as his Church and his Body then the Son is said to be subject not the Godhead of Christ but the whole Church of Christ which is the Head and Members which then make one Christ It is the Mediatorial Kingdom that shall be delivered up not his Everlasting Kingdom he shall reign in the one till he hath subdued all his Enemies but of the other there shall be no end P. 27. c. 1. The Doctor restrains his Singularity of being the only begotten Son of God to his being anointed before his coming into the World And p. 26. c. 2. he says That anointing was a Complement of the greatest Kindness and Honor that could be bestowed on a Guest and from that Office in Festivals was preferred to a Ceremony for enseating Kings Priests and Prophets and our Lord by it is character'd but indefinitely whether Prophet Priest or King or all I perswade myself that the Doctor learnt this from Crellius on Heb. 1.9 upon which he says Our Saviour received an immense measure of the Holy Ghost but not as the Scripture says without measure but some degrees more than what other Messengers of God received Chap. 7. is to shew That it is no more necessary that we should understand what the Person of Christ is than for a Traveller to understand the Features of the Sun c. Which he says concerning Constantine's calling this Enquiry a Silly Question hath been already considered to which he adds That our Saviour could not require a belief of the whole truth concerning the Dignity of his Person because the Gospel was preached to the Poor And must they says he be excluded from the means of Redemption because they are excluded from the means of understanding the Mysteries of his Incarnation Must they perish for want of such a belief as is morally impossible for them to acquire Ans But is it morally impossible to believe what the Blessed Jesus hath revealed of himself Indeed if the Traveller shut his eyes he may walk in the Dark though the Sun shine clearly on him And is the Traveller benefited only by the light of the Sun doth he owe nothing to the comfortable influence of it Or the Poor to whom the Gospel belongs are they only the Ignorant and Unbelievers Christ tells us That the poor to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs are the poor in spirit such are sensible that they are naturally blind and miserable and poor and naked not such as are rich and increased in Goods and have need of nothing as the Laodiceans Revel 4.17 This is the Doctor 's Pelagian sence which hath led him into other gross Errors The Poor in the Gospel are such as can submit their understanding to the Revelations of God and though with the Blessed Virgin they doubt a while how these things can be true yet they believe them to be true on the Revelation and this is that Humility and Lowliness for which she is commended and this is the Power of the Gospel which is mighty through God to cast down the strongholds and imaginations of every one that exalts himself against the knowledge of God and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5 6. Is it not necessary we should know him in whom we believe Then is not the knowledge of God necessary Is it not necessary to know him on the knowledge of whom our Hope and Belief of Eternal Life is founded Then it is not necessary to know whether CHRIST or Mahomet were an Impostor and if Mahomet have delivered as good Natural or Moral Precepts as our Saviour hath done we may make him the Object of our Faith and expect Eternal Life by Mahomet as well as by Christ Therefore doubtless it is necessary to believe of Christ as St. Peter and St. Thomas did That he is the Son of the living God our Lord and our God which Flesh and Blood hath not revealed to us and on which Faith Christ hath promised to build his Church They who saw his Miracles and heard his Doctrine confessed that God was with him but in the Confessions of St. Peter and St. Thomas there was something extraordinary which they believed of the Person of Christ P. 32. c. 1. Two Evangelists says the Doctor trace our Lord's Genealogy but as they derive it not from his real but supposed Father so they take two several ways not to satsfie but amuse us The design of St. Matthew was to shew that Christ descended from Abraham and David by Joseph's being of that Tribe viz. of Juda being the natural Son of Jacob to which it is objected That though Joseph more of that Tribe yet Christ could not be so by descent from Joseph who was not his natural Father and by the Virgin Mary he could not be of the seed of David she being of the Tribe of Levi and not of Juda. Vossius recites the Opinion of some Ancients who thought it was enough to entitle Mary to the Tribe of Juda because she married into that Tribe therefore he proves Mary to be of the same Tribe with Joseph because Numb 36.6 It was not lawful for a Virgin to marry out of her own Tribe Nor would Joseph being a just Man have taken one of another Tribe and this practise of marrying in the same Tribe was especially observed where the Virgin was an Heiress that the Inheritance might be kept not only in the Tribe but the Family and therefore they usually married the next of kin the Virgin therefore having no Brother was married to Joseph who was of near consanguinity with her See Vossius's Genealogy And he proves the same Descent of the Blessed Virgin from St. Luke's Genealogy viz. from David to which I refer the Reader But if it he questioned why if Joseph and Mary had been both descended from David why St. Matthew had not named Mary rather than Joseph who was only a supposed Father To this he answers 1. Because the Husband was not to be bard of his Honour 2. It was not the Custom of the Jews to derive the Genealogy from the Woman and the Kinred of Joseph and Mary being well known there was no necessity of mentioning it among the Jews which dwelt in Palestine to whom the Evangelist wrote And they were very curious in preserving their Genealogies and it would much have prejudiced St. Matthew's Gospel if undertaking to prove the Descent of Christ from David he should have failed in that chief design and in the beginning of the Book and doubtless the Jews who were living at that time when he wrote which was about forty Years after our Lord's Nativity had their Genealogy preserved and probably some of our Lord's Kinred then living and they having seen his Miracles by which they were induced to believe him to be the Son of God knew also that he descended of David according to the Flesh as the Gospel teacheth and there was no Objection made to the contrary by Jews
relapsed after Abjuration he is left in a worse condition The matter of Heresie was to be judged of by the Canonical Scripture Or 2. By what hath been determined by the four General Councils 3. By any General council according to express Scripture 4. By Parliament with Assent of the Convocation What Power your Lordship hath over the Head or Members of Exeter Colledge in case of Heresie I refer to their Statutes What Operation these Methods may effect I know not but there needs a speedy Application where the Gangreen gains so visibly and may be so mortal But why talk I thus to so great a Master in our Israel who hath a more perfect knowledge of all those things whereof I speak Your Lordship hath been a constant and eminent Assertor of the Faith established in the Church of England the Foundation whereof is that of the Ever Blessed Trinity on which all our Worship and all our Hopes are built but ungodly Men have in this too licentious Age endeavoured with all their Might and Subtilty to subvert this Foundation and that which hath caused this Address to your Lordship is a holy Indignation when I considered that there are more who appear in Print to destroy than to establish this Foundation which hath caused me though the weakest of many Thousands that my Zeal may provoke others that have more Knowledge and Abilities to solicite the Cause of the Eternal Son of God against whom that Outcry in the Gospel is revived This is the heir Come let us kill him and seize on his inheritance which they attempt to do by force of their own Merit and a Natural Righteousness making void the Righteousness which is of God by Faith in Christ who is Jehova The Lord our righteousness He that says of Faith in Christ as the eternal Son of God That it is impertinent to our Lord's design fruitless to the Contemplator's purpose and dangerous in respect of Blasphemy and because we have no sure grounds to go upon see p. 29. of the Naked Gospel in 2 Col. He that shall say that it is made the most mischievous Incendiary in the Christian World To the Reader p. 7. of the last Edition He that shall say of those who altogether deny our Saviour's Deity and dare not worship him at all That he dares not in Charity deny the name of Christians or hope of Salvation to such p. 55. of the last Edition gives great encouragement to the Infidelity of Jews and Turks and contradicts the Scripture which assures us That there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved Acts 4.12 And the pretence of enlarging Charity is too short a Cloak to cover so much Nakedness it is not Charity to spare a Barrabbus and crucifie Christ it is as much against the Law of the Land and the Constitutions of the Church as against the Law of God to cherish such Vipers The Act 1 0 Guilel Mariae made for exempting their Majesties Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certain Laws provided that such as will have benefit by that Act shall subscribe a Profession of the Christian Belief in these words I A. B. profess Faith in God the Father and in Iesus Christ his Eternal Son and in the Holy Spirit one God blessed for evermore This is the Faith which I contend for and for which I beg your Lordship's Patronage who hath already so eminently and successfully appeared in its defence against that unlimited Toleration which would have destroyed it He that is now your Client is the Eternal Son of God to whom as the Author of our Salvation we were dedicated in our Baptism and have been taught by the undoubted Oracles of God That he is our Creator by whom all things were made that are made that God that redeemed his Church with his own proper Blood neither is there Salvation in any other Name the true God and Eternal Life to whose Almighty Protection and All-sufficient Grace which are able to save to the utmost all that come to God by Him I shall daily recommend your Lordship and all your Relations and Affairs as is in Duty bound Your Lordship 's most humble and obliged Servant THO. LONG THE PREFACE MAresius in the Preface to the Second Part of his Hydra Socin takes notice of the Printing in England Anno 1654. The Socinian Catechism of John Beedle Master of Arts containing all the Impieties and Blasphemies of Socinus to which he says was added a Catalogue of Socinian Books his Twelve Reasons against the Deity of the Holy Ghost and the Life of Faustus Socinus and that Learned Man thus complains of it O the deplorable Condition of England which having driven out their King now constrains the King of Kings to be banished and seems to have no greater value for that Liberty which was purchased by Christ's Blood than to obtain a License of Hearing Writing and Believing what they please If this were a Scandal to the English Nation in those lawless Times and gave so great an offence to foreign Divines How much more will the Offence and Scandal be when the Gospel shall be sent naked abroad by the hands of a Doctor of Divinity and Rector of a Colledge and one that writes himself a True Son of the Church of England especially considering that we have now a Protestant King and Queen whom God long preserve Defenders of the Ancient Catholick Faith which hath been so long professed in the Church It is greatly to be deplored that the Racovian Catechism is so commonly sold both in Latine and English as is Crellius also and Beedle's Catechism and his Arguments against the Deity of the Holy Ghost And lately a Swarm of Pamphlets like venomous Insects in all parts of the Land of Theists Anti-Trinitarians Unitarians Arians and Socinians darkning as much as they may the Light of the Gospel and poysoning the People Grotius in his Vindication of the States of Holland professeth that he knew not one in all the Assembly of the States that was not ready to denounce an Anathema as well to the old Doctrines of Samosatenus as to the new of Socinus against the Consubstantial and unconfused and undivided Trinity yet at that time the Heresie of Servetus had taken root and spread itself secretly among very many so that he himself to avoid suspicion of being a Patron to them thought fit to write his Book of the Satisfaction of Christ and we have this Expression in his Book De Pietate Ordinum Holland Seeing that Heresie is the Poyson of the Church and is quick in its Operation and there are certain Degrees of Heresie one being more hurtful than another there cannot be found any that is worse than the Heresie of Socinus at the mentioning whereof all good men do tremble We have reason to bless God that in such lioentious Times as we have seen in the former Age when a General Toleration was
Darts thrown at him by an Angle which put him into a great Agony whereof he died miserably Greg. Nazianzen reports the same of Julian the Apostate who in his War against the Persians felt a Dart thrown at him by an unknown Hand which he pluckt out and cast it into the Air with a Vicisti Galilaei Thou hast overcome me O Galilean Of which that Father Orat. 3. says of such as still opposed the Deity of our Saviour Audite Angeli quorum Operâ Julianus extinctus est Hear the Angels by whose Assistance Julian was slain Platina in the Life of Anastasius the Second Nestorius who as Prateilus says affirmed That Christ was Dei ferus not Deus and fancied two Natures in Christ by the Council of Ephesus Cyril of Alexandria being President and the Emperor banished him in which Banishment his Tongue rotted out of his Mouth being eaten with Worms and the Church passed this Sentence on him That he went from temporal Miseries to eternal Torments Socrates l. 7. c. 33. Evagrius l. 1. c. 7. You have heard of the ignominious Death of Arius already against whom Bishop Alexander prayed Si Arius cras in Synagoga introducetur nunc dimittas seruum tuum sin Ecclesiae parias tolle Arium See Athanasius Epist ad Serapion l. 7. c. 19. Paulus Orosius speaking of the Goths and Vandals who petitioned an Arian Emperor to send them some Christian Preachers he sent them such as were infected with Arianism and shortly after they made War against him and slew him Under the Persecution of Dioclesian the Hereticks that denied our Saviour's Deity as the Sabellians and Samosatenians with others had done who were the Fathers of Arius his Heresie raised another Persecution against the Orthodox as cruel as that of the most cruel Persecutor for Donatus having begun his Schism which disturbed all Africa where also the Arian Heresie prevailed got many of that Opinion to joyn with him Optatus Milevitanus speaking of those times Hist Collationis Carthag says Credo nostros in refutandis Arianis totos fuisse p. 606. That the Orthodox were wholly imployed in defending themselves against the Arians We are assured by good History that Donatus himself wrote a Book de Spiritu Sancto agreeable to the Doctrine of Arius as Optatus and St. Heirom and St. August ad Quod vult Deum do relate They altered the Doxology and made it run thus Glory be to the Father in the Son and by the Holy Ghost and taught that the Son was less than the Father and the Holy Ghost less than the Son So that by the prevalence of the Donatists who favoured all Sects and Heresies to strengthen themselves against the Catholicks great Cruelties were practised against them many banished some cruelly tortured and murthered the Jews Arians Macedonians Sabellians c. all uniting under the Donatists Both the Holy Sacraments grew into contempt as they are now where the Socinians prevail some were so prophane as to cast the consecrated Bread to their Dogs which after they had eaten grew mad and sell upon their Masters Theodoret tells us how they scoft at the consecrated Vessels or rather at the Son of God Ecce quibus vasis sacrificatur Mariae filio l. 3. c. 12. They were so numerous that they despised all the Emperor's Edicts that were published against them and affronted his Officers But God punished them by their own inventions giving them to a kind of Madness which if ever appeared in the Circumcellians that in their rage slew whomever they met without distinction not sparing each other and frequently destroyed themselves no wonder therefore that they were cruel to others being unmerciful to their own Souls Paulus Samosatenus was banisht by Aurelian for the disturbance made in his Dominions at the Request of the Council that condemned him The Arians displaced Maximus Bishop of Neopolis for not complying with their Doctrine and placed one Sozomus in his Bishoprick Maximus keeps to his Office until they cast him out by force and then he denounced an Anathama against the Intruder Sozomus enters into his Office and being to speak to the People his Tongue failed him and grew too big for his Mouth so that he left the Church and People for that time and being recovered he assayed a second and so a third time but still found the same Judgment attended him so that he was forced to forsake his usurped Dignity The famous St. George whom the late Author of the Acts of the Great Athanasius p. 8. so highly commends as that he makes him the most skilful of all Mortals in those Questions who was he thinks that Legendary Saint that slew the Dragon and delivered a Virgin the Moral whereof he says was That Athanasius was the Dragon and the Church of Alexandria the Virgin which by his Learning and Piety he defended from the venomous breath of Athanasius But this was the Man that had been a Souldier and in his latter days turn'd Arian and when none else could be found to enter on the Bishoprick of Athanasius St. George having favour of the Arian Party presumed to Sequester him but to the great dislike of the People who after a short time fell on him dragged him through the Streets of Alexandria and slew him yet the Arians accounted him for a Martyr see Epiphanius Heres 76. Sandius gives a large account of this George and says That the Turks accounted him a Prophet and call him Gerges Sandius p. 246. says He was slain by a party of the Athanasians But the Ancient Historians say it was done by the barbarous Greeks whose Temples he had destroyed That infamous Ecebolius who so often changed his outward Profession lived and died an Arian Sand. Append. p. 32. Lelius Socinus Uncle to Faustus was the first that revived the Heresie against the Blessed Trinity a person of good Learning and of a good Family as Andreas Dudithius relates he concealed his Opinions only he was wont to insinuate them by way of Discourse as if he did it for his own Information but it was rather to seduce others as Dudithius says he attempted him But Socinus his Nephew observes That having collected his Papers and made them ready to be published he was praematura morte extinctus viz. in the thirty seventh Year of his Life Sandius p. 230. says That Leo the first Bishop of Rome in the days of St. Hilary was an Arian opposing the Doctrine of the Trinity for which Hilary l. 1. ad Constantium reflects on him in these words Leo saeviens circumit He came to a like end as Arius did voiding his Entrails by a violent Dysentery and miserably expired the like he says of Anastasius another Bishop of Rome p. 310. The same Author p. 428. tells us of one Gregorius Pauli an Arian who preaching at Cracovia against the Doctrine of the Trinity the Church of St. Mary wherein he preached was smote with Lightning This Paul saith he wrote a Book De Antichristi Deo
to Charity we have one Lord one Faith one Baptism but such as the Author is the Socinians deny the Lord that bought them destroy the Foundation of Faith in the Godhead and satisfaction of Christ and wholly disannul Baptism and so cut asunder this triple Cord that obligeth Christians to Charity and indeed as they acknowledge not the one Lord so they nullify the one Faith in him and make the one Baptism of no effect and therefore have utterly destroyed Charity The next charge of exposing the Divinity of Christ he says p. 5. hath no other evidence but this That he is sometimes stiled a crucified Vagabond and this he says is but once viz. in the Introduction But was it not said with as little modesty p. 21. c. 2. That he was a Vagabond Galilean which expressions by the Rule of Fortiter calumniare aliquod adherebit will not excuse him by saying he personated an Infidel such playing with Holy Things is much worse than his play at push Pin. P. 6. he protesteth That in his whole life he never spent so much time in reading Socinian Books as put altogether would amount to one whole day By spending so much time I suppose he means he did not lose or mispend it but it was well bestowed or perhaps he made the Arrian Controversy his chief Study which is as contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England as the Socinian So Socinus protested he never read Arrius Credat Judaeus I would here remind the Doctor of the excellent Advice of the incomparable King Charles the First mentioned by himself in his Preface I would have you as I hope you are already well grounded and setled in your Religion the best Profession whereof I have ever esteemed that of the Church of England in which you have been Educated c. It is well known that the Doctor was not only educated in the Church of England but to that very time when he wrote his Naked Gospel that is till he was sixty five Years old as he computes his Age he hath lived in the Communion of that Church we may therefore marvel how he was so soon removed from him that called him to the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel as St. Paul expresseth it Gal. 1.6 which would pervert the Gospel of Christ Did he not judiciously make the Doctrine of the Church of England his own as that Blessed King advised Did he not by his own judgment and reason but by his hand only seal to the Bond which Education had written or take it up only on Mens Customs or Traditions as that good King speaks if so he was guilty of great Oscitancy in the matter of Religion on which Salvation depends or if after so long Profession of the Doctrine of the Church he began to entertain some doubts of the truth of it he was guilty of great Levity in so weighty a Matter not to bestow many Years in the Examination of the Errors of that Doctrine which he forsook and imbracing another vastly and dangerously differing from it without bestowing so much as one Day 's reading the Grounds and Reasons of it On supposition therefore that the Doctor hath embraced either the Arrian or Socinian Doctrines he was unaccountably rash there being so many Books written by learned Men of both Parties to leave a Religion which he had so long profest and had time to enquire into and without more than one Days study in a Case of such consequence to fall off to a contrary Opinion This may tempt Men to think it was done in a Pet some may think because he was not removed to a higher Station as he intimates somewhere the Archbishop promised he should in some short time but being not done he thought to remind him of his Promise by Dedicating that Book of a Constant Communicant to his Grace yet after all he was left in that Place where he spent three Pence of his own to every Penny of his Preferment For my part I have a better opinion of the Doctor and that he had long studied and often discoursed with learned Men concerning the Socinian Controversy and that the Naked Gospel was the product of many Years spent in Reading Conference and Meditation on those Points before he came to a Resolution For I have heard of a Doctor of his Age who often discoursed with his Father a Reverend Divine concerning some Arminian Pelagian and Socinian Points and in heat of disputation did tell his Father That it would not be well till we came up to the Socinian Doctrine this was many years since And what means his sitting down when the Athanasian Creed was said but his contempt of it The next Charge is That the Godhead of our Saviour is declared to be an impertinent and dangerous Speculation This he thinks is discharged by the former distinction of the manner of the Generation c. and adds That those Fathers who were the most earnest Assertors of the Doctrine of Christ's Divinity he doth not say of his Eternal Deity were also the most severe Censurers of Curiosity concerning the manner of his Generation And our Author is a Son of those Fathers who granted a Created Deity to our Saviour and most severely censured those that held his Eternal Generation as being guilty of Polytheism which is often intimated by him This is the sum of the Author's Defence I would willingly know of what sort of Divinity it is that he ascribes to our Saviour because I find that the Arrians acknowledge that he is a Created God and the Socinians grant a Divinity but not so much as a Created Deity I see no more granted him as to his Person by the Socinians than by the Turks which acknowledge he was a Divine Man and a true Prophet or Messenger of God This Divinity he learnt of Smalcius as I shall shew hereafter or of Crellius as is already shewn whose words as well as sence he so often repeats as will give great cause to the Reader to conclude that he spent more than one whole Day in reading the Socinian Controversies The general Remarks which I shall make on the Naked Gospel are as follow 1. That whereas the Author pretends the special Design of it is to enlarge Charity yet that Charity is only designed for a Toleration of the Arrian and Socinian Doctrines and he sharply reflects on all such as he perceived to be averse from such his enlarged Charity p. 39. Col. 1. If Bishop Alexander the first Author of the Nicety thought fit to tolerate the Arrians we can ill prentend to Charity if we allow them no title to God's Pardon or his Church's Communion P. 57. of his interpolated Edition he pleads That nothing can be more odious than to persecute as Hereticks and Malefactors all such as should refuse to be imposed on viz. by the Bishops that asserted the Trinity P. 11. of his Vindication he recommends the charitable Heresie of the Latitudinarians under
which term he may comprehend all sort of Heresies an universal Toleration without any reserve which hath been pleaded for in former times 2. That through the whole Book it is not so much the manner of the Generation that is insisted on but the Eternity of it is denied and to this end the Arguments of the Arrians are applauded and the Reasons and Scriptures that affirm it are either suppressed or ridicul'd To begin with the Propositions referred to in the Decree he tells us That Mahomet did profess all the Articles of the Christian Faith but Mahomet did not profess the Eternal Generation of the Son of God therefore this is no Article of the Christian Faith in the Doctor 's Opinion What the Charity of the Socinians is toward such as hold the Doctrine of the Church of England we may learn from Smalcius at the end of his Book concerning the Divinity of Christ We doubt not to affirm boldly that not one of all those who believe Jesus Christ of himself God can ever by any means have certain hope of Eternal Life by vertue of his Opinion concerning Christ Hence they call us Polytheists Antichristians and say we are not worthy of the Name of Christians This is Charity enlarged In the same Paragraph he says When by nice and hot Disputes concerning especially the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity the Minds of the People had been long confounded so that to vulgar understandings the Doctrine of the Trinity appeared no less guilty of Polytheism than that of Image-worship did of Idolatry then was there a tempting opportunity offered to the Impostor and he laid hold on it to set up himself for a reformer of such corruptions as were both too gross to be justified and too visible to be denied Now what did this Impostor reform but the Doctrine of the Trinity denying the Godhead of the Son and Holy Ghost as such corruptions which were too gross to be justified and too visible to be denied It is a credible History of those Times which I have related that one Sergius a Monk and some other Apostate Christians join'd with Mahomet in compiling the Alchoran these retained so much veneration for our Saviour as to grant him what the Socinians do a kind of Divinity for they acknowledge him to be a true Prophet and so he may be called Divine as we call St. John by way of Eminency The Divine and so our Socinian Reformers agree with the Mahometan some say the Doctrine of the Trinity was laid aside to make way for the Turks to become Christians but we find a contrary effect that many Christians turn Turks I hope the Reader is satisfied by what I collected out of the Alchoran that Mahomet and his Arian Genius purposely designed to overthrow the Doctrine of the Trinity and to represent our Saviour as a meer Man though as a Messenger of God And what less is implied in these words of the Doctor 's That to vulgar understandings the Doctrine of the Trinity appeared no less guilty of Polytheism than that of Image-worship did of Idolatry The next Proposition is This When the great Question concerning the eternity of his i. e. Christ's Godhead first embroiled the World Constantine condemned it as a silly Question fitter for Fools and Children than for Priests or wise Men. Note here The Question was not concerning the Manner of the Generation of our Saviour but the Eternity of his Godhead and how justly this Censure of Constantine's was past on that Question this Author says we may discover in three particulars 1. It was impertinent to our Lord's Design 2. Fruitless to the Contemplator's own purpose 3. It is dangerous This is Socinianism in grain Now because the Author would excuse himself from this Charge by pleading that he only relates the Opinion of Constantine the consideration of that good Emperor's management and determination of this great Question is more strictly and fully to be weighed This Author tells us p. 31. Col. 2. Such was the judgment of the great Constantine when the Game was first set on foot How it was then by the Arian party represented to him is not evident they dealt subtily but after that he had called the Nicene Council and was fully informed of the state of the Question he was so far from thinking it silly and vain that he wrote Letters to several Churches to inform them that after mature consideration the Opinion of Arius was condemned branded the Arians with the Name of Porphyrians caused their Books to be burnt and threatned death to any that should conceal them and hearing of the miserable end of that wretched man as it is described by Socrates he made it his business to extirpate it No doubt the Doctor knew these passages related of Constantine as well as those which he mentions calling it a Silly Question and fitter for Boys than for Priests what can he plead then for proclaiming the one and wholly suppressing the other which were Constantine's second and best Thoughts and his setled Judgment after mature deliberation Yet our Author still ridicules the Athanasian Doctrine as a Pushpin Controversie and says that Leonas reprimanded that party with Go and play the Fools at home Leonas was an Arian sent by Constantius the Arian Emperour to awe the Council nor did he bid them go and play the Fools at home I find no such thing in the place quoted by the Doctor viz. Socrates l. 2. c. 23. But there is a full Character of this Leonas in Soz. l. 4. c. 22. how that Acacius an Arian Bishop held private Conference with him and consulted for that Interest but could not prevail insomuch that when both Parties were met in his Lodgings and he found the Arian Party like to be baffled he bid them in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I think no good Man would translate Go and play the Fools at home Socrates l. 2. c. 40. which signifies only Go and talk it out in the Church Leonas supposing they would be more modest and reverent in that Holy Place than in his House But of this the Historian observes in the next chap. 42 That Acacius and Eudoxius made great advantage For says he they perceiving the Indignation of the Emperour against Macedonius and other Hereticks deposed many of them and advanced Eudoxius to the Bishoprick of Constantinople for the contention was not so much for Religion as for Preferment the contending Parties having deposed each other and Acacius and Eudoxius with their Party did especially endeavour to depose the adverse Party and coined their New Creeds to that end being so confident of the Emperour's Favour and hence grew those various Confessions of some Councils under Constantius whereof p. 34. c. 4. the Doctor says That Socrates reckoned no less than Nine not Nine Councils but Confessions of which the Historian gives this particular Account calling them a Labyrinth of Expositions two of which were