Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	church_n	great_a	1,628	5	2.8346	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91322	Dissertatio de pace, &c. Or, A discourse touching the peace & concord of the Church. Wherein is elegantly and acutely argued, that not so much a bad opinion, as a bad life, excludes a Christian out of the kingdom of heaven; and that the things necessary to be known for the attainment of salvation, are very few and easie: and finally, that those, who pass amongst us under the name of hereticks, are notwithstanding to be tolerated.; Dissertatio de pace. English	Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670.; Biddle, John, 1615-1662,	1653 (1653)	Wing P4133; Thomason E1495_1; ESTC R203302	40,192	82

striketh at the foundation of our faith For to omit security and despair with which two rams it battereth the wall of our piety it wonderfully weakneth the very belief of Gods promises whilest it bringeth-in God wickedly dissembling the more is the grief CHAP. XI Reasons and Examples for tolerating Hereticks and who are true Hereticks TO what purpose speak I these things namely to shew that there is no cause why we should not think that they ought to be tolerated in the Church whose tenets either by themselves or for their absurd consequences seem scarce tolerable so that they do not wilfully ascribe some impious thing to God and testifie their love towards the Lord Jesus Christ by obeying his commandments For although both the patrons of the forecited opinions did build unprofitable yea damnable tenets as it were hay and stubble upon our foundation which is Jesus Christ yet as it hath been also shewn at the beginning the tenets which they through error have brought in shall be destroyed by fire whilest they themselves in the mean time unless some other thing hinder shall as the Apostle testifieth 1 Cor. 3. obtain pardon and salvation Neither indeed ought we to refuse or scorn their communion whom God will receive into the society of eternal happiness nor should we hate them on earth to whom eternal love in heaven is due We are unworthy to bear the title of Gods children if we disdain to be their brethren whose Father God desireth to be But if we be afraid of the contagion of such errors either in behalf of our selves or rather of the weaker ones in the first place we may not thereupon renounce brotherly love which we owe to them although they erre For we ought not to forsake a certain and clear duty lest an uncertain evil should happen nor to pursue even the most holy ends by unlawful means But secondly that fear is vain For if we have not the truth there is little danger to be feared from them much less if we have it For since they maintain their tenets with no arms nor with any force and think it not so much as lawful so to do nor set them off with any carnal allurements certainly the truth can never be by them either oppressed with force or overthrown with fraud inasmuch as the nature of truth is such that like to Eagles feathers she devoureth all other light plumage of opinions never withdrawing her self from us unless she be tyred either with our servitude or sins Which twain being not to be feared by us in a modest liberty of dissenting and study of true charity what cause is there why we should so warily sence our opinions from their tenets Let us rather be possessed with a certain hope that as earthen vessels being joyned with those of tin or silver are broken to pieces so also if God the author of peace shall bring bring back into the Church that happy tolerance all false opinions fighting hand to hand with the the true will be dashed to shivers and perish Otherwise if we so much fear that mutual patience and friendly conference we do not think well enough concerning the goodness of our cause Heretofore when the dawning of Gospel-light was returned Luther and his followers would have wished that they might be tolerated in the communion of the Roman Church But it concerned the Pope to secure his darkness from the approach of the morning Again when a dissension was risen up between the Lutherans and the Reformed who was it that refused the form of agreement that was offered but he that doubted of his cause Now also in the very reformed Church it self upon the dissention concerning Fate none are more displeased with tolerance then they that suspect the truth of their doctrine Would error were so circumspect in the cradle of its infancie as it is provident being once grown-up But it being blinde when it is born doth afterward become sharp sighted foreseeing its fate afar off and eschewing it and is never more ingenious to prolong its life then when it is pressed with the conscience of its owne weakness But you will say Shall we acknowledge a Heretick even for a brother when the Apostle Tit. 3. commandeth us to avoid him after two or three admonitions why shall we be more merciful then the Holy Spirit Let not that mercy turn to our misery when once the Lord beginneth to require at our hands the souls of so many seduced innocents Shall we not esteem him a Heretick who in so great a matter departeth from the sound doctrine of the Church do we not think our owne doctrine sound How often have they been admonished both with writings and disputations and yet nevertheless stick to their errors as to rocks I answer Let none please himself so much as to vie with the Apostolical meekness It is an incurable member that the Apostle enjoyneth to be cut off from the rest of the Churches body Howbeit there may be error in them that undertake the cure and they themselves may be overspread with much darkness For neither can the sound part be always discerned from the diseased one and the one doth oftentimes deceive us with the disguise and image of the other And though it be never so manifest what part is entangled with a true disease yet doth it sometimes remain to be scanned whether it be to be cut off or cured with mollifying remedies for those members onely ought to suffer amputation wherein the gangrene leaves no place for a milder medicine Nor is the Apostle of another minde when he commandeth many admonitions to be premised before excommunication And lest it should be doubtful whom he designed by the name of an Heretick he subjoyneth arguments thereupon which are indeed effects of the Heretick himself but unto us impulsive causes that we may avoid him For he saith that such a one is overturned and sinneth being condemned of himself And lest any one should think that these are indeed impulsive causes but not of our fact and our avoiding but onely of the Apostles injunction so that he indeed for these causes excludeth every Heretick from the communion of the Church but yet it is not necessary for us to have respect to them he premiseth the participle knowing to intimate that we also ought to know the causes why we discommon any of the citizens in that heavenly commonwealth nor hasten rashly to such Proscriptions but after we have certain knowledge of so great malice in them And truely although the Apostle had not added this yet did very charity and the analogie of our Religion dictate so much unto us For this is a great punishment nor to be inflicted but on such as sin evidently And forasmuch as in so great a matter no error can be little we ought first of all to be ascertained that the man to be condemned is worthy of so rigid a sentence namely such a one as is here painted out in

tenets which having once taken root can hardly be pulled thence in their riper age Now what cruelty is it to cast out of the bosome and lap of the Church such persons as are studious of honesty and truth yea seek an agreement onely for those errors which have been implanted in them without any fault of theirs and do not overthrow salvation But they are Hereticks and to be avoided as such who are condemned of their own conscience Yea for the fore-alleadged causes they are not condemned of their own conscience And therefore neither now to be avoided nor Hereticks Or if we take no compassion on them yet let us at least take pity on the very truth which we defend whose growth we envie first because we drive others from a neerer prying into her and next because we teach by our own example that she if charged with false suspicions of right may and ought to be excluded by other Christian Churches FINIS The Postscript to the Reader LEst the following papers Christian Reader being left empty should beguile thy sight I have thought good in this place again to bespeak thee with a word or two By this time thou hast perceived our minde and drift which both the author of this Discourse had before his eyes when he wrote it and I also when I published the same for thy behoof and benefit If thou hast but a grain of candor in thy heart and wilt pass sentence according to the prescript of Truth thou wilt judge and call this Writing not Heretical but Peaceable But you will say What peace what agreement either can or ought a Christian man to have with Hereticks Good Reader we undertake not the patronage of Hereticks But before you exclude others out of the verge of Christian Charity and throw the thunderbolt of an Anathema upon them you should well weigh and consider to whom the crime of Heresie is justly to be imputed In passing censure upon Hereticks it was not so easie a matter to mistake in that Golden age wherein the Christian Church was founded by the Apostles and governed by themselves as is in this Age of ours For though in those beginnings of the Christian Church there did divers errors yea and heresies spring up nevertheless from that confusion of dissenting opinions there were not peculiar Churches distinguished by divers forms of Confessions and Ceremonies as yet started up but there was then one onely Christian Church and she truly Apostolical and in all points of doctrine which she professed of a sound belief Wherefore to contradict this Church and her doctrine was truly blasphemous truly heretical and whomsoever either the Apostles themselves or also other Apostolical Doctors of the Primitive Church declared Hereticks they might also deservedly be accounted such by all Christians and there was no danger of error in that censure no not among the more ignorant Christians as following the judgement of the very Holy Spirit by whom those Divine Governours of the Church were guided as appeared by most evident arguments But at this day inasmuch as there are alas so many and so various Churches of Christians which of all will be so bold as to ascend with like confidence to that of the Apostles to that sacred Tribunal from which she may pronounce sentence on the rest as Heretical It is out of controversie that such an authority can agree to no more then one of them For the true Church can be but one and onely the true one is able to judge and condemn all the rest as Heretical Now forasmuch as amongst all those Churches which will at this day be called Christians I justly here except the vain arrogancie of the Roman Church none dares undoubtedly to arrogate to it self the infallible certainty of the Apostolical Truth in all the heads of her Confession it may hence clearly enough appear that the censure of Heretical Pravity doth so evidently agree to none of them that we deservedly ought also to acquiesce in her determination I am not ignorant of what the greatest part of our Divines are here wont to reply That the Primitive Apostolical Church say they is ceased we do not deny yet inasmuch as we have the doctrine of that Church consigned in the monuments of the Evangelists and the Apostles we cannot chuse but pronounce them Hereticks who contradict the doctrine there expressed I also dear Friends easily permit that in this dispute of ours the Divine Writings of the Apostles stand in this stead so that he which contradicteth them ●e no less esteemed an heretick then he that heretofore contumaciously opposed the Apostles preaching by word of mouth But even thus can we not chalenge that cens●rian r●d against Hereticks For they whom ye place in the rank of Hereticks are so far from contradicting the Holy Scripture that they wage war against you out of the same and appeal to the judgement thereof not without a certain hope of victory in the examination of their cause inasmuch as they embrace the Scripture in all things with as great veneration of minde as you do nor amongst all the Christian Churches which are at this day extant shall ye shew any one that I know of which doth not religiously and from the heart yield an undoubted assent to all those things that are proposed and taught in the Holy Scripture Wherefore there is no cause why ye should condemn any one of them for heresie since they agree with you in giving due credence to the Sacred Writ And therefore whatsoever pretence ye seek for your carnal zeal against such as you call Hereticks yet to indifferent judgements can no other ground hereof appear then their dissent from your interpretation of the Holy Scripture as to the controverted doctrines But I will here bountifully grant you that ye have in all things hit the true sense of the Scripture and defend it Nevertheless it is further requisite that ye make this plain to them whom ye brand with the crime of Heresie But what here is the stress of your Arguments Ye appeal again to the Holy Scripture and from thence condemn Hereticks But they have already stricken this weapon out of your hands shewing that the Holy Scripture maketh for y●● onely in your own sense and interpretation and that they are accordingly condemned by you not from the sacred Scripture but from your interpretation of the sacred Scripture And this is the circle of your arguing which they deservedly reject Draw-out therefore against Hereticks those truly Apostolical weapons not the T●rasonical prating of the Chayr in the Vniversity but the power of the holy Spirit wherewith the Apostles being indued could deliver Blasphemers to Satan 1 Tim. 1. 20. and slay Hypocrites with the speaking of a word Act. 5. If ye want the powerful efficacie of this Spirit acknowledge your rashness and iniquity in condemning them to whom ye are not able with evident and sufficient arguments to demonstrate your interpretation of the holy Scripture and

way that bringeth us to heaven methinks such contemplations as these are out of the road of our journey For indeed what maketh us sufficiently yea abundantly fitted for Eternal life but Faith working by Love for which onely we shall be pronounced just But if one may have this Faith although he have a wrong conceit touching the Mystery of the Holy Trinity what hinders but that he may together with this Errour be received both into Heaven and into the Church Now lest any one should be deceived in the notion of Error I do not now give so milde a name to their wickedness who whilst the Truth was yet clear and open in the Church and called into doubt by none did first spread darkness over this Article but to their failing who in our times Do fear the Greeks even when they offer Gifts that is who having been cozened with so many lyes and cheats of Antichrist dare not believe him even when he seemeth to speak Truth as shall be further made appear by the sequele of the Discourse Moreover that perfit Faith is not taken away by that error we shall easily perceive if we enquire into every part thereof Nor verily shall you finde in the whole compass of our Faith that more duties are required of believers then Assent to the Promises of Jesus Christ and Obedience to his Precepts The first of which the Apostle James chap. 2. very aptly intimateth to be the Body of Faith and the second the Soul thereof To the belief of the Promises that plain Confession is sufficient which passeth under the name of The Apostles Creed and if there be any thing else requisite I see not what can be added besides the Reverence due to the holy Scriptures to which if credence be once denyed the certainty of our Salvation is brought into danger Now whether both or one of these compleat the whole nature of that Faith which is due to the Divine Promises certainly experience it self testifieth that such as erre in the knowledge of the foresaid Mystery may excellently discharge this part of Faith For they without any exception give credence to the holy Scripture and to the Apostles Creed And therefore what is wanting to beget in them a full belief that God cannot chuse but perform his promise For that the things aforesaid are sufficient to the belief hereof is even from hence manifest God hath promised us Salvation by his Son To rely on this promise it is enough if we be perswaded that God both can and will give unto us what he hath promised For by this means all the causes of distrust being pared away there will be no ground left to doubt of so great a Promise But whilst they believe the holy Scriptures and their Abridgement the Apostles Creed they cannot in the least doubt concerning the power or will of God when notwithstanding they may mistake in the knowledge of his Essence Wherefore this first part of Faith is not taken away by that Error As for Obedience to the Precepts of Christ certainly this can much less be taken away by such mistakings For neither was it the purpose of God by giving his Commandments to exercise the sharpness of our Wit but the goodness of our Will And therefore how blinde soever our Knowledge is in abstruser things yet may our Will be conformed to the obedience of the Divine Law then which nothing is more manifest and open Nor doth the Piety of sundry erring persons here need an Advcoate in that it sufficiently pleadeth for it self and oftentimes sheweth its Faith even in silent works which very many vainly boasting of cannot finde in their life and actions Neither indeed hath any thing been enjoyned us wherein our vertue and obedience may not shew themselves For what need is there to invite us with rewards to those things which we willingly perform of our own accord But they buy Happiness at a very cheap rate who spend nothing but the labour of their Wit upon it For he that is never so wicked and careless of his Salvation may know some truth concerning God Nor can we boast of our obedience in such things unless we admit the damned Spirits to a share in our praise Besides the nature of all Precepts ought to be such as that it might evidently appear to all who are to perform them that they are prescribed But how manifest this doctrine touching the Trinity is the incredible height of the very thing it self sheweth and how manifestly it is prescribed the labours and contentions of so many Fathers and Councels heretofore testifie Yea though somthing in this point were never so much enjoyned to be known and believed yet none refuseth to believe those things that are expresly extant in the holy Scriptures nor is there any one so impious as to contradict them All the controversie is about meanings and consequences wherein an error and failing doth no more infer disobedience and consequently damnation then the simplicity of an obsequious servant who not rightly understanding the command of his Master did yet obey as far as he was able But if we may believe the Promises of Jesus Christ and obey his Precepts although we are mistaken in such a maner what shall we want to the full possession of a lively Faith Is there yet any thing in the nature of Faith uncomprehended in those two parts But there is a wonderful silence in the Sacred Oracles concerning that third part nor do I see how that Faith is not perfit which is lively or how that is not lively which consisteth in a maner of its body and soul But you will say that we are necessarily to believe many things which are neither the very Precepts nor the Promises To which I answer that they so belong to one of these that without them neither can be rightly performed of which sort is the Omnipotencie of God and the like attributes as also the Creation Providence c. which though they be neither the Precepts nor the Promises yet cannot the belief of the Promises consist without them so that an error in them is not now dangerous but altogether pestilent and pernicious But it hath been clearly proved that errors about those doctrines touching which the whole Discourse hath been set on foot subvert neither member of Faith at least in their own nature and unavoidably CHAP. III. That sincere Love towards God and Christ is sufficient to Salvation and that the same may be in such as erre LEt us adde an Appendix to this argument which may even be in stead of a new reason Who therefore dares to condemn him to the punishment of Eternal Death in whom liveth the sincere Love of his Creator and Redeemer or what more certain pledge of Eternal Happiness is there then to love God and the Lord Jesus Christ with the whole heart and with all the powers of the minde This indeed is too too manifest inasmuch as the sum of our Obedience lieth

herein which though it be not the cause of our Salvation yet is it at least the way and an evident argument and most certain signe thereof Now if it shall be made plainly to appear that they who are not able to extricate themselves out of those perplexed and craggie Questions whereof we have spoken may notwithstanding in the mean time love God and the Lord Jesus Christ with all the powers of their minde what cause will there be why we should not think that the same persons may be saved Logicians say that the next and immediate cause as they term it cannot be hindered but it will out of hand produce the effect Let us therefore in the first place consider the next cause of this Love and then we shall see whether it may be in men so erring The perfit Love of any one is bred in the minds of the lovers chiefly for three causes concurring together 1. From the firm and constant memory of such benefits as are past and from the sense of such as are present For gratitude also is a part of Love 2. From a certain hope and confidence of Supreme Happiness to be obtained from the beloved thing if you come to enjoy it For love languisheth without desire 3. And finally from a perfit apprehension as far as may be of the soverain beauty and excellencie of the object which is the true and principal cause of the Love it self Now forasmuch as neither the perfit Love of God nor the perfit perception of his Excellencie can fully happen to us in this life we mean not an absolute perfection of both but such as is the chiefest in its kinde namely as great as can exist in this state of mortality Nor do I understand what can be further required unto perfit love For who seeth not that our will can no more abstain from loving a perceived beauty then fire from burning stubble put unto it Which beauty if it be perfitly seen a perfit love also will arise but if no more then perfitly in its kinde a love also perfit it its kinde will arise Certainly if any one denyeth that soverain Love necessarily proceedeth from such a cause he subverteth the Principles of Nature which dictateth even to children that whatsoever seemeth good or beautiful will also prove very pleasing and so Love will be increased according to the measure of the apprehended beauty It remaineth that we consider whether such a perfit perception of the Excellencie of God and his Christ accompanied with those two helping causes may not be in them who comprehend not those hidden and abstruse Mysteries of the Divine Essence Which if it be in us who do not erre it may also be in them or it will be necessary to shew a reason of the Prerogative which we have above them in this behalf And first let us speak of God the Father As for the remembrance of his favours they acknowledge themselves together with us to be obliged unto him perpetually making mention of his infinite mercies the chiefest whereof consisteth in taking us for his children As for the certain expectation of a very great benefit what vaster hope what lavisher wish can be fained then that which they together with us desire and expect from the most high God There remaineth behinde the contemplation of his beauty and majestie I confess there is nothing in humane matters so exact that can lend a shadow to the image of so great a Majesty Nevertheless as touching God the Father they do in a maner agree with us For we are able to conceive nothing so great and sublime touching him which they also do not conceive Nor doth it follow that because they do not reach the curious subtilty in the received distinction of Persons therefore they cannot according to their capacity conceive the beauty of the Divine Countenance not to be seen by profane mindes and consequently dedicate and worship the image of that unspeakable Majesty within the Sanctuary of their breast As if it were a hard matter to have all maner of high conceptions touching him whom you certainly know and continually think to be the source and original of all goodness and beauty although you do not comprehend doctrines snarled and entangled with so many knots Enough seemeth to be already spoken touching God the Father But what if they have like yea the same causes with us of Love towards the Son of God will any thing hinder them from being as capable of this love as we our selves are Let us begin from Hope Do not they expect the same bountiful right hand of the Lord Jesus which will hereafter reach out a heavenly reward to all the faithful Do they not luxuriate in this wish And who can chuse but feel his heart wounded with the love of Christ who setteth Christ before his eyes as giving him the pay of his warfare But you will say that in making an estimate of his favours they seem to be injurious to him whilst they affirm that the Fathers anger towards us was appeased without the entermise of Christ and that no price properly so called was paid for our sins For I perceive that almost all who in the article of the Holy Trinity dissent from us are of that opinion I defend not the opinion of the men nevertheless I perceive that they judge a Redemption properly so called to be both absurd and impossible What derogation therefore is it either to gratitude towards the Lord Jesus or to the holy memory of his merits if they imagine that he did not those things for our sakes which could at no hand be done when in the mean time he abundantly performed all other things which might proceed from him toward us For no other thing is required to the most strict obligation of a benefit then that the benefactor do for ones sake all that he is able But they acknowledg that the Lord Jesus did for our salvation spare no pains yea not his very life And though they do not think that his blood was spilt to appease God and therefore not so rigidly to make satisfaction for our sins yet do they hold that it was spent and given for our sakes so that although they assert another special scope and effect of his death then we do nevertheless they seem to acknowledge the same merit in general And who would not be imbued with a most tender affection towards him whom he supposeth to have undergone a most bitter death for his life's sake who would not most ardently love him whom he thinketh perpetually busied in conferring benefits upon him To which if you adde an expectation of Supreme Happiness from his hands it cannot now happen otherwise but that the minde should melt in the resentment of a most delicate flame I come now to the excellency of the Lord Jesus which being imperfitly conceived by them seemeth unable to excite a perfit love of it self For how great a diminution is it of his

premised deliberation what fault of theirs will it be when they are mistaken Therefore they shall either be punished guiltless for the fault of others or if they perish guilty their onely offence will be this namely that they are somewhat dull which is ridiculous For let us suppose what often cometh to pass that there are certain simple men of an innocent life and who according to the power of their mortality live piously and devoutly let us also suppose what often falleth out that there are learned and ingenious men but overwhelmed with sins and trespasses In both perhaps God may finde just cause of punishment but he setteth not so high an estimate on wits as to deal more severely with better men onely for their rudeness then with the worst of men and such as by their very ingratitude for his gifts provoke his vengeance But he should deal more severely with better men were a certain and infallible way to Salvation quite shut up to them for the dulness of their wit and onely an uncertain and slippery one depending on anothers wit or piety left them And if on the contrary wicked men so they be ingenious have always if they please a priviledge to go thorow the right and saying path But you will say God is bound to none and when he findeth in both a cause of just severity though not equal he may according to his own good pleasure prosecute his right in those and pardon these their greater sins I answer What God may do is not here so much questioned as what he will and is wont to do And therefore though we should grant that he may do this yet would it not as yet appear that he will and is wont to do so For God may do many things towards men without impeachment to his justice which otherwise his wonted mercy seemeth not to permit But would not a respect of persons be by this means apparently ascribed unto God if before him learned men should be in a better condition then simple ones And yet notwithstanding he is wont to reveal his mysteries not to the wise of this world but to the simple and ignorant as the face of the Primitive Church witnesseth which had very few learned men which very thing evinceth the condition of simple men in point of Religion to be if not better yet at least equal to that of the learned I am sorry to dwell longer on a thing so evident For these things cannot be obscure to any one but him who being puffed up with a vain confidence of himself and his knowledge hath quite evaporated and breathed-out all charity and mildness of Christian forbearance And therefore such as erre are oftentimes by us accused of wickedness not that they themselvs erre grievously but because they think us to erre grievously Our pride may seek what pretences she pleaseth yet doth she for the most part plead her own cause a great part of those that erre are damned anathematized not so much for their own ignorance as for their dissent from us CHAP. VII That there is not in this life a perfect knowledge of God and of Divine Mysteries but in the other life and that Faith Hope and Charity are sufficient to Salvation IF in the business of our Salvation a difference were made between the very work of our felicity and such means as tend thereunto we should esteem fewer things as necessary to be known and a far easier course might be taken to repair concord in the Church Whereas now whilst we confound the means with the end it cometh to pass that in a preposterous order we will have that which was first in the intention to be also first in the execution when notwithstanding the means do in their nature so follow the end as to go before it in time What is it to which the desire of the noblest mindes aspireth Even the pleasure of Eternal Joy which mans minde cannot so much as conceive without the exact knowledge of God But that contemplation happy even to envie awaiteth us in the heavens nor can the narrowness of our earthly temper in this frailty comprehend it As therefore he would be ridiculous who should hope for the fruit of soverain happiness in this life so are we also seised with a very foolish humour whilst in this Inne of our mortality we require of all the suiters for heaven a perfit knowledge of Gods nature which is not a taste or hansel of our felicity but the very top and complement thereof If the capacity of our understanding doth as hath been said in vain attempt to comprehend this fully on the earth it is fit that we together with the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. knowing and prophesying in part expect the perfection that is to come But with what spaces shall we circumscribe that wandering and imperfit knowledge It is the safest way to set those limits thereunto which the very nature of the New Covenant hath appointed Namely that we chiefly and necessarily inculcate on all onely that knowledge of God and Christ without which those things cannot consist which are required of us by vertue of the New Covenant Of which sort are a firm confidence placed in God and his Christ together with a hope of his promises and perfit charity All these things are easily consistent with those mistakes about the subtil search into the nature of God and Christ Moreover the greatest difficulty in such dissentions is for the most part wont to arise about the state of our Saviour before he repaired the lapsed condition of men Howbeit if we make a true estimate of the matter although this mystery of his Eternity be true and altogether Divine yet doth it not properly belong to us to whom he hath presented and revealed himself a Mediator in a humane nature and condition onely So that they are altogether worthy of excuse who see and look upon him onely in that part wherein he shewed himself to mankinde For as they lose not the rewards of a Covenant who do not exactly know and comprehend his nature with whom and by the entermise of whom they enter into league so that they know both so far forth as the reason of the Covenant and common utility requireth so neither seem they exclusible from heaven who in the knowledge of God and Christ the Mediator want nothing to the reason and observance of the New Covenant although they rise not up to the sublimer contemplation of both Especially since the greatest part of them who at this day recede from the common sense of the Church in so great a matter are not out of any rashness so perswaded touching the Son of God but rather out of a pious fear lest they should detract from the Father somewhat of his honor Wherein if they unwittingly offend against the Son out of love to the Father so that improbity mingle not it self with their error it seemeth very credible that the Son will for the

that the Socinians impiously contradict the manifest words of the sacred Scripture and scornfully reject the clear Truth coming-in upon them To which I answer That whatsoever pains and travel they undertake in this business is employed not against the holy Trinity as they are unjustly defamed nor against the Sacred Scripture but against the Humane Explications of both Hence we may see that they willingly assent and give credit to all the Sacred Oracles touching this matter onely rejecting certain interpretations and forms sprung-up certain ages after They believe that they are according to the command of Christ to be baptized into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Matth. 28. They believe those three sacred Witnesses in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 5. They acknowledge that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was a God Joh. 1. yet such a one to whom all power in heaven and earth was given as he speaketh of himself Matth. 28. It would be tedious to recko● up all the Scripture-testimonics of this kinde to which they give credence without any exception Those hard and subtil opinions concerning the Essence and Person of God concerning the communication of properties and others of that batch they either understand not or think them repugnant to the simple and plain word of God Give us leave say they to be ignorant of such things as are believed with danger In these so subtil and thorny explications if they after the maner of men chance to erre shall they presently be termed the enemies of God and Christ Shall there be found no pardon for an error in so great difficulty of things no excuse for weakness which notwithstanding we ingeniously seek even for the greatest crimes though we be never so well provided of means to avoid them Are they who out of ignorance and error violate the Edicts of Princes acquitted from the crime of treason and shall he that offendeth about the Divine Oracles in our opinion have no refuge for his weakness in the mercy of the Heavenly Father But you will reply that their Blasphemies are horrid wherein impiety leaveth no place for pity and reproachful against the Son of God and overthrowing the foundation of our faith To which I answer that if there have been any amongst them of a more intemperate tongue or quill they are infamous not onely with us but also with them But what is here meant by the Foundation of Faith I do not sufficiently perceive It hath been abundantly evidenced before that such errors do necessarily take away neither our Faith nor our Salvation For it is not the foundation of Salvation to know his Essence who hath promised the salvation to us so that we have no impious and contumelious opinion of him as the ignorance of the nature of the promiser taketh not away the certainty of the promise unless he hath promised us anything under the condition of such knowledge As for the knowlege of the Father they therein do in a maner agree with us They likewise adore and reverence with Divine worship the Son of God as the author and mediator of their Salvation the heir and Lord of the Universe and the General of our warfare But you will here reply that they deny his eternity I answer that they together with holy Paul care not much to know any thing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and had rather with so great an Apostle rest in the simplicity of this knowledge then either with Arius to ascend to non-enliti●s or with Athanasius to co-essentialities As for the honour which they give to the Holy Spirit the greatness thereof appeareth in that they scarce distinguish him from the Supreme Father Shall they then be said to blaspheme against these if they be somewhat mistaken in the other knowledge of them Indeed many opinions are drawn out of their doctrines that the wretches may be loaded with more envie and that by them who whilst they are so vigilant in other mens errors are fast asleep in their own But if all the chaff were to be sifted out of humane opinions I would wish that a great part of the Reformed Churches would labour to defend their own cause before they undertake to oppose that of others but those above all who have from the age of Chrysippus recalled down to these very times that secret and inevitable law of Fate and who hold also that the sins and destruction of mankinde and finally all and singular motions and impulsions of our will proceed from the Decree of Eternal Destiny to whom this false perswasion also seemeth to be fatal From which opinion if we lay aside prejudice more and more shameful errors will be deduced then out of the books of Socinians For which is more reproachful unto God to hold that he is one as well in Person as Essence or that I may clothe naked injustice with soft words to bring-him-in punishing men for not doing those things which by his own procurement were impossible Is it more absurd to conceive that there is one Essence of the Father another of the Son then that God I shudder to speak it hath one thing open in his tongue and another thing contrary thereunto shut-up in his breast This is reproach enough to the most high God although we do not adde that this dissimulation is joyned with deceit Is the dignity of the Holy Spirit more traduced whilst he is said to be onely the vertue and power of God then the goodness of God whilst he is held the author of sin which consequence doth also flow by a fatal and inevitable flux from that doctrine of Fate For he that decreed men should necessarily sin certainly would have them sin otherwise he would have decreed every thing against his owne desire Now he whose decree and will the event doth immutably follow may certainly be termed the cause of that event whether he effect it by himself or by another Finally is it a greater derogation to the dignity of Christ to deny two natures in him lest we should make him two persons then to the wisdome of God to affirm that he would perswade men to that whereto nevertheless he hath not perswaded them namely that he would give salvation unto all when notwithstanding he hath designed it onely to a few Truly if we look more narrowly into the matter the doctrine of the Socinians touching the Holy Trinity is not to be accounted so much evil and impious in its owne nature as imperfect and maimed For it seemeth to ascribe to the Holy Trinity nothing false or absurd but only to take away something that is true namely the divine nature of Christ and the proper person of the Holy Spirit Whereas this doctrine touching the fatal predestination of particular men laboureth not with any defect but with manifest ptavity For it not onely offereth injury to God by most unworthy calumnies but also