us see how Partial they are in their Arguing Further let us mark the inconsistency of these men notwithstanding there is no Precept for this Sacrament notwithstanding it is a mere Ceremonial Rite notwithstanding it is abolish'd for all this they hold and maintain yet they defend the Lawfulness of retaining it It may be used they say in the Christian Church especially when they have any Turkish or Jewish Proselytes for they mention these particularly for because they are come over to the Turks in the point of the Trinity they expect I suppose that some of them will return the kindness and be Converts to some parts of their Religion So it seems the Sacrament of Baptism is kept up only for the sake of some Mahometans and Jews who are expected to honour Socinianism with their Conversion But though Baptism as it hath respect to Adult Persons is in some sort tolerated by these men yet the Baptizing of Infants is utterly condemned by them all as a practice founded on no Precept or Example They agree with the Old Pelagians and Anabaptists that Children have nothing to do with this Rite and they give the same Reasons if we may call them so for their Tenent that they did as appears from the very words of the Racovian Catechism which excludes Infants because they cannot themselves by reason of their age acknowledge Christ for their Saviour And one of their Chief Rabbies determines in brief thus Infants not knowing what they do or what is done to them are not to be baptized And therefore an other calls it a Vain and Childish action And he thinks he is facetious when a little after he stiles it the Childish Baptism of Children And this is the sense of the Unitarians of the last Edition The Baptists or Anabaptists say they worthily labour in the vindicating of Baptism to those that are capable of it from those that are uncapable of it They determine that Baptism was appointed by Christ to initiate Jews and Heathens into the Christian Church and consequently none but these are to be enter'd into the Church by this Rite herein exactly following their Master Socinus who tells us that if any heretofore left their Judaism or Paganism they were to be baptised but those that are born of Christian Parents are not to be baptised Then they add in the same place that no person is capable of baptism but such as can profess and intend the thing signified by Baptism viz. a clean conscience and a new life consequently all Infants are excluded And now who would not think that Paedobaptism were wholly discarded by the Socinians and that they cannot with a safe Conscience allow of it But behold yet a farther proof of their Repugnancies of their jarring with themselves as well as with the Truth of their contradicting their own sentiments as well as those of the Christian Church Though they have spoken so contemptibly of this Sacred
Institution though they openly confess that Children are not capable of it though they publish to the world that there is neither Command nor Practice for it yet some of their Authors whom I have mention'd hold it may be practised in the Church What therefore is it that these men will not say or do if they have a mind to it The whole Sect of Anabaptists are against Paedobaptism and so far they are to be commended that they approve not of that in others which they are perswaded is unlawful in it self But here is a sort of Religionists that cry down the Baptising of Children as an empty and childish Ceremony as void of all Allowance from Scripture and unreasonable and absurd in it self and yet the practice of it is not unlawful in the Church He that hath a Talent of solving Contrarieties let him use it here for here is great occasion for it But this must be said indeed that some of the High-fliers among them who are most consistent with themselves and their own principles cry out against the Baptising of Children as Anti-Christian and not to be tolerated by any means in the Christian Church for truly if it be of that nature which we have heard it represented to be there is no reason it should be suffer'd any longer Wherefore those of the Party before mention'd are guilty of a double Irreligion first in slandering this Sacrament in prophanely scoffing at this Institution this Evangelical Rite ordain'd by our Lord himself Secondly in allowing the administring of it in the Church notwithstanding they have thus reproach'd it and represented it as a thing utterly unlawful What will the Impious Despisers of Religion what will the Atheists say to this Are they not hereby confirm'd in their dislike and contempt of what is Sacred Are they not taught to open their mouths against God and whatever is Religious and yet notwithstanding that to make some shew of outward allowing them Is not here an Example set them for this purpose and do we not see it daily followed Thus it appears that these men strike at Religion yea strike it down and then would pretend to raise it up as it were but this is only adding Dissimulation to their gross Impiety which renders their Guilt the greater and mightily aggravates their Crime CHAP. VIII The Socinians deny that there is any Distinct Order of men in the Christian Church This is disproved from the Evangelical Writings Though they are for Gather'd Churches yet they contradict this in their practice They can give no account of this and of their censuring other Congregations Their Indifferency in Religion is inferr'd from their having no Publick Assemblies As also from their concealing their Names and Persons Something worse than Cowardize is taken notice of in them They hold Officious Lies to be lawful The ground of this Opinion is shewed to be unreasonable Socinus's Explication of Mat. 5. 28. justly censured They assert that Immodesty Intemperance Wantonness Impure Desires and Lusts were not forbid under the Law The Badness of this assertion laid open They are enemies to the Civil Powers They will not permit them to punish any Offenders no not Murderers with death Herein they oppose themselves to the authority of the Old and New Testament The reason guessâ—…d at why they take the Sword out of the Magistrates hand They condemn all going to War as unchristian and unlawful HAving dispatch'd Two of the General Heads which I propounded I pass to the Third viz. Ecclesiastical Discipline or Government The Socinians deny that there is any Distinct Order of Men in the Church to whom it peculiarly and solely belongs to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments Socinus indeed grants that one Man may be chosen out of the rest to preach the Word of God and he sees no reason to the contrary he saith But neither he nor his followers admit of any Call or Mission requisite in order to this The †Racovian Catechism positively determines it so for though it seems to grant that it is more fitting and decent that professed and set Ministers should perform the publick offices in the Church and the Primitive Churches they grant observed this yet they assert that it is not Necessary because the Scripture doth not require it Smalcius expresly maintains this Volkelius gives us his judgment in these words That the Pastor or Minister should dispense to the rest the Supper of the Lord is wholly an indifferent thing seeing it is not commanded us by Christ nor can there be any reason given why it ought to be done at all It cannot be proved saith an Other that it is lawful for no man to do those things which he mention'd just before viz. preaching baptizing administring the Lord's Supper unless he be call'd and sent for that purpose and he endeavours to prove it by alledging several Arguments The Racovian Catechism hints that the Eucharist may be administred by the hands of Private Christians and such as are not devoted to the Ministry And what saith their famous Master As to the Lord's Supper there is no reason why we should suspect that it may not be celebrated by any one that professes the Name of Christ. And again Any Christian Man may exercise the office of Preaching and administring the Sacraments And the rest of them agree with him that there is not a necessity of a Distinct Order of persons in the Church and that a Layman may administer the Sacraments What their opinion concerning Preaching is may be learnt from the Racovian Catechism which tells us that there is no use of it since the Conversion of the Gentiles and since Christianity is setled in the world There is no Necessity of it saith an other Friend of theirs And yet in the Evangelical Writings which are the infallible Rule we are to direct our selves by and whence we are to learn what Ecclesiastical Constitutions are to take place we find that the Distinction and Peculiarity of the Ministerial Office and its Peculiar Function are settled 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. Eph. 4. 11 12. A peculiar Mission is expresly required Rom. 10. 15. 1 Tim. 5. 5. Tit. 1. 5. A Particular Call is made necessary Acts 14. 23. Heb. 5. 4. Upon which that Article of our Church is grounded It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of Publick Preaching or Ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he is lawfully call'd and sent to execute the same But this is disregarded by our New Modellers of Religion And who could expect any other thing for they who have so abused and perverted Christianity it self would not fail to treat the Ministers of it with contempt and disgrace yea wholly to make void their Office and Charge This is a fresh evidence of the truth and reality of what I formely tax'd them with One thing further I will observe that according to
Offender saith the Apostle or have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to die Both Capital Judicatures and Punishments are authorized by the same Apostle Rom. 13. 4. where speaking of the Magistrate he saith He beareth not the sword in vain i. e. he beareth it so as strike with it to do execution with it when there is occasion So ridiculous is that Exposition of the place which One of the Socinian Writers gives viz. It is said He bears the sword but yet he must not use it It is evident from this Text as well as from those before mention'd that God himself hath put this Weapon into the Magistrate's hand and why then should any presume to disarm him I acknowledge a Christian Ruler ought to be very Cautious and Tender in the point of mens Lives and perhaps it would be better to be sparing of them in some cases where generally according to the Laws as they are now in force there is a forfeiture of Life It was very rare heretofore among our Ancestors to inflict death for some of those Crimes which now are made Capital The Executioner had not so much work when Banishment and Confiscations were more in use But it is certain that there are such flagitious enormities such heinous and detestable villanies as require no less a recompence than Death it self Especially in the case of Blood-shedding a Retaliation is due for blood calls for blood This fatal Retribution is founded not only on the foremention'd Positive Law given to the Patriarchs and never since repeal'd and also on the Allowance of the New Testament as you have heard but on the Common Law of Equity and justice Wherefore the Magistrate hath authority when publick Justice and Necessity require it to take away mens lives Which our Church thought fit to make one of her Articles The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian Men with death for heinous and grievous offences Nay the Publick Ministers of Justice are so far from offending in doing this that they are extraordinarily guilty if they omit it especially if they suffer Murderers to go thus unpunish'd for blood-shed is the way by Gods appointment for the avenging of willful homicide and murder I mention these things that we may see how injurious the Unitarians are both to the Ecclesiastical and Civil Ministers They not only null the function and Jurisdiction of the former as I shew'd you but they rob the latter of a great and considerable part of their Office They will not allow them a power to punish Offenders especially Capitally With the Donatists of old and some Anabaptists afterwards they agree to defend this Proposition that no man ought to be put to death let his Crime be never so black and bloody they hold that the Effusion of humane blood is in all cases unlawful They had this immediately from the Italian Innovator who knew it would serve his followers to very considerable purposes For it was convenient to begin first with the Magistrate lâ—…st he should have begun with them They take away his Punitive Power and then they know he can't hurt them They are against all Capital Inflictions lest they should tast of them themselves The design of these Opposers of Magistracy is that they may have a Licence to vent what Doctrines they please that they may even expel out of the world some of the Fundamental Truths which have been embraced in all ages of the Church It is to be fear'd that the design at the bottom is that all Magistrates should throw away their Swords divest themselves of their power to Punish that hereby there may be a Liberty to do what they please and then at last it is likely they will usurp the Sword and take upon them that Office which they denied to the Magistate Though they despoil the Praetor of his Axe as well as Rods yet they will make use of them themselves Here I might let you see likewise that it is their opinion that it is not lawful for a Christian Man to go to war Thus their Great Casuist determines and in other places he saith We may not repel force with force by taking up Arms though we are justly assaulted And he is back'd by Smalcius who peremptorily asserts the same But I believe the Reader would think it loss of time to insist here and to shew the unreasonableness of this Opinion and therefore I dismiss it CHAP. IX The Socinians agree with the Papists in the doctrine of Evangelical Counsels and several other Tenents The Author 's designed Brevity The Socinian Creed summ'd up and faithfully represented in its several Articles An Objection Answered Another Objection more particularly and distinctly answer'd THUS I have gone through the Several Particulars and Members which make up the Body of Socinianism and I have now only this further to adjoyn that both as to some of the Instances before mention'd and as to one or two which I have not yet taken notice of they apparently symbolize with the Papists They joyn hands with them in asserting Evangelical Counsels as we may satisfie our selves from what their Great Doctor and Dictator saith on Mat. 5. 43 44. It is true in his Explication of v. 17. of that Chapter he rejects the Popish Distinction of Precepts and Counsels as it is there on that occasion applied But behold his shifting In this place he makes out his Opinion by using that Distinction only he disguises it under the term of Monitions instead of Counsels He holds that of Solomon Prov. 25. 21. If thine enemy be hungry give him bread to eat c. to be of this sort it is an Advice which we may follow or not as we please it is not a Command no man is enjoyn'd to do this But after this rate any of the Plain Commands in Holy Scripture may be evaded for we may alledg this which Socinus here starts that though the words are propounded in the way of a Precept yet they have not the force of one but only are Admonitions or Counsels which a man may observe if he thinks fit else not And so in other Particulars I have hinted their Correspondence with Rome as in their vilifying of the Scriptures and holding them to be Corrupted likewise in their notion of Divine Worship which they say is not proper and peculiar to God the Papists excuse the Worship which is paid by them to Angels and Saints by alledging that this Honour may be communicated to others besides the Deity and so doth Socinus stiffly maintain that this Divine Honour is not appropriated to him that is by nature God Both parties agree in the doctrines of Merit and Perfection Both accord in this likewise that the Magistrate must not meddle with the Church that he hath no Authority to punish Offenders in point of Religion Moreover they agree in the distinction of Venial and Mortal Sins See Crellius Eth. l. c. 5. and Volkelius
they shall not be Tried or Judged Only they shall be Punished and their Punishment is this To utterly eease and perish for ever the Unquenchable Fire is nothing but Annihilation I believe as to Christianity it self that every thing in it is to be submitted to the dictates of Humane Reason and what cannot be explain'd and made out by this is no part of the Christian Religion and consequently that there are no doctrines appertaining to it which are Mysterious and Superiour to our Reason I believe as to Divine Worship that it may be given to another besides God that a Creature may if God thinks fit be the object of Adoration and consequently Christ who is but a Creature may be worship'd with Divine Worship even the same that is paid to God the Father I believe that Prayer as eminent an act of Worship as it is was not required in the Old Testament for God's people had no need of Praying then they were able to do all that was commanded them in their Religion without the Divine Assistance and therefore the Invoking of God became not a Duty till Christ's time I believe the Lord's day commonly so call'd is a Ceremonious Observance and abolish'd by the Gospel which takes away all Choice of Days I believe that there is no Spiritual Blessing convey'd or conferr'd in the use of the Sacraments and particularly that Baptism is an useless Rite which the Christian Church under the Gospel hath nothing to do with but more especially the Baptizing of Children is insignificant vain and childish and hath neither Precept nor Example to commend it to us I believe there is no Distinct Function or Office of Ministers in the Christian Church and that the Lord's Supper it self may be administred by any private Christian or Brother As to Moral Points I believe that Officious Lies are lawful that the Motions of Concupiscence are not Vitious that idle or obscene words gluttony drunkenness riot luxury and all impure desires and lusts were not forbidden till Christ's time and consequently were no Sins I believe concerning Magistrates that they have no power of Life and Death it is not lawful for them now under the Gospel to inflict Capital Punishments on any Offenders or Malefactors no not Murderers and Cut-throats Concerning some other Articles I believe as the Church believes I mean the Church of Rome for we symbolize with them in several points of doctrine Lastly after all I believe that though the foresaid Articles are necessary to make a man a Socinian yet the belief of only One is enough to make a Man a Christian and that One Article is that Jesus is the Messias in which it is not included whether he be God or Man whether he satisfied the Divine Justice for our sins and by vertue of his Death purchas'd Life for us But when I say I believe Jesus is the Messiah I mean only this that such a Man of Nazareth was Anointed Ordain'd and Sent of God to be a Saviour and that this is He who was foretold and promis'd to be sent by God This is all I believe and there is no Necessity of believing any thing more This is the Socinian Creed and I have faithfully drawn it up out of their own Admired and Applauded Writers I know it will be said here that some besides professed Socinians hold some of these things To which I answer I made it not my present business to observe what Others say but to represent what that body of men who are known by the name of Socinians profess and own Again it is not one of these Opinions alone excepting that concerning the Blessed Trinity which can give the denomination of Socinian it is the Complication of them that must do it Therefore Iinsist not on any one Single Opinion of lesser importance Those that bear upon them the General and Complex Characters which I have layd down in the preceding Discourse are the Persons that I design'd In short I write not and never will by God's assistance to humour and gratifie any Party of Men but to assert and vindicate the Truth which is pleasing to all Good Men. And therefore if any sort of persons shall censure my freedom I shall have recourse to my own Innocence and Integrity that is my hearty designs and indeavours to advance that Cause which I verily believe hath Truth on its side because it hath the Scriptures on its side If they shall say and what will they not say that the English Socinians give not their suffrage to all these Particulars which I have produced and named and therefore my Charge against the Foreigners doth not reach them I desire these following things may be considered and then this Evasion will be found to be very weak and useless and nothing to their purpose and it will appear that this Scheme of Socinianism belongs to them as well as to the rest First we are not sure that some of those who go under the name of English Socinians are not Foreigners Is not Crellius's Stock somewhere harbour'd among them Have there not been seen strange Outlandish Books at the Press of late May we not suspect some Transylvanians and Polanders employ'd in the work lately Are we not sure that there are some Irish as well as English ingaged in the service Why then are we nice in distinguishing when they are not differenc'd as to their work and design Secondly as for our very English and Native Socinians they borrow'd their Opinions from those Foreigners they fetch'd them from those Writers and they maintain them by the same Arguments that they did They use the very same Texts and urge them after the same manner they follow them step by step vouch their Reasonings applaud their Discoursings only they dress up their notions in an English garb and give them a more Modish Turn than they had before That 's all the difference between those Authors and these of late in England Thirdly though some of the Moderns are so politick as to be silent about some of the Points that I have mention'd yet we have no reason to gather thence that they are not inclin'd to imbrace them It is a remarkable hint of a very Observing Person There is reason to suspect saith he that the Socinians have some other odd Tenents which they think fit rather to conceal than to deny For we must consider this that they would first gain their Main Point the overthrow of the Trinity and all the Maxims that relate to that This is the Leading Card with them and therefore they chiefly insist on this intending we may suppose to urge the rest afterwards For it would be too much to undertake at one time to defend all the other doctrines And besides it would be too odious to reject so many receiv'd Propositions at once Therefore they go not this way to work lest they should be universally cried down It is their cunning to proceed gradually and to undermine Christianity
out of their favour They laugh at the Orthodox as they call them for thundring it from their Pulpits that matters of Faith are above Reason So the Letter to the Clergy of both Universities chap. 10. And those that will not reject the Trinity and other doctrines exploded by the Socinians are Priest-ridden Letter of Resolution p. 19. They adhere to other Enthusiastick Spirits as to their mistaken conceits concerning Magistracy and the Secular Sword They perfectly accord with the Quakers in their opinions about the Trinity Christ's Satisfaction Original Corruption concerning the Ministerial Function and Mission concerning Infant-Baptism the Observation of the Christian Sabbath going to War c. So that any considerate man may observe that Quakerism is the spawn of Socinianism Nay they seem to have given rise to the wild Sect of Muggletonians who from them have learnt to hold but One Person in the Godhead viz. God the Father and to call the Trinity or a God of Three Persons as they speak a Monster as our Gentlemen are pleas'd also to express themselves They have been taught from them to renounce the Power of the Christian Magistrate and the Office of a Christian Minister they are instructed by them in their Tenents concerning the Spirits or Souls of men viz. that they can't act without the body and that therefore they are extinct as soon as they are separated from it They are the very words of this late Party and they are taken from the Racovians An other detachment is that the Bodies of the deceased wherein they lived and died shall not rise again shall not appear any more This is their language whence it is evident that Reeve and Muggleton suck'd their Principle from Faustus Socinus and his Adherents And thus you see that as the Socinians borrow from several Sects so they set up others they receive and distribute Poison and thereby doubly endanger mankind Lastly it is apparent that they borrow from Deists and Atheists and thereby yet further bring mischief upon the world And from the whole it is evident that these persons are corrupted not only in some matters of lesser moment but in those that are of the highest concern not only in merely Speculative doctrines but such as immediately relate to Practise not only in some Principles that respect the Circumstances of Christianity but in those that are Substantial and Fundamental those that are of the very Essence of the Christian Faith Let this be seriously thought of that we may have a true apprehension of the mischief of Socinianism Secondly Observe the strange boldness as well as falshood of these men They are often in their Writings insinuating into their Readers that they build all their Assertions on the Scriptures and thence they require their assent to what they deliver But from the several Particulars which I have insisted upon it is clear that they have no ground to require or claim it upon that account for I have manifestly discover'd the opposition of their Tenents to the plain dictates of the Holy Spirit in the Bible There they are condemned as spurious and adulterate Notions there they are rejected as Pernicious and Poisonous doctrines And yet they have the confidence to ground these on the authority of the Inspired Writings the Sacred Oracles of Truth yea One of them tells the world that he was brought to these Perswasions by reading the Scripture that hereby they may the more effectually impose upon the minds of men who they think will be ready to attend to that which they pretend is bottom'd on the Word of God Thirdly These things which have been suggested may be serviceable to give us a Right Idea of the persons I have been dealing with Surely those who have thus mangled and abused Religion cannot be thought to have a Good Intention in the work which they are about at this day yea they must be thought to have a very Bad one We may argue thus It is no wonder that they that pervert and deprave so many doctrines of Religion do more especially enervate the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity If it were only on the account of all their other wild notions we might have reason to suspect yea to condemn their blasphemous Opinion concerning our Lord Jesus Christ viz. their flat denial of his Godhead and of his Satisfaction c. It is not to be marvel'd at that they proceed thus far having done so much besides having in other Points of Christianity shew'd what a faculty they have of perverting and distorting the Truths of the Gospel What I have said therefore will be useful to enlighten the Reader that he may understand what manner of persons these are that to speak plainly he may be convinced that they are no Christians Whatever pretences they make to that Title it is impossible they should with reason lay claim to it for they neither are baptised into the Christian Faith nor do they make Profession of it as you have heard but on the contrary they subvert Christianity it self and deny the Divine Author of it How then can these men challenge the name of Christians Nay I could observe that they industriously comply with Jews and Turks in opposition to and defiance of all Sober Christians To gratifie the former they think fit to renounce the avowed Principles of the latter Herein they follow their Old Friend Servetus who had convers'd a long time with Jews and Mahometans and had espoused many of their Opinions and was a great Admirer of them Especially he declar'd his approbation of the Alcoran and thought it reconcileable with the New Testament if the doctrine of the Trinity were laid aside It is often mention'd by Socinus and other Racovian Writers that this doctrine and that of the Incarnation hinders Jews and Turks from embracing the Christian Religion And even the late Socinian Penmen in their New Tractates talk much of this that the doctrine of the Trinity puts a stop to the conversion of Jews Mahometans and Heathens and thereupon they are very earnest with their Readers to abandon this Great Point of Christianity in mere complacency with those Infidels And more particularly it is observable how favourably they speak of Mahometism or Turcism they profess themselves forward to believe that Mahomet had no other design in pretending himself to be a Prophet but to restore the belief of the Unity of God which at that time was extirpated among the Eastern Christians by the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation Mahomet meant not his Religion should be esteemed a New Religion but only the Restitution of the true Intent of the Christian Religion Therefore the Mahometan Learned men call themselves the True Disciples of the Messias They further in the same place insinuate their approbation of the Mahometan Religion above that of Christianity they magnifie the Alcoran and the more plausible Sect of Mahomet as the Saracens call'd it and at the same time they represent the
Modern Christianity which professes the doctrines of Christ's Incarnation and the Trinity no better or other than a sort of Paganism and Heathenism These are their very terms P. 19. and they are answerable to what was said by them before viz. that the Trinitarian doctrines are of Heathen descent and original P. 15. and afterwards to vary the phrase of Paganick Extraction P. 16. I appeal now to the Reader whether this be not right Sclavonian whether it be not the very language and dialect of the Polonian Divines which shews that these are identified with the English Unitarians as to this matter and at the same time it yields us a true Pourtraiture of the persons I have been representing to the Reader Fourthly we should be very careful that we entertain none of their foresaid Opinions I question not but the Reader would have made this Inference though I had not But this I request of him that he would out of Choice and Judgment do this as being throughly apprehensive of that Evil and Danger which attend those Principles For this purpose I have display'd them and I hope that Special Hand of Providence for I cannot but acknowledg it as such which directed me to it will back it with a Blessing Fifthly and lastly see the tendency of the Unitarians and of the whole mass of the Socinian Points to Atheism They vilifie the Scipture they adulterate the true Meaning of it they introduce unbecoming sentiments concerning God and Religion they decry the great and necessary Truths of the Gospel they baffle the apprehensions which we ought to have of a Future State and what doth all this drive at but the undermining of Religion yea and Divinity it self So fitly was this Question inserted by a Learned Man above sixty years ago among his other Enquiries at the end of his Compendium of Ecclesiastical History Whether Socinianism be not an Introduction to Atheism So truly was it said lately by an Observing Pen In several respects our Socinians seem to be serving the designs of the Atheists I wish the Christian world would open their eyes and see this betimes and thereby prevent the unexpressible Danger which otherwise will unavoidably follow I offer it to be taken notice of that the Socinian and Atheistical party joyn hand in hand at this time and agree together in a very friendly manner to laugh at and defie the Fundamental Principles of Religion Such a Reflection methinks should be dismal to those of the Modern Penmen of the Socinian Perswasion who are sober and considerate They write whether they know it or no to please and humour the Wild Gallants those in city and countrey that are of Lewd Principles or of none at all Nothing is more evident at this day than that the Socinian Writings are highly acceptable to those that espouse the Cause of Atheism to the profesâ—…edly Prophane and Irreligious These are the men that applaud them and cry them up and think they are fraught with great Wit Argument and Reason I appeal to Impartial Judges whether this doth not shew the near Affinity if not Identity between these persons and those I am mentioning He that doth not see this sees nothing To conclude if what I have said sound harsh in these Gentlemens ears I request them to call to mind how severe they have been in censuring the Trinitarians and particularly in charging them with Idolatry Though Slichtingius and one or two more are unwilling to say in express terms that we are Idolaters yet both he and all the party assert that which is equivalent for they say we worship a mere Figment a Fancy of our own for so they blasphemously stile the Holy Trinity we set up an Idol of our own brain for an object of Divine Worship But our Home-bred Unitarians are yet bolder and speak it out without any mincing that the Trinitarians are Idolaters and Pagans and much worse and this they often inculcate But certainly to tax us with Idolatry when they themselves professedly worship a Creature as hath been observ'd before is the wildest Conceit that ever enter'd into any man's head the Boldness Inconsistency and Non-sense of it are so great that we can't sufficiently stand amazed at it Nay not only Idolatry but Atheism is laid to our charge I find that Servetus calls the Trinitarians Atheists very frequently And even the Modern Unitarians in their late writings expresly fix this Crime upon them for their words are these concerning the doctrine of the Trinity By its natural absurdity and impossibility it did not only at first give a check and stop to the progress of the Gospel but ever since it hath served to propagate Deism and Atheism The doctrine it self cannot do this without its being urged and managed by those that assert it therefore it is as much as if they had said Those who defend the Trinity propagate Atheism Now it will not be denied I think that those who propagate Atheism are Atheists Wherefore according to these men a Trinitarian is an Atheist In an other place they say he may be justly suspected of Atheism and they mention on what account Others of them tell us that Whatever Zeal the Trinitarians may pretend to have for Religion they take the right way to make men Scepticks and Atheists And the last man that wrote in defence of the Socinian Cause complains of us that we make that a Fundamental of Religion which contradicts the best reasonings of mankind whereby they prove the existence of God Thence loose men deny there is any God at all Thus you see what the Socinian Charge is against us Whence you may perceive that Mine is but a Counter-Charge and therefore they have no reason to find fault with the foregoing Retaliation especially when with the utmost Sincerity I declare that my Charge against them was not founded upon theirs or occasion'd by it for it was since the time that I drew up mine against them that I found this Accusation in some of their Papers Which may convince any unprejudiced person that what I have said with reference to the Anti-Trinitarians is not in way of Recrimination for I did not know that their Writings had any thing of that nature against those that defend the Trinity But it was and is from a sense and perswasion of the truth of the thing it self and that alone that I have and do at present thus tax them and turn their Obloquy upon themselves And truly I have done it with a sensible compassion all the while for I cannot rejoyce as some seem to do at finding an occasion of Censuring and Blaming others I submit what I have said to the Consciences of all Sober Faithful and Judicious Men all Sincere Lovers of God and Religion Let these judg between us and our Adversaries And now to shut up all if any one with calmness and sobriety laying aside all levity and scurrility all artifice and