of England Besides this too a Man cannot foresee what will come to pass and so a Doctrine which at one time may be convenient may be otherwise when Circumstances of Times shall alter As suppose all the Lay-men of England had subscribed only the 35th Article of our Church which is The two Books of Homilies contain godly and wholsome Doctrine necessary for these Times and suppose in these Books of Homilies we shall read these Doctrines viz. The High Power and Authority of Kings with their making of Laws Judgments and Offices are the Ordinances not of Man but of God that all Persons owe even in Conscience Obedience Submission and Subjection to them as being God's Lieutenants God's Presidents God's Officers God's Commissioners God's Judges 1st part of the Sermon of Obedience And suppose in the second part of the same Sermon we should read these Words Christ taught us plainly that even the wicked Rulers have their Power and Authority from God and therefore it is not lawful for the Subjects to withstand them altho they abuse their Power Suppose I say we Lay-men had subscribed to these Doctrines as necessary for these Times had we not consented to the total Subversion of our Laws and Liberties to the Slavery of Europe and the Destruction of the Protestant Interest throughout the World Howbeit since General Councils for as much as they be an Assembly of Men whereof all be not governed by the Spirit and Word of God may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining unto God as is declared in the 21st Article of our Church 't is no Heresy for us Laymen to believe that Convocations have erred in Doctrines necessary for these Times and may err in Doctrines necessary for any Times and from hence it will be no Heresy to conclude that a Parliament may err should they establish the Convocation-Doctrines upon the Foot of Sanguinary Laws There is one Reason yet remaining why there is no need of making new Penal Laws even against blasphemous Socinians which is because there are Laws already in force against Blasphemers of all Sorts or Sects whatsoever without any Proviso that the blasphemous Socinians as your Title-page speaks shall be exempted from the Penalty And 't is only your Title-page and Preface which I have in this Letter considered not at all designing to dispute with you in behalf of the Socinian or of the Unitarian Doctrines my only Aim herein being to shew some Reasons why it was not necessary for the Parliament to enact Sanguinary Laws against those who differ from you in Opinion The ill-natur'd Turn of your Title-page and the malicious and persecuting Design of your Preface convinced me that if we may believe our Saviour Christ you know neither the Father nor his Son Thus our Lord Jesus taught his Disciples John 16. 2d 3d Verses That they should be put out of the Synagogues and that the Time should come that whosoever killeth them should think that he doth God service and these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me Now Sir if he who would stir up a Persecution against those who sincerely endeavour to know and do the Will of God as 't is revealed by Jesus Christ knoweth neither the Father nor the Son I did from thence conclude that the Holy Ghost who proceedeth from the Father and the Son was also unknown to him and for this Reason I thought you an unsit Writer in behalf of the Trinity and therefore did not so much as read over your Book A Second Letter to Mr. Gailhard SIR I Am thinking whether ought more to be reverenc'd the Noble Names of Vere and Sidney whose martial Skill and well-tried Valour made havock of their Country's Enemies abroad when the Good and Gracious Elizabeth rul'd and lov'd her loving People or of Bonner and Gardner whose slaming Zeal made Bonfires of Hereticks at home under the dire Auspices of her persecuting Sister Indeed once I was of opinion that the Memory of the bloody Bishops had been justly hated and curs'd and did deserve to be and was like to be hated and curs'd for ever but I am now tempted to despise the Conquering Heroes with all their Civic Crowns and proud triumphant Wreaths of Lawrel as Men that fought only their Country's not the Lord's Battels But that Man has a Heart illi Robur Aes triplex that can without weak Remorse of Conscience murder his dislenting Fellow-Citizen and bravely burn his misbelieving Brother at a Stake With a world of School-Cant which now a days goes for deep Learning and ill-applied Fragments of Scripture after the Example of no very good Master but Fas est ab Hoste doceri the thrice Orthodox Mr. J. Gailhard Gent. labours to kindle this religious merciless Fire in the Breasts of the Parliament of England to that end therefore he offers them for a Field of Honour not Flanders but Smithfield for making good the former they have 't is true happily provided Capitation and Land-Tax Tunnage and Excises but as Fate would have it they are rose without the least Care of but so much as Brush-wood for the latter Mr. Gailhard had rather they had been blown up It is a Fault to do the Work of the Lord negligently but not to do it at all to leave the good necessary and great Work of burning Hereticks wholly on the Hands of Providence is a great Disappointment for Fire does not fall from Heaven every day and it troubles Mr. Gailhard's righteous Soul the more because he does not know but God may forgive the Hereticks for his part he will forgive nor them nor the Parliament But by his favour are not the Parliament of England to be excused tho they have taken no care about sending Mr. Gailhard's Enemies to the Devil for they were prorogu'd by his Majesty's Order as soon as they had done their King and Country every other needful Service Why then let the King look to 't from whom to say Truth no better could be expected as having declar'd when he accepted the Crown that He would not be obliged to be a Persecutor He thinks himself too good to do the persecuting Drudgery of any Body of bloody-minded right or wrong Believers if He can but defend the Liberties of Europe from the Tyrant of France and teach his own Subjects of different Perswasions to live amicably together that 's all he cares for Nay 't is long of the King too that Parliaments are summon'd and sit annually without Convocations A Convocation would have consider'd as Mr. Gailhard observes that time is short and uncertain and if not well improv'd for the burning of Hereticks the Opportunity may happen to be irrecoverably lost for Mr. Gailhard judiciously notes That to time things well is one of the best parts of Prudence and he acutely adds one of the most essential Circumstances of our Actions Whence I learn these four things 1. That Human Actions have their
Self-Interest we must allow them to be good Witnesses of those Matters of Fact which happened in their Times as that such Doctrines were then generally received such Books then written such Discipline then in use but it will not follow that I must receive those Doctrines as true because the Fathers thought they were so since those very Fathers were subject to Error and therefore their Belief of such Propositions can under no pretence be looked upon as an Authority over us but when the antient Christian Writers give their Reasons why they received such Opinions we have a natural Right of examining the Reasons they alledg and if we will act like Men we ought so to do before we receive their Opinions Now by what I perceive in the late Unitarian Prints they are sensible of the Weakness of Human Reason and therefore they submit their Opinions and the Reasons upon which they are grounded to the Examination of Mankind and yet being sensible that their Reason such as it is is the only Guide God has given them as to the three great Points afore mentioned they think it their Duty to examine the Opinions of others thereby not pretending to any Authority over others nor conceiving in their Minds any Displeasure against those who differ from them And upon this Foot all Controversies may and ought to be managed betwixt differing Parties without the least breach of Peace for the benesit of each other in the discovery of Truth But hence comes the breach of Peace in Christian Churches that tho they own themselves fallible yet their Convocations and even their private Doctors will considently alledg that they are in the Right and will therefore impose their Sense of Scripture upon others so that a Man must not write or speak any thing contrary to their Determinations under severe Penalties Let any Man judg whether this be to instruct us in the Faith of Christ or to make themfelves Masters of our Faith since our Understandings and Belief must be wholly submitted to their Interpretations After this manner the Dean of St. Paul's has lately insinuated his new-fangled Notion of a Real Trinity to the Ld Mayor the Judges and Citizens of London in that Sermon he shews the Danger of corrupting the Faith by Philosophy and then taking it for granted that his Interpretation of Scripture is the Faith he concludes in his own favour that we must not use our Reason or Philosophy as Dr. S th hath learnedly done to let the World see that the Dean's Notion of three distinct insinite Minds and Spirits is Tritheistical and Idolatrous This way of arguing if Assuming may be called so is grounded only in the Self-confidence Men have in their own Abilities Thus the Dean speaks p. 8. of his Sermon As for the Doctrine of the Incarnation nothing can be plainer in Scripture than that the Son of God was made Man that the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us that God was manifest in the Elesh And yet since the Incarnation of God is no where expressed in Scripture it can be no more than meerly a Deduction from thence but yet the Doctor will impose it upon all Christians as if it were express Scripture it self Suppose a Papist should say As for Transubstantiation nothing can be plainer in Scripture than that Christ when he held the Bread in his Hand said This is my Body and hereupon conclude that you must distinguish Philosophy from Faith and casting away your vain Philosophy hold fast to the Faith of Transubstantiation 'T were a parallel Argument to that in the Doctor 's Sermon both of them being founded in the Considence Men have of the Truth of their own Interpretations and Inferences But after all this a Protestant would not forgo the use of his Philosophy to shew that the Popish Doctrine is not only obscure but false and an Unitarian will still use his Reason to shew that the Doctor 's Inference is not only obscure but unconcluding As to the Doctor 's first Text The Son of God was made Man were those very Words in Scripture as they are not the Unitarian will say the Son of God does not always or necessarily signify God So to the second Text he will say that Expression viz. the Word does not plainly signify God and in like manner to the third Text alledg'd by the Doctor he will say that God may be manifest in the Flesh or by Flesh as his Power Wisdom and Goodness are made manifest by all Flesh or in all Flesh without being Incarnate So that the Unitarian cannot discern that Inference or Doctrine which the Doctor says is so plain in or from Scripture that nothing can be plainer What must be done in this Case then let the Doctor enjoy his Opinion but not impose it nor stir up any Strife about it nor should the Unitarian Notion be imposed on him but as the Doctor may have free leave to use his Philosophy of Self-consciousness and mutual Consciousness to support his own Opinion or attack the Unitarian Notions so 't is humbly desired that the use of Reason may be permitted to other Men for their examination of his Real Trinity and particularly that the use of Arithmetick may be indulg'd so far as to cast up whether a God and a God and a God do not amount to more than one God Now Mr. Gailhard if one of the great Doctors and Dignitaries of the Church may be mistaken in his Interpretations of Scripture and Inferences from it how shall you who are but a meer Layman hope to gain a Parliamentary Sanction to establish your Interpretations of Holy Writ and Inferences from thence Perhaps you will say 't is the Doctrine of the Church of England you would have penally establish'd by the Church you mean the Convocation which made the Articles service-Service-Book and Homilies now this Convocation was no more than an Assembly of Doctors and Clergy-men each of whom were subject to Error and tho they enacted their own Opinions into Articles and Homilies and oblig'd their own Clergy to subscribe them in order to their admittance into Benesices I cannot from thence see why we Laymen should put the Yoke of the Clergy upon our own Necks and be so zealous as you are to establish the Opinions of the Ecclesiasticks under the penalty of Fire and Faggot I should think it more desirable that a Gentleman may receive his Rents or a Tradesman his Prosits or even a labouring Man his Wages without subscribing the Articles or Homilies It once seem'd good to the Holy Ghost and the Apostles to impose no Burdens but what were necessary and those necessary Truths were inspired too Besides Men cannot help the altering of their Minds all the Subscriptions of the Clergy to the Predestinarian Doctrine contained in the Articles and Homilies has not preserv'd them from contrary Sentiments such as when Van Harman first broach'd them were universally judged to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Church
like an Appeal prepar'd beforehand upon suspicion that the Jury will find but Manslaughter If Socinianism should have no Atheism nor meer Deism no Profaneness Immorality nor Idolatry in it yet caetera will not let it live Who can say he is not guilty of caetera for my part therefore I will never stint my Prayers but my Latitudinarian Litany shall run thus From the Devil and the Pope from Mr. G. caetera Good Lord deliver us The 2d thing to be examin'd in Mr. G's ill-natur'd and malicious Paper is How wide Socinianism is spread If Atheism and Deism Profaneness and Immorality Idolatry and caetera be Parcels and Portions of that Heresy o' my Conscience the Heresy is spread over the whole World and may require an extraordinary Remedy to suppose that an extraordinary one will do and if these Parcels of Socinianism are so universal I do not wonder that the Church has her share but let us not argue but observe Mr. G's particular Account of the growth of Deism 1. He says that the Jews are not wanting in their Endeavours to promote the Blasphemy Now what a Blaze would it make if only these Socinian Jews were to be burnt for they are a numerous People and for what they have done already against the Messias scatter'd over the face of the Earth but whether the burning of them be the way by which the dark Corners of the Earth are to be illuminated I make a question 2. He tells us that the Mahometans and the Socinian Generation of Vipers are ever ready to join Heads to promote their common Cause Now these Mahometans are far more numerous than the whole Body of Christians by what Appellation soever dignified or disgrac'd wherefore I can't imagine how the burning of them is feasible whether it would not be a glorious and great Work that I don't dispute but I can't imagine I say how the burning of so many Millions is feasible unless perhaps by praying for Fire to come down from Heaven and destroy them indeed our Saviour would not oblige his Disciples James and John in that particular against the Samaritans tho he might have vindicated his own Honour by executing their Wrath but what he may do for Mr. G. and his Calvinists is another matter 3. He intimates that the French Refugees among us dogmatize after the Socinian manner which they durst not do in France for fear of Fire and Faggot Now if this be true I know not why these Refugees should be suffered to live any more than the Jews and Mahometans only I would humbly move that they might be sent home to be burnt there for why should we do the King of France's drudgery for him let him burn his own Hereticks if he will now the War 's ending he 'll have nothing else to do besides the Rogues would not know how to take their burning in England but appeal to Heaven and Earth against us for breaking the Laws of Hospitality but they still retain so great a Veneration for their Grand Monarch that for ought I know upon second thoughts they may be proud of the Honour of being burnt by his Orders 4. He arraigns all the Arminians as join'd in Confederacy with the Socinians Arminius himself Mr. G. notes tho contemporary with Socinus would never write against him therefore c. which Argument is good in this particular case but in no other for tho Mr. G. would never write against his Contemporary George Fox deceas'd nor William Pen now living yet Mr. G. is no Quaker but a Calvinist nor could he possibly be otherwise being predestinated to be a Calvinist and not a Quaker and that not for any Merit that God foresaw in him for that were to make God foresee what will never happen but meerly and purely as an Arminian would guess because his Nature was capable of no other Christian Impression Mr. G. also tells us he often meets with Vorstius Episcopius Bertius Curcellaeus who favour the Socinians nay go hand in hand with them in many things and mince the matter with them And p. 7. of his Book he ingeniously expresses himself upon the whole matter thus As one Depth calls to another so an Arminian can easily become a rank Pelagian or Socinian Here a wicked Pelagian or rank Socinian would reply As one Shallowness calls to another so a Calvinist can easily become as wise as the Dominican Inquisitor at Lisbon who at a late Act of Faith burnt an English Mare that could tell what o' th' Clock it was by the Watch for a Heretick But to our purpose here we have on the Socinian side as Mr. G. tells us and he knows all the Arminians i.e. almost all the Church of England a Moiety of the Presbyterians nine parts in ten of the Quakers Indeed I was afraid that when Socinianism was once got into the Bowels of the Church it would not be long before it reach'd her Heart and thence diffus'd its Venom over all the mystical Body As for the Dissenters it would never grieve a Man that they should be infected with this pestilent Heresy since they deserv'd to be burn'd before for Schism For tho the Supream Authority of the Nation has at present indulg'd their Consciences yet no Authority upon Earth can alter the nature of Schism As much socinianiz'd as our Arminian Clergy are they yet hold fast their Orthodoxy in condemning the Dissenters for Schismaticks and doubtless will do it in spight of King and Parliament but 't is very unfortunate and infinitely to be lamented that they should be Heterodox in any Article with so bad Company as the Socinians tho 't is very certain they are so if there be any truth in Mr. G. nay he tells us p. 6. of his Book That as to most of the Matters of Grace and Providence the Socinians are agreed with the Arminians and then by consequence the Arminians with the Socinians so that it will be a hard case to burn the one without the other It is true several of these Arminians are Men of Learning nay and they have wrote against Socinianism too but as Mr. G. tells us No good is to be expected from them upon account of some Principles of theirs Socinian Principles and in plain words they are unfit to write against the Socinians Which Declaration of his puts me in mind of what another Calvinist told me t' other day Sir says he Arminianism take my word for it is the Parent of Socinianism the Brat is very like in many Features but pray mind this one The Arminians teach that God might have forgiven the Sin of Adam without exacting any Satisfaction upon this the Socinians raise a dispute whether it can be plainly prov'd from Scripture that Christ died to make a Satisfaction and then they assign I know not what other Reasons of his Death which they could never have found out but for the Arminians Ah! take my word for it says he As to Arminian
Excellent truly Human truly Christian Natures so temper'd their Calvinism that 't was an inoffensive harmless Speculation if ever I have more Gods than one I do not say more personal Gods but more essentially distinct Gods a Hero so form'd shall be my second but tho I have an inquisitive Mind I think I am in no danger of multiplying Gods no I am resolved I will never do it unless it should be declar'd which I think next to impossible that no Heresy shall be conniv'd at but Tritheism 2. Mr. G. complains not indeed directly and in express words but by a side-wind thus Whether or not the Ecclesiastical Court hath in this occasion of Socinianism acted its part according to Laws I must not take upon me but leave it to the World to judg But notwithstanding all this he does not leave it to the World to judg but takes it upon himself nay he not only gives his Judgment upon the Case but also passes Sentence upon them that concur not in the same Judgment with him as appears by the Citations which he produces and the Reflections which he makes upon them Now in doing this which he thinks he ought not to do and promis'd that he would not he acts against the Light of Conscience which is a damnable Sin whether or no it be Heresy I will not dispute but without dispute 't is damnable it may perchance escape from Fire and Faggot but not from Fire and Brimstone unless it be expiated by a timely and hearty Repentance But what are his Citations of Law against Socinianism First a Passage or two out of a Book called The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws began in the days of H. the 8th and continued in the time of Edw. the 6th That Book then was wrote before Faustus Socinus was born and before England could know any thing of his Uncle Laelius who was about twenty one Years old when Edw. the 6th died Again does Mr. Gailhard think that the Book which he quotes was wrote against Socinianism by inspired Writers in way of prophetick anticipation I am afraid the Contents thereof as to many particulars will plainly evince the contrary I know not what might appear admitting him to be an inspired Interpreter He may interpret Passages out of that Book if he so please against Quakerism as well as Socinianism or against the Scheme of any Party which may perchance arise reviving old and long buried true or false Speculations As for the Notions which I dislike in Socinianism for I am no Socinian but a Member of the Church of England by Law establish'd if I could not bring against them more pertinent and solid Arguments than Mr. Gailhard offers I would never dislike them therefore again I suspect that Mr. Gailhard after all his loud Outcries against blasphemous Socinianism as he phrases it is a subtle but real Socinian and writes booty Mr. G. to go on with his Citations and his booty writing presents the Parliament with a Fragment of a Letter from Edw. the 6th to to A. B. Cranmer Cum vos triginta c. Upon which he makes this booty Reflection So that there is something of a Parliament's Authority against Socinianism I may well call this a booty Reflection for in the next words he grants that that something wants a Parliamentary Stamp which is as much as to say it is a something that 's just as good as nothing We are not yet come to the end of Mr. G's Citations he presents us with a long Story from the Canons and Ecclesiastical Constitutions agreed upon in the Convocations of both Provinces Canterbury and York 1640. And lest the Authority of these Canons should in scornful manner be set aside for want of Parliamentary Sanction because it cannot be pretended that Jesus Christ gave Authority to the Preachers of his Gospel to impose Laws on the Subjects of the Civil Magistrate Mr. G. argumentatively notes That King Charles the First has by virtue of his Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes straightly enjoined and commanded those Canons and Constitutions to be diligently observed and executed But after all this with Mr. G's leave be it spoken our Lawyers know not of any such Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes by which the King alone without the Advice and Consent of his Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled is enabled to ratify and enforce the Ceremonial or Sanguinary Rules and Orders Canons and Constitutions I should have said of the Convocational Clergy Our Just and Lawful and Gracious King William pretends not to this Power nor is inclin'd to let any persecuting Priests loose upon his People and perhaps this is the true Reason and not his being chose by the People why he has no Defenders of his Title among such Priests here and there perhaps a moderate and sober Churchman owns him for his Rightful and Lawful Soveraign but Priests of persecuting Principles every Man of 'em spare not to revile him as a Conquering Usurper Let a Prince claim and exert a Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority to inforce Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical I question not but his obliged Clergy shall gratify him with a Right Divine tho he came in by a Foreign Power without and against the Consent of his People but Marriage-Right Proximity of Blood and Consent of the People together shall signify nothing if his Majesty out of a Fatherly Affection to all his loving Subjects will not execute the Vengeance of a Convocation or not call a Convocation to be taught his Duty 3. Mr. G. is troubled that Socinianism has met so little Opposition from the Bishops who as he intimates have not acted their parts and here he most andaciously and sliely slurs the Honour of my Lords the Bishops for tho several of them have wrote learnedly and angrily against Socinianism some in the Real some in the Nominal Trinitarian way yet Mr. G. takes no notice at all of this looking upon them as Men of the Arminian Perswasion who he tells us favour the Socinians go hand in hand with them mince the matter with them Hence he takes occassion to wish that after what several have written heretofore some Persons of Learning sound in the Doctrinal part of the 39 Articles i.e. Calvinists would appear as a very learned and able Prelat hath in some Points effectually done Now nothing could be more sly and malicious than this particular Commendation of a single Prelat as if all the rest favour'd the Socinians went hand in hand with them and mine'd the matter with them He often declares his Aversion from the Arminians of which Perswasion most of the Bishops in their Sermons and Prints have shewn themselves and as for the Calvinists the only Persons sound in the doctrinal part of the 39 Articles he says they have not appear'd i.e. they have been wanting to their Duty against Socinianism for which they were sitted by their Principles How unjust this