Theolog. Philosophica quod aeterna impiorum supplicia non arguant Dei justitiam sed injustitiam He died 1612. Valentinus Smaltzius by Birth a Saxon of the Province of Thuring Rector of the School of Smigla afterwards of Lublin and at last Minister of the Congregation of Racow born A. D. 1572. He was most famous for his two pieces the one de Divinitate Jesus Christi in which he took away our Lords true Divinity and gave him a Metaphorical one such as the old Divi were supposed to have after their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other the Racovin Catechism in which he had the chiefest hand though assisted somewhat by Moscorovius and by the Catechism put out before by Sacinus and Statorius This was wrote first in Polish and Printed at Racow 1605. which afterwards Moscorovius translated into Latin and had the confidence to Dedicate it to King James I. An. 1612. His chiefest Adversaries were Smiglecius and Frantzius and Schopperus He died Crellius says 4 Decem. 1622. Johannes Crellius born at Helmetzhelm in ...... 1590. He was first Rector of the School at Racow and afterwards Minister of the Congregation His Life may be seen as it is wrote by Joachimus Pastorius and bound up among the Fratres Poloni He is most famous besides for his Comments on Scripture for his Book de uno Deo Patre answered by Bisterfield His Book of Satisfaction in answer to Grotius which was since admirably answered by the Bishop of Worcester He died 1633. Samuel Przipcovicius a Polish Knight born about the year 1590. and died 1670. He wrote several pieces which were never published vid Sand. Biblioth but the most famous piece is the Life of Faustus Socinus There is attributed to him a celebrated Piece Printed at Eleutheropolis 1630. Anonymi dissertatio de pace Ecclesiae thought at that time to be wrote by Simon Episcopius Professor of the Remonstrants in Holland Jonas Slichtingius a Bukowiec a Polish Knight was the next Socinian of note his most famous Pieces are his Confession of Faith and his Book of the Trinity and the Sacraments against Meisnerus besides his Comments in the Fratres Poloni He died at Zelichow in the Dutchy of Brandenburg 1661. Johannes Lodovicus Wolzogenius was another late famous Socinian he was a Nobleman in Austria but turning Protestant he left his Country and setled in Poland where after a time he embraced the Doctrines of Socinus His Works are many the most considerable of which are bound up with the Fratres Poloni He died 1658. Florianus Crusius a Physician Petrus Morscovius and Andreas Wissowatius were famous Socinians likewise at the same time The Socinian Doctrines had hitherto contained themselves within Poland and Transylvania and there was only some little Colony of them lurking among the Remonstrants in Holland but other parts of the World were generally free from this infection especially our Nation till in the time of the late Rebellion and Usurpation it became the sink of all Heresies And then John Bidel Master of Arts of the University of Oxford brought in this Heresy here and held a Congregation of Socinians in London He wrote two Socinian Catechisms a large one and a shorter for the use of the more ignorant which were translated into Latin by a young Scholar of his one Nathaniel Stuckey the Son of one Mr. Stuckey a Cloathworker in London He wrote likewise a Treatise against the Diety of the Holy Ghost wherein he does not follow Socinus in making him only an Attribute but a Person and one of the higher rank of Angels There were several Books of the Socinian stamp published about that time by some of the other Sectaries as one against the Eternity of Torments entituled The twelve Pillars of Hell Torments shaken c. and some other Papers of the same nature sent abroad which occasioned Dr. Hammond to write his Excellent Treatise of Hell Torments Soon after this in the year 1658. came out the Edict of John Casimire King of Poland against the Socinians wherein he Ordered the Statute of his Predecessour Vdislaus to be revived and put in 〈◊〉 force against the Vnitarians that no one under pain of Death should teach of profess that Religion but if any one would continue in that Communion they must within three years leave 〈…〉 which time should be allowed to dispose of their Effects 〈◊〉 Possessions But for some considerations or other this time was shortened and in the year 1660. they who would not renounce their Heresy were forced to leave Poland and Lithuania which accordingly many did and setled some in Prussia some in Silesia others in the Marquisate of Brandenburg and some in Holland Since which time Christoph Sandius has been the only Vnitarian of note famed most for his Nucleus Hist Ecclesiasticae his Tractatus de origine Animae and his Problema Paradoxum de spiritus Sancto Though in most points he was a Socinian yet as to the matter of our Saviour's Person he was a violent Arian He was the Son of Christopherus Sandius a Prussian and Vnitarian who was Counsellour and Secretary to the Elector of Brandenburgh but discovering his Perswasion was deprived of his Offices 1668. He was born at Koningsberg in Prussia 1644. and died at Amsterdam 1680. In England we have since that time been free from this infection till Mr. F n's Papers of late came out and the Book called the Naked Gospel but God be thanked the strength of these pieces is not so great as to fear from them any mighty Contagion For though they have all the Malice and Heresy they have little enough of the Wit and Reason of the former Socinians ERRATA PAg. 51. lin antepenult pro almost leg most Pag. 68. dele Q. of the. Pag. 78. Not. †leg Bas Hom de Poen Pag. 79. leg stantes ardent FINIS * S r Ralph Winwood's Remonstrance and Protestation to the States against Vorstius's Election in Wilson's Life of K. James * Debuissent ergo dicere quòd habebat uxorem quandam spiritualem vel quòd solus ipse Masculo-soemineus aut Hermaphroditus c. Serv. de Err. Trin. Lib. 1. †Alch. cap. 15. * Sand. Nucl Eccl. ad annum †Where they were Condemned by the first Council of Toledo An. 587. * Alch. Cap. 20. †A little before this time according to Bede A. D. 1612. the Supremacy and Title of Oecumenical Bishop was granted to Boniface the Third by the wicked Parricide Phocas who murdered his Master and Predecessour in the Empire Mauritius * Joh. de Oppido Vincentius Alch. Cap. 52. †And Miracles pretended to be done by them Niceph. Hist Lib. 18. cap. 41 42. * Zonaras Tom. 3. Paul Diac. Lib 18. Vincent lib. 23. †Vid. Stegmanni Photinianismum Disp 1. Q. 4. * Socinus in Matt. 5. ejusd Respons ad Jac. Palaeol cap. 4. Crell in Matt. 5. Ludo. Walsengenii Compend Christ Relig. p. 2. in edit
each other not by any particular modality but by a true and real subsistence But when the Doctor makes the Son to be only Reason he can only make him an accident or at best but a Modality of the Father For if he only be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or what answers to it the internal Conception of the Father's Mind he would be only an Accident or Attribute or Mode or what else you 'll please to call it but would be far enough from that which the Church has all along called a Person And therefore the learned Fathers in the Church have been always careful to distinguish between this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between the prolative or enunciative word and the essential and substantial one For the Son is not therefore called the word because he is the Reason of the Divine Mind or the Father but because he is generated of the Father without Passion For they explained this Generation by the production of a thought or word which was not produced by division or separation of parts which implies Passion but in a certain manner incommunicable to all Corporeal Beings So when the Doctor makes the Holy Ghost to be only the Power or Energy or Action of God what is this more than what the Socinians contend for and the Samosetanians and Followers of Simon Magus were Condemned for Nazianzen says that the Simonians thought the Holy Spirit was only an Energy and Leontius tells us that Paulus Samosetanus held the like Besides if the Holy Ghost be only an action with what propriety of speech can he be said to act or do With what tolerable sense can an action be said to speak and the Spirit said unto Peter Act. 10. 20. The Holy Ghost said uno them at Antioch Act. 13. How can an action or energy be said to search all things to make intercession for us to divide to every man severally as he will to reprove the World to guide us into all truth 'T is the nature of an Action to be acted but it can in no propriety be said it self to act But the Doctor says this Doctrine is stated by the Fathers as he has done it I hope by his Fathers he does not mean such as the Ministers of Alba Julia call so the famous Fathers Berillus Samosetanus Photinus c. and indeed some of these we have shewn to have explained the Trinity something at this rate but none of the Orthodox ones that I know of say any thing like it But he says St. Austin the Oracle of the Schoolmen states it thus whom Dr. Sherlock follows in his Book of the Trinity I know St. Austin in his Books de Trinitate if he means those has a great many strange Platonick Notions which I confess I do not understand and which perhaps St. Austin himself had no clear conceptions of when he wrote them but however there is enough in those Books to shew that St. Austin never designed such a nominal distinction in the Trinity as this Authour does What Dr. Sherlock says on this matter I have not time now to consult though when I read his Book I don't remember he gave any Countenance to this Opinion nay on the contrary some have been displeased with that Learned Doctor for making too great a distinction between the Persons of the Trinity not for making them three Names or Modus's as our Doctor does but for making them three distinct Minds or Spirits which are one by mutual Consciousness But what though these great Men should speak more nicely than ordinary of these Mysteries though they should wade deeper into them than other men The great Genius's of these admirable Persons and the strength of their natural reason will help to bear them out but I would advise our Authour to a little more cautiousness he poor Gentleman may be out of his depth before he is aware and therefore I am sure 't is his best way to keep within the ordinary Compass FINIS A Short HISTORY OF SOCINIANISM THE Heretical Persuasion of our Blessed Saviour's being only mere Man and the consequent Doctrines which ensue thereupon have of late Years been called Socinianism from the two Socinus's the most famous Inventors and Propagators of this Doctrine in the last Age for though the Heresie it self as to some parts of it was much older yet it had been altogether unknown for many Ages till by the Books of Servet the Socinus's and some other Hereticks in the last Age it was revived The first that set up this damnable Doctrine was the Heretick Cerinthus who lived in the Apostlick times and was Contemporary with St. John the Evangelist He asserted That Jesus was mere Man as others were and that he did not excell the rest in Justice or Wisdom or Prudence The Confutation of this Heresie was a special motive to St. John to write his Gospel or at least to be more express than the rest of the Evangelists in asserting our Lord's Divinity Ebion the Scholar of Cerinthus followed after his Master in this Heresie and propagated his Doctrines in Asia Cyprus Rome and elsewhere he asserted That Christ was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only common and mere Man This Heresie in the Second Age was propagated by one Theodotus Scytes or the Currier who taught likewise That Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mere Man and was excommunicated by Victor Bishop of Rome for this Blasphemy Artemon followed Theodotus who said That Christ was mere Man only more excellent in Vertue or Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than the Prophets Against this Artemon there was a famous Book wrote which Eusebius mentions in which it was proved That the Ancient Christians did not believe his Doctrine as he pretended and in which the Authorities of Justin Martyr Miltiades Tatian Clemens are brought to confute him Sixty years after his Death in the Third Age about the Year 270 Paulus Samosetanus disseminated this Doctrine and asserted That Christ had only the common Nature of Man He was condemned in the Council at Antioch 272. Much about this time or somewhat before Sabellius broached his Heresie not much unlike the rest of these he held That there was but One Person in the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under Three Names which does in effect as St. Basil says upon this account deny Christ's Divinity Arius who followed after and made such a noise in the World with his Heresie whatever his thoughts might be yet he did not expressly assert Christ to be mere Man but only to be a Creature produced in time yet one that had a Being long before his conception in the Womb of the Virgin and therefore he cannot so properly come into the List of these Hereticks But soon after the Nicene Determinations against Arius Photinus one of the
commonly been attributed to Castellio though 't is apparent it is not Castellio's by the Reflection that is made upon his Translation of the Scripture He wrote likewise a Treatise of the Sacraments and a Book de Resurrectione Corporum published by Crucellaeus Whatever other Designs he had projected and whatever Books he wrote fell into his Nephew Faustus's hands who made all the possible haste he could to Zurick to secure his Books and Papers fearing least it should fare with Laelius as it had done before with David George Faustus Socinus the Nephew of Laelius was the Son of Alexander Socinus and of Agnes the Daughter of Burgesius Petruccius Prince of Siena by which he was related to Three Popes Pius II. and III. and Paul V. He was born December 5. 1539. at Siena being but Fourteen Years younger than his Uncle and he being now dead and Faustus having gotten his Books and Papers into his hands he returns into Italy being now at the Age of Twenty Three Years and spends Twelve Years in the Court of the Duke of Florence And now whilst Faustus kept close in Italy the Vnitarian Cause was carried on by others and not a little by Castellio by publishing to the World Ochinus's Dialogues of which Faustus Socinus says His sense of our Saviour Christ was plainly expressed and inculcated though Castellio in his defence said he only published them as a Translator being wont to get his Livelihood by translating Books Neither were the Vnitarians themselves wanting to carry on their design for in the Year 1566 there was a Book printed at Alba Julia with this Title Demonstratio falsitatis Docrina Pauli Melii reliquorum Sophistarum per Antitheses unà cum refutatione Veri Turcici Christi And afterwards another entitled De falsâ verâ unius Dei Pat. Fil. Sp. Sanct. Cognitione supposed to be wrote by Laelius Socinus though Sandius denies it from the difference of the style c. And about the same time Jacobus Acontius published his Book call'd Satane Stratagemata which did considerable Service to the Vnitarians In the Year 1568 there came out a Book set out by the Ministers and Seniors of the consenting Churches in Transylvania De Mediatoris Jesus Christi hominis divinitate aequalitatéque in which speaking of the Trinity they say The Three-One God of Antichrist is buried and say It was wickedly done of the Roman Church to condemn those famous Fathers Berillus Samosetanus Arius Donatus Helvidius Artemon c. And in the Year 1569 They publish another of the Kingdom of Christ and Anti-christ with a Treatise of Paedo Baptism and Circumcision the Conclusion of which Book is this Whosoever does truly believe that the Pope is Anti-christ does truly believe that the Trinity and Infant Baptism and the other Sacraments of the Papists are the Doctrines of Devils The next Year being the Year 1570 Faustus Socinus published his first Book of the Authority of the holy Scripture in Italian afterwards turned by himself into Latin and set out under the Name of Dominicus Lopez at Sevil 1588. and again set out by Vorstius at Steinfort 1611. in which Book says a Learned Man instead of making good the Scripture's Authority against Atheists he weakens it among Christians In the Year 1574 he leave the Duke's Court and comes to live at Basil where he spends three Years in furbishing up that Model of Divinity which was left him by his Uncle Laelius for he himself by his own Confession was able then to add but little to them For in his Answer to the defence of Puccius he says he understood not much of Greek and but little or nothing of Hebrew And indeed Forterus's Lexicon was his whole Treasure of Hebrew Knowledge which he was forced to recur to upon all Occasions His Knowledge in Logick was but small at best and he had wrote several of his Books before he had any Knowledge at all of it In the Year 1577. He published his Disputation de Jesu Christo Servatore which he had with Jacocâ—bus Covetus Pastor of the French Church at Basil And in the Year 1578. he published another Disputation of the state of the First Man before the Fall against Francisus Puccius In his Book de Christo Servatore he revived first of the modern Vnitarians Abelardus's Heresie of the Redemption and Satisfaction of Christ making the Merits of Christ to be purely exemplary In the Year 1578. he sets out Castellio's Dialogues of Predestination Election Free-will and Faith and writes a Preface to them under the feigned name of Faelix Turpio Vrbevetanus His Explication of the first of St. John was wrote about the Year 1562. as he himself says though not published till afterwards In the Year 158â— he sets out his Synopsis of Justification from which the Remonstrants since have borrowed so much But in this Year there happened the great Schism among the Vnitarians concerning the Adoration of Christ especially between Blandrata and Franciscus Davidis the Ministers of Alba Julia siding with the one and those of Claudiopolis or Clausburg with the other Upon this Blandrata invites Socinus into Poland to be Moderator in this difference and gets Socinus to lodge in the same house with Fr. Davidis Blandrat during his stay bearing all his Expences So that within a few Months afterwards followed that famous Conference held at Clausburgh concerning the Invocation of Christ which was afterwards Printed in the Year 1594. After the end of which Conference Franciscus Davidis being very stiff in his Opinion and his Antagonists exaggerating the Wickedness of it he was forthwith imprisoned by Order of the Prince of Transylvania and afterwards in a few Months was either made away there or died From hence was raised a great Clamour by the Anti-Adoration Party against Socinus and Blandrata that they had been the Authours of this Persecution which was so much credited that they lost their Esteem with many This forced Socinus to write an Apology to the Transylvanians the Followers of Franciscus Davidis to shew that Franciscus drew this Calamity upon himself That contrary to his Promise given to him and Blandrat he had procured several things in the Synod of Thord to be decreed against the Invocation of Christ and once when he preached in the great Church he expresly asserted That it was the same thing to pray to Christ as to pray to the Virgin Mary or any other of the dead Saints After the Death of Franciscus Davidis the Anti-Invocation Party in Transylvania were not quiet but did resolutely maintain That as Christ by Nature was not God so without Idolatry he could not be worshipped and for this side of the Controversie there appeared strenuously Franciscus Davidis's Son Palaeologus Glirius Sommerus and others who in their Books and Discourses did grievously accuse Socinus and Blandrata Socinus not being easie under all these Contradictions and Accusations forthwith leaves Transylvania and being now 40
that inclined his Eternal Wisdom to command them It no ways follows that he is a humoursome or capricious Being because we do not understand the Reason of his Commands because he may have reasons that lie far beyond the fathom of our finite understandings A wise Statesman or a Mathematician is not therefore capricious and humoursome because he does several things which the ignorant Spectator can give no account of And certainly God may have commanded us several things for our belief which we cannot imagine how they should any ways conduce to our good and happiness ye he himself may know it as his Providence does several things for our benefit by means to us seemingly contrary But besides we have proved that the Doctrine of our Saviour's Divinity is an admirable motive to our Piety and it were as easy to do the same if it were not too long here as to the Divinity of the holy Spirit So that it is so far from Capriciousness that it shews the inexpressible Wisdom of the Deity that every person of the Blessed Trinity should be particularly concerned in the Salvation of Mens Souls in our Creation Redemption and Sanctification and each of them should lay the strictest obligation upon us to Piety 2. Neither does the Doctrine of the Trinity hinder the progress of the Gospel though the Romish Doctrines may The Idolatry of that Church is an Eternal Bar to Jews and Mahometans but the Doctrine of the Trinity is not such We worship one God as well as they and acknowledge only in that unity of essence a Trinity of Persons which was a truth the Ancient Jews had something of a notion of in their Doctrine of the Logos or Word as appears from their Rabbins and other Writers nor can we suppose that the Mahometans should so stand out against this Truth unless they had been prejudiced against it by their false Prophet whose Interest it was to have it denied But when ever it shall please God to call home the Jews and to bring in the fullness of the Gentiles this Truth will be no obstacle to it this Divine Mystery shall be believed in and adored when all the Romish Hay and Stubble shall be burnt up 2. He makes the Damages which have proceeded from Innovations pernicious to private Christians First By hindring Godliness Secondly Inward Joy and Tranquillity of Mind Now we have proved often enough that the Orthodox Doctrine is so far from hindering Piety that it does extraordinarily improve it If there happen what the Authour mentions too much eager disputing about it then the fault is not in the Doctrine but in the undue managing of it if Men have taken more care to contend for the Faith than against their Lusts and endeavoured more to confound Hereticks than to obey God's Commands they are to answer for that themselves but their faults are not to be charged upon this Doctrine So secondly If the Joy and Tranquillity of the Church has been disturbed by the defending of this Doctrine that is a thing purely accidental to it it does not make it less true because it has cost the Orthodox so much pains to vindicate its Truth against the Fraud and Violence of so many Hereticks Whatever damages good Men have suffered in this Controversy that is to be charged upon those wicked Hereticks that have denied this Doctrine and not upon the Doctrine it self or the Defenders of it Thirdly He makes these Innovations prejudicial to the Church of Christ in its general Capacity But in the proof of this he only tells us some stories of the Slaughter of the Albigenses and Waldenses and the Cruelty of the Duke D' Alva c. which have no relation at all to the Doctrine of the Trinity He cannot say that the Orthodox in the Primitive Times butchered the Hereticks as the Papists have done the Protestants and therefore the Orthodox Doctrine has nothing to answer for upon this Account II. He then proceeds to shew the Advantages which have accrued by the Changes which latter Ages have made in the Gospel But here is nothing offered as to the Doctrine of the Trinity nor which can any ways conclude against this and therefore I shall spare my self and my Reader the trouble of saying much to this Paragraph He tells us here a great deal of the Pope's Merchandise and by the honour and power which he has got by pretending to be Christ's Vicar and brings some sayings from the Papists that the Pope is as much better than the Emperour as the Sun than the Moon that a Priest is as much better than a King as a Man than a Beast that Catholick Kings are Asses with Bells c. with some other proofs of the Roman Clergies aggrandizing themselves by their Doctrines which would have done well enough in a Controversy in the late Reign but are something impertinent in a Book designed against the Trinity But what though the Popish Doctrines of Pardons and Indulgences Merits c. have for so many years kept up the Apostolick Chamber though the Doctrine of Purgatory has gained them so many stately Monasteries tho' the pretended Supremacy and Infallibility of the Pope has raised his Authority so high though Transubstantiation and the being able as they sometimes blasphemously call it to make a God has raised the esteem of their Priests among the People yet the Doctrine of the ever Blessed Trinity never brought any advantage to the Clergy and therefore this can never be justly censured upon this Account as a humane Invention and the product of Priestcraft as those others justly are The Conclusion AND here the Authours says the end of all what he has been saying I suppose he means is to determine between Faith and Love to give unto Faith the things that are Faiths and unto Love the things that are Loves But I wish he had made his words good throughout his Book for that had saved me all this trouble and the World all the mischief that his Book has done As to Love he has not said much to that but as for Faith he has given so little to that that granting his Principles it would be hard to find such a Christian Vertue in the World For all that belongs to Faith he has given to Reason and what would not go down with his Reason he is resolved shall neither belong to Faith nor Reason but shall pass for downright contradiction But now at last for a parting blow to shew how little Faith is to be esteemed especially in respect of Love he brings the Opinion of our own Church that in her Offices of Baptism and Visitation of the sick declareth that our Faith is not to extend beyond the simplest of the Creeds and therefore if she says any thing elsewhere that seems to contradict this it is her Charity in becoming a Papist to the Papist that by all means she might gain some of the Papists Of the admirable Charity of our Church I am
old Cerinthian Race starts up who was Bishop of Sirmium and asserts again That Christ was mere man and had no Being before the Ages and That he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had his sole Beginning from the time he was conceived in the Virgin 's Womb. These were the chief Propugners of this Heresie in the Primitive times there being none of any considerable note after these for then almost all the Heresies ran into Arianism Nestorianism Eutychianism c. the prevailing Heresies of the succeeding Ages And indeed this Heresie seemed to be quite lost till Petrus Abelardus in the Twelfth Century did revive it He about the Year 1140 was a famous Philosopher and Divine and Professor at Paris he asserted That he could comprehend the Godhead with humane Reason totum id quod Deus est humanà ratione comprehendere and wrote such things of the Trinity of the Generation of the Son and the Procession of the Holy Ghost and innumerable things of the like nature as were unheard of by Catholick Ears he affirmed The Holy-Ghost not to be of the Essence of the Father and denied Original Sin and the Satisfaction of Christ Which are all the true Characteristicks of the Socinian Heresie These were the most remarkable of this sort of Vnitarian Hereticks till the time of the Reformation and the first then that stood up for this Heterodoxy was Michael Servetus a Spaniard by Profession a Physician who having travelled into Africa and being instructed in the Principles of Mahometanism set up for the Vnitarian Doctrine in Europe He in the year 1531 published his Book Entituled Lib. 7. de Error Trinitatis which was printed at Basil This Book was filled with innumerable Blasphemies and impious Mockeries upon the Holy Trinity upon which account most of the Copies of it were soon after publickly burnt at Frankford But notwithstanding this they were privately handed about so that many that were inclinable to a separation from the Romish Errours were poysoned by this Book into worse And therefore Philip Melanchton writes a Letter from Lipsick 1539. to have the Senate of Venice put in mind of suppressing his Heresy But Servet in the mean time uses all imaginable diligence to disseminate his Doctrines and to this end goes from place to place practising Physick under the feigned name of Michael Villonovanus when he wrote a Book of Syrops and as Munster says a Comment on Ptolemies Geography He afterwards wrote some other Heretical Pieces alike blasphemous with the other as one Entituled A Dialogue de Restitutione Christianismi quoted by Bullinger an Apology to Melanchton and the Ministers of Geneva Calvin c. in which Books Calvin in his Confutation says plus centum c. he more than a hundred times over calls the Holy Trinity the three headed Cerberus a Diabolical Phantasm the Monster Gerion the illusion of Satan c. His Book of the Restitution of Christianity which was a large Volume he published at Vienna Allobrogum where for the same he was cast into Prison but he escaped from thence to Geneva where he was discovered and afterwards condemned and burned in the year 1568. by the desire of the Evangelick Cantons The next follower of Servetus and the fore-runner of Socinus was Valentinus Gentilis born at Consenza in Italy who agreed with Servetus in his Doctrine that the Father was the only Divine Essence but asserted that the Son was essentiated by him and made another God as likewise the Holy Ghost So that there were not three Persons in one Essence but three distinct Essences in the God-head or rather one Primary God and two Secundary or Deisied Ones These Blasphemies he having for some time vented in the World particularly at Geneva he was by the Magistrates of that City thrown into Prison where not having staid long he of his own accord promises amendment recants his Errors and desires to be freed But the Magistrates resolved not to free him unless he will undergo the Pennance they prescribe him which accordingly he did to be stripped to his Shirt and barefooted and bareheaded to kneel down and beg pardon for his Crimes and with his own hands to throw his Heretical Writings into the Fire to be prepared for that purpose and in this Habit to be led through all the Streets of the City declaring his Repentance before all the People This having performed he petitions again for his enlargement which would not ye be granted unless he would swear not only to forbear the spreading of his Heresy but that he would never go out of the City without leave from the Senate And this too he readily did But no sooner was he freed but he little valuing his Oath flies from Geneva to his Friend Gribaldus living at a place called Farges in the Canton of Bern where he had conference with Alciat a famous Vnitarian in order to the spreading their Heresy From thence he went to Lyons to diffuse his Doctrine there from thence to Grenoble from thence to Cambray and so to Farges again where the Governour of Gaia to whose Jurisdiction Farges does belong imprisons him again but upon promise of living quietly releases him From thence he goes again to Lyons and was there imprisoned a third time by the Governour of that City but he perswading the Papists there that his Controversy was only against Calvin they thinking thereby to do Calvin a spight forthwith release him Afterwards he having spread his Poyson in France and Italy flies to Poland where he joyns with Blandrata and Alciat to infect the Polish Church Here not having staid more than two years these Heresiarcks fall out among themselves Blandrata turning down-right Arian and Alciat Mahometan so Gentilis passes to Moravia and strikes in for some time with the Anabaptists there from thence he goes for Austria and afterwards for Savoy and so roving from place to place and disseminating his Blasphemies he came at last again into the Province of Bern where being discovered he was tried for several blasphemous Positions there and being convicted was executed persisting in his Heresy to the very last blasphemare simul vivere desiit Georgius Blandrata who was another Zealous Vnitarian about this time was a Physician by Profession and propagated his Doctrines at Geneva where he had several Disputes with Calvin in whose Work is extant Responsum ad Quaestiones Blandratae but he flew from thence presently after Gentilis did suspecting that the Magistrates had a design against him too From thence he went and practised Physick in Poland and Transylvania thereby to have the better covert for his Heresy and the more easily to instill it into Persons of the highest Quality He wrote a Book in Answer to Georgius Major against the Trinity full of blasphemous Expressions such as Symbolorum de Patre Filio figmenta Deum confusum tripersonatum ex tribus Personis compositum and calls
the Orthodox Tritheites and Athanasius Tritheitarum Antesignanum He got a great sum of Money by his Practice in the Polish Court but was at last as a signal Example of God's Vengeance murdered in his Bed by his Nephew whom he designed to make his Heir Paulus Alicatus who was the intimate Friend of Blandrata and a busy Vnitarian of this time was born at Millain a Souldier by Profession a Man of fiery Zeal for his Opinions as appears by those blasphemous Expressions he used against the Trinity For Calvin relates that he was wont to say That we worshipped in our Trinity three Devils worse than all the Idols of the Papists So that the Divine Judgment was very Remarkable in suffering him to fall away into the Mahometan Infidelity after so great Impiety Franciscus Stancarus a Mantuan was now likewise a violent asserter of the same kind of Heresy who tho' he began his Heterodoxy at first by denying only Christ's Mediatorship as to his Divine Nature yet he proceeded at last to deny the Persons of the Trinity and with Sabellius to make God only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Person under three Names He was as Zanchius says a Learned Man but only unquiet and proud and too curious which lead him into these Errors Franciscus Lismaninus was another Heretick of this time of the same stamp he was Doctor of Divinity and formerly a Franciscan Monk who after a pertinacious spreading of his Opinions died mad Bernardus Ochinus was another promoter of the Anti-trinitarian Doctrine who as Beza says of him was something cunninger than the rest of the Vnitarians and like the Academicks would seem rather to doubt of than to define any thing For in his Dialogues against the Trinity he makes his other Collocutor to oppose the Trinity and himself to defend it tho' by such mean Arguments as always gave away the Victory to his Antagonist He was a favourer of Polygamy too as appears by his 21 Dialogue which has this Title thus made up of mirth and prophaneness To all Husbands that complain of their Wives and all Wives that complain of their Husbands Bernardus Ochinus wishes patience in Christ Jesus In which Dialogue he lets his Antagonist Telipolygamus strenuously make good his point against himself Franciscus Davidis was another very Famous one of these Hereticks who assisted Blandrata in his Book against Major he was Superintendent or Bishop as Sandius says of the Vnitarians in Transylvania but tho' he agreed with the rest of the Vnitarians in denying the Divinity of our Saviour yet he dissented from most of them about the Invocation of him and did to his Death maintain that as he was not God so he was not to be worshipped There were besides these several others that were fore-runners to Socinus or else contemporaries with him who did not agree to all the System of his Heresy which now the Vnitarians do generally maintain Such as were Nicolaus Parula an Italian a great Friend of Laelius Socinus Andreas Tricicius Modrevius a Polish Knight Adam Pastor who had several Disputes with the Anabaptists Gregorius Paulus who was first a Tritheite and afterwards an Vnitarian Petrus Statorius formerly Beza's Scholar Paulus Latomirskius and Simon Budnaeus a violent man afterwards in the anti-adoration Faction with several others But however these at best were but Labourers or Coadjutors in the building up the Socinian Heresy but the two great Master-builders were Laelius and Faustus Socinus of whom now we come to speak Laelius Socinus was born A. D. 1525. at Siena in Tuscany of a Noble Family his Fathers Names was Marianus Junior a famous Lawyer in Italy at that time his Mothers Name was Camilla the Daughter of Paulus Salvettus He was an Auditor of Servetus when he was in Italy and before he was of Age he began to model a New System of Divinity upon the Vnitarian Principles He as the Author of the Life says reading the Scriptures chiefly to further him in the Study of the Laws and relying only upon his own Judgment finds many of the Doctrines of the Church contrary to the Divine Testimony as he thought and therefore explains them without farther search according to his own Judgment He having thus for a considerable time been laying the Grounds of his Heresie travelling into England France Holland Germany he fixed his seat at last at Zurick in Helvetia yet not so but that after this he goes twice into Poland A. D. 1551 and again 1557 where he infected many of the Polish Nobility He infected also his own Brothers Celsus Cornelius and Camillus and Faustus his Brother Alexander's Son And Zanchius in his Preface to his Book de Tribus Elohim further says He for many Years pursued the Samosetanian Heresie and drew as many as he could into the same Errour and those were not a few He endeavoured likewise by many Temptations to pervert me into the same Errour and to involve me in the same eternal Destruction with himself Whilst he lived at Zurick or in his Travels he contracted some Familiarity with Melancton Brentius Musculus Bullinger and Calvin and therefore Calvin when he heard of his audacious Curiosity in Divinity wrote to him to dissuade him from it Si tibi per aëreas illas Speculationes volitare libet sine me quaeso humilem Christi discipulum ea meditari quae ad fidei meae aedificationem faciunt You may if you please fly through these aereal Speculations but suffer me an humble Disciple of Christ to meditate upon those things which serve to the Edification of my Faith And now so many of the Family of the Socinus's being perverted by Laelius the whole Family began to be suspected for Heresie which brought a storm upon all the House so that as the Authour of the Life says the Harvest was spoil'd in the springing Blade Cornelius being imprisoned and the rest being either forced to fly or afraid to profess their Opinion This Fear drove young Faustus being now but Twenty Years old not only from his place of abode but from Italy who went to live for some time at Lyons in France in the same Year in which the Magistrates of Basil digged up the Body of David George after he had been dead Three Years and burned it Laelius continued still to study at Zurick till he died which was in the Year 1562. on the 16th of May. He was the first that brought to light that notion of the Person of Christ and his Sufferings c. which the Socinians do since maintain and was forming some great Designs for the furthering his Heresie but did not live to perfect them The only Books that he published were the Dialogue between Calvin and Vaticanus against the persecution of Hereticks upon the occasion of Servet's execution in which he makes Calvin a great Instrument which Book was reprinted in Holland by some of the Remonstrant Party 1612. and has
Years old goes for Poland and there joyns himself to the Congregation of them that following Servet do pray to Christ as the Son of the Eternal God but not the Eternal Son Who as Socinus says in Poland and in the great Dukedom of Lithuania are called Arians and Ebionites And here he formed the remaining part of his Heresie which differs so much from that of the other Vnitarians before Socinus For whereas Servetus and his Followers were content only to destroy the Doctrine of the Trinity and to retain the other Points of Religion he was for innovating in all and in a strict sence for teaching another Gospel Thus he taught that the Principle and Foundation of Faith was in a Man of himself Soc. Tract de just That justified Persons are in a State of unsinning Perfection Syn. 2. de just Dial. de just p. 14. That Mortality was necessary to Man if he had not sinned Part. 3. de Serv. Chris c. viij That Adam had not the Promise of Eternal Life nor could he avoid his Fall Resp ad def Pucc de prim Hom. stat Lib. Suas quod regn Pol. c. p. 56. That Christ was a new Legislatour and gave Moral Laws which were not so before de Offic. Chr. p. 4. de Conv. Diff. V. N. Test p. 33. That Christ abrogated all the Judicial Precepts of the Law as well as the Ceremonial de Off Chr. p. 5. that notorious Offenders are not to be punished with Death ibid. That the Lord's Supper is not a Conveyance of Grace but only an Act of Commemoration Tract de Coen Dom. That Baptism is not necessary for Christians that it was a Rite only of John and not of Christ de Bapt. Aq. c. xvi That it is a thing indifferent whether Children be baptized or no or any other that it is not a sin if they be but it ought not to be enjoined ibid. cap. 17. That the Messias was not promised to all the Jews Frag. de justif jux fin nor were they at all obliged to believe that the Messias should come ibid. That Christ did not suffer and die for us to rescue us from Punishment but only to shew us an Example how we ought to suffer for Righteousness sake Rel. Chr. brev Inst p. 87 88. brev Disc de rat Sal. p. 15. That Christ was called our Saviour because he manifested the Terms of Salvation to us de Chr. Serv. c. 1 5. That he is called a Mediatour not because he reconciles God and us but because he was Embassadour from God to us to reveal his Will Rel. Chr. Inst p. 85. That Christ ascended up into Heaven before he entered upon his Prophetick Office to be informed of God's Will and therefore in Scripture when 't is said Christ came down from Heaven 't is to be meant of his Descent after this Ascension Rel. Chr. Inst p. 127. in Disp cum Erasm Joh. Christ was not God before his Glorification which was after the Ascension and then he was so only by Office and Immortality Anti-Wiek cap. 6. Rel. Christ Inst p. 25. That Christ was mere Man and the Holy Ghost only an Attribute Ibid. These and many more are the Heterodoxes of his Books which the Socinians do at this day maintain and others there are which are more covertly delivered in Socinus's Books though more expresly asserted by his Followers such as the denying an Eternity of Torments and the rising again with the same Bodies the Hints of which also they took from Socinus so that in him was in a manner wholly perfected the Heresie which does still go under his Name 'T is true the Anti-Adoration Faction who were the Followers of Franciscus Davidis and Symon Budnaeus did a long time stifly oppose him but in the Synod of Brest in the Confines of Transylvania he so cunningly managed the Matter that though he chiefly pretended a Dispute for the Adoration he brought the adverse Party to receive his Notions of the Death and Sacrifice of Christ of Justification and of the Corruption of Mens Nature which they had lately condemned Afterwards he drew over to his Opinion the famous Vnitarian Petrus Statorius a Man of a great Popular Eloquence who made Socinus's Doctrines go down more easily with the People by his Pulpit Harangues He himself too by a strange artifice brought over to his Heresy every day many of the better quality several the Courtiers and Nobility that happened to abide at Lubernick and several of the younger Clergy that were not well grounded in their Religion And none of the Vnitarians after a while objected against this new mode of Socinus but only Nemojevicius and Czechovicius who resisted him strenuously for a time and Nemojevicius after a while too assented to him and Czechovicius though he held out to the last seeing no body to abett him was forced to be still So that within four years time all the whole Church of the Vnitarians did subscribe to the Doctrines of Socinus which they had so lately almost universally Condemned Thus was this Heresy perfected after so many struglings among the Vnitarians themselves which is swallowed down so crudely and without consideration by many in our Ages that make pretence to the greatest Reason and Cautiousness Socinus lived several years after the general Reception of his Doctrines and died in the year 1604. The other Vnitarians that have been famous since Faustus Socinus have been but as the Schoolmen to Lumbard have commented only upon his Text and only more audaciously sometimes explained his notions The first Vnitarian of note after Socinus had formed his Heresy was Georgius Enjedinus an Hungarian Superintendant of the Socinian Churches in Transylvania and Moderator of the Gymnasium at Clausburg He was a follower of Socinus in most of his Doctrines only in the matter of Invocation which Socinus endeavours to disswade him from in a long Letter to him A. D. 1596. He wrote the celebrated Socinian piece upon the Texts of the old and new Testament upon which the Trinity is grounded though the other Tracts attributed to him are doubted Ostorodus was another Disciple of Socinus he was a Saxon by Birth the Son of a Lutheran Minister he was Master of a School for some time in Pomerania but being found to be heretical in his Principles he was deprived of that and so in the year 1585. he came into Poland where he was some time Minister of the Vnitarian Church of Gâ—dan His most famous piece is his Institutions which he wrote in Dutch Next was Johannes Volkelius born in the Province of Misnia in Saxony His chiefest piece is his five Books de verâ Religione or his Institutions of Socinianism which was excellently answered by Maresius Ernestus Sonerus a Norimberg Physician Professor of natural Philosophy and Medicine at Altorf he was the Master of Crellius He wrote the famous Heretical piece against the Eternity of Hell Torments Entituled Demonstratio