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
already setled by Law you thereby introduce Confusion into the Church which may soon become Anarchy in the Government which to prevent in my humble Address to the Parliament I thought the Laws now in being about such things might be executed and if in their Wisdom they thought fit new ones be enacted What Papists believe or do as to Authority about Interpretation of Scriptures is no Rule nor Precedent for us there is a sad Experience in the World of the nature of the Spirit which they are acted by and of the Methods they have taken to support their spiritual Tyranny over the Consciences and Souls yea Lives of Men they made themselves Parties and Judges and would admit or hear of no Reasons contrary to theirs which were grounded not upon God's Word tho' in some things they pretend it but their own Traditions and Practice to their Church Now among us you find no such thing the Law is open for you if you take Scripture to be it whereof you sadly wrest the Words contrary to their natural Sense without giving any good Reason for it and you stand by your selves in defiance and opposition of the general Consent of the Universal Church which condemned those unsound Men when they appeared against the Person of our Saviour and Lord. And here I must say we no more than you receive the Authority of Antiquity or of Fathers upon their own bottom for we agree they were fallible when they said so and so but whether in so saying they spake truth is well worth enquiry into I will compare them with Scripture and if they agree with it I will agree with them And this is to me a strengthning Evidence that I am not singular seeing others as well as I could in the Word of God find those Truths which I do believe Wo be to him that is alone abounds in his own Sense and thinks he knows more than all the World besides for the application of Scripture Truths it may be every ones Right to direct himself by his own Reason enlightned by the Spirit as to the Explication a very great care ought to be had and still according to the Rule of God's Word with all the help he can get besides but when they have Opinions which they find are generally opposed People so modest so quiet and of the Character they give of themselves not to disturb others should keep it within themselves and not be so servent as ye are to spread it abroad whether your Zeal be without or against Knowledg And if every one who pretends to be a Member of the Church be so busie as ye are to promote their Opinions and no Curb be put upon Interpretations then no end of Heresie Blasphemy or of all sorts of the worst Opinions But before I proceed I think fit to pull down that Strong-hold of theirs as they take it to be tho' rather Sandy Foundation of a free liberty for every one to make what interpretations they please and that I shall the more willingly do tho' as briefly as I can because 't is a Matter controverted between them and us which I had no occasion to meddle with in my Book To begin I say as there is a Right so there is a false Interpretation of Scripture The Right is that which gives the true sense and meaning the False on the contrary Now if every private Man might Interpret Scripture what monstrous Interpretations would there be as we see it too much in the World and this is the ground of Heresy Blasphemy and Fanaticism which to prevent the Lord Jesus as St. Paul saith in those two places where he mentions the Offices in the Church hath settled Prophets and Teachers Every private Man may Read but not Interpret Scripture which in this Case is the first thing to be known For saith the Apostle knowing this first that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private Interpretation so the Interpretation must come from whence the Revelation came 't is but one and the same Spring therefore in the next Verse he clears the Matter For Prophecy came not in old time by the Will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost which doth exclude as humane private Revelation so also humane private Interpretation And herein Paul joineth with Peter when he puts this Question Do all Interpret Which contains an Exclusive how all do not no more than all are no workers of Miracles Furthermore we must know how Scripture hath a binding Power not only directive but also decisive over the Conscience so that thereby the Conscience far from having that free liberty is tied and bound to the determination of the Word or else no Man that believes an Opinion contrary to sound Doctrine and never so heretical and blasphemous could be guilty of Sin But we are assured of the contrary for they who wrest the Scriptures do so unto their own destruction tho' a man must be very cautious not to go against his Conscience yet where there is a Competition between God and Man the Word of God and the Judgment of Man when each challenge of us a Consent we must give it the Word which certainly is true and infallible preferably before the Conscience which may be seduced and erroneous which happens often when 't is guided by humane Reason In Scripture is in matters of Faith a convincing and constraining Power which in Conscience we are bound to submit to in Humane things the Judge is not properly Judge except he Judges according to the Law for he hath no power to alter or corrupt but to declare the true sense of it The Interpretation of the Divine Law which the Question is now about may happen to be mistaken but the Law never for 't is Infallible as being the Word of the True and Infallible God hence is derived its Divine and Undisputable Authority beyond that of any thing else and it should work upon men more than Miracles even than raising from the Dead which may be called the greatest of all for they that hear not Moses and the Prophets will not be perswaded tho' one rose from the Dead The reason is because therein the Spirit of God speaks and thereby leads us into all Truth And indeed if Scripture was not the end of Debates in matters of Religion our Conscience could never be settled nor quiet for that same thing no Humane Reason Power or Judgment is able to effect but we aquiesce to rest and depend upon the Word of the God of Truth and if at the Bar of Conscience there was no such binding Rule but men were left to their own private Judgment none would be bound to believe Scripture but always live amidst Doubts Difficulties and Conjectures not to say singular Notions Fancies and Dreams and so we could never be at a certainty Besides that after this there were no Sin in any man to receive any
contrary to their Subscriptions are departed from the Doctrine I call it the true about Predestination to fall into Arminianism so they may embrace Socinianism as you say the majority now doth and so successively and by degrees pass into any other Heresie for which you give this reason Men cannot help the altering of their Minds This truly and properly is the Religion of Libertinism and Atheism is the next step So Men may plainly see what a kind of Religion you are striving for and would bring us into To what hath been said about Convocations this I shall add that though ye seem to slight a Convocation yet let me tell you either in Quality or Number 't is no despicable Body it being the Representative of a considerable part of the Nation and 't is hoped from the Piety and Wisdom of the Parliament that in Matters of Religion upon occasion they will not despise their Advice and Address In the Disputes about Socinians and us we are agreed to be judged by the Word of God yet they dislike our making use of it against them too much as they think but this Gentleman who in the beginning of his Letter complains of my numerous Quotations of Scripture Phrases as he calls it hath taken effectual care to avoid giving me cause to complain of the like against him for in the whole Letter there is but one Quotation just at the latter end of it and 't is usher'd in with this Christian Preamble ' 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 the Son this is what we call To beat a Man with his own Weapons his own he hitherto used to little purpose at last he resolv'd to try whether the same I made use of against him would do his Work but he is so unskilful in handling of it that 't will not serve his end but is against rather than for him He saith to me If we may believe our Saviour Christ the if may well be turned against you out of another Mans Pen it were not questionable as 't is out of yours I wish you would believe him as we do when he absolutely and without any limitation doth call himself the Son of God as some times they wrest his Words so here they would make him say that I know neither the Father nor his Son whereupon he quoteth this Text They shall put you out of the Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you shall think that he doth God service and these things will they do unto you because they have not known the father nor me But how well applyed let us see not at all to his purpose for there the Lord Jesus foretold his Disciples that for his sake and upon his account Persecutions should befall them I ask whether in earnest he looks upon himself and other Socinians to be Disciples of Christ May be such as Judas was who betrayed his Person as they do his Truth but true Disciples that cannot be for suppose that Sect were brought under the Rod it would not be for his Cause His Apostles as we read in several places of the Book of the Acts suffered Persecution for owning Christ to be the true Son of God the holy one the Prince of Life and not for affirming him to be a meer Man who had no Being before he was born of the Virgin Mary and denying him to be true Eternal God of the same Nature with the Father certainly if God should bring you to Punishment ye could not have the face to say it is for the same Cause as his Disciples suffered they suffered for giving him his due and ye for robbing him of it Therefore to retort your own Argument upon you I say ye know neither the Father nor the Son for the Father ye cannot know but in and by the Son The Son ye do not know for ye will not own him to be what he is namely true eternal God blessed for ever thus out of our Saviour's own Words I conclude against you as in this same Cause and upon the same account he did against the Jews who looked on him as a meer Man and would by no means own him truly to be God Son of God Ye neither know me nor my Father if ye had known me ye should have known my Father also Wherefore since ye know me not ye know not my Father neither This weight I farther lay upon you how as ye know not so ye have not the Father for ye deny the Son to be what he is indeed of the same Nature with the Father and the Apostle saith Whosoever denyeth the Son the same hath not the Father to deny the Son is not only to deny him to be but also to deny him to be what he is And now since I am upon this your Words If we may believe our Saviour Christ are a Motive for me to go on and to call things by their Name to say ye are a sort of Infidels for ye will not believe God tho' he speaks from Heaven not only once but twice and thrice in our Lord's Baptism in his Transfiguration and at another time when the Voice came from Heaven God the Father from Heaven proclaimed him to be his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased with a Command to hear him Hear ye him yet ye will not believe the Father nor hear the Son who appeals to that Testimony of the Father nor when he calls himself God's Son onely begotten who is One with the Father in Power equal with him For what things soever the Father doth these also doth the Son likewise that the Father sent him out of his Bosom that he came down from Heaven he proceeded and came down from God and so many more things to that purpose But now he speaks to you as once he did to the Jews Why do ye not understand my speech even because ye cannot hear my word yet him ye will not hear but mark what will become of it And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you shall be destroyed among the People Ye would rob him of that Glory and Honour which he received from God the Father which not only is recorded by the Evangelist but confirmed by an Apostle with all the necessary Circumstances what where and when We were eye-witnesses of his majesty for he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased which he affirms not by hear-say but as ear-witness for he addeth And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount But ye will hear neither Christ nor his
I said the Enemy and Plague of Socinianism was gotten into the Bowels of the Church the more the Pity and therefore seeing they will not hide themselves for shame here I do humbly desire the Heads and Governours of it to take notice of Socinians boasting to be Members of the Church and care to weed them out Good Lord Men who overthrow the first Article of our Religion of one God in three Persons and the second of two Natures in one Person besides others the Athanasian Creed the the first part of the Litany with several others of the Service Book yet they have the face to call themselves Members of the Church However 't is worth the inquiring into what they ground upon their calling themselves Members of the Church we already have taken notice of one place wherein speaking of themselves in the third Person they say For Peace sake they submit to the Phrase of the Church and own three Persons so they seem not to be much concerned for the Truth to know whether what they or we say be true but they take care of their Safety being as they pretend alarm'd with fear of Fire and Faggot and to save their Bacon therefore I am apt to believe that what they say in relation to this is more out of fear of Punishment than of love for Truth however for Peace sake they are Members of the Church but to dive into the bottom of this Title of theirs of being Members of the Church two Places I am to look into the first is this As for those late English Writers sometimes called Unitarians and very injuriosly termed Socinians they seem desirous to wash their hand of it and their disputing some of the Articles of our Church hath proceeded chiefly from their Apprehension that it would be Idolatry to admit them Thus still under disguise and of a third Person they are those late English Writers who call themselves Vnitarians who seem desirous to wash their hand of Socinianism so 't is only seemingly and in appearance for else what could make them tooth and nail concern themselves so much for Socinians let it be taken notice of how these pretended Members of the Church confess that they disputed some of the Articles of it and these are none of the less fundamental which they suspected as leading into Idolatry and therefore they would not admit them See what Members of the Church these are who publickly and in Print own that some of the Articles of the Church do tend to Idolatry doth not this very thing deserve Punishment according to Law and to justifie their disputing of some of the Articles they would infinuate as if the Church or some part of it had owned they were in the right Therefore upon the prudent Explication which hath been given he doth not name by whom of some obnoxious Terms they wave the Dispute and come in as Brethren This is as good as to say that in our Articles those that are the most Fundamental are in terms justly obnoxious that is to their Cavils And to shew they had cause to take Exceptions an Interpretation hath according to their Sense been given those Articles and so upon their own Terms they are come in as Brethren if they are come in then they were out before and so no Members Thus it seems they had Correspondency in the Church with some who as they term it prudently made way for them to come in Now doth not this Confession justifie what in my Epistle I said Socinianism is gotten into the Church and consequently shew a necessity to turn it out Thus having as he thinks twisted Socinians with the Church he most judiciously draws this Inference and Ironically bids me defiance I hope Mr. Gailhard will not in anger against them impute Idolatry to our Church as by Law established Can any thing in relation to the Church be spoken more insolently in the face of the whole Nation A strange thing indeed tho' nothing may seem strange from Men whose Principles allow them to say and make themselves any thing Like the grievous Wolves which in Sheeps Clothing enter in among the Flock not to feed but to tare it to deceive the blind they come in with Esau's Hands but the Voice is Jacob's yet being known should bring a Curse upon themselves But 't will be strange indeed if such ones be once found out having under the cloak of taking Care of Souls Poisoned them be not cast out by Suspension or Deprivation according to the severity of the Penal or at least of the Ecclesiastical Laws Upon this occasion the Eyes of the whole Nation are fixed upon my Lords the Bishops The other Place which I must take into consideration is this He tells us speaking of me that to deny the Trinity and our Saviours Divinity is as much as in a Man lieth to pull our Religion up by the very roots and quite to overthrow it which saith he that the Socinians do he takes it for granted That they deny the Trinity and Christ's Deity 't is done in the face of the Sun and that these Points are the Foundation of Christian Religion no true Christian will deny and my Inference is good that pulling down the Foundation the Building doth necessarily fall Yet according to the usual way he would mince the matter thus Yet those who are injuriously called Socinians declare that they only dispute some unscriptural Terms with us but are well satisfied with the Sense put upon those Terms and Explications which a considerable majority seem to be agreed in They cannot leave off the ridiculous juggling in their change of Persons for they are those called Socinians who dispute with us that is with themselves so they act both parts put the Question and answer it be the Socinian and Church-men too but the worst is they want Sincerity that whilst they indeed are the Socinian yet would pass for the Church-men Besides they would have the Dispute to be only about Words and so of no Importance thus whether there be Three Persons in the most adorable Trinity and whether the Lord Jesus and the Holy Ghost be truly God they make it to be a Dispute only about a Word and a Trifle What a Confidence is it for such Men so publickly to vent their Impieties Thereupon they declare to be satisfied upon this ground that a considerable Majority of the Church seem to be agreed with them in their Sense so according to this a considerable Majority of the Church is become Socinian Let him that can believe this for my own part I am not so Credulous however I humbly desire of the Church especially of that lesser part which this Man owneth not to be Socinian to mind what he saith so openly and to take it into their serious Consideration I bring it to their Door and there leave it They are highly concerned to take in hand their own Cause as 't is now become I have done
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