of all Offences committed in the County of Middlesex in consideration of our Duty and in obedience to the Directions given us by Mr. Justice Rookeby in his Charge do humbly present that We find by daily experience that several great and fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion as they are professed by the Church of England and contained in the 39 Articles and established as the Avowed Doctrine of the Church of England by several Acts of Parliament are not only disputed and questioned but absolutely denyed and particularly the Doctrine of the Trinity of the Divinity of Christ and of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost and Books are daily writ printed and published either directly contrary to the said Doctrine or by consequence in opposition to them denying all the Mysteries of the Christian Religion and resolving all into such Notions as are to be made good by Humane Reason and thereby making void the whole revealed Religion and destroying the Necessity of Faith in order to Eternal Salvation by means whereof Arianism Socinianism Atheism and Deism do greatly abound and there are Proselytes to the same daily made to the great Scandal of the Church of England and the Orthodox Members thereof For preventing of which for the future We do present that all care possible ought to be taken for the speedy discovering of all such Books as are so writ printed or published contrary to the known Doctrine of the Church of England and the Authors Printers and Publishers of the same and for punishing the Authors Printers and Publishers thereof according to the utmost severity of the Laws and for the suppressing all such Books of that kind as are already printed and for preventing the printing any more for the time to come And we do farther present that a Book Entitled Christianity not Mysterious or a Treatise shewing That there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to Reason or above it and that no Christian Doctrine can be properly called a Mystery supposed to be written by one Mr. Toland And also another Book Entitled The Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures And also one other Book Entitled The Lady's Religion in a Letter the Honourable the Lady Howard are Books fit to be suppressed and the Authors Printers and Publishers of the same ought to have such Punishment inflicted on them as by the Laws of the Land they may Item We present a Pamphlet lately published Entitled A Letter to a Convocation-Man concerning the Rights Powers and Privileges of that Body to be Scandalous and against the Constitution of the Government and ought to be suppressed and the Author punished Now ye may see by the Agreement of this Presentment with the things contained in my Epistle and Preface to which 't is posteriour how in what I said or did I was not in the wrong nor out of the way I faithfully give it as it is without changing Words or altering the Sense as some of you have done of some of your Citations out of my Papers ye are always sure to give the worst Construction of Words and Things like Spiders ye turn all things into Poison about which besides what I already observed I shall on the way take notice of one thing more when I say no Soldier in an Enemy's Country ought to struggle out of the way c. for he that doth so ventures to be knocked on the head you put in ought instead of ventures is this fairly done Certainly 't is a great difference between saying a Man runs the hazard of being knocked and he ought to be knocked on the head so if I should but write or speak Reason you with adding one Letter would soon make it Treason and if you write or speak Treason with taking off one Letter you can soon make it Reason this is said to shew your Partiality As to what follows in the same Page and the next after about Dr. Sh against his Antagonist as against me I shall not trouble my head about it only God forgive and give you Grace to mend I see all that have any thing to do with this Man or lye in his way and are not of his mind must prepare for the like usage but I say I do not concern my self about Persons so much as about the Cause and therefore whosover would in the Godhead set up three Spirits and Substances is in my opinion fallen into a fundamental Heresie and whosoever is against such in that same thing I join with because I always love to be for the Truth In what follows I desire the Reader to take notice of the Man's want of Sincerity As well as I he knows we are not and cannot be agreed upon the very Terms he sets down for they contain the quintessence of their Error about the Holy Trinity for Sirs ye would have Jesus Christ to be not a Person but only an Attribute as the Wisdom of God so the Holy Ghost to be only the Vertue and Power of God and not an Hypostasis a Person of the Godhead for tho' one of you saith that for Peace-sake ye submit to the Phrase of the Church that is to the name Person yet ye interpret it not as the Church doth Therefore tho' you say the Vnitarians the Catholick Church the Translator and I are at perfect Agreement and tho' we agree in the Oneness of the Godhead or of one Divine Nature and to make use of your words that there is One Infinite Spiritual Substance yet we are far from agreeing with you in what follows with three Properties unbegotten begotten and proceeding c. except ye explain your meaning otherwise than ye use to do Arius under a word which if well taken might be harmless enough sheltered his Error so 't is usual with you ye are meerly for Words but we do besides Words look for Things and would have such Words as are proper as much as may be to signifie the Things Now your threefold distinction of Original Mind reflex Wisdom and Divine Love may be sufficient to represent what you mean thereby but not what we believe We make a distinction between the Property and the Person of the Godhead but you do confound them and would have it to be but one and the same Now if with us you will say that in one and most simple Nature of God are three distinct Persons to whom the infinite and singular Nature of one only God is common and that these three distinct Persons the Attributes of that one God do belong to then you say something to the purpose or else like the Gibeonites you come in to us only to deceive us We assert three Persons and not barely three Properties in the Godhead we say the Father is a Person the Son a Person and the Holy Ghost a Person and so three Persons but we don't say the Father is an Attribute the Son an Attribute and the Holy Ghost an Attribute thereby of three Persons to make
no Foundation but Humane Reason which is not allowable chiefly in things of the nature of those now in question what they call Cant is out of Scripture Writings of Antient Fathers and out of Schools which as I think are the proper Store-houses whence to draw our Materials but with them every thing is Cant which doth not suit with their Tunes those Men would have all Notions of things manner of Expression and Stile to be but one and the same but theirs to be the Original for others to go by which especially in Men who so highly pretend to Reason is as unreasonable as if one would have all features in the Face all shapes of the Body all humours and inclinations of the Soul to be alike a thing impossible For every man saith the Apostle hath his proper gift of God one after this manner another after that However these great Masters of Wit Learning and Reason find fault with the way of other Mens Writing if it be not as they would have it that they call Nonsense and what else they please for their Tongues and Pens are their own wherewith they will do what they have a mind to Their Ironical Expressions may well be retorted upon them yet they should know how Truth is better when naked and needs no painting as doth Falshood to Paint is the part of an Harlot not of a vertuous Woman I ask Is not Gold Gold still and good tho' it be not Enamel'd or otherwise curiously wrought If they have their way of Writing I have mine which they shall not put me out of but will keep to 't till I see a Law enjoining others to Conform to theirs I thank God my ways are different from and would not change them for theirs tho' they would set up for Censors and Reformers of other Mens Works but by what Patent I cannot hear nor see and if I could help it I would have nothing Common with them because their Plague is in the Head and to give them their due in what they say there is more of flashy Wit than of solid and sound Reason they prefer the Bark before the Body of the Tree and the Cloaths before the Person who wears them They dislike my Quotations or Fragments of Scripture as one of the two calls them and good reason they have for they are so many strong and destructive Batteries against them they would not see the Mouth of that Cannon which shatters their false Opinions to pieces If to Quote Scripture be a Fault they are not guilty of it they travel not much into that Country and when they do 't is with a Cup of Venom in their Hand if possible to poison the Springs Their Reason is the God-Idol for whose sake they slight Revelation but saith he those Fragments are ill applied I see you had more Curiosity than your Brother which of the two is Simeon and which Levi I cannot tell however one calls himself a Lay-man for you read the Book but what 's the reason you give not one Instance of these Fragments of Scripture being ill apply'd surely you are apt enough to take advantage if any was offered and I cannot believe you would have so much Charity as to spare me for by the sowrness and gall of bitterness which I find in the Letters I have cause to think so you cannot so soon have forgotten all those Portions of God's word ill apply'd I had been glad to have seen some named then upon a good account I could have said something to you but you give me cause to think those Misapplyings to be the Man in the Moon I mean your Humane Reason As for me about Matters in question Scripture is my Stong-hold and the Arsenal whence I draw both offensive and defensive Weapons which they would have us to throw away but they must pardon us for not complying with them they themselves cannot and will not do so for therein they would find their Condemnation We follow better Examples those of great Captains in this Warfare as Paul who in this same Cause reasoned out of the Scriptures and at another time he testified concerning Jesus Christ out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning till evening He was not weary of it neither must we be let Socinians say what they will to the contrary And tho' he was immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost yet on all occasions he appealed to the Scriptures for a confirmation of what he said Thus when he affirmed that Christ died for our Sins he immediately addeth according to Scripture and in the 11th Verse he saith that he was buried and that he rose again still according to the Scriptures His Death Burial and Resurrection three Articles of our Faith he proves by Scriptures which is a Rule laid before us to prove his Divine Nature and Attributes which we ought to follow except we think we about such things know more than the Apostle And then Apollos whose great Commendation is that he was mighty in the Scriptures and that he mightily convinced the Jews publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ So if we will convince Socinians that Christ is the true Natural Son of God we must do 't out of Scripture as out of the same Apollos did mightily convince the Jews that Jesus was Christ Besides we have the Example of a number of People I mean of Berea said to be more Noble than those of Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things preached to them were so Thus we obey our blessed Saviours Command to Search diligently the Scriptures for they bear testimony of him And accordingly when he was with his Disciples he taught them out of the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms all things written concerning him as after his Resurrection he put them in mind of it then he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures without which no knowledge of him to be had and in these Matters the Question is about him his Person Besides that 't is usual as with Paul and the other Apostles so with the Evengelists out of Texts of the Old Testament to prove what they affirmed in the New nay in the Old we sometimes find one Prophet quoting some Texts of another and upon this very account of Sanctifying the Lord of Hosts the Messiah the Prophet sends the People to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them without it their natural Reason is but Darkness I am blamed for using Sundry Metaphors called A Flourish of wild Rhetorick but if it was transplanted into their Garden it would be Natural enough there as indeed it would be in its proper center If sometimes I make use of Metaphors I wonder why they dislike it in some respect it may be called a Creature of their own for
Mr. Toland and his Book him he calls the Learned and Ingenious Author and of the Book he saith I do not perceive to speak truly but that Book still stands in its full strength and not only so but if we believe him it hath also acquired a farther reputation by what hath been written against it which that great Master of Learning doth despisingly call an unsuccessful nibling at it But this kind of comparison between two so highly different Persons is odious for it carries along with it a great disparagement to one of them against whom is given the preference and is an invincible proof of want of judgment in such Men as pretend to make it but the commendation or discommendation of that sort of People being so misapply'd are insignificant and it would be no Credit rather the contrary for an Orthodox Person to be commended by them But to carry on their Confidence to the utmost they challenge the Lord Bishop to answer the Reasons in their own Books against the Trinity Yet for all this and after their great Commendation of Mr. T 's Book those wise and cautious Men being afraid of any thing that smells of the Fire as that Book doth they declare about it in which and for which we are not in the least concern'd But I think they were for one which somewhile ago was burnt whilst many more of theirs which now are abroad deserve the same Fate But as we must not expect they will follow the Example of those who brought in their Books among which we may well think were no worse than some of the Socinians are and burnt them which these will not themselves do of theirs for indeed 't is the proper work of the common Executioner far from it they set them out and commend as much as they can nay they are so bold as to let the World know there were such Books of theirs abroad and we find it many times witness Mr. T 's Apology among the Advertisements in the Post-Boy and such printed Papers and this in defiance of Laws and Parliaments whose Authority in Matters of Religion as observed before they deny So that it were but fit that on this occasion that Illustrious Body would be pleased to assert and vindicate their Right For that sort of Men if they had Power would in the denial of this Authority soon pass from Religious to Civil Matters wherefore 't is the Interest of Church and State to support one another for they are like the Twain Children born and bred together between which was such a sympathy that when one was Well Sick or Strong the other was so too and as they were born so they died together He who but a little before said that the Socinians will agree to the disputed Article if they may explain it meant after their own way is such a stranger to Scripture that if it be not the Printer's fault I am apt to believe because in the Margin I quoted not the place he knew not whom I meant when to Socinians I apply'd the Character which Scripture gives of Ishmael whose hand was against every man and every man's hand against him for instead of Ishmaels the word Infidels is in Tho' I do not mind the nauseous stuff wherewith he hath fill'd up the rest of that Page and the following yet I well know and take notice how he is not satisfied to misrepresent me to the Lords Bishops but most maliciously would traduce me as one who makes impudent Reflections on the King and Parliament thereby to make me obnoxious To be Impudent were an invasion upon his Property which I never was nor shall be guilty of Here I might claim the Law of Retaliation he cannot defend his Cause therefore he would throw his Venom upon me Si non marte tamen arte Now this Calumny of his he doth ground upon these words of mine That to the Toleration of those two transcendent Wickednesses Blasphemy and Idolatry we may chiefly attribute the cause of the Chastisements which make the Nation uneasie I hope none will deny that Sins bring God's Judgements upon Nations and when we feel them 't is our duty to speak the Truth our Sins are the cause of this Afflictions do not arise out of the Dust but if we must believe Scripture Chastisements or Punishments of Nations Families and Persons come from the hand of God for as he is most Just so leaves nothing unrewarded if in the World there was any Person free from Sin that very same should also be free from all manner of Pains but Punishment is tyed to the tail of Sin and when we feel God's Chastisements and we know they are inflicted for Sin then the most notorious the greatest and most frequent Sins are obvious to our Eyes as the two in question must needs be and thereupon we should say Lord we have sinned against Heaven and against thee About this Point I shall out of Scripture bring a Precedent of what must be done in such Cases The Israelites are smitten at Ai whereupon Joshua rent his Cloths and fell upon his Face and God said unto him Israel hath sinned I will be no more with you except ye destroy the accursed from among you the Accursed both Person and Thing at that time were destroyed and now if not the Persons at least the Thing should be if we will have God among us and what things in the World more accursed than Blasphemy and Idolatry wherefore I then did and now do conclude that all Christian and prudent care ought to be used to remove Blasphemy and Idolatry out of the Kingdom but how to effect it 't is to be left to those whom it belongs to but still the thing ought to be done Now I ask Is this to make an impudent Reflection against King and Parliament But they make a real one for under the notion that he is no Persecutor they would proclaim his Majesty and the Parliament to favour and protect Blasphemy and Heresie that is Socinianism But this Gentleman according to the Spirit which they all are originally acted by would profanely ridicule the dispensations of God's special Providence and divest that infinite Majesty of his being the just Judge of the World who doth execute Justice and Judgment After this rate the Old World was Drowned by Chance tho' the Flood had been foretold 120 Years before Thus Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed by Accident and without God's special Appointment tho' he out of Heaven rained Fire and Brimstone So by Hazard Nadah and Abihu were consumed tho' Scripture saith There went out Fire from the Lord and devoured them Likewise without a special Providence the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up Korah Dathan and Abiram tho' it was a special Judgment of God as was that of the 14700 Men who for their murmuring against Moses and Aaron as we read in the same Chapter died of the Plague In the like manner after their
THE Epistle and Preface To the BOOK against the Blasphemous Socinian Heresie VINDICATED And the CHARGE therein against Socinianism made Good In ANSWER to TWO LETTERS By J. GAILHARD Gent. Hinc Drances Thersites inde If any teach otherwise and consent not to wholsom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness He is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmisings Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness From such withdraw thy self 1 Tim. vi 3 4 5. LONDON Printed for J. Hartley over-against Grays-Inn-Gate in Holborn 1698. AN ANSWER TO Two Letters HAving lately publish'd a Book against the present great grievance of the Nation in Matters of Religion Socinianism I mean and knowing how the Pen-men of that Party are now fallen in a course of writing from time to time against what comes out in Opposition to them I indeed looked for an Answer but thought they would have gone about to refute my Arguments as 't is the usual way of those who follow the School Rules but I therein find my self disappointed and am apt to believe that these Men do so far depend upon what their great Masters have done as to think they now may sit still under the shadow of their Works for It is plain say they that the most polite and rational Modern Sermons and other Moral Discourses are extreamly beholden to Socinus his Works Yet instead of what I expected out comes from behind the Curtain and in disguise one of those Fancies which our Ideists are so fond of under the name of An Apology for the Parliament c. and this in Two Letters by different Hands I must need fear what will become of me But Sirs it is not in you the part of generous Enemies tho' to support a weak Cause to come Two against One yet for what they have done 't is no matter for Truth and I against any two or twenty such Hands And the Truth now in question tho' they would have driven it into Corners hath gotten the upper-hand and is so strongly settled that it hath disheartened its Adversaries from making any attempt upon it and they have chosen to meddle with other things and leave that untouched This Answer no Answer this Apology or Two Letters having been sent me down into the Country I fell on perusing of them to see what they contained as to Matters in question and the Cause in hand but 't was not to be found and so I concluded it to be lost among them hardly any Steps thereof being left only instead of it I lighted upon Reflections and Invectives which that sort of Men are full of and very free to bestow against the Author of the Book they fly off from the Point and avoid coming to discuss it What Notion of theirs can this way of deciding Controversies be grounded upon No Answer in the least to any of my Arguments tho' I had given them a large Field They being a People not usually Mute may not I reasonably infer that seeing upon things in question they say nothing then they have nothing to say and so yield the Cause if not positively yet by a good Consequence thus they save me the trouble to refute any thing or to add to what I said upon the Matter tho' about it I have many more things to say The Author of the First Letter gives a convincing and short Reason why he Answers none of my Arguments I thought you an unfit Writer on behalf of the Trinity and therefore did not so much as read over your Book tho' in another place he saith I have dipp'd into it here and there and have staged it over This is magisterially enough decided but there is in such Decisions more Mercury than Salt You say I am an unfit writer upon those Matters and yet you did not so much as read over my Book this is wisely and learnedly spoken 't is an unanswerable Argument but if you had given any for me to answer I might well have desired the Reader by this Paw of yours to have judged of the Lion how great a Logician you are to draw Conclusions out of Premises But what would ye have done if there had been no Epistle nor Preface to carp at Then 't is likely you would have taken no notice of my Book or else why do ye leave the Principal for the Accessary Such a Carriage gives me cause to suspect that seeing you take no notice of it you look upon 't as a Morsel of too hard a digestion for your Stomach therefore you meddle not with it ye Answer it not but Invectives against the Author must do the work for indeed whilst in these Letters I was seeking for what I could not find I found what I was not looking for soft Words and hard Arguments from Men who would seem to have engross'd all Reason unto themselves I sought for but found very soft Arguments if any at all yet hard Words Truly Sirs to Answer in your own way I could almost say I have happen'd to tread upon a Nest of Wasps so had cause to expect some of them would come out Buzzing about my Ears that 's all the harm they can do me if they intend any thing more then I hope they lost their Point and missed their Aim I think that what I said to prove my Assertions might in some degree have been taken notice of but seeing they have no mind to meddle with nor remove the Weight there let it ly for me yet tho' as to the Matter they offer'd nothing to Answer rather than to be altogether silent we must turn to what they otherwise have started up tho' not belonging to the Subject of my Book They act like those who shot at a Man from behind a Hedge and so think they may with safety to themselves wound their Enemy who cannot well close up with them for they with being nameless and in their holes have taken sufficient care to provide against it and none can swear against them Ye are the Men However because such Men would call one dumb who should say nothing to their Imputations and Misconstructions tho' never so groundless I shall by the grace of God take notice of most things in the Letters and therein hope to clear my self of their Aspersions also to demonstrate how they are guilty of some things which they would charge me with or of the same nature and I shall examine what here and there they say about Matters in question Sometimes I shall Answer both Letters together in those things which tend to the same purpose and at other times asunder and as I shall see cause however I shall not do 't in order but here and there according as I light upon the things in the Letters which I intend to examine one after another
sense of Scripture tho' never so contrary to the intention of God's Spirit therein and as said before never so Erroneous and Heretical only because it is according to a man 's own private Opinion and deluded Imagination which is to take away the Obligation whereby Conscience and the whole Soul are bound to believe the Truth of Scripture only and not false Interpretations Besides there is in Scripture some matters of Faith which are not so obvious to the Soul and to Reason as matters of Fact are to the Eye and Ear as also there are others not to be Interpreted according to the plain and literal sense as they seem to be Out of the number and variety of such afforded in the Word I shall bring only two Instances Can they think that this Consequence by our Saviour God is the God of the living and not of the dead therefore there shall be a resurrection of the dead is plain and obvious to any man or that this is true Paul is a robber of Churches because he said I robbed other Churches Hence appeareth the danger and inconvenience of allowing of such a particular free liberty of Interpreting Scripture seeing it can be and is so much abused We are taught in the word that we have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God and which the Holy Ghost teacheth if human Reason were a sufficient Light for a Man to enable him to interpret Scriptures then Paul's Prayer that God would give the Ephesians the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of their understanding being enlightned c. The like for the Colossians were in vain for 't is frivolous to ask what one hath already and wants not at all this Liberty which they allow themselves every day to search and find out new Interpretations whereby the Minds of Men are tossed and never to be setled cannot consist with the true Faith revealed in the Word of God which we are commanded to be stedfast in and to be rooted and built up in Christ and stablished in the Faith and not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines Certainly that freedom of interpreting is herein forbidden and so are we forbidden to believe those false Glosses and Interpretations for saith the Apostle Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God the reason is this Because many false Prophets are gone out into the world who allow themselves a freedom of interpreting Scrpiture according to their own humour and fancy no ways allowed by the Laws of God and should not be by the Laws of Men a Curb ought to be put upon such wandering profane Thoughts at least upon the publishing of them The Adversaries who are so fond and conceited of their human Reason Learning and Wisdom might take notice how the Apostle hits them when he calls those who give false interpretations of and wrest Scriptures both unstable and unlearned certainly those Men are unstable who make use of a pretended Liberty ever to give Scripture new interpretations as suggested by their Reason so to day they may give one and the next another different from and contrary to it and is not this Change a Fickleness and Unstableness These unstable Men would make those different interpretations to be a part and proof of their Learning but far from that for Peter calls them unlearned whereby he gives a great blow to that Diana-Idol of theirs But as I hope hereafter by the Grace of God to have an occasion of enlarging upon this I shall for the present forbear saying any more to it What he brings in of Bonner and Latimer about the Interpretation of the Words This is my Body cannot answer his purpose that Instance indeed can shew how a Text may differently be interpreted and that one may happen wrongfully to suffer for a good Cause and how the strongest side and most supported is not always the best But this cannot prove that because one has unjustly suffered the other may not justly suffer that sort of Men who are always wholly bent to provide for their safety would infinuate how no Man should be called to account for any wresting of or putting false interpretations upon Scripture tho never so false blasphemous impious and heretical because he who doth so believeth them not to be such which is their own case it doth not follow that a Truth tho made doubtful because to day 't is supported and to morrow shall be oppressed must not be owned and a Restraint put upon those who oppose it The Merit of the Cause is impartially to be enquired into and when Truth is found out not only it must be exalted but also its contrary is to be kept under Tho Queen Mary supported a bad Cause and suppressed a good one it doth not follow but that Queen Elizabeth did well to suppress a bad Cause and support a good one Tho an innocent be brought to suffer yet the guilty must not go free for all that Because formerly innocent Blood was shed must not Justice now be executed upon Criminals 'T is not the Opinion of Men but the Truth of the Thing which makes any one guilty or innocent the Law is judge of it So in Matters of Religion 't is not the Interpretation of the Text nor the Opinion which the Interpreter hath of the Soundness of his Interpretation that makes it Orthodox and sound but the Word which explains it self for what in one place is dark is plain in some other and when some Men contrary to those Lights will set up heretical and blasphemous Opinions and therein grow obstinate only because they think to be in the right upon such account the Word of God authoriseth Men to enact such penal Laws as they shall think most conducing for the glory of God and to have them put in execution chiefly when the Parties against the known Laws of the Land do publish and in defiance of all at the Parliament Doors offer their heretical Books with words to this purpose I put a most excellent Book into your hand pray read it with attention and when you are Converted strengthen your Brethren thus profanely abusing God's most holy Word They are by no means pleased with my way of Writing but I like it the better for their disliking it They find fault first with the Matter Order and Expression secondly with my often using Scripture thirdly with my Sallying as they call it into sundry Metaphors The first of the two ironically talks of depth of Learning height of Fancy c. which is proper to Fantastical Men who would transform Fancy yea all Religion into Reason The other calls it A World of School Cant which now adays goes for deep Learning So both tho' in a different way talk of depth of Learning that People would have others like themselves to build upon
he had said the living God according to an usual way of speaking in Scripture when the Abstract is put for the Concrete thus God is called the Lord our Righteousness that same Word that was God was made Flesh and dwelt among us to dwell denotes a Person and we Beheld his Glory not the Glory of Reason or Wisdom but the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father here is a Relation of a Son to a Father and surely a Son is a Person not a Thing and of this same John bare witness of him saying this was he of whom I spake he that cometh after me is preferred before me read on till ver 19. all along the Word is spoken as of a Person and in ver 17. he declares who that Word is by a Comparison between Persons the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ This Jesus Christ he hath been speaking of all this while and his Design is to shew that Jesus Christ is the Word so often by him mentioned and to that effect he speaks of John's Evidence about him if the Word be a Thing and not a Person Christ was so and so Moses who was a Person and Christ after he was made Flesh is compared to him O the Perverseness of some Mens Judgment who read Scripture not to find out Truth or be guided by it but out of it to wrest some things to support their Prejudices Papists to set up the Pope's Supremacy think after much seeking to have found a Text to serve their turn he that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no Man with them the Pope is that Spiritual Man the Socinians whose Design is not to set up one as Papists do but to pull down and destroy the great Work of Incarnation say because it serves their turn no Word or Divine Person but only the Reason of God was made Flesh Out of what I have said I think it plainly appears how the Scope of the Place and the Design of the Evangelist is to speak of a Person and not of a Thing But to prove our Interpretation let us further search into Scriptures Paul speaks to our purpose for as John saith the Word that was God was made Flesh so he declares that God was manifest in the Flesh which he calls the great Mystery of Godliness and the whole Verse tho in different Branches as preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory do plainly demonstrate the Lord Jesus to be that God or Person of the Godhead manifest in the Flesh and in another Place he saith when the Fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman that Person which in another place is called God in this is called the Son of God and in another God's own Son or proper Son in these several Texts mention is made of an Incarnation or of being made Flesh manifest in the Flesh made of a Woman and God sent his own Son in the Likeness of sinful Flesh and the Subject is called the Word God Son of God God's own and proper Son is there in all this any Metaphor or any Ground to say that the Word made Flesh signifieth Reason communicated to Jesus all this proves that our Interpretation is according to the Analogy of Faith and shews a sweet Harmony of several Texts of Scripture to demonstrate the adorable Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son God Thus far we proved our Interpretation of that Text of Scripture we do not perceive they are in a Condition to do the like for theirs for if they could we should hear of it they have not one Text to do it Magister dixit is no Reason with us the Vnitarian may say but that is not enough what he saith he must prove upon true Grounds and to the purpose well for want of Scripture the Author of the Letter gives a Reason of his own which is this And we all know that Divine Wisdom may be communicated to Man without the Incarnation of God Did ever any one read such a pitiful coming off in so weighty a matter as this is how sawcy with God are some Men in the World in setting out their foolish and wandering Fancies and where is a due Respect for his Holy Word hath not God made foolish the Wisdom of these Men if ever they had any doth this Interpretation hold any proportion with that high and noble Idea which the Evangelist would give us of the Person whose History he writes first of all we defy them to shew that this is the Sense of any Text concerning this Matter Secondly suppose they could yet it being against the usual Meaning they ought to shew reason why in this place it should be taken otherwise and then must such a silly Reason weigh down the Authority of so many Texts of Scripture what will become of all the glorious Attributes and Prerogative of the Lord Jesus over Angels and Men what of that Name which is above every Name God's own only begotten Son in whom he is well pleased if all comes only to this God's Reason and Wisdom were communicated to him which God in a high degree did to Solomon and to others of his eminent Servants whereby he must make them equal with his Son and he with them we all know that God if he pleases can create another World must we conclude therefore he hath not created this God if he had pleased could have delivered his People out of Egypt otherwise than by the hand of Moses must we say therefore he delivered them not by his hand Out of what God can do we must not infer that he hath not done what he hath done because God can communicate Reason to Man therefore the Word the Son of God was not made Flesh Ye great Logicians is this a good Consequence risum teneatis I could almost say if the thing in question was not of the highest importance Before I leave this Point I shall skip over to another place of the Letter for tho' he there speaks not to me but to another whose Notions I am not concerned for yet what he saith relating to the Cause I ought to take notice of the more because it belongs to that Text of John which hitherto we were upon 't is said Tke Incarnation of God is no where expressed in Scripture it can be no more than meerly a deduction from thence 'T is well you are so kind as to grant 't is in 't in some way As to the first part if you say in so many Letters according to your cavilling way we know 't for the word Incarnation is Latin and so none of the Books of Scripture being originally written in that Language we must not think to find it in 't but we say a word altogether equivalent and which signifies the same thing is in 't Doth not to be made Flesh
did use the Superlative degree instead of the Positive But these are but Quibbles of your own which argues that seeing you stick at such things you have little else to say for your selves ye leave things for Words and like drowning Men lay hold upon any thing that lieth in your way to save a sinking Cause when no serious Man but would think it below himself to stay upon such things all your Observations and Inferences are an effect of a distemper'd Imagination and not of a sound Reason whereby you deserve the name of the Ridiculer ridiculed As well as you we know Essence to be one thing and Circumstance another but that were tolerable if ye did not as ye do jest with Holy things But I think to know where the Sore lieth ye do not like the words Essential nor Essence derivative nor primitive and tho' in the Schools of Divinity and Philosophy they be used yet ye dislike them because in so many Letters not to be found in Scripture but here you might see I use it not in a Religious but Civil account I own I am at a loss to find a way how to please such nice Spirits as ye are for of one side ye would not have us to use the words Essence Trinity Person because you say they are not in the word of God yet ye both find fault with me for making use of Scripture so much as I do against you in my Book So ye Gentlemen prodigies of Learning may now see which if you do not others do how ye sin against very common Rules what then will become of the four things you learned after you put your Wits to the rack to make others pass for Nonsensical Scriblers who hardly can write three words of good Sense Thus if your witty Premises do fall how can your learned Inferences stand These miserable Shifts which every solid Man would scorn to trouble his head with do tend only to shew how in you is an earnest desire but want of power to make others who differ from you to pass for Silly and Ridiculous so take to your selves what you had prepared for others But what 's all this to the Cause but a putting it off and running away from it Having shewed how when I penned my Epistle I thank God I was in my right Senses the next thing I must do is to prove my Charge against Socinianism which he calls false and disagreeing yet I make no doubt but it will stick First I call it Blasphemous and I shall prove it out of better Authority than that of the Polonian Knight or Bidle's or what the Reasons to the contrary of the Authors of both Letters can come to In order to 't I say there is a twofold Blasphemy one Positive when Men call or otherwise make God a Liar and to deny himself or the like and the other Negative when Men deny him to be Infinite Almighty or Eternal the first when God is made to be what he is not the second when he is deny'd to be what he is That Blasphemy is an abominable Injury directly against God's Nature Attributes or Works is so plainly and frequently set down in Scripture that I think unnecessary for me to prove it and if the same offence committed against God's Nature Attributes and Works be called Blasphemy and that committed against the Lord Jesus's Person be called Blasphemy it follows first that Jesus Christ is true God then secondly that whosoever denies Christ to be God in his Nature Attributes and Works he is a Blasphemer Now Socinianism denieth our Saviour Divine Nature and Essential Attributes of that Nature therefore Socinianism is a Blasphemous Opinion and Doctrine as much for denying Christ to be true God by Nature as by denying Divine Nature Almightiness and Eternity Now that the Sin called Blasphemy is sometimes committed against the Lord Jesus we learn it out of his own mouth upon the occasion of the Pharisees saying he did cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils this he called Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost the chiefest of all And when he was in the hands of the Jews the things by them done and spoken against him were by the Evangelist called Blasphemy and many other things spake they blasphemously against him Thus when the Jews spake against the things that were spoken by Paul and what were those things That Christ was the Son of God which to prove he made use of the words of Psalm 2. Thou art my Son c. in the proper Sense their speaking against this is call'd Contradicting and Blaspheming upon the same account in another place 't is said they opposed and blasphemed Thus Paul saith of himself he was before his Conversion a Blasphemer and compelled others to blaspheme that is to deny and speak ill of Christ so to say that Christ is not God of the same Nature and Power equal with the Father is as great a Blaspemy as to say he was or is a Sinner which any one that hath a religious Honour and Love for him and hopeth for Mercy at his hands when at the last day he shall appear in his Glory cannot and as much as in him lieth must not endure The next Charge against Socinianism is Atheism and Deism he doth couple them thinking to shew a Contradiction but there is none I say to worship the true God not in a true manner is Idolatry as well as to worship a false God Jeroboam for worshipping the true God in an undue manner is branded with Idolatry and provoked God as much as Ahab for worshipping Baal or a false God or else with Papists we must take away the Second Commandment In like manner I say not to know the true God in a true manner is Atheism as well as not to know him at all and the true way to know God is to know him in Christ without whom no true knowledge of God to that purpose the Apostle saith unto the Ephesians that at that time when they were without Christ they also were without God in the world That is they were Atheists and is it truly to know God in Christ only to know him there in a Creature seeing the very Heathens can tell us Praesentemque refert quae libet herba Deum and not rather as in him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily These fragments of Scripture please not Socinians for they not knowing God in Christ as his Eternal and Natural Father are thereby branded with Atheism As for Deism I take it in the Sense wherein it is taken now adays for a Deist is he who prefers Humane Reason before Faith and Revelation so you own my Charge is not a perfect Nonsense tho' in some degree you would have it still to be a Nonsense for you are pleased thus magisterially to decide Now I confess this sort of Charge is not so perfect a Nonsense as the other however I
still lay under the Lash for it is a silly Calumny as you say yet 't is no Calumny but a Truth and that no silly one I shall anon take notice of your Stile Deism is not only an absolute denial of all Revelation but also 't is a giving the preference to Humane Reason before Revelation which is done when you set up your own Reason to be a Judge of Revelation and here I hold you fast for else you would give the Slip. Tho' you have not the face to deny Christian Religion to be of Divine Institution yet your own Reason which your Brother calls the only Guide which God hath given us to Judge and Interpret that Revelation you exalt above it Is not this to set up a Tribunal over and above the Word of an Infallible God and to make your poor silly Humane Reason the Oracle or Revealer of the true Sense of that Revelation So I leave you to refute this Charge of Deism as well as you can the Racovian Catechism shall afford you no help except you mince it as you use to do other things which by and by I shall by the Grace of God take notice of A Deist we call him who makes a God of his own reason as you do that is sets up a false God now between such a one and an Atheist there is not the direct opposition which you imagine for in these Times Deist is taken in an ill Sense and in a way of Reproach but to believe a God is no Reproach and ought to be taken in a favourable Sense so 't is the use of the words that shews their signification Besides as there are two sorts of Atheists the one in Theory the other in Practice for as there is a Fool whom David speaks of who saith in his heart there is no God so there is a Fool that saith so in his Actions and lives as if there was no God The like we say of Deists some are Speculative such as believe as you do their own Reason to be the only guide in Matters of Religion others are Practical Deists who accordingly own no other Sense of Scripture but what is their own Interpretation And others through-paced I may add who are both Practical and Theorical Deists and I make no doubt but that ye know well where they live tho' you question much whether we have any of these Socinians in England Profaneness and Immorality follow next Profaneness I call a handling of Holy things without a due Respect which in a high degree is the guilt of Socinians as in several places of my Book I made it plainly appear how bold and sawcy are they with God's Word How contrary to the analogy of Faith the design of the Spirit of God and the natural usual and proper signification of the Words do they wrest Scripture to make it serve their own turn They irreverently use it as a Stalking-Horse to answer their ends and by forcing unusual and far-off-fetch'd Interpretations as much as in them lieth would make it contradict it self This and prefering Humane before Spiritual and Heavenly things like Esau whom Scripture calleth a profane person for selling his birth-right for a morsel of meat I brand with the name of Profaneness and shall not I call so the Preference which you give your Humane Reason above Divine Revelation when you make it to be the Judge of it In some places of your Letters your own Example is a proof of Profaneness attending on Socinianism let the particular of your Jesting at the Name of Christ's mystical Body to signifie the Church serve for all you cannot be but wilfully ignorant how in several places of Scripture an express mention is made of the Body of Christ whereof we are said to be the Members and Christ is called the Head of the Church and the Saviour of the Body This cannot be spoken of his Natural Body which now is in Heaven so it must be of another Body of his and that 's our being in him by Faith and he in us by his Spirit which Scripture calls a Mystery so in Scripture Phrase we may call that a Mystical Body without giving profane Men cause to Jest at it as you do God's Name saith David is Holy and Reverend but ye make bold to profane it As for Immorality it consists both in Words and Actions Carriage and Conversation so that tho' one was not an Immoralist either in every Kind or in every Degree if it be but in one 't is enough to denounce him an Immoralist As for Me who neither have nor desire to have any Society with the professed Enemies or false Friends of Christ I do not meddle with their Actions for 't is not my business but leave every one to God besides that I ever avoid as much as I can making or medling with Persons only with Things But I say that Profaneness is usually attended with Immorality for commonly Sins go by couples and he who is so profane as to Jest with God and his Word is soon drawn to that jesting foolish talking and filthiness which the Apostle joineth together And you may know how Paulus Samosatenus Bishop of Antioch one of your first and great Ringleaders kept young Wenches and allowed his Clergy to do the like Tho' the Persecuting Accuser as I am call'd have not the Wit of Machiavel nor of his Villains yet he hath Truth on his side which is better And the Negative Argument how neither the Racovian Catechism nor Socinian Author hath written so cannot put off the Blow indeed Men must wholly have forfeited common Sense and Reason who in their Writings and in the face of the Sun will set up for Champions of Profaneness Immorality Atheism Impiety Blasphemy or Idolatry But what they do not plainly express is often drawn by good and lawful Consequence in any of your Books you do not say ye are Profane but out of what you say in your Two Letters how that as to your selves you are the Judges of Scripture and that your Reason is your only Guide in giving such Interpretation as ye think fit is not this to make bold with Holy things Tho' I had no other Evidence which yet I am full of I say that only is a sufficient ground for me to conclude your Principles to be Profane which make you prefer your own Reason before the Teaching of the Holy Ghost out of that same Scripture and those who embraced your Principles are thereby led into Profaneness What you say about the Means used by some Men to promote Heresies by high pretences to Piety and Vertue may be true and what I say too every Bait is not proper for every sort of Fish so Men have several ways to get Proselytes according to the several Tempers of those whom they would draw to themselves do but find the predominant Passion of a Man and except God be pleased to strengthen him ye
Rhetorick sallying into sundry Metaphors as he speaks of and he adds One or two now and then with wondrous Confidence and manly Resolution would bolt out upon the open Plains of Natural Reason but they were quickly forced to shelter not being able to bear the brightness and warmth of the Meridian Sun which illuminates and gives light to those Plains these are high Fancies and true Bombast if any thing be so surely the Man hath read Don Quixot This People who condemn in others something of Metaphors allow it to the full themselves as being privileged Persons who may say and do what they please and all is well But alas all these opposers of Socinianism were but Fools for their pains especially those who would talk of Reason with them who are the great Masters of it and could not stand before them but-were sent to School with a Rod upon their Back and all this depth of Learning height of Fancy closeness of Reasoning brightness of Eloquence and clearness of Stile are set in form of a Triumphal Cant yet for all this for greater security he still runs under the shelter for after he hath talk'd of some of our old School Terms of which we had no great opinion our selves whether we will or not this Man is always among us and kept them only because we could get no better but then the wisest of our Doctors explained them to a very honest Sense Speak said one formerly that I may know thee so this People are known by their talk but still I say our Man runs to the shelter when he saith Oxthodox with us who are the majority of the Church which if it was true as 't is not would be but to follow the Multitude to believe and do Evil. Something he would be picking out against my Citation out of the Book of The Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws wherein without passing Sentence as he pretends I do I humbly offer a Precedent of what was formerly done in like cases And suppose the Book had been written before Socinus was born yet it may reach him and his Opinions as for instance when a Law is enacted it doth reach those who break it tho' born never so long after and we know a Law can be broken in several ways nay sometimes Laws are made not only to restrain present Crimes but also to prevent others to come for 't is the prudence of the Law-giver not only to punish Evils in being but also to prepare a remedy against those which may happen therefore if Socinians in the Land do any thing forbidden by some Law tho' never so old if unrepealed they are liable to the Penalty of it The Law doth more directly regard Things than Persons When the Law makes a thing to be Treason which was not so before yet whosoever hereafter tho' unborn when the Law was enacted commits it is no doubt by that Law guilty of Treason this truth one may know without Prophetick Inspiration As to what I add out of King Edward's Letter to Archbishop Cranmer c. how according to the Power Form and Effect of a certain Act of Parliament in the Third Year of his Reign he had appointed them to compile his Ecclesiastical Laws his wresting and unfaithfully representing the thing is clear and palpable for he would make my Observation thereupon how in those Laws there is something of a Parliamentary Authority because he saith he hath chosen them by virtue of an Act of Parliament in the Third Year of his Reign to be gainsaid by my next words by him misquoted thus That something wants a Parliamentary Stamp when they are thus and if there be any thing wanting it lieth in your power to set a Parliamentary Stamp upon 't he relates them Absolutely and I Conditionally with an if I take it to be good Sense to say There is already something of a Parliaments Authority and in case there be any thing wanting this present Parliament may supply it if they please It is great pity that this spoils his Witty Jest in that place of a Something that 's just as good as Nothing I shall have a farther tryal of their misrepresenting things I find they are not so much concerned as to what the Gospel saith about Matters in dispute as they are about what the Law saith when it reaches their Persons threaten them with a Parliament and they are more concern'd than if you would set the whole Bible in order against them Therefore they are nettled with the Fourth Canon directly pointed at them by name of the Ecclesiastical Constitutions by both Convocations in 1640 and by King Charles the First straightly enjoyned and commanded to be diligently observed and executed The King is Supreme Head of the Church within his Dominions by virtue of that Supremacy King Charles of his own voluntary Act and without any violence or compulsion set upon them his Royal Authority and his Memory is not become so odious and contemptible and in that particular so slighted that no regard at all should be had for it and tho' Socinians despise the Authority of those who went before I dare say in the Nation there be some who are not of their mind and as we know the Legislative Power to be lodged in Kings Lords and Commons so we hope they will agree in things which tend to the Glory of God the good of the Nation and that upon occasion none of the three through God's influence will as I said before give the Convocation any Repulse about things within their Sphere when represented in Parliament But I find you are as Angry Hot and Fiery I make use of your own words against Convocations as against Calvinism for you speak of the Ceremonial or Sanguinary Rules and Orders Canons and Constitutions of the Convocational Clergy and let me say how in the same Page you give the Clergy some other Lashes which is not Brotherly done but I hope you will give me leave to think if not to say that you or your Partner may be of the Tribe if so then in Moses's Words let me tell you Ye take too much upon you ye Sons of Levi. The Man seeing he is unable to defend his own Cause would be suing for help in order to 't he maliciously and fasly would suggest that I have slurred the Honour of my Lords the Bishops when I no where have named or so much as pointed at them only in a place of my Epistle where it was unavoidable 't is upon the occasion of a Quotation out a Book call'd The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws my words are these According to this Bishops are to take cognizance inquire into and declare whether or not the Person or Persons be guilty of Blasphemy which being clear he or they according to that Law are to be delivered into the Civil Magistrate's hand but if through neglect or otherwise any of the Bishops happen not to act their
thing we go about we are to call upon God for his help and the gracious influence of his Holy Spirit being sure that without it we can do no good and we be sufficiently taught in Scripture to trust to no strength or abilities of our own and when in the World we meet with Men of Principles contrary to these we find it not strange for we know that there must be also Heresies among us or those called Christians that they which are approved may be made manifest among us Wherefore as long as we have about these Matters such a Foundation as Paul the great Preacher of Free Grace hath laid we need not to care for all Exceptions or Cavils of Men or Devils These are such Truths as we hope through Grace never to be ashamed or afraid to own unto the end even to lay down our Lives as he did his for so Glorious a Cause The Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Grace are so linked together that no Man strikes at one but the other feels it tho' may be in a different degree they have a common Enemy so he who is against one is against both which I positively affirm of Socinians Grace and Truth saith the Evangelist came by Jesus Christ who coming into the World brought Grace along with him for he is the Spring of it which he manifested in framing and redeeming of his Church the Foundation whereof and of our Christian Religion lies in this great and fundamental Truth whereof Peter made a Confession how Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God upon the verity whereof there our Saviour declared that his Church should be built and at the same time signified that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it For this is the House built upon a Rock which tho' the Rain descendeth and the Floods come and the Wind blows yet it falls not for it is founded upon a Rock In that Promise of his the Lord Jesus declares two things First The Gates that is the Power of Devils in Hell would afterwards make some attempt against that fundamental Truth of his being the Son of the living God As indeed it hath from time to time raised its strongest Batteries against it as not long after his Ascension even in the life time of his beloved Disciple and after his death the Assaults began by Simon the Sorcerer Ebion Cerinthus Menander and afterwards by other Hellish Instruments But in Arius's time great strugglings happened with so prodigious a success that all the World was said to be Arian hence came the Saying All the World against Athanasius and Athanasius against all the World so afterwards for the same Cause against our Saviour's Divinity several fought under the Banners of Hell as now tho' more cunningly Socinians do having taken up the Cudgels and as those Blasphemous Opinions were exploded out of the World so shall be in God's due time those which are raging for the present notwithstanding all the Craftiness Malice and Power of Hell and all Antichrists of Devils and Men This my so positively speaking is grounded upon Christ's Promise how the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the truth of his being the Son of the living God which his Church is built upon and this is the Second thing not only deduced from but plainly contained in those words of the Lord Jesus whose Person is a fit Object of Adoration as his Grace is of Admiration These Truths one may abundantly be satisfied with out of Scripture which I much have made use of because some places prove a Truth directly others collaterally and others are brought in to illustrate and give a light to the thing so that Scripture is of several uses nothing therein without some use 't is of it as of the Rivers in the Garden of Eden they all did not run one and the same way But now to conclude I in the first place put you in mind to Answer my Book and then take this Occasion which you give me in case ye knew it not before to acquaint you how upon those Matters I have written a Book hitherto Unanswered if you have such an aversion for them as you express do but give us in Print your Thoughts about it 't is a fair Field I offer you but be not afraid for 't is not Smithfield but if ye can defend that Cause no better than the Socinian about the Holy Trinity and Person of the Lord Jesus then it will be in you but Time and Labour lost in vain And if you go about it be more Serious in a Business of so high a nature and less Virulent and Malicious For shame leave off Jesting with Holy things and let it be without giving ill Language for therein I yield you know to do 't more than my self and write like Scholars and Gentlemen without breaking the Bonds of Humanity with Arguments as hard as ye please but softer Words and make no more haste than good speed if ye come in that way then by the Grace of God I will fairly Answer you in the like manner and tho' already there is Work enough cut for you I doubt more than ye are well able to compass yet several new Arguments I have to bring in but if in the usual Scolding Reviling way I will leave you to chew your Cud May be your Bantering way of Writing hath succeeded against some but be not mistaken with others it will never do come with good Arguments and then I am for you however come which way you will I declare I shall not in the least care whether you come asunder or both together FINIS BOOKS Printed for J. Hartley THE Blasphemous Socinian Heresie Disproved and Confuted c. With Animadversions on Mr. Toland's Christianity not Mysterious Dedicated to both Houses of Parliament By J. Gailhard Gent. Verdicts of the Learned concerning Virgil and Homer's Heroic Poems Regular and Irregular Thoughts in Poets and Orators Page 18. Page 15. Page 4. Page 3. Gal. 4. 18. Rev. 3. 15. Page 3. Luke 16. 8. pag. 59. 1 Cor. 2. 4 5. Acts 15. Eccles 4. 10. * 1 Cor. 12. 28. and Ephes 4. ii 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. 1 Cor. 12. 30. 2 Pet. 3. 16. Luke 16. 31. Luke 20. 38. 2 Cor. ii 8. 1 Cor. 2. 12 13. Ephes 1. 16 17 18. Colos 1. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Coloss 2. 7. Heb. 13. 9 1 John 4. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 16. Page 8. Page 4. 16 18. 1 Cor. 7. 7. Acts 17. 2. Acts 28. 23. 1 Cor. 15. 34. Acts 1â— 24 28. Chap. 17. 11. Luke 24. 44. Ver. 45. Isa 8. 20. Matt. 7 5. Pag. 6 7. Job 13. 4. Psal 74. 22. John 20. 31. pag. 6 8 pag. 11. Acts 2â— 3. Matth. 16. 17. John 14. 16 17. Chap. 16. 13 14. 2 Tim. 1. 7. Psal 119. 169. pag. 8. 2 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John 1 2. 1 Cor. 2. 15. 1 Tim. 3 16. Gal. 4. 4. Rom. 8. 32. p. 12 13. John 10. 33 36. John 14. 10. Chap. 11. 4. Isa 42. 8. Luke 2. 49. 50. Coloss 2. 9. Prov. 28. 26. Chap. 23. 4. p. 9 10. In 1565. and 1660. pag. 39. p. 6. 13. Page 14 2 Tim. 2. 25. pag 30. John 16 2 3. Joh. 8. 19. 1 John 2. 23. Matt. 3. 17. and 17. 5. Joh. 12. 28 Joh. 5. 37. Joh. 8. 43. Acts 3. 22 23. 2 Pet. 1. 16 17 18. John 10. 3 4 5. 2 Cor. 11. 13 14. page 17. pag. 19. pag. 18. Matt. 1â— 31. Luke 22. 65. Acts 13. 33 45. 1 Tim. 1. 13. Acts 26. 11. Ephes 2. 12. Coloss 2. 9. pag. 19. Psal 53. 1. pag. 22. Heb. 12. 16. pag. 25. Rom. 12. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 15. Coloss 1. 24. Ephes 5. 23 32. Psal 111. 9. Ephes 5. 4. pag. 20. Matt. 11. 27. Rom. 1. 21 c. John 8. 55. Chap. 14. 7. 2 Cor. 4. 6. pag. 21. pag. 18. 1 Pet. 4. 18. p. 22 33. p. 33. â—9 Rev. 2. 9. 3. 9. p. 7. p. 22. pag. 33. Lev. 5. 1. Deut. 19. 21. Lev. 24. 16 23. p. 25. p. 27. p. 18. p. 4. p. 27. p. 28. p. 29. p. 30. p. 30. Num. 16. 7. p. 31. p. 28. p. 33. p. 40. Rom. 2. 1. Coloss 4. 6. 1 Pet. 3. 15. pag. 42 43. Acts 19. 19. p. 31. Gen. 16. 12. Josh 7. 2 Sam. 21. 1. Joel 2. 25. Rom. 1. 32. Monday May 17. p. 36. p. 37. p. 14. p. 37. p. 38. p. 26 29. Acts 26. 11. p. 28. p. 35. p. 33. p. 41. p. 18. Phil. 4. 5. Luke 18. 11 12 13. Prov. 3. 5. John 1. 17. Matt. 16. 18. Chap. 7. 24 25. A Plea for Free Grace against Free-will * p. 9 20 33.
part and thereby stop the Course of Justice certainly the Magistrate is to look into 't This Man who in several places abuses Convocations would to serve his turn in this seem to be much concern'd for the Lords Bishops Of this false Accusation he gives two Reasons the first is this For tho' several of them have written 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 and for this reason he affirms he most audaciously and slyly slurs the Honour of my Lords the Bishops His second Reason is He often declares his aversion from the Arminians of which Perswasion most of the Bishops have shewn themselves Is this good Logick I am against Arminianism therefore against Episcopacy because it may be some of the Bishops are Arminians it will not stick I disprove Arminianism and honour the Bishops as some of their Lordships can witness but to aggravate he falsly and foolishly saith I have thereby slyly and desperately wounded the Honour of the chief Defenders of the Orthodox Faith Out of this he would prove me to be a rank Socinian or else I would not saith he have done so wherein he confesses Socinians to be desperate Enemies to the Lords Bishops And to retort it he being a Socinian must be an Enemy to the Bishops But I see the Devil is Devil still a Slanderer a false Accuser tho' hypocritically he pretends much Meekness and Charity This very same Man who but one Leaf before blames one much better than himself for not taking care of his Language for his liberal Railing and throwing his Wit and his Foam about he in many places of his Letter doth so against me slanderously charging me with impudent Reflections and again Is it not the highest Impudence in him and in other places they throw such like words upon me Therefore thou art unexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things Nay not only so but the Man hath from first to last broken not one but most Rules of Humanity it would be a happy thing if every Man could but know the Plague of his own Heart And were it not that a good Advise which he doth much want bestowed upon him would be so much time and labour lost I would put him in mind how by God's command there was no Sacrifice offered without Salt an Emblem of Prudence to shew how God would not have Men rashly to meddle with Holy things and except with a serious and humble frame of Spirit and with an awful Reverence which was the true Preparation of the Sanctuary they were qualified for it otherwise he would not relish or accept but only to speak in Solomon's words account it to be the Sacrifice of Fools This under the Gospel in Matters of Religion ought to be a Rule for us as in relation to God so between Man and Man for the Apostle saith Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man which being joined with another Apostles Exhortation Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear or Reverence as the Greek word doth also signifie doth teach us how we ought to speak with Grace Fear and Reverence of Matters of Religion and with Meekness towards those whom we speak to But these Men do quite the contrary for of one side they jest with Holy things and on the other they injuriously use those whom they deal with that is are profane with God and rude with Men They cry up Moderation and Mildness yet with their Railing ironical and brutish Stile and Language are ever the first to break the Rules thereof to call one Impudent and at several times too and to give the Lye it argues in them neither Breeding nor good Nature therefore they must expect that Men thus unhandsomly provok'd will take some notice of it tho' it be contrary to their natural inclination and practise Here upon this account I must desire the Reader to take special notice of the Spirit which this sort of Men whom we now deal against are acted by and in particular of the want of Sincerity Moderation Modesty and Judgment and this shall be within a narrow compass out of what is said by one of the Men as I take it whom I have to deal with in the Apology for M. Toland are with great approbation quoted some Lines of one of their own whom he calls that Celebrated Vnitarian in the Agreement he hath written of the Vnitarians with the Catholick Church p. 54 55. He highly commends that Man with the name Celebrated in hopes upon occasion of the same return of Flattery from him for Asinus asinum fricat The very Man whose Letter I now am about examining would charge me with slurring the Honour of the Lords Bishops and desperately wounding the Honour of the chief Defenders of the Orthodox Faith Would not one think that this Man is highly concerned for and hath a great Honour for the Bishops whom he well calls the Chief Defenders of the Catholick Faith but this must needs be either out of Hypocrisie to serve as he thinks his present turn against me or by an Irony for Socinians love neither Bishops nor Convocations for will they sincerely call Defenders of the Orthodox Faith those who writ against them And for proof of this let us observe how in the fore-quoted place of the Apology they use one of our most Eminent and Learned Bishops when I speak thus the Reader will presently know I mean my Lord Bishop of Worcester who by them is named in the place I know not saith he what it was to his Lordship's purpose to fall upon Mr. Toland ' s Book but if he knows it not his Lordship did and we may suppose it was to some purpose or else he might as well say the Lord Bishop knew not what he did One would think they cannot have the face to teach him what he must do but here follows that which is worse but if he would needs attack the Book he should have dealt fairly Which plainly enough implies the Bishop hath not dealt fairly and to shew herein that I am not mistaken he adds and not carp'd only at a few Passages and those too so mangled and deformed by his representation of them that I dare to affirm Mr. Toland doth not know his own Book in the Bishop's representation of it Is not this a plain demonstration of the great respect which such Men have for the Lords Bishops and of the Reason this Man hath to accuse me for slurring and desperately wounding the Honour of the Bishops But let us turn leave and see in how different a Stile that Socinian speaks of