the first Oecumenick Council and others following the Arminians not so I mean not Worstius and the like but such as in comparison of others are Moderate But still I say that the Cause against Socinians cannot so effectually be handled upon Arminian Principles for in some things their Bounds are so near and undiscernable that sometimes a Man cannot fall upon one but he must tread upon the other and one blow sometimes hits them both so sometimes the Arminian doth not strike home upon the Socinian for fear of hurting himself However to shew you what a difference we ought to make between Adversaries and Adversaries we have some Disputes both against Lutherans and Papists yet much more and greater against the last than against the first certainly we will not carry our selves equally towards both for there is cause to make a great distinction between them which to shew upon occasion we keep Communion with Lutherans when we may not with Papists yet the former are in a gross errour to think the Substance of the glorified Body of Christ which is now in Heaven and shall be until he comes to Judge the Quick and the Dead to be included in with and under the Bread and Wine yet because they declare they adore not the Bread nor the Wine we do not look upon them as Idolaters as we take Papists to be for they adore a Wafer under the notion that it is turned into the Substance of the Body of Christ and we are forbidden to have Communion with Idolaters Thus we ought to make a difference between Lutherans and Papists so we must between those who would destroy the Grace of God in Christ which is very ill and those who impiously fly against his Person as ye do nay I say Socinians in some things are worse than Papists who own the Article of the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of Divine Nature and the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which ye deny Ye are the worst of all Christian Societies which Name ye are unworthy of because ye reject despise and undervalue the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ from whom we are called Christians and will not take his Word nor God the Father's when he is by him and by himself called Son of God This Man as well as his Partner will make use of his Arithmetick and because I complain'd of the increase and number of Socinians he makes a pother about almost all the Church a moiety of the Presbyterians Nine parts in Ten of the Quakers like a Squirrel in a Cage which turns again and again but never the farther on in his way always within the Circle so he which way soever he turns himself is ever upon his Dunghil As to the Number of Socinians tho' it was never so inconsiderable comparatively yet 't is ever too great tho' never so few yet still too many One Wolf in a Sheepfold can do Havock enough only one that hath the Plague can infect a whole Town always Vermin multiplieth too fast wherefore to prevent the Growth and Increase of it 't is necessary a sufficient care be taken by those who are concern'd especially those whose Diocess is much infected with and made the center of that Vermine whom David a great King and Judge of Israel and a Prophet too gives this Charge unto Be Wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth Psal 2. Dignity calls for and commands Duty and to whom much is given of them much shall be required Not only a Disposition but also a Resolution in Magistrates is necessary for 't is that which helps to put Life into those Laws which otherwise languish for want of due and discreet Execution wherein one is to go to the root of the Evil if he will extirpate it In some Distempers the Dose must not be weak else it will but stir the Humours and not remove them But what is it that David would have Kings and Judges of the Earth to learn and be instructed in in the next Verse he saith it to serve the Lord with fear in their station to defend his Cause and maintain his Concerns is part of the Service required here But whom is this Service due to to Christ the Messiah to whom the Lord hath said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee to whom the Heathen are given for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his possession whom he shall break with a Rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel Certainly such a Potent Lord Son of God deserves to be served with fear by all Kings and Judges of the Earth and 't is his Cause not Man's which now is under debate his Right and Title being questioned which if Men in Places and Power do not as they are bound Assert and Vindicate to speak in Mordecai's words to Esther Deliverance shall arise from another place some others will do God's Work but thou and thy Father's House shall be destroyed For the Lord Jesus himself will in his due time not only do 't but also require it at the hands of those who neglected it which is a most abominable Crime no less than as much as in them lieth to set their hands to his Condemnation and suffer him again to be Crucified for pretended Blasphemy for affirming himself to be the Son of God which the Jews did well call making himself God For the Names God Son of God simply properly and absolutely taken imply Divine Nature as Man Son of Man do Humane therefore said the Jews to Pilate By our Law that is of Blasphemy he ought to die for he made himself the Son of God which if he was not then without Blasphemy let it be spoken and the thoughts make my Hair stand on end he had been a Blasphemer a Lyar and an Impostor and such the Socinian Principles impiously make him to be And because I said it had been well if at first that necessary care had been taken especially by those that are most concern'd to prevent it thence he doth infer that tho' not indeed in plain words but intelligibly enough I said it had not been done which after his usual calm and Christian-spirited way he calls a meer Story my own pure Invention and a notorious Slander and to prove it so in his Head he frames an Idea of an Hurly burly and Confusion in opposing of Socinianism and this he would make a Play of and without any distinction ridicule all that appear'd against it The Opposers saith he did but scuffle tumultuously with they knew not whom nor what and in the event it appeared they were more afraid than hurt and to ridicule it the more he saith This zealous Leader would scower through the dark Vales of Antient Fathers and General Councils that learned Author would bustle in the thorny Thickets of the School-men here indeed is to be found the flourish of wild
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
they are the Metaphorical Doctors of the World who make bold to turn almost the whole Scripture into Metaphors even to set up a Metaphorical God O Sirs first pull out the Beam out of your own eye and then ye shall see clearly to cast out the Mote out of your Brother's Anon we shall meet with some more Cavils of theirs They appear at the Bar whereto indeed they deserve to be called and Plead for themselves thus The first of the 39 Articles saith There is but One living and true God and in Vnity of this Godhead there be Three Persons of one Substance Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost As to the latter part which is the main Question they pretend to come off with mincing the matter and say by some of their late Prints meaning Socinians I perceive that they for Peace-sake submit to the Phrase of the Church and expresly own Three Persons tho' they think the word Person not so proper as another word might be The weight of the words of the Article lieth so heavy upon them that under it they must either break or bend this last they chuse to do and would seem to yield not because they believe it but only for Peace-sake Peace to themselves to avoid the Penalty They think the word Person not so proper as another might be still they reserve a Back-door why do they not name the word which is in their opinion more proper than that of Person that word remains in petto in their Breast till there be a fair occasion to declare it Their speaking of Peace is well if with it they join Truth for they ought not to be asunder no Christian is to betray Truth for Peace-sake Now if a Person of the Godhead be described as it is by an incommunicable Subsistence of the Divine Essence the Socinian shall not be acquitted as he pretends It is not my work neither is this a place to shew how frivolous that Plea would prove at the Bar of the Law but I am sure in my Book I sufficiently demonstrated it to be a vain Subterfuge and against the Gospel That trimming Spirit in them which because they have not the upper hand one may easily perceive to Rule throughout in both Letters puts me in mind of the Popish Methods in such Cases as among other Instances it appears by what passed in 1561 in that great Assembly at Poissy in France which the then French King Charles IX appointed to meet and in his Presence therein to have free Conference about Religion between some of the Popish Clergy and some of the Protestant Ministers Because as yet things were not ripe for their Designs they by means of those Conferences would try whether some way might be found out to plaister things over and for the present to compose Differences in order thereunto after some discourses about the Sacraments which between the Cardinal of Lorrain and Theodorus Beza had happened in the K. of Navarr's Chamber where they met accidentally the Popish Party being not willing to venture their Cause upon Disputes first by the Doctors of Sorbon and lastly by the Cardinal of Tournon in the name of the whole Clergy desired the King and Queen-Mother to give the Protestants no Hearing who by the Mouth of Beza had already made a Speech in the Assembly and given an account of their Confession of Faith So then these Publick Conferences not doing the work they did set up Private ones first between Two and Two then between Five and Five of both Religions and among these for the Protestants Peter Martyr was one the Point was about the Lord's Supper On the Popish side the design was not to find out the Truth but only such words as each side might Interpret on his behalf To that purpose several Formules which here I need not to insert were by the Papists offered the Protestants but being ambiguous captious and such as might be understood in a double sense Beza for Conclusion said We must say all or nothing because indeed the Mystery of that Holy Sacrament must be explained The like was practised in their Council of Trent where happened great Heats between the Dominicans and Franciscans about several Points wherein they differ but to displease neither side their Canons about those Matters before they were passed they shewed to both Parties and penn'd them in such Words and Expressions as each side might favourably Interpret for his own Opinion Thus Socinians would follow the same way and admit of such words as may be taken in their Sense and ours too yet tho' we should agree about the Terms they know we do not in the Signification they for Peace sake submit to the Phrase of the Church and own Three Persons yet Interpret it not as the Church doth Again They seem desirous to wash their hands of Socinianism yet defend it as much as they are able Vpon the prudent Explication which hath been given of some obnoxious Terms they weave the Dispute and come in as Brethren yet still believe not as the Church doth nay if we will believe them we are all of a perfect Agreement but if we examine it will be found if by these pretended last Concessions of theirs we agree 't is about some Words when the difference about Things still remains And as then Papists were only to have things quiet for the present so I perceive Socinians are now content it should be so between us to see whether Times may happen to turn for them then indeed they would declare by the word Person they mean not an Incommunicable Subsistence of the Godhead but only an Attribute as Wisdom Love that Christ is God and Son of God by Favour not by Nature and by eternal Generation But all such Trimmers to speak in Job's Words are Physicians of no value and such Remedies cannot cure the Wound but it will break out again and this I call daubing with untempered Mortar 't is not enough to ease of the Pain but the cause must be removed which is the only way to cure for certain and to prevent Relapses this I bring in to shew how Socinians are not so averse from such Popish Practices as they pretend to be and if we narrowly inquire into it we shall find they are willing to join with them in the Practice of the following Maxim where they are the weakest they first pretend for Moderation and Toleration then for an Equality afterwards struggle for Superiority and at last destroy any one that to a hairs Breadth would not come up to what they would have for as Papists brag of a Spirit of Infallibility intailed upon their Church so Socinians are of opinion that the Spirit of God if they own any such thing is departed from other Christian Societies only to be among them who look upon themselves as the only true Interpreters of God's Word as Socinus doth applaud himself in his new fangled Expositions
Guide it must be first subordinate to Revelation which is the prescribed Rule and from which it ought not to recede no more than a Judge from the Law as Paul told Ananias or else he is in danger of falling into Precipices that 's the Light it must follow and as the Soul is guided by Reason so must Reason be by Revelation neither can Reason and outward Revelation do the Work without inward Revelation whereby Reason is supernaturally endowed and this is Faith a Gift of God this is the ground of our Blessed Saviour's giving his Father thanks for revealing the Mysteries of Faith and Salvation unto Babes that is those who as yet in his Sense were not capable of Reason and plainly tells Peter that if he knew and confessed him to be the Son of the living God Flesh and Blood or his natural Reason had not revealed it unto him but his Father which is in Heaven When the Lord Jesus was upon leaving this World he promised his Disciples a Guide what their own Reason no such thing but the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth who should teach them all things and bring to remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them and he was to abide with them for ever this Spirit of God is the right Guide whom true Protestants own to lead and guide us in the way of Salvation and this he doth not according to human Fancies or private Inspirations but according to the Rule of the Word for saith our Saviour he shall receive of mine that is my Word and shall shew it unto you for he shall not speak of himself he teaches and applies the Word and his working is by the Apostle called the Spirit of a sound Mind which God hath given us so that a sound Mind an Orthodoxy in the Faith is an Effect of God's Gift not of our Reason or of any thing else in us wherefore David saith give me Vnderstanding according to thy Word But these things Socinians have been told over and over and in the Preface and latter end of my Book I think I said enough to satisfie unbyassed Persons so have others too this is the sure and infallible Guide which God hath given us and not any human Authority different from or contrary to it the Pope we cannot own for he is a Party and sets up for himself nor the antient Writers if they deviate from the Rule but 't is a good Argument for the things wherein they follow it Men must not be so selfish and wilful as to despise others who may have the Spirit of God as well as themselves and being Witnesses of those Times are able to inform us how things stood in their time and cannot be partial for this wherein we live The Author of the first Letter hath a touch upon the matter and that 's all 't is about the interpretation of what S. John saith the Word was made Flesh I confess there is a great difference in the interpretation we say according to the natural Signification the Word or Son of God took upon him our human Nature they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate the Word signifies Reason rather than Word and they infer that the Reason or Wisdom of God was communicated unto Jesus Christ this is a very much forced Interpretation and fetch'd afar off for all along the Word is spoken of as a Subject and they would make a shift to turn it into the Predicate Now what shall we do of these two Opinions to find out the true one for if every Person or Party be allowed such a Latitude as to interpret things after their own Fancy there will be no end of false Glosses and wrong Interpretations how doth the Goldsmith do to know true Gold or Silver from that which is false he brings it to the Touch-stone so must we in this case between them and us is a Difference the Party must not be the Judge 't is not just they should be Judges in their own cause nor we in ours then we must agree about a Judge such as is impartial and infallible and none but God is such now God doth not immediatly speak from Heaven for he doth it in his Word that is his Will and ought to be our Law and Rule in matters of Faith I will believe no Man's Assertion except out of Scripture he proves it to me the like he may justly expect from me but in case of that Text of Scripture he and I give different Interpretations what 's to be done we ought still to keep in the same Court and wait for a Decision from the same Judge then I must prove my Interpretation by some other place of Scripture or else he must not believe me nor I him except he doth the like and if Men will but lay aside Prejudices and be acted by a real and sincere desire to find out the Truth God will not leave them but therein afford such Helps as shall answer their Good for all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect Now let us come to our Point and reduce the Rule to a Practice the Question is Whether by the Word is meant a Person as we say or a Quality as they would have it there is a great Difference between Persons and Things now to find out the Truth this Text must be compared with others we need not to go far for in the first Verse of the Chapter we read thrice the same Name in the beginning was the Word was signifieth existed had a Being which relateth to a Person and not to a Thing the same Word was with God and was God what a Quality with God and a Thing God doth the Evangelist begin his Gospel in so high a strain only to tell us how Reason was in the beginning how Reason was with God and Reason was God or in plain Words that God was Reasonable which is a Truth known to every one so no need to tell it but he would acquaint the Readers with things before unknown to them besides doth this hold any proportion with the Nature and Excellency of the Gospel and great Tidings of Salvation this indeed is to exalt Reason and because they make a God of their Reason therefore for Name 's sake Reason must be deified then according to their Principle this Reason must be an efficient Cause of all for all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made to create and make things is the Property and Act of a Person and not of a Thing in him as in a Person and not as in a Thing was Life and the same Apostle calls him the Word of Life that Life which was manifested and that Eternal Life which was with the Father first and then was manifested unto us as if
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
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