THE Epistle and Preface To the BOOK against the Blasphemous Socinian Heresie VINDICATED And the CHARGE therein against Socinianism made Good In ANSWER to TWO LETTERS By J. GAILHARD Gent. Hinc Drances Thersites inde If any teach otherwise and consent not to wholsom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness He is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmisings Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness From such withdraw thy self 1 Tim. vi 3 4 5. LONDON Printed for J. Hartley over-against Grays-Inn-Gate in Holborn 1698. AN ANSWER TO Two Letters HAving lately publish'd a Book against the present great grievance of the Nation in Matters of Religion Socinianism I mean and knowing how the Pen-men of that Party are now fallen in a course of writing from time to time against what comes out in Opposition to them I indeed looked for an Answer but thought they would have gone about to refute my Arguments as 't is the usual way of those who follow the School Rules but I therein find my self disappointed and am apt to believe that these Men do so far depend upon what their great Masters have done as to think they now may sit still under the shadow of their Works for It is plain say they that the most polite and rational Modern Sermons and other Moral Discourses are extreamly beholden to Socinus his Works Yet instead of what I expected out comes from behind the Curtain and in disguise one of those Fancies which our Ideists are so fond of under the name of An Apology for the Parliament c. and this in Two Letters by different Hands I must need fear what will become of me But Sirs it is not in you the part of generous Enemies tho' to support a weak Cause to come Two against One yet for what they have done 't is no matter for Truth and I against any two or twenty such Hands And the Truth now in question tho' they would have driven it into Corners hath gotten the upper-hand and is so strongly settled that it hath disheartened its Adversaries from making any attempt upon it and they have chosen to meddle with other things and leave that untouched This Answer no Answer this Apology or Two Letters having been sent me down into the Country I fell on perusing of them to see what they contained as to Matters in question and the Cause in hand but 't was not to be found and so I concluded it to be lost among them hardly any Steps thereof being left only instead of it I lighted upon Reflections and Invectives which that sort of Men are full of and very free to bestow against the Author of the Book they fly off from the Point and avoid coming to discuss it What Notion of theirs can this way of deciding Controversies be grounded upon No Answer in the least to any of my Arguments tho' I had given them a large Field They being a People not usually Mute may not I reasonably infer that seeing upon things in question they say nothing then they have nothing to say and so yield the Cause if not positively yet by a good Consequence thus they save me the trouble to refute any thing or to add to what I said upon the Matter tho' about it I have many more things to say The Author of the First Letter gives a convincing and short Reason why he Answers none of my Arguments I thought you an unfit Writer on behalf of the Trinity and therefore did not so much as read over your Book tho' in another place he saith I have dipp'd into it here and there and have staged it over This is magisterially enough decided but there is in such Decisions more Mercury than Salt You say I am an unfit writer upon those Matters and yet you did not so much as read over my Book this is wisely and learnedly spoken 't is an unanswerable Argument but if you had given any for me to answer I might well have desired the Reader by this Paw of yours to have judged of the Lion how great a Logician you are to draw Conclusions out of Premises But what would ye have done if there had been no Epistle nor Preface to carp at Then 't is likely you would have taken no notice of my Book or else why do ye leave the Principal for the Accessary Such a Carriage gives me cause to suspect that seeing you take no notice of it you look upon 't as a Morsel of too hard a digestion for your Stomach therefore you meddle not with it ye Answer it not but Invectives against the Author must do the work for indeed whilst in these Letters I was seeking for what I could not find I found what I was not looking for soft Words and hard Arguments from Men who would seem to have engross'd all Reason unto themselves I sought for but found very soft Arguments if any at all yet hard Words Truly Sirs to Answer in your own way I could almost say I have happen'd to tread upon a Nest of Wasps so had cause to expect some of them would come out Buzzing about my Ears that 's all the harm they can do me if they intend any thing more then I hope they lost their Point and missed their Aim I think that what I said to prove my Assertions might in some degree have been taken notice of but seeing they have no mind to meddle with nor remove the Weight there let it ly for me yet tho' as to the Matter they offer'd nothing to Answer rather than to be altogether silent we must turn to what they otherwise have started up tho' not belonging to the Subject of my Book They act like those who shot at a Man from behind a Hedge and so think they may with safety to themselves wound their Enemy who cannot well close up with them for they with being nameless and in their holes have taken sufficient care to provide against it and none can swear against them Ye are the Men However because such Men would call one dumb who should say nothing to their Imputations and Misconstructions tho' never so groundless I shall by the grace of God take notice of most things in the Letters and therein hope to clear my self of their Aspersions also to demonstrate how they are guilty of some things which they would charge me with or of the same nature and I shall examine what here and there they say about Matters in question Sometimes I shall Answer both Letters together in those things which tend to the same purpose and at other times asunder and as I shall see cause however I shall not do 't in order but here and there according as I light upon the things in the Letters which I intend to examine one after another
sense of Scripture tho' never so contrary to the intention of God's Spirit therein and as said before never so Erroneous and Heretical only because it is according to a man 's own private Opinion and deluded Imagination which is to take away the Obligation whereby Conscience and the whole Soul are bound to believe the Truth of Scripture only and not false Interpretations Besides there is in Scripture some matters of Faith which are not so obvious to the Soul and to Reason as matters of Fact are to the Eye and Ear as also there are others not to be Interpreted according to the plain and literal sense as they seem to be Out of the number and variety of such afforded in the Word I shall bring only two Instances Can they think that this Consequence by our Saviour God is the God of the living and not of the dead therefore there shall be a resurrection of the dead is plain and obvious to any man or that this is true Paul is a robber of Churches because he said I robbed other Churches Hence appeareth the danger and inconvenience of allowing of such a particular free liberty of Interpreting Scripture seeing it can be and is so much abused We are taught in the word that we have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God and which the Holy Ghost teacheth if human Reason were a sufficient Light for a Man to enable him to interpret Scriptures then Paul's Prayer that God would give the Ephesians the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of their understanding being enlightned c. The like for the Colossians were in vain for 't is frivolous to ask what one hath already and wants not at all this Liberty which they allow themselves every day to search and find out new Interpretations whereby the Minds of Men are tossed and never to be setled cannot consist with the true Faith revealed in the Word of God which we are commanded to be stedfast in and to be rooted and built up in Christ and stablished in the Faith and not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines Certainly that freedom of interpreting is herein forbidden and so are we forbidden to believe those false Glosses and Interpretations for saith the Apostle Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God the reason is this Because many false Prophets are gone out into the world who allow themselves a freedom of interpreting Scrpiture according to their own humour and fancy no ways allowed by the Laws of God and should not be by the Laws of Men a Curb ought to be put upon such wandering profane Thoughts at least upon the publishing of them The Adversaries who are so fond and conceited of their human Reason Learning and Wisdom might take notice how the Apostle hits them when he calls those who give false interpretations of and wrest Scriptures both unstable and unlearned certainly those Men are unstable who make use of a pretended Liberty ever to give Scripture new interpretations as suggested by their Reason so to day they may give one and the next another different from and contrary to it and is not this Change a Fickleness and Unstableness These unstable Men would make those different interpretations to be a part and proof of their Learning but far from that for Peter calls them unlearned whereby he gives a great blow to that Diana-Idol of theirs But as I hope hereafter by the Grace of God to have an occasion of enlarging upon this I shall for the present forbear saying any more to it What he brings in of Bonner and Latimer about the Interpretation of the Words This is my Body cannot answer his purpose that Instance indeed can shew how a Text may differently be interpreted and that one may happen wrongfully to suffer for a good Cause and how the strongest side and most supported is not always the best But this cannot prove that because one has unjustly suffered the other may not justly suffer that sort of Men who are always wholly bent to provide for their safety would infinuate how no Man should be called to account for any wresting of or putting false interpretations upon Scripture tho never so false blasphemous impious and heretical because he who doth so believeth them not to be such which is their own case it doth not follow that a Truth tho made doubtful because to day 't is supported and to morrow shall be oppressed must not be owned and a Restraint put upon those who oppose it The Merit of the Cause is impartially to be enquired into and when Truth is found out not only it must be exalted but also its contrary is to be kept under Tho Queen Mary supported a bad Cause and suppressed a good one it doth not follow but that Queen Elizabeth did well to suppress a bad Cause and support a good one Tho an innocent be brought to suffer yet the guilty must not go free for all that Because formerly innocent Blood was shed must not Justice now be executed upon Criminals 'T is not the Opinion of Men but the Truth of the Thing which makes any one guilty or innocent the Law is judge of it So in Matters of Religion 't is not the Interpretation of the Text nor the Opinion which the Interpreter hath of the Soundness of his Interpretation that makes it Orthodox and sound but the Word which explains it self for what in one place is dark is plain in some other and when some Men contrary to those Lights will set up heretical and blasphemous Opinions and therein grow obstinate only because they think to be in the right upon such account the Word of God authoriseth Men to enact such penal Laws as they shall think most conducing for the glory of God and to have them put in execution chiefly when the Parties against the known Laws of the Land do publish and in defiance of all at the Parliament Doors offer their heretical Books with words to this purpose I put a most excellent Book into your hand pray read it with attention and when you are Converted strengthen your Brethren thus profanely abusing God's most holy Word They are by no means pleased with my way of Writing but I like it the better for their disliking it They find fault first with the Matter Order and Expression secondly with my often using Scripture thirdly with my Sallying as they call it into sundry Metaphors The first of the two ironically talks of depth of Learning height of Fancy c. which is proper to Fantastical Men who would transform Fancy yea all Religion into Reason The other calls it A World of School Cant which now adays goes for deep Learning So both tho' in a different way talk of depth of Learning that People would have others like themselves to build upon
Principles the Famine in David's days of three Years Year after Year came meerly according to a general course of Nature without a particular Cause and special Providence certainly when David inquired about it the Lord assigned the particul Cause and answered It is for Saul and his bloody House because he slew the Gibeonites The Sin with the Punishment and by whom inflicted were all named and expressed yet against all Right and Reason they would not have this Case to be a special Providence for they say there is no such thing in the World But why should I bring a Candle to light the Sun and in a thing which God's Word doth so plainly and fully demonstrate how to punish National Family and Personal Sins God sends the Plague Famine the Sword venomous Beasts the Locust the Canker-Worm the Catterpillar and the Palmer-Worm which the Lord calls his great Army which I sent among you Did the Plagues of Egypt come at a venture or were they inflicted by God to punish that Nation for their Sins God threatned the Children of Israel for their Disobedience to send upon them Cursing Vexation and Rebuke the Pestilence a Consumption a Fever an Inflamation an extreme Burning the Sword Blasting Mildew the both of Egypt the Emerods with Scabs and Itch Madness Blindness Astonishment of heart c. as expressed in Deut. 28. Are not all these Judgments of God upon Men for their Sins Have I then spoken any harm that you should Cavil at what I say that to the Toleration of Blasphemy and Idolatry we may chiefly attribute the cause of the Chastisments which make the Nation uneasie through losses by Sea by Land by Fire or any other way you named or can name Blasphemy and Idolatry 't is a sad truth do abound in the Land and a flood of all Evil in Doctrine and Practise hath overflowed it and tho' it be against Gospel and Law yet no visible effectual care is taken to suppress it Can we be unconcerned when we hear God by his Prophet speaking thus Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not I be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5. 29. With such a Warrant in my hand I am neither ashamed nor afraid openly to declare that winking at Blasphemy and Idolatry we may well reckon among the chief Causes which have drawn God's Rod upon the back of the Nation and the more because the Sins which there move God to speak by his Prophet are against Men but these we now complain against are directly against God And if God be angry for their not judging for Men will he not be so if Men neglect to Judge for him Do but read the last Verse of the same Chapter where mention is made of Distempers if not exactly the same in relation to Persons yet in Nature much like ours and take notice of God's Expostulation there What will ye do in the end thereof Now the Misdemeanour they would wrongfully charge me with I may justly retort upon them With all due Respect I addressed to both Houses and humbly represented things as 't is usual in points of Grievances whereof some are of a Spiritual as others of a Temporal nature I then said and now say it again that according to Divine and Humane Laws Blasphemy should be rooted out and Blasphemers punished To ask for Justice is not to prescribe the Judges any thing what they ought to do and there is nothing like this in my whole Epistle as these words of mine which the Author of the Letter hath taken notice of do evidence Thus having laid open the Disease I leave it for your Piety and Christian Wisdom to find out and apply the true and proper Remedy We know 't is for the Supreme Judges to do Justice in what manner and degree they please no Man of sense will deny it to be in the power of and to belong to the Magistrates Office to punish Delinquents against God as well as those against Men of the first as well as of the second Table Blasphemers Idolaters Profaners of God's Holy Name as well as Murtherers Adulterers and Thieves S. Paul was no sanguinary Man yet in one place after an enumeration of several things whereof some are less grievous than Blasphemy concludeth That they which commit such things are worthy of death For my part I neither in my Epistle nor in the Preface have said or designed to say so yet if I had without being a Sanguinary Man I here have a Warrant for it But having spoken of my self I now must come to you and say Ye both have been much wanting in your due respect for that Illustrious Assembly of Parliament For one humbly to Address or Petition the Supreme Judges to redress things which are amiss is no disrespect but to pretend to be their Apologist and make use of their Name in an Ironical way as ye I may say saucily have done in the Title of your Pamphlet is certainly to want a due respect and to deserve Punishment To call a Libel against the Doctrine of the Religion by Law established by the name of An Apology for the Parliament most humbly representing c. is a great Abuse and a piece of high Impudence in you which hangs together with your whole Carriage for contrary to the known Laws of the Land and in defiance of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions you do print publish and most insolently go about to Vindicate your Heretical and Blasphemous Opinions in opposition to and the disturbance of the Church by Law established And when ye are not able to defend your bad Cause to give the thing a wrong side the Superior Power to be your drudges must by you be brought in but 't is in you a high presumption to think you can impose upon them Now for my part I must tell you that when I am engaged in any Controversie I stick to the Point beg for no Foreign help and Answer not with Injuries but with good Arguments ye do the contrary But over and above what I have said to shew how with humbly Addressing my self to the Parliament to ask Justice against you and towards preventing the growth of Socinianism I did nothing but what is according to Law I here lay down an undeniable proof of it with a Copy of the Presentment of the Grand Jury of Middlesex on the last day of the last Easter Term 1697 and this according to directions given by the Judges who must know the Law The Names of the worthy Persons that were of it do for their Piety and Zeal deserve to be recorded in Letters of Gold and 't is hoped this may be a Precedent for others to do the like in other parts of the Kingdom A Copy of the Presentment of the Grand Jury of Middlesex the last day of the Term at Westminster viz. WE the Jurors sworn to enquire on the behalf of our Sovereign Lord the King
With an idle and ridiculous Fancy of an Apology they would bring me under a necessity of making my own Fervency of Zeal for the Glory of God is the first thing and in the first Line laid to my charge but this Paul brings me off when he said It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing And that the thing in question which I appear for is Good very Good I appeal not only to Scripture but also to the Testimony of the whole Primitive Church of all Christian Protestant Churches specially of our Church in this Kingdom and if according to their Principles of a private Judge I must have it within me I want it not for in my Conscience I am so fully satisfied it is Good that thorough God's Grace strengthning me I am ready to lay down my Life and that 's for the same Cause for which my blessed Saviour laid down his and so many more after him namely that he was truly that is in a true and proper sense God's own and only begotten Son and when upon this Cause of his Men are neither cold nor hot he spueth them out of his mouth After this out comes a volley of Trash the product of an elevated Fancy and inflamed Imagination whereby things of Moment are wrested and ridiculed tho' may be the Party takes it for a great piece of Wit and whether I will or not he would make me to say that which I never so much as thought upon and because he would make of it a Stage-Play tho' very insipid and profane he brings me in as Postponing the Glory of God as he saith to Temporal Concerns how this can agree with what he said just before of my fervent Zeal for that Glory let him declare I think by means of the word Postpone I may understand something of the Writers meaning and I believe some among them could tell News how it came to pass that my Book which was intended to have been published by Candlemas Term for all the endeavours used to hasten it out came forth only the day before the Prorogation I have cause to suspect there was some tampering by a sort of Men diligent in their Concerns and of unwearied Endeavours to promote their Cause for the Children of this World are in their generation wiser than the Children of Light I doubt some of them plowed with my Heifer however let none boast before the time for thorough God's direction that which last Year was not done as indeed for that reason it could not be may happen to be done this however to God we leave the Success Yet as in my Preface I gave an account of the effectual Care which the Parliament of Scotland had taken to put a stop to your damnable Heresies in that Kingdom so now I must tell that which ye know well enough but may be every one else doth not how in Ireland about the beginning of September last the Committee for Religion having examined the Carriage of one of your Gang M. Toland who no doubt was gone over to promote the Cause and made their Report to the House immediately they passed a Vote that his Book should be burnt by the hand of the Executioner and his Person taken into Custody to be proceeded against but he finding the Place too hot for him made a shift to escape and come over or else he had been laid up but we hope here he shall either be followed by divine Mercy or meet with human Justice for we have ground to think that the Parliament of England with as much Zeal as those of Scotland and of Ireland will appear for the Cause and Honour of God and as one of the Wolves hath been unkennel'd in Ireland so that same and others shall here be so too and 't is but what all obstinate Leaders of such miserable wretches who deny the Lord that bought them do justly deserve to be branded with B that every one might know them for Blasphemers by reason of the blasphemous heretical and impious Opinions which those despisers of God with impunity whereat they grow bolder do daily publish and spread abroad and that in so bold and licentious a manner as was hardly ever allowed in any Christian State The Emperor Theodosius left a Precedent in such cases for by a Law he ordered the fifteen Volumes which impious Porphiry had written against the Christian Religion every where to be burnt and destroyed And indeed 't is but what the Anti-Christian Writings of such Miscreants as were Celsus Porphyrius Julian the Apostate and the like deserve to be their Works were levelled against the true God in the most Holy Trinity and against the Person and Divinity chiefly of our blessed Lord and Saviour and are not the Socinian Books so too The like Crime deserves the like Punishment this I speak in commendation of the Zeal and Justice of the House of Commons in Ireland Something more I must say and tho' I am sure to be disowned by Socinians and Socinianizers yet I hope not so by those who are really concern'd for the Honour of the glorious Trinity and for their Religion 't is this It were but Justice and Christian Prudence if the Pen-men of the Antitrinitarian and Antichristian Doctrines were burnt at the Fingers end to disable them from dropping their Poison upon Paper if only paring their Nails could do 't it would be well but I am of opinion that alone will not do 't nor Gospel-Arguments but the Authority of the Law must and this the Parliament of Ireland in their Wisdom have found necessary and being satisfied how things of that nature come within the compass of their Jurisdiction tho' M. Toland in his Letter to a Member of the House of Commons there pag. 32. declares he is a perfect stranger to any such Power claim'd by that Honourable Body tho' in himself he was conscious he might not say so in the Original Copy and his Apologist is of the same opinion tho' he more cunningly meddles with it and brings it in as the Judgment as he saith of several Members of the Committee pag. 23. Which are but Reflections insinuated against the Right of Parliaments in general and so reaches every Parliament wheresover But there are several Flaws in that Apology Here I meet with some Apologist whom I know well by the Stile tho' others of the kind make use of the same Ink such are in jest Apologists for Parliaments but in earnest against indeed I think that to study that common place and to erect themselves into Apologists consists with their own Interest for on their side there is more need of Apologies than of Panegyricks But I must speak of other things Both Writers come upon me with a Charge indeed I am a Sanguinary Man a Brother to Papists a Bonner a Persecutor a bloody-minded Believer and such other words to the same purpose I shall not say this is much Dust but
of Man's Wisdom or with studied affected pompous Expressions which only bad Causes stand in need of but as our Faith doth not stand in the Wisdom of men but in the Power of God so I endeavoured with good Arguments drawn out of his Word which hitherto remain unanswered to confute Heresie and Sophistry One must not so much mind Words and Stile when the Question is about Things Those Men who mind more how they say than what they say desire their own Glory more than the Good of others In a Declamation one hath more Freedom of Stile than in difficult and deep Points of Divinity Philosophy and Mathematicks certain Matters are not adapted to a lofty Stile they that are so fond of this more than of the other are like those who prefer the Shell before the Oyster or the Stone before the Kernel Now to come to that which concerns me I say it being no evil thing to promote a good Cause by all lawful means for Right and Favour to countenance it are not incompatible not to be wanting in any thing depending upon me the Parliament then sitting and I knowing how there are several honorable and worthy Members who lay to Heart the Glory of God wherein the good of the Nation doth consist with all due Respect in an Epistle Dedicatory I humbly commended and offered it to the serious Consideration of both Houses in hope that this might happen to be a means amidst their application to the great National Concerns of another nature to draw their Eyes towards this Cause thereby to bring a Blessing of God upon their Proceedings for the greater the Emergencies and Occasions are the more need of God's Favour which may be procured no better than with doing such things as are acceptable in his sight as is the care of his Honour and Service After I had done the most and in my Book about several Points proved the Falshood of Socinianism I thought I might shew the Necessity of a Remedy and endeavour to set to work as many Hands as I could and as no Man may deny it to be the Concern of a Parliament for every new one doth appoint a Committee of Religion to look into things belonging to 't always necessary but specially when the most fundamental part of the Doctrine of the Church by Law established is daily publickly and in print stricken at so I thought I might humbly address to both Houses as the undisputably competent Judge of such things wherein I think I have done nothing contrary to the Laws of God and of the Land nor to the Rules of Charity and so deserve not the hard Names nor ill Language given me by those who have no better Argument to defend a bad Cause for all their pretended good nature and to throw Dust into Peoples Eyes only to shuffle off the matters in question The truth is that Society of Men are against all manner of restraint in matters of Religion they would have every one believe and profess what seems good in his eye and so of the Church which is the House of God to make a meer Babel and Confusion without Order and Rule which Frame will at last rend in in pieces and ruin it In the Church there must be some Authority of the Rulers of it over the Members Christ hath formed and given it a Being and left Rules for the preservation and well-being thereof the Admiministration of which he hath committed to her Governours and to what purpose should those Laws be if there was no Executive Power there is an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction with a Coercive and Expulsive Power there are Pales and Walls to hinder Wild Boars and ranging Bears from coming in and Doors to turn out those who offend infect dishonour endanger and would undermine it And Convocations which I see they care not for are necessary from time to time to promote her good and to remedy or prevent Inconveniences chiefly those which relate to Doctrine and tho' we attribute an Infallibility to none of them as there is none upon Earth yet 't is their Province for their own Members to declare about Heresie Blasphemy and other things contrary to sound Doctrine and Piety To me there appears none more competent Judges in such things than those who have Christ's Commission to feed and to rule over his Flock and in the right administration of this Office the Civil Powers called the Nursing Fathers of the Church are bound to protect and assist them against the Enemies of the holy Trinity and of the Person of Jesus Christ such are Socinians Tho' according to Times and Places Men have different Notions of divine Truths yet a real divine Truth is such at all times and in all places 't is not the Opinion which Men have of it that makes it to be Truth or not Truth nor can the several contrary Interpretations change it so if the 39 Articles specially those that relate to Faith were true at first they must be so at last and no following Convocation can make them not to be what they are or to be what they are not 't is not the stamp of any human Authority that may make a divine Institution to be divine or not and tho a new Convocation should repeal what in Fundamentals a former one setled yet some reasons for it ought to be produced About doubtful things Advice may be asked as it was in the Dispute about Circumcision when Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem for Counsel about it nothing must be omitted that may lawfully contribute towards clearing of the matter but when after a serious Examination by the Rule of God's Word according to the true signification of the words in the Original the scope of the place and the Analogy of Faith Articles of Faith once are declared 't is fit to stand to them and the Church by which they are received is enabled to judg of what is or is not contrary thereunto and to keep from coming in those who would against her mind and turn out her own Members which hold Doctrines contrary to the Truth she professeth So the Church of England being satisfied that the Socinian Tenets are quite contrary to the 1st and 2d Articles of Faith she believes hath right to turn out Socinians that are within her Pales and hinder those who would come in from without And if she wants a sufficient Power she may very well sue for help from the Civil which is the legal way for Relief and when this takes an effectual Course about it 't is Wrong and Injury to the Right and Liberty of the Subject no more than 't is Injustice to hinder one Fellow-Subject from hurting another This is no Popish Principle nor contrary to those of Reformation But where a National Church is setled to allow every Man a liberty to frame unto himself what Notions he pleases of Religion then to promote vent and publish it to the Disturbance of what is
no Foundation but Humane Reason which is not allowable chiefly in things of the nature of those now in question what they call Cant is out of Scripture Writings of Antient Fathers and out of Schools which as I think are the proper Store-houses whence to draw our Materials but with them every thing is Cant which doth not suit with their Tunes those Men would have all Notions of things manner of Expression and Stile to be but one and the same but theirs to be the Original for others to go by which especially in Men who so highly pretend to Reason is as unreasonable as if one would have all features in the Face all shapes of the Body all humours and inclinations of the Soul to be alike a thing impossible For every man saith the Apostle hath his proper gift of God one after this manner another after that However these great Masters of Wit Learning and Reason find fault with the way of other Mens Writing if it be not as they would have it that they call Nonsense and what else they please for their Tongues and Pens are their own wherewith they will do what they have a mind to Their Ironical Expressions may well be retorted upon them yet they should know how Truth is better when naked and needs no painting as doth Falshood to Paint is the part of an Harlot not of a vertuous Woman I ask Is not Gold Gold still and good tho' it be not Enamel'd or otherwise curiously wrought If they have their way of Writing I have mine which they shall not put me out of but will keep to 't till I see a Law enjoining others to Conform to theirs I thank God my ways are different from and would not change them for theirs tho' they would set up for Censors and Reformers of other Mens Works but by what Patent I cannot hear nor see and if I could help it I would have nothing Common with them because their Plague is in the Head and to give them their due in what they say there is more of flashy Wit than of solid and sound Reason they prefer the Bark before the Body of the Tree and the Cloaths before the Person who wears them They dislike my Quotations or Fragments of Scripture as one of the two calls them and good reason they have for they are so many strong and destructive Batteries against them they would not see the Mouth of that Cannon which shatters their false Opinions to pieces If to Quote Scripture be a Fault they are not guilty of it they travel not much into that Country and when they do 't is with a Cup of Venom in their Hand if possible to poison the Springs Their Reason is the God-Idol for whose sake they slight Revelation but saith he those Fragments are ill applied I see you had more Curiosity than your Brother which of the two is Simeon and which Levi I cannot tell however one calls himself a Lay-man for you read the Book but what 's the reason you give not one Instance of these Fragments of Scripture being ill apply'd surely you are apt enough to take advantage if any was offered and I cannot believe you would have so much Charity as to spare me for by the sowrness and gall of bitterness which I find in the Letters I have cause to think so you cannot so soon have forgotten all those Portions of God's word ill apply'd I had been glad to have seen some named then upon a good account I could have said something to you but you give me cause to think those Misapplyings to be the Man in the Moon I mean your Humane Reason As for me about Matters in question Scripture is my Stong-hold and the Arsenal whence I draw both offensive and defensive Weapons which they would have us to throw away but they must pardon us for not complying with them they themselves cannot and will not do so for therein they would find their Condemnation We follow better Examples those of great Captains in this Warfare as Paul who in this same Cause reasoned out of the Scriptures and at another time he testified concerning Jesus Christ out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning till evening He was not weary of it neither must we be let Socinians say what they will to the contrary And tho' he was immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost yet on all occasions he appealed to the Scriptures for a confirmation of what he said Thus when he affirmed that Christ died for our Sins he immediately addeth according to Scripture and in the 11th Verse he saith that he was buried and that he rose again still according to the Scriptures His Death Burial and Resurrection three Articles of our Faith he proves by Scriptures which is a Rule laid before us to prove his Divine Nature and Attributes which we ought to follow except we think we about such things know more than the Apostle And then Apollos whose great Commendation is that he was mighty in the Scriptures and that he mightily convinced the Jews publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ So if we will convince Socinians that Christ is the true Natural Son of God we must do 't out of Scripture as out of the same Apollos did mightily convince the Jews that Jesus was Christ Besides we have the Example of a number of People I mean of Berea said to be more Noble than those of Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things preached to them were so Thus we obey our blessed Saviours Command to Search diligently the Scriptures for they bear testimony of him And accordingly when he was with his Disciples he taught them out of the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms all things written concerning him as after his Resurrection he put them in mind of it then he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures without which no knowledge of him to be had and in these Matters the Question is about him his Person Besides that 't is usual as with Paul and the other Apostles so with the Evengelists out of Texts of the Old Testament to prove what they affirmed in the New nay in the Old we sometimes find one Prophet quoting some Texts of another and upon this very account of Sanctifying the Lord of Hosts the Messiah the Prophet sends the People to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them without it their natural Reason is but Darkness I am blamed for using Sundry Metaphors called A Flourish of wild Rhetorick but if it was transplanted into their Garden it would be Natural enough there as indeed it would be in its proper center If sometimes I make use of Metaphors I wonder why they dislike it in some respect it may be called a Creature of their own for
did use the Superlative degree instead of the Positive But these are but Quibbles of your own which argues that seeing you stick at such things you have little else to say for your selves ye leave things for Words and like drowning Men lay hold upon any thing that lieth in your way to save a sinking Cause when no serious Man but would think it below himself to stay upon such things all your Observations and Inferences are an effect of a distemper'd Imagination and not of a sound Reason whereby you deserve the name of the Ridiculer ridiculed As well as you we know Essence to be one thing and Circumstance another but that were tolerable if ye did not as ye do jest with Holy things But I think to know where the Sore lieth ye do not like the words Essential nor Essence derivative nor primitive and tho' in the Schools of Divinity and Philosophy they be used yet ye dislike them because in so many Letters not to be found in Scripture but here you might see I use it not in a Religious but Civil account I own I am at a loss to find a way how to please such nice Spirits as ye are for of one side ye would not have us to use the words Essence Trinity Person because you say they are not in the word of God yet ye both find fault with me for making use of Scripture so much as I do against you in my Book So ye Gentlemen prodigies of Learning may now see which if you do not others do how ye sin against very common Rules what then will become of the four things you learned after you put your Wits to the rack to make others pass for Nonsensical Scriblers who hardly can write three words of good Sense Thus if your witty Premises do fall how can your learned Inferences stand These miserable Shifts which every solid Man would scorn to trouble his head with do tend only to shew how in you is an earnest desire but want of power to make others who differ from you to pass for Silly and Ridiculous so take to your selves what you had prepared for others But what 's all this to the Cause but a putting it off and running away from it Having shewed how when I penned my Epistle I thank God I was in my right Senses the next thing I must do is to prove my Charge against Socinianism which he calls false and disagreeing yet I make no doubt but it will stick First I call it Blasphemous and I shall prove it out of better Authority than that of the Polonian Knight or Bidle's or what the Reasons to the contrary of the Authors of both Letters can come to In order to 't I say there is a twofold Blasphemy one Positive when Men call or otherwise make God a Liar and to deny himself or the like and the other Negative when Men deny him to be Infinite Almighty or Eternal the first when God is made to be what he is not the second when he is deny'd to be what he is That Blasphemy is an abominable Injury directly against God's Nature Attributes or Works is so plainly and frequently set down in Scripture that I think unnecessary for me to prove it and if the same offence committed against God's Nature Attributes and Works be called Blasphemy and that committed against the Lord Jesus's Person be called Blasphemy it follows first that Jesus Christ is true God then secondly that whosoever denies Christ to be God in his Nature Attributes and Works he is a Blasphemer Now Socinianism denieth our Saviour Divine Nature and Essential Attributes of that Nature therefore Socinianism is a Blasphemous Opinion and Doctrine as much for denying Christ to be true God by Nature as by denying Divine Nature Almightiness and Eternity Now that the Sin called Blasphemy is sometimes committed against the Lord Jesus we learn it out of his own mouth upon the occasion of the Pharisees saying he did cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils this he called Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost the chiefest of all And when he was in the hands of the Jews the things by them done and spoken against him were by the Evangelist called Blasphemy and many other things spake they blasphemously against him Thus when the Jews spake against the things that were spoken by Paul and what were those things That Christ was the Son of God which to prove he made use of the words of Psalm 2. Thou art my Son c. in the proper Sense their speaking against this is call'd Contradicting and Blaspheming upon the same account in another place 't is said they opposed and blasphemed Thus Paul saith of himself he was before his Conversion a Blasphemer and compelled others to blaspheme that is to deny and speak ill of Christ so to say that Christ is not God of the same Nature and Power equal with the Father is as great a Blaspemy as to say he was or is a Sinner which any one that hath a religious Honour and Love for him and hopeth for Mercy at his hands when at the last day he shall appear in his Glory cannot and as much as in him lieth must not endure The next Charge against Socinianism is Atheism and Deism he doth couple them thinking to shew a Contradiction but there is none I say to worship the true God not in a true manner is Idolatry as well as to worship a false God Jeroboam for worshipping the true God in an undue manner is branded with Idolatry and provoked God as much as Ahab for worshipping Baal or a false God or else with Papists we must take away the Second Commandment In like manner I say not to know the true God in a true manner is Atheism as well as not to know him at all and the true way to know God is to know him in Christ without whom no true knowledge of God to that purpose the Apostle saith unto the Ephesians that at that time when they were without Christ they also were without God in the world That is they were Atheists and is it truly to know God in Christ only to know him there in a Creature seeing the very Heathens can tell us Praesentemque refert quae libet herba Deum and not rather as in him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily These fragments of Scripture please not Socinians for they not knowing God in Christ as his Eternal and Natural Father are thereby branded with Atheism As for Deism I take it in the Sense wherein it is taken now adays for a Deist is he who prefers Humane Reason before Faith and Revelation so you own my Charge is not a perfect Nonsense tho' in some degree you would have it still to be a Nonsense for you are pleased thus magisterially to decide Now I confess this sort of Charge is not so perfect a Nonsense as the other however I
are like soon to draw him into your Snare according as they are acted by Worldly Considerations There is but one true God and one true Principle of Religion and Piety but there are many Gods of this World give but Riches to the Covetous Honours to the Ambitious and Pleasures to the Voluptuous without God's restraining Grace they will soon be for you but you will say what 's this to us we know all that Then I come to you and say how I take you to be zealous for Socinianism as you take me to be against it and by your carriage we find to be in you a great desire to propagate it To increase the number of Proselytes you must draw them out of several Parts and ye know how in this Corrupt Age there is abroad a Spirit of Profaneness Immorality and of Sin in all kinds now for you to make Converts out of all these kinds ye would think it would tend much to the Honour of your Cause and as in the Nation there is also a sort of Witty People tho' sometimes Profane to please those too you study with fine Words smooth Language and with such plausible Reasons as you are Masters of to support it and 't is known ye are unwearied in your endeavours to promote the Interest of the Cause I see no reason to hinder me from believing but that any who will join with you in the main shall be welcome among you and this Intriguing Spirit in you makes you the more dangerous to our Religion and shews the necessity of a great care required to prevent the ill Effects of it thus ye follow the Maxims of Papists tho' in some things you would seem to be much against them for among them do but come to Mass and own the Church then do what you will and believe what you please as to your self you are a good Catholick still and the Jesuits who among them are reckoned to screw up things to the highest do say Commit what Sin ye will and under an easie Penance ye shall from us have a full Absolution all this to draw a Throng and get their Churches to be crouded so ye will do or say be but Vnitarian as to the rest give Scripture what Sense and Interpretation your Reason suggests unto you and all shall be well as to Life and Manners we shall leave you to that same only guide your own Reason They which are unsound in the true Faith without which 't is impossible to please God 't is very possible for them to be so in their Practise tho' Men teach not Atheism Profaneness and Immorality yet it being too much the Religion of the Times some may happen to practise it and to strengthen themselves will indifferently receive among them those who do So this is no new way to promote Heresie I wish it be not successful tho' you say 't is not like to be so Ye may know the true God yet not as he ought to be known in and through Christ ye know not Christ and will not own him to be such as he is true God Son of God by eternal Generation and as the Father is glorified in the Son if ye glorifie not the Son as he ought to be ye glorifie not the Father but what followeth for not glorifying God as he should be St. Paul can tell you how because men when they knew God glorified him not as God or as he ought to have been therefore he gave them over to those dreadful Judgments and abominable Courses which may be read in the place quoted in the Margin whereby ye may see Errors in Judgment followed with those in Practise Hereunto I shall add that which can serve to strengthen what I said about Atheism and 't is this Our Saviour told the Jews Ye have not known God the reason is because they had not known him To know one is to know him for what he is this Reason the Lord Jesus gave his Disciples If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and henceforth ye know him and have seen him the reason must be this because ye have known and seen me For the knowledge of the glory of God is only in the face of Jesus Christ As to the Charge of Idolatry he seems willing to save me the trouble to make it good for he saith As to what concerns Idolatry it must be confessed that Socinus ' s System of Divinity is not absolutely free from it and he gives his reason thus for he maintaineth that Divine Worship is to be given to Jesus Christ tho' he be not the true Almighty and the eternal God but only something I know not what more than a meer Man which is but what themselves make of him and no more To render the Creature a Religious Worship only due to the Creator is certainly Idolatry But saith he I question much whether we have any of these Socinians in England he is best able to tell being no doubt well acquainted with most Socinians in England He thereby declares that there is more than one kind of Socinians and what a kind of them he himself is of namely a Davidian Among the promoters of this Heresie I in my Book took notice of one Francis David who tho' in every thing else he agreed with Socinus yet herein he differed from him that he denyed any Religious Worship should be rendered unto Christ and that the Author of the Letter is of that Sect of Socinians I am confirmed in my opinion by what he said before how Socinus lies under the suspicion of having contributed to the Persecution of Francis David Here appears his Partiality for this last against the first so Socinus was a Persecutor so may Socinians be upon occasion His System was not absolutely free from Idolatry but David's was however that distinction cannot clear him for tho' according to the Socinian Hypothesis the Davidian Opinion be free from Idolatry yet according to ours 't is the worst of the two for they altogether deprive our Saviour of the Worship which the others yield him in some way in the mean time he would give us the slip thus It is not unlikely but that Socinianism may get clear of the Charge of Idolatry either by the help of her own Logick or by virtue of the Authority of the Church as if the Church was bound to defend their Errors But anon I by the Grace of God shall examine it but before we must make an end of the Charge After the Word Idolatry is in abbreviation an c. which at large he writes Et caetera upon such enumerations it is usual for brevity's sake to conclude with that Letter thereby including other things of the same or like Nature but he like a weak silly Gnat no more than I a Conjurer as in the place he saith I am not sticks at the Cobweb and would make an insipid Jest of it tho the
and said what might be expected from a Member my work being to Vindicate the Honour and Right of my most blessed Lord and Saviour as far as he will be pleased to enable me and to pull off the Vizard from these falsly pretended Members of the Church In the Pamphlet are several Trifles under the Head how wide Socinianism is spread which yet in my way I shall take a short notice of not minding what he saith of my ill-natur'd and malicious Paper for by this time he hath pretty well used me to ill Language as to an idle foolish talking and which is the worst ridiculing and profaning Holy things In several Parts of Europe where I happened to meet with the dispersed Jews I sometimes took an occasion to discourse with some of them about our blessed Saviour but in them all from the highest to the lowest I found a gall and prejudice against him and have cause to think those whom we have here in England to be acted by the same Spirit and by some words heard to drop out of Manasseh Ben Israel's Mouth when in Cromwel's time he came over I perceived that if ever they were suffered to stay here they in Matters of Religion would be as ready to do us harm as themselves good in another way and I thought that I being about naming the Enemies of Christ the Jews we have here might not be omitted and I am of opinion that in case among them there be any Man of Parts Socinians would not be backward to gather out of them what Arguments they could against the Person of our blessed Lord no not from Mahometans if any were near and able to afford them and this I said in relation to Servetus one of their Ringleaders who in his Youth being in Africa among Jews and Mahometans suck'd their Blasphemies and brought them into Europe and to shew how in relation to the Principles of Religion about our Saviour's Person 't is possible for a Socinian to become a Turk I prove it by the Example of Alciati one of their Gang and Socinus's Companion who out of Poland fled into Turkey and became Mahometan Do not think I do you any wrong when speaking of Socinianism I mention Mahometanism for tho' as well as you they deny our blessed Saviour to be God yet they own him to be a great Prophet sent by God 'T is observable how Mahomet himself in that part of his Alcoran wherein he relates that notorious Imposture of his having been carry'd up into the highest Heaven there to see great and strange Mysteries whence may be you borrowed your Dream of an imaginary Ascension of our Lord and Saviour after his Baptism before he began to Teach when at his coming to the first Heaven he met with Adam in the second Noah Abraham in the third c. he saith they all one after another commended themselves to his Prayers but when he came into the seventh where he met Jesus himself he commended to Jesus's Prayers And if ye will know how in many things about the Trinity and Christ's Divinity Socinians agree with Mahometans I refer you to Hottingerus in his Histor Orient l. 2. c. 3. Yet tho' what I speak upon the Matter be words of Truth and Soberness he has as good as call'd me Mad and fell into such a long raving Fig as I think it would require a strong dose of Hellebore to purge away the Matter which caused it and that makes him so often talk of Fire and Faggot and such other things as he brings in over head and shoulders and so looks upon me as one who would see all Socinians put to death Socinianism indeed I would gladly see rooted out but to have Men put to death is neither my inclination nor my work yet as there is a Sin of concealing what one hath seen or known so I cannot but take notice of that as in the case of a false Swearer God said thine Eye shall not pity so the Blasphemer was by his immediate command put to death He would take advantage of something I said about Arminians and upon that occasion would act the States-man's part and shew I have taken wrong measures to gain my Point and so would ironically give Counsel By what they say in several places I see they are free enough to Advise tho' undesired and unfit but they should know we are not used to take the Counsel of our Enemies Men who stand for the Truth are not byassed by Worldy Considerations and Designs tho' never so plausible and specious I thank God in Matters of Religion I have no squint Eye I am neither ashamed nor afraid openly to own a Truth if I was not satisfied it is so I would not own it but it being I will do 't by the grace of God as long as I live till I see cause to the contrary Therefore 't is but time and labour lost for such Advisers their wise Counsels let them keep for themselves for some things which they call Sense and Reason others upon better grounds call Sensual Reason And here Sirs I must tell you how you talk so much of want of Learning in others as if ye were the only great Doctors of the World if as ye say I am a Mystery to you so is your Learning a Mystery to me by your Letters I cannot find where it lies nor no Man else I think But to speak confidently to lodge all Brains in the World within your own Skull to outface Men to wrest and misrepresent what others say and to set up for Judges of all good Sense Wit and Learning that indeed ye sufficiently learned and every one may well be satisfied how great proficients ye are in that kind of Learning But to take my turn to Advise you do not always trust your own Looking-glass for it doth but flatter you and represents not after Nature ye would appear unto the World as if all Wit Parts and Learning were monopolised to your selves and all besides you lying in Blindness and Ignorance That Original Sin derived from and inherent in Socinus's Family that old Leaven in you ought to be purg'd but God knows when it will be if at all for ye look very big upon all others like the proud Pharisees This people who not knoweth the Law are Cursed but we sit in Moses his Seat Matters of Grace and Providence I believe to be of the highest Importance and such as our Salvation depends upon and in my judgment I am fully satisfied Arminians to be much in the wrong but however if a Comparison be made between the Socinian and Arminian Principles no Man that is acquainted with both can but make a difference for tho' in many things they agree yet in others of the most Essential as about the Trinity and the Person of our blessed Saviour they differ from them and therein join with us against that common Enemy Socinians lay under open Blasphemy and condemned Heresie by