three Attributes We cannot say the Son of God to be a Property or Attribute we cannot say an Attribute of Divine Nature was made Flesh we cannot say three Properties appeared in our Saviours Baptism or that we are baptised in the Name of three Properties Therefore ye may see we are not so far agreed as you said if you will have us to be agreed you must come to us for we declare we cannot go to you that 's the easiest and surest way of the two for we are tyed by a Revelation and may go no farther than it doth allow us but your Human Reason is a Latitudinarian which can stretch a great way we may not we cannot go beyond the bounds which God in his Word hath prescribed us but ye are Free-willers and at liberty to day your Reason may teach you one thing to morrow another for as you say your selves a Doctrine which at one time may be convenient may be otherwise when Circumstances of Times shall alter but with us no Circumstances can alter our Heavenly Doctrine Out of this you may see how all this while I have not been fighting against the Man in the Moon or as you very civilly express it making a Rod for a foolish Back of my own or to speak home a Fagot to roast my own Ribs But upon a surer ground I may say he hath been in a Dream or in a hot violent Fit for he hath been striking on all sides and spared none that lay in his way as for me I am the Man and therefore in the Fit having forgotten the Cause he hath at me almost in every Page and in one place he admires at my extravagant Zeal who would have the Socinians burnt for their complyance with the Church of England If so then indeed there were cause to admire but there is true ground of admiration that he thinks it so but really nothing is to be admired at either in or from him for he calls me a Papist a Calvinist and a Zealous one a Socinian nay a Real one He saith he is no Socinian but I am when he writes for and I against them this is a Hocus Pocus 't is and 't is not surely there is cause to suspect something is out of order within that brains of his or an extraordinary brazen-fac'dness however let him as he can secure all this from Contradiction Et erit mihi magnus Apollo When I think upon such Men as pretend to alter the Nature of things I am put in mind of what a famous Popish Author saith That the Pope can make that to be Sin which is no Sin and that not to be Sin which is Sin so do these Men who would seem to be much against Popery yet follow several of their Maxims and would make that to be a Nonsense which is good Sense and that to be no Contradiction which is and so on the contrary If these Men themselves be not Mysteries as one calls me their dark Sentences are all this while the Cause is safe enough But Calvin not so how roughly doth he handle him on all occasions if he were alive he would not be good to give to Dogs tho' neither he nor a dosen more such one 's would be worthy to carry his Books I confess 't is to me and ought to be a wonder to others to find how mad some Men in the World are against that faithful Servant of God once in his Life and Conversation and now in his Works and Labours an Eminent Instrument in his Hand as for Instruction so at first in the Work of Reformation This is a Fit of Rage which several Years since out of Envy some in Parts much inferiour to him began to be possessed of and by Men of the same Kidney hath been propagated to this very day whereof the Authors of the Two Letters are real Instances for to speak in Paul's words they are exceeding mad against him and as they are against his Memory and Person now far out of their reach so they are broken loose and so hot and fiery against the Doctrines he taught that all the Water of the Leman Lake could hardly cool them what they call Calvinism they adorn with these Epithets Proud sowr and fiery Qualifications Calvinistical Impatience and many such more whereof this Orthodox is one The Heresie of the Tritheists is not worse than uncharitable and ill natur'd Calvinism Therein I shall conclude with this In truth I think Heylin was over modest to esteem a Presbyterian that is a Calvinist worse than a Papist Here is your Protestants and as if this had not been enough his own venom he throws out in the same place for my part I esteem a Christian from whatsoever Sect denominated not excepting the Socinians more honourable than a Persecuting Calvinist Tho' the word Persecuting had been left out it had been all one to that Christian Righteous Soul of his But as for Socinus he was a most excellent Man very sound in the Faith and who if we will believe this Man hath by his Works laid a great Obligation upon the World and he subscribes to what one of the Gang said of him That none since the Apostles hath deserved better of the Christian Religion so that a Man may more avail himself by reading his Works than by perusing all the Fathers together with the Writings of more modern Authors This People either never read or care not for what Paul saith Let your Moderation be known unto all men for they observe it neither for Socinus nor against Calvin but having elsewhere had an occasion in few few words to do this faithful Servant of Christ some Justice I shall leave off speaking of his Person to take some brief notice of his Works That which most nettles his Enemies are the Doctrines about Grace and Providence mentioned in the Two Letters which they call Calvinism But if they would not so proudly despise all Antiquity but peruse some of Augustin's Works who lived 1200 Years before Calvin they might find he was a Calvinist so were Hilarius Prosper Fulgentius and others who so long before he was born could as well as he did afterwards find those same Doctrines in the Word of God and accordingly the beginning progress and end of our Salvation and from first to last we attribute to God's free Grace which in that matter we can never yield too much nor too little to any thing of our own we do not like the Pharisee boast in our Prayers that we Fast twice a Week give Tithes and are not Extortioners Unjust and make no Comparison with our Neighbours as being better Men than they but we say God be merciful to us miserable Sinners for we are commanded to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and forbidden to lean unto our own understanding which is as good as to say depend not upon your own Reason therefore in any
Apostles tho they speak loud and plainly enough whence we may well conclude you to be none of his Sheep whereof the great Shepherd himself gives this to be the proper Character that they hear and know his voice only and not the voice of strangers and they follow him when he leads them out but ye follow him not only the Devices and Inventions of your own Heart Thus to return to you who falsly would bring in your selves as Disciples of the Lord Jesus we know that as there is a Church of Christ so there is a Synagogue of Satan and that the Devil hath his Martyrs as well as the Lord Jesus some have been so far hardened as to dye for denying there is a God therefore 't is neither the Manner nor the Place but the Cause of Death which makes the Martyr 't is neither Smithfield in London nor Campo di Fiori in Rome for as the most honest Men so the greatest Villains may happen to be executed in both neither must we believe those who falsly would call themselves Disciples of Christ and insinuate as if they suffer'd for his Cause when 't is for their Heresies and Blasphemies I remember the Apostles words how false Apostles deceitful Workers would transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light Do not pretend to say ye are for Christ when ye are against him As to your mis-applying of the Text to me let me advise you to be more conversant with Scripture and therein you may learn how at another time more fitly to adapt your Comparisons and better to apply Texts and not as you would so ingeniously screw out of that how you think me an unfit Writer in behalf of the Trinity which you believe not and therefore did not so much as read over my Book and I to answer ad hominem by a rational and natural Consequence out of your own Words that you have not so much as read over my Book of the Trinity do conclude you to be a rash giddy and unfit Judge whether or not I am an unfit Writer in behalf of the Trinity Thus go you off the Stage like a Snuff I answer you in your way because you answer me not in mine AN ANSWER TO THE Second Letter HAVING done with one Antagonist I must now turn to the other Between them both they shar'd the Task to try which of the two could most wrest and mis-represent things and give a Man ill Language wherein it must be owned this last yields it not to the first for they writ after the same manner and whose steps about my Epistle he follows in his first Page and part of the next wherein he would seem to soar high in his politick Enthusiasms and then falls down right into a Nonsense which he would father upon me certainly a Man hath little to say or do that stumbles at the Threshold and falls a gathering Straws when there are solid and good things to mind and instead of examining high Matters of Divinity offered he to put off the Blow and for Diversion sake turns to be a Grammarian and pittifully falls upon cavilling at Words This like the Dog in the Fable is to snap at the Shadow and leave the Body My words are these To time things well is one of the best parts of Prudence To say it is the part of a prudent Man to act in due time and Season is there any thing contrary to Sense and Reason By the word Part is not meant any such thing as we call Essential part as the Soul is to Man or what we call Integrant part such are an Arm or a Leg to the Body but 't is an usual way of speaking to say 'T is the part of a Wise Man not to be Hasty 't is the part of a Christian to Forgive to signifie how 't is proper for and belongs to a Wise Man not to be Rash and to a Christian to Forgive I add and one of the most Essential Circumstances of our Actions the meaning is plain how Timing things well is one of the chief and most necessary Circumstances of our Actions This is no just cause for any Man thereupon to entertain such idle and extravagant Fancies as we see him to do Without being a great Philosopher one may know there are several Circumstances belonging to every Action An ordinary Rhetorician can tell the Rule quis quid ubi quibus auxiliis cur quomodo quando I take Agent Time and Place to be three Concomitants of any Action and without the three no Action so then the prudential part of an Agent in the Act and to make it succeed is to chuse a fit and proper Time to apply a Remedy take Physick or be let Blood if done in due time is to observe one of the chief and necessary Circumstances If the word Essential joyned to Circumstance doth disquiet you then by the word most Essential is improperly understood the Circumstance most necessary to be observed we use to say a thing most Essential or most Necessary most to the purpose most Important and most Material to signifie the same thing or near upon 't I take the Essence whether Physically or Metaphysically to be the same with the Nature of the thing And do you not think that Circumstances have their Nature and that there is the Nature of an Accident as of a Substance and that to the end one may Act well there is that which is Necessary and most Necessary God forbid when we speak of Gods Nature or even of matters of Philosophy we should make no difference between Essence and Circumstance but in Discourse 't is usual as you know too well to make use of such improper and figurative Expressions Doth not our Grammar tell us that Nouns Adjectives are compared and that there are three degrees of Comparison have ye so far forgotten it Thus the word Essential is an Adjective whereof the Superlative we call most Essential and we may say Essential more and most Essential Surely ye judicious and acute Sophisters if ever you learned Logick were taught that there is a Predicament called Proprium and that there is a Proprium not only primô but also quartô modô Quod convenit soli semper omni which in Grammar words we may call most proper in the Superlative degree And ye Gentlemen for so I must call you tho' I would have call'd you by your Names if ye had subscrib'd your Letters ye Gentlemen Socinians who are so much for Tropes and Figures might know how 't is usual by an Hyperbole to represent things with exaggeration as whiter than Snow blacker than Pitch and if such manners of speaking with exaggeration be admitted in a common Discourse much more may this improper one now in question So sometimes a thing which we like well we call best of all thus if instead of saying Essential I said most Essential I
I said the Enemy and Plague of Socinianism was gotten into the Bowels of the Church the more the Pity and therefore seeing they will not hide themselves for shame here I do humbly desire the Heads and Governours of it to take notice of Socinians boasting to be Members of the Church and care to weed them out Good Lord Men who overthrow the first Article of our Religion of one God in three Persons and the second of two Natures in one Person besides others the Athanasian Creed the the first part of the Litany with several others of the Service Book yet they have the face to call themselves Members of the Church However 't is worth the inquiring into what they ground upon their calling themselves Members of the Church we already have taken notice of one place wherein speaking of themselves in the third Person they say For Peace sake they submit to the Phrase of the Church and own three Persons so they seem not to be much concerned for the Truth to know whether what they or we say be true but they take care of their Safety being as they pretend alarm'd with fear of Fire and Faggot and to save their Bacon therefore I am apt to believe that what they say in relation to this is more out of fear of Punishment than of love for Truth however for Peace sake they are Members of the Church but to dive into the bottom of this Title of theirs of being Members of the Church two Places I am to look into the first is this As for those late English Writers sometimes called Unitarians and very injuriosly termed Socinians they seem desirous to wash their hand of it and their disputing some of the Articles of our Church hath proceeded chiefly from their Apprehension that it would be Idolatry to admit them Thus still under disguise and of a third Person they are those late English Writers who call themselves Vnitarians who seem desirous to wash their hand of Socinianism so 't is only seemingly and in appearance for else what could make them tooth and nail concern themselves so much for Socinians let it be taken notice of how these pretended Members of the Church confess that they disputed some of the Articles of it and these are none of the less fundamental which they suspected as leading into Idolatry and therefore they would not admit them See what Members of the Church these are who publickly and in Print own that some of the Articles of the Church do tend to Idolatry doth not this very thing deserve Punishment according to Law and to justifie their disputing of some of the Articles they would infinuate as if the Church or some part of it had owned they were in the right Therefore upon the prudent Explication which hath been given he doth not name by whom of some obnoxious Terms they wave the Dispute and come in as Brethren This is as good as to say that in our Articles those that are the most Fundamental are in terms justly obnoxious that is to their Cavils And to shew they had cause to take Exceptions an Interpretation hath according to their Sense been given those Articles and so upon their own Terms they are come in as Brethren if they are come in then they were out before and so no Members Thus it seems they had Correspondency in the Church with some who as they term it prudently made way for them to come in Now doth not this Confession justifie what in my Epistle I said Socinianism is gotten into the Church and consequently shew a necessity to turn it out Thus having as he thinks twisted Socinians with the Church he most judiciously draws this Inference and Ironically bids me defiance I hope Mr. Gailhard will not in anger against them impute Idolatry to our Church as by Law established Can any thing in relation to the Church be spoken more insolently in the face of the whole Nation A strange thing indeed tho' nothing may seem strange from Men whose Principles allow them to say and make themselves any thing Like the grievous Wolves which in Sheeps Clothing enter in among the Flock not to feed but to tare it to deceive the blind they come in with Esau's Hands but the Voice is Jacob's yet being known should bring a Curse upon themselves But 't will be strange indeed if such ones be once found out having under the cloak of taking Care of Souls Poisoned them be not cast out by Suspension or Deprivation according to the severity of the Penal or at least of the Ecclesiastical Laws Upon this occasion the Eyes of the whole Nation are fixed upon my Lords the Bishops The other Place which I must take into consideration is this He tells us speaking of me that to deny the Trinity and our Saviours Divinity is as much as in a Man lieth to pull our Religion up by the very roots and quite to overthrow it which saith he that the Socinians do he takes it for granted That they deny the Trinity and Christ's Deity 't is done in the face of the Sun and that these Points are the Foundation of Christian Religion no true Christian will deny and my Inference is good that pulling down the Foundation the Building doth necessarily fall Yet according to the usual way he would mince the matter thus Yet those who are injuriously called Socinians declare that they only dispute some unscriptural Terms with us but are well satisfied with the Sense put upon those Terms and Explications which a considerable majority seem to be agreed in They cannot leave off the ridiculous juggling in their change of Persons for they are those called Socinians who dispute with us that is with themselves so they act both parts put the Question and answer it be the Socinian and Church-men too but the worst is they want Sincerity that whilst they indeed are the Socinian yet would pass for the Church-men Besides they would have the Dispute to be only about Words and so of no Importance thus whether there be Three Persons in the most adorable Trinity and whether the Lord Jesus and the Holy Ghost be truly God they make it to be a Dispute only about a Word and a Trifle What a Confidence is it for such Men so publickly to vent their Impieties Thereupon they declare to be satisfied upon this ground that a considerable Majority of the Church seem to be agreed with them in their Sense so according to this a considerable Majority of the Church is become Socinian Let him that can believe this for my own part I am not so Credulous however I humbly desire of the Church especially of that lesser part which this Man owneth not to be Socinian to mind what he saith so openly and to take it into their serious Consideration I bring it to their Door and there leave it They are highly concerned to take in hand their own Cause as 't is now become I have done
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