was apparently designed by the Compilers for some special use to fence the Catholick Faith from the Corruptions Depravations Doubtings and Contradictions of Hereticks as in the Nicene Creed the Oneness of our Lord Jesus Christ was added when the Arians opposed the Apostolick Tradition and by corrupting detected the words of Scripture to their sence which Dr. H. shews more largely in his Note on 1 Joh. 5.7 and of such Additions he says That when the Church hath thought meet to erect an additional Bulwark against Hereticks such as reject them may be deemed to side with those Hereticks p. 86. And this is the summ of what he says concerning the Athanasian Creed the Doctrine whereof he says is well nigh all to assert the Unity of the Divine Nature and Trinity of Persons against those Hereticks who had brought Novel Propositions into the Church of which Doctrinal part he says that Athanasius being only a Father of the Church they were not necessary to be explicitely acknowledged nor absolutely imposed on any but such as were Members of some Church that had actually received Athanasius's Explication or than it appeared concordant with the more authentick universal Confessions as every Doctrinal Proposition of it will be found to do As for the Damnatory Sentences Dr. Ham. supposeth them to be interpreted in opposition to those Heresies that had invaded the Church not that it defined it to be a damnable sin to fail in understanding or believing the full matter of any of those Explications Dr. Ham. having as a wise Master Builder laid this Foundation shews how necessary it is for the end of building on it a holy Life and an uniform universal Obedience to the Commands of Christ in opposition to Idolatry Formality Hypocrisie and to Sacriledge Profaneness and Impiety as also to improve the Vertues of Obedience to Superiours Charity to all Mankind Purity of Flesh and Spirit Contentedness and taking up the Cross and lastly how useful it is to confute false Doctrines 1. Of the Romanists as Penances Indulgences of Supererrogating Merits of Attrition improved into Contrition by the Priest's aid without change of Life Dispensableness of Oaths Arts of Equivocation Purgatory Cessation of Allegiance and especially of Infallibility 2ly Of the Solifidians and Fiduciaries the Predestinarians and irrespective Decrees of Election and Reprobation of the Divine Prescience against the Socinians who deny that God foresees all things and though they grant his Omnipresence and Omnipotence yet question the infinity of his Science which is apparently false as appears by God's Predictions to the Prophets When I considered the Writings of both these Doctors their Foundations and Superstructures it brought to my mind those two sorts of Builders and Building mentioned by our Saviour Mat. 7. the one built on that approved Rock of St. Peter 's Confession the other on that Sand whereon Arius Socinus and that Man of an ominous Name Sandius pitcht their Tabernacles the one stands firm tho' for 1600 Years the Rain descended Flouds came and the Wind blew on it the other tho' like the Walls of Jerusalem it hath been often attempted to be fastned hath still been blown down and may the Fall of it be still great P. 41. c. 2. Our Doctor says If the Relation between the written Word and rational Consequence be so remote as none but a skilful Herald can derive its Pedigree then is a good Christian no more obliged to believe such an Inference than is every good Subject to be a good Herald As if the Ignorant were no ways obliged to follow the Directions of the wise and good Men or as if Subjects were not bound to obey those Laws whereof they cannot ken those Reasons which the wise and consulting Legislators on good Reasons have established for their Security What tho' the Papists do most absurdly infer from Christ's Command to St. Peter to feed his Lambs that all those Popes which pretend to be his Successors are thereby commissioned to Rule and Govern all Nations and Persons in all Ages Cannot so enquiring a Person as the Doctor or one that is more or one that is less rational from such Scriptural premises as God was made Flesh Christ is God over all equal and one with his Father with undeniable Reason infer as the Catholick Church in all Ages hath done That he is the Eternal Son of God But such an Inference is so contrary to the Socinian's Reason that it is equally rejected with contempt and derision as Popish Impositions and by the Doctor numbred among them But Bernardus non videt omnia He undertakes therefore to bless the World with such a description of them that it shall be as easie to know them without pains or art as it was for the meanest Beggar in the street to understand whom King Ahasuerus would Honour when he caused Mordecai in Royal Manner to be publickly honoured and by Proclamation enjoyned the People to bow the Knee as he past by them The Qualifications for Matter of Faith he says must be these 1. It must be easie to be understood by the meanest capacity and therefore he rejects any thing that is called a Mystery though God manifested in the Flesh be so called by the Apostle yea though the same Mystery be implied in that very Scripture which he quotes to prove his assertion viz. Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus i. e. that Jesus is the Lord which no man can say but by the Holy Ghost i. e. not by a natural Faith but by a supernatural Revelation such as our Saviour says Flesh and blood hath not revealed And it is observable that though in the Title of this Chapter he mentioneth the Word as well as the Matter to be believed yet he makes no mention of the Word by which the Person of our Saviour is generally understood so that Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the Foundation of our Faith is excluded from being the Object of our belief for he writes the WORD in a larger Character which might induce the Reader to believe that he meant as St. John 1.1 The Son of God which is the adequate Object of Christian Faith but speaks nothing of him in all that Chapter 2ly He says It must be an express Word of God This no Protestant denieth but they do generally urge it against the Papists who teach as necessary Articles of Faith the Commandments of Men And may we not conclude by this Position that they who oppugne such a Fundamental to which Eternal Life is promised may come short of Salvation Christ saith He that believes and is baptized this is but one entire proposition as our Author observes that it is not only he that believes but he that believes and is baptized and Salvation cannot belong to them that put asunder what Christ hath joyned as the Socinians do in the Case of Baptism which they call only a Rite and Ceremony 3ly He says It must be expresly honoured with
Fellow heirs with the believing Jews then it ceased to be a Mystery and surely there is another Mystery in v. 9. of that 3d Chapter which our Doctor cannot yet apprehend thô plainly revealed viz. That God created all things by Jesus Christ See Crellius Heb. 1. v. 10. which though frequently asserted in the Scripture as Col. 1. Heb. 1. c. yet the Socinians utterly deny nor can they apprehend what is that Righteousness which is by Faith as opposed to that which is by the Law or to our Doctor 's Natural Faith but the Doctor tells us of another Mystery little less than a Contradiction as p. 1. c. 2. viz. The Patriarchs knew only the Fathers yet Abraham had the knowledge of Christ and our Saviour says that Moses spake of him and the Doctor affirms the same That Moses spake of Christ Deut. 30.12 for the Doctor saith p. 41. c. 1. that the Apostle applied that place to Christ If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved It was not so much in dislike of the Popish Mysteries that the Doctor so often rejects whatever is above human Reason under that Notion as in dislike of the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Eternal Generation of our Saviour of which he speaking p. 34. c. 1. says If you understand not this you must not wonder at least not gain-say it for it is a Mystery which Reason cannot fathom and therefore must be rejected as one of the Packs of Impertinent Mysteries p. 58. c. 2. The Doctor that writes so mystically himself should not be so much displeased if he meet with some Mysteries in other Writings especially in the Scripture wherein as St. Peter observes of St. Paul's Epistles There are some things hard to be understood and will not be fully explained till Elias come And indeed as Naked as his Gospel is it is darkned with so many obscure mists and subtle insinuations that it will appear to some of his most diligent Readers to be one continued Mystery of Iniquity It is a sorry shift which Sandius and others that write against the Trinity make to excuse themselves for thus Sandius pleads see his Appendix p. 107. That he wrote his Book on behalf of the Protestants against the Papists to convince them that the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith because they could not prove the chiefest Articles of their Faith viz. the Trinity Consubstantiality and Coequality from the Tradition of the Fathers of the three first Ages In this our Doctor follows Sandius and would perswade us to renounce the Doctrine of the Trinity because it is a Popish Doctrine See more of this in another Epistle of Sandius p. 261. I have proved saith he that the whole World in the fourth Age was Arian and the Arians enjoyed Temporal Felicity and wrought Miracles to shew against the Papists that these are not marks of the true Church I reckoned diverse Councils of the Arians who condemned the Catholick Faith to shew that we ought not to depend on their Determinations in Matters of Faith but on Scripture only I have shewn that the Church of Rome hath honoured many Arians that were of very evil lives as Saints to shew you what manner of Saints the Papists do Invocate by the Authority of the Infallible Church of Rome c. All this is right but when the whole design of his Book is to shew that the Doctrine of Arius denying the Godhead of Christ and making him a Creature is more consonant to Scripture and Antiquity than that of the Trinity in the Church of Rome is to condemn all other Churches that maintain the same Doctrine for to this purpose tends that which remains in the Third Enquiry concerning the Papists who do impose new Articles of Faith and set their Traditions and Decrees in an equal rank with the Scriptures and sometimes above them with a Nonobstante to Christ's own Institutions as the Socinians do by their Reason let them therefore dispute the Case with each other and let Baal plead for himself He cannot wound the Church of England through their sides unless he can prove the Doctrine of the Trinity to be a Popish Tradition which he doth more than intimate and herein he would do them more service than any of their Champions by proving Popery to be more ancient than the Council of Nice I am now come to the Conclusion of the Author who shuts up his Naked Gospel as generally the Socinians do with a Plea for Toleration to all that confess the Lord Jesus and believe that God raised him from the Dead though they leave him as Naked a Lord as the Doctor hath left the Gospel robbing him of his Eternity and Deity and that Honour and Worship which on those considerations are due to him our Faith in his Name Obedience to his Commands a devout use of his Holy Sacraments and so turn Turks Jews o◠as some English Socinians have done Quakers and live above Ordinances satisfying themselves with a Christ within them and a Natural or Naked Gospel as Mr. Pen in a Socinian Tract hath done This he calls giving Faith its due Bounds by imprisoning it and dismembring it separating Obedience and Love which are inseparable from Evangelical Faith And as for Love saith he we must give it its due boundlesness even to them that love not but deny and bid open defiance to the Godhead of Christ to whom the Apostle denounceth Anathema I wish heartily the Doctor had shewn more Charity to the Church of Christ in general than to think and speak of them as guilty of Idolatry in all Ages for so are they that give Divine Worship to a Creature and that he who stiles himself a Son of the Church of England would not defame her as tainted with Popish because she holds the Athanasian Doctrine for he calls that and the Nicene their Creeds and our Litany their Litany and so becoming a Papist to the Papists and it 's much better to be an Athanasian Papist than an Arian or Socinian Heretick The Doctor tells us in the Vindication p. 7. of his intention to have presented his Naked Gospel to the Convocation that they might be induced to enlarge their Charity at a time when all the Christian World expected it from them And was all the Christian World once more become Arians that they should become Disciples to his Naked Gospel I cannot conceive what compliance the Doctor could presume of from that Convocation he well knows their Prolocutor was the same that agreed shortly after to the burning of it in the Convocation at Oxford and doubtless both he and the several Members would have had the same Resentment of it at Westminster as the Oxford Convocation had When therefore we see a Viper rising out of the Fires of Oxford and hissing p. 5. That the Heresie lay not in the Book but in the
to Charity we have one Lord one Faith one Baptism but such as the Author is the Socinians deny the Lord that bought them destroy the Foundation of Faith in the Godhead and satisfaction of Christ and wholly disannul Baptism and so cut asunder this triple Cord that obligeth Christians to Charity and indeed as they acknowledge not the one Lord so they nullify the one Faith in him and make the one Baptism of no effect and therefore have utterly destroyed Charity The next charge of exposing the Divinity of Christ he says p. 5. hath no other evidence but this That he is sometimes stiled a crucified Vagabond and this he says is but once viz. in the Introduction But was it not said with as little modesty p. 21. c. 2. That he was a Vagabond Galilean which expressions by the Rule of Fortiter calumniare aliquod adherebit will not excuse him by saying he personated an Infidel such playing with Holy Things is much worse than his play at push Pin. P. 6. he protesteth That in his whole life he never spent so much time in reading Socinian Books as put altogether would amount to one whole day By spending so much time I suppose he means he did not lose or mispend it but it was well bestowed or perhaps he made the Arrian Controversy his chief Study which is as contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England as the Socinian So Socinus protested he never read Arrius Credat Judaeus I would here remind the Doctor of the excellent Advice of the incomparable King Charles the First mentioned by himself in his Preface I would have you as I hope you are already well grounded and setled in your Religion the best Profession whereof I have ever esteemed that of the Church of England in which you have been Educated c. It is well known that the Doctor was not only educated in the Church of England but to that very time when he wrote his Naked Gospel that is till he was sixty five Years old as he computes his Age he hath lived in the Communion of that Church we may therefore marvel how he was so soon removed from him that called him to the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel as St. Paul expresseth it Gal. 1.6 which would pervert the Gospel of Christ Did he not judiciously make the Doctrine of the Church of England his own as that Blessed King advised Did he not by his own judgment and reason but by his hand only seal to the Bond which Education had written or take it up only on Mens Customs or Traditions as that good King speaks if so he was guilty of great Oscitancy in the matter of Religion on which Salvation depends or if after so long Profession of the Doctrine of the Church he began to entertain some doubts of the truth of it he was guilty of great Levity in so weighty a Matter not to bestow many Years in the Examination of the Errors of that Doctrine which he forsook and imbracing another vastly and dangerously differing from it without bestowing so much as one Day 's reading the Grounds and Reasons of it On supposition therefore that the Doctor hath embraced either the Arrian or Socinian Doctrines he was unaccountably rash there being so many Books written by learned Men of both Parties to leave a Religion which he had so long profest and had time to enquire into and without more than one Days study in a Case of such consequence to fall off to a contrary Opinion This may tempt Men to think it was done in a Pet some may think because he was not removed to a higher Station as he intimates somewhere the Archbishop promised he should in some short time but being not done he thought to remind him of his Promise by Dedicating that Book of a Constant Communicant to his Grace yet after all he was left in that Place where he spent three Pence of his own to every Penny of his Preferment For my part I have a better opinion of the Doctor and that he had long studied and often discoursed with learned Men concerning the Socinian Controversy and that the Naked Gospel was the product of many Years spent in Reading Conference and Meditation on those Points before he came to a Resolution For I have heard of a Doctor of his Age who often discoursed with his Father a Reverend Divine concerning some Arminian Pelagian and Socinian Points and in heat of disputation did tell his Father That it would not be well till we came up to the Socinian Doctrine this was many years since And what means his sitting down when the Athanasian Creed was said but his contempt of it The next Charge is That the Godhead of our Saviour is declared to be an impertinent and dangerous Speculation This he thinks is discharged by the former distinction of the manner of the Generation c. and adds That those Fathers who were the most earnest Assertors of the Doctrine of Christ's Divinity he doth not say of his Eternal Deity were also the most severe Censurers of Curiosity concerning the manner of his Generation And our Author is a Son of those Fathers who granted a Created Deity to our Saviour and most severely censured those that held his Eternal Generation as being guilty of Polytheism which is often intimated by him This is the sum of the Author's Defence I would willingly know of what sort of Divinity it is that he ascribes to our Saviour because I find that the Arrians acknowledge that he is a Created God and the Socinians grant a Divinity but not so much as a Created Deity I see no more granted him as to his Person by the Socinians than by the Turks which acknowledge he was a Divine Man and a true Prophet or Messenger of God This Divinity he learnt of Smalcius as I shall shew hereafter or of Crellius as is already shewn whose words as well as sence he so often repeats as will give great cause to the Reader to conclude that he spent more than one whole Day in reading the Socinian Controversies The general Remarks which I shall make on the Naked Gospel are as follow 1. That whereas the Author pretends the special Design of it is to enlarge Charity yet that Charity is only designed for a Toleration of the Arrian and Socinian Doctrines and he sharply reflects on all such as he perceived to be averse from such his enlarged Charity p. 39. Col. 1. If Bishop Alexander the first Author of the Nicety thought fit to tolerate the Arrians we can ill prentend to Charity if we allow them no title to God's Pardon or his Church's Communion P. 57. of his interpolated Edition he pleads That nothing can be more odious than to persecute as Hereticks and Malefactors all such as should refuse to be imposed on viz. by the Bishops that asserted the Trinity P. 11. of his Vindication he recommends the charitable Heresie of the Latitudinarians under
Reason doth correct as an Oar in the Water seems broken to the view of the eye which Reason tells us is still strait and sound and Reason demonstrates the Sun to be more than Two hundred times greater than the Globe of the Earth though to our sight it appear not above four or five Foot in diameter Why may not the eye of Faith as much excel that of Reason as that of Reason doth the corporeal sence As for the Quotations of Volkelius from Rom. 12.1 Of our reasonable service it doth not prove that Evangelical Worship as prescribed ought to be measured by human Reason but implies that such Worship is just and reasonable as well as spiritual in opposition to the carnal Worship under the Law where Sheep and Doves were offered to God which were unreasonable Creatures and dead Sacrifices whereas now we are to offer up ourselves a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God in which respect it is called a reasonable Service The Platonists were Masters of as much Natural Reason as the Socinians and if they on I know not what Tradition and Enquiry did believe a plurality of Persons in the Godhead it is strange that the Socinians by the help of the Scripture should not yield their assent The Platonists had no temptation nor interest to lead them to the Notion of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but perhaps some Tradition from the Jews which their Reason judged probable St. Basil on the words of St. John 1.1 In the beginning was the word says I have known many that had not the knowledge of the Scripture to magnifie this Truth St. Aug. l. 10. c. 29. de Civitate Dei speaks of a Platonist that was wont to say That the beginning of St. John 's Gospel whom yet he counted a Barbarian was worthy to be written in Letters of Gold and preached in the greatest Congregations That in many Books of the Platonists mention was made of God and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Son whom Zenon stiled the Maker of the World And Numenius calls God Creantis Dei Patrem The Father of that God that created the World And what is yet more to be admired some Platonists reckoned the Word or Reason the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be in the beginning to be with God and to be God by whom was made whatever was made that he descended into a Body and put on Flesh but even then manifested the Dignity of his Nature Of these we may say That they were Naturaliter Christiani as Tertullian doth And they spake the same sense though not with the same affection for the Platonists speak of Three Principles the First they call the Being the Second Reason the Third the Soul of the World The Being begets Reason not by a Decree or Act of Will but by Nature as Fire begets Heat and Light and Reason produceth the Soul of the World Platinus says The Father and Reason are One and the same Being coexistent and not forsaking each other The Enneads wherein he speaks this is entituled Concerning the Three Hypostases Amelius another Platonick says according to that of St. John That Plato taught That in the beginning was Reason and Reason was with God and was God that she made all Things and was the Light of Man Justin Martyr says That Christ was known in part to Socrates under the Notion of Reason which foretold things future and taking the same Infirmities as we hath instructed us by himself And that the Opinions of Plato are not very remote from those which we have of Christ St. Augustine agrees with him that changing a few Words and Sentences they would become Christians as some of the later Platonicks have done And Tertullian says That when the Christians say that God made the World by his Reason they speak after the manner of the Sage Heathen Tertul. Apology Now if the Heathen saw so much by whatever means as to give their assent to a plurality of Hypostases or Personalities in the Godhead our Masters of Reason the Socinians seem to contradict the wiser sort of Philosophers as well as the generality of Christians in their Opinions Those that write the History of the Pagans in America do assure us that among some of them there are Notions of the Trinity still preserved and it is supposed that by Tradition from the Ancient Jews and Chaldeans in whose Cabala there were some dark Speeches concerning the Trinity which though they were careful not to make known to the Heathen yet some Notions of it were entertained and spread abroad into the World Having shewn in what sence the Ancient Greek Philosophers understood the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may very much confirm the sence of St. John if it appear that among the Jews the same signification was familiarly received and this will appear from the Targum where in Expounding the 110th Psalm these words The Lord said to my Lord sit thou c. they read The Lord said to his Word which Targum was written about the same time when the Gospel of St. John was and Philo who lived about the same time calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or High-Priest agreeably to what the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaking of our Saviour says chap. 4.12 For the word of God is quick and powerful and to explain what he meant he adds Seeing therefore we have a great High Priest passed into the heavens c. In this sence the Hellenists used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grotius says That the Ancient Jews and Christians teach That when an Angel in the Old Testament is called Jehova it was not a meer Angel but cui ad fuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such appearances we often read of in the Old Testament So that the Notion of the Messias did pass among the Jews for the Son of God under the Name of the Word of God The Gnosticks also and Cerinthus used it in the same sence which gave occasion to St. John to describe our Saviour by that Word which was left known in those days and to assert the Divinity of our Saviour under that Word which he doth so effectually that the Socinians finding they could not object against it have thought on a New Exposition and a New Creation made by this Word which as it hath no Foundation being ex nihilo so it resolves into nothing but the Word of God shall endure for ever And this is his Name The Word of God Rev. 19. So the Syriack Translators of St. John's Gospel gives it this Preface In the Name of our Lord and of our God Jesus Christ and the like to the other Gospels and Epistles and they celebrate a Festival in commemoration of the Mother of God Because Philo was a Jew and one well skilled in the Greek as well as the Hebrew Idioms which were in use about our Saviour's time it is worth our observation how he speaks of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉