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A49137 Two discourses concerning the divinity of Our Saviour whereunto are added some articles subscribed by all the French divines in or about London, in opposition to the Socinians / translated out of French. La Mothe, Claude Grostête, sieur de, 1647-1713. 1693 (1693) Wing L299; ESTC R14659 61,471 74

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a time when the Church was yet in an Age of Innocence or to make use of an Expression of one of the Ancients When she was yet a Virgin in a time when the Saints confirmed their Preaching by Miracles in a time when Truth was ratified by the Seal of Martyrdom in a time when the Voice of the Apostles had but newly ceased from sounding in the Ears of the Members of it What therefore we take from a time so happily circumstanced must needs be of good alloy And may my Soul say I be with those Saints and those Martyrs who taught what they had but newly received from the Mouths of the Apostles themselves Is it possible that a sincere Christian heart should find any relish in the opposite Error which hath the concurring Testimony of the First Centuries against it and which never got into any Credit till after the Primitive Zeal being grown cold and Miracles ceased men began to be left to themselves I confess I have but an ill Opinion of a Doctrine which is supported by no other Foundation There we may find glittering Notions and ingenious Explications of the Scripture which may be apt to take with Minds that affect Novelties But when we consider that the Christian Religion is a Revelation transmitted by the Ministry of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we shall make no Difficulty to take their sense from an Age that we cannot suspect and we shall have very mean thoughts of those Innovators that have confidence enough to say as one of them doth The First Chapter of the Gospel of St. John was never well explain'd till I undertook it My last Reflection is concerning the small concern these Innovators have for the Peace of the Church They would fain have us believe them to be the Disciples of Charity and to hear them talk it should seem that this Virtue is no where to be found but amongst them I will not now enter into an enquiry whether under this plausible appearance they do not design more surely to introduce their Errors and whether after having made them ride Triumphant in the world they would not become instead of the innocent Lambs they seem now to be the most furious Persecutors of the Church To know what Judgment we ought to pass in this case we need only to call to mind the Cruelty of Arius his disciples But l' stop short here and am willing to believe that our Innovators that talk so much of Charity and Concord cherish nothing of this Spirit of Persecution However they must confess that they are none of the best practisers of Charity they know very well that they cannot endeavour the Propagation of their Opinions without troubling the Peace of mens Consciences and without setting Christians together by the Ears There is no need of any deeep consideration to perswade our selves that these are the natural consequences of the endeavours that would be employed to deprive the Christians of a Doctrine they have been possessed of above these Sixteen Centuries Why therefore should the Enemies of this Doctrine set themselves to be the cause of so much disorder There is but one only thing that could Authorise this their pretended Charity viz. If the Doctrine which we Teach and Believe were inconsistent with Salvation I must own that when we see a great multitude of Christians in danger of incurring Damnation we have good reason to say That it is much better to expose them to Temporal Dangers by propounding the Truth to them than to suffer so many Souls to perish by a Criminal Silence What them is it this consideration that animates and pusheth on our Innovators Not in the least they dare not say they are in fear for our Salvation whilst at the same time they set Heaven Gates wide open to all sorts of Hereticks to Mahometans and Heathens They I say who hide themselves in the Society of other Christians and desire nothing so earnestly as to be admitted to their Communion They own us to be in a state of Salvation and declare that we have retained all the Fundamental and Saving Points of Christianity Where is therefore the Charity of these rash Persons in undertaking to shake a Doctrine which cannot be attack'd with any success without filling the Consciences of men with Trouble and without shedding whole torrents of Christian Blood such a design as this cannot be the effect of any thing but Pride In a word Men have a mind to distinguish themselves by the novelty of their Opinions and to raise their own Glory by abasing that of Jesus Christ These who destroy the Temple of God God will destroy I tell you that more than the Temple is here Entreat we our dear Lord Jesus that it may please him to enlighten his Enemies and confirm us more and more in the belief of his Divinity To him even as to the Father and the Holy Ghost be Humour and Glory for ever Amen A Declaration of the Opinion of the French Ministers who are now Refugees in England about some Points of Religion in Opposition to the Socinians WE under written the Refugees French Ministers in England having understood by a Letter which my Lord the Bishop of London who at present is in Holland hath writ to Monsieur le Coq Counsellor in the Parliament of Paris and an Illustrious Confessor of the Truth the strange Reports that have been spread as if we were not sound in the Faith and particularly with relation to the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and Grace and the need there is to dissipate the same and being moreover perswaded that by this Explication of our Belief we shall perform a thing that will serve for the Edification and Consolation of our Brethren and will have its fruit if the Lord please especially in the Land of our Nativity after some Amicable and Brotherly Conferences we have had upon this matter in the presence of Monsieur le Coq we have all of us agreed to declare as we do in the Sincerity of our Hearts I. That we Believe the whole Scripture Divinely Inspir'd so that all Men are obliged to receive every thing therein Revealed with an entire Submission of Faith II. That we receive with Reverence and Submission whatsoever the Scripture teacheth concerning the Nature of God and his Attributes of his Spirituality Infiniteness Incomprehensibility Prescience even of Future Contingencies and of all others the said Scripture attributes to him III. That we Believe also what it delivers concerning the Trinity of Persons in one only Divine Essence and concerning the Incarnation of the Son according as the said Articles are set down in the VI. XIV and XV. of the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of France IV. That we hold also as an Article of our Faith That Jesus Christ by dying on the Cross hath not only left us an Example that we should follow his Footsteps but moreover that his Principal Design therein was