occasion both to his Friends and Enemies to think him an Arian He saith that Phil. 2. 6. was the principal Argument of the Fathers against the Arians but that to say true it proves nothing against them He notes on Eph. 5. 5. that the word God being used absolutely doth in the Apostolick Writings always signifie the Father In his Scholia on the third Tome of St. Jerom's Epistles he denies that the Arians were Hereticks he adds farther that they were superior to our Men in Learning and Eloquence 'T is believed Erasmus did not make himself a party to that which he esteemed the ignorant and dull side of the Question In his Epistle to Bilibaldus he speaks as openly as the times would permit a wise Man to speak I saith Erasmus could be of the Arian Perswasion if the Church approved it 2. H. Grotius is Socinian all over This great Man in his younger Years attacked the Socinians in a principal Article of their Doctrine But being answered by J. Crellius he not only never replied but thank'd Crellius for his Answer and afterwards publishing some Annotations on the Bible he interpreted the whole according to the mind of the Socinians There is nothing in all his Annotations which they do not approve and applaud His Annotations are a compleat System of Socinianism not excepting his Notes on John 1. 1 c. which are written so artificially and interwove with so many different Quotations that he has cover'd himself and his sense of that Portion of Scripture from such as do not read him carefully 3. D. Petavius the most Learned of the Jesuits has granted that generally the Fathers who lived before the Nicene Council and whose Writings are preserved agreed in their Doctrine concerning God with the Nazarens or Socinians and concerning the Son our Lord Christ and the Holy Spirit with the Arians For 't is to be noted that the Arians and Socinians agree in their Doctrine concerning God that he is only one Person the God and Father of our Lord Christ but they differ concerning the Son and Holy Spirit The Son according to the Arians was generated or created some time before the World and in process of time for great and necessary causes became incarnate in our Nature The Holy Ghost they say is the Creature of the Son and subservient to him in the Work of Creation But the Socinians deny that the Son our Lord Christ had any Existence before he was born of Blessed Mary being conceived in her by the holy Spirit of God They say the Spirit is the Power and Inspiration of God saving that Mr. Bidle and those that follow him take the holy Spirit to be a Person chief of the Heavenly Spirits prime Minister of God and Christ and therefore called the Spirit by way of excellence and the Holy Spirit to discriminate him from Satan Prince and Chief of the wicked and Apostate Spirits This difference notwithstanding because they agree in the principal Article that there is but one God or but one who is God both parties Socinians and Arians are called Vnitarians and esteem of one another as Christians and true Believers as may be seen on the part of the Arians in their Historian Chr. Sandius Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. de Paul. Semosat and for the Socinians in the Disputation of Alba. But to return to Petavius He often affirms that the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the Divinity of the Son and Spirit cannot be proved by Scripture only and that those who have attempted it have always been baffled He adds there is no way to Unity in the Church about these matters but by contenting our selves to speak concerning them as the Fathers who lived nearest to the Apostles time did speak 4. S. Episcopius so much esteemed by our English Divines seems to have been an Arian He saith the Father is so first as to be first in order i. e. time in Dignity and in Power He saith that to make three equal Persons in God or in the Godhead is to make three Gods. He denies that the Lord Christ is the Son of God by substantial Generation that is by Generation from the Father's Substance or Essence Speaking of the Creeds that express the Catholick Doctrine of the Trinity and the Divinity of the Son and Spirit he saith that Bishops in general Councils being led by Fury Faction and Madness did not so much compose as huddle up Creeds for the Church See for these things Episc Inst Theol. l. 4 c. 32 33 34. 5. C. Sandius a Gentleman of prodigious Industry and Reading and no less ingenious then learned in all his Books refuses in Words to be called either Arian or Socinian but has written an Ecclesiastical History in Quarto with Addenda to it Coloniae 1678 on purpose to prove that all Antiquity was Arian and that the Vnitarian Doctrine has been reduced so low by the Persecutions of Rome and the puissant Arms of Charles the Great and other Kings of France for which Services they have been requited by the Roman Pontiff with the Titles of Most Christian Kings and Eldest Sons of the Church He has also under the borrowed Name of Cingallus written a small Treatise with this Title Scriptura Trinitatis Revelatrix here under pretence of asserting the Trinity he has as much as he could defeated all the strengths of the Catholick Cause and shews that there is no considerable Text objected to the Arians or Socinians but is given up as an incompetent and insignificant proof by some or other of the principal Critics and Authors who were themselves Trinitarians so that among them they have given away the Victory to their Adversaries But Sir I perceive I have drawn out this account of the Socinians to already a sufficient length for a Letter I will therefore conclude with a Passage out of Dr. Burnet's second Book of the History of the Reformation abridged George van Parr a Dutch Man refused to abjure so he was burnt in the year 1549 by virtue of a Law or Writ since abolished by Act of Parliament for affirming that only the Father is God and denying the Divinity of the Son our Lord Christ He had led a very exemplary Life for Fasting Devotion and a good Conversation and suffered with extraordinary Composedness of Mind These things cast a great Blemish on the Reformers It was said they only condemned Cruelty when acted on themselves but were ready to practise it when they had Power The Papists made great use of this in the next Queen Mary's Reign and what Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridly Authors of Van Parrs Punishment suffered in her time was thought a just Retaliation on them by that wise Providence which disposes all things justly to all Men. Thus far Dr. Burnet SIR I am most sincerely Yours A Second Letter TO A FRIEND Concerning the UNITARIANS Called also SOCINIANS Containing the Texts objected to them out of the Old Testament and their Answers Acts 24.
A Brief History OF THE UNITARIANS Called also SOCINIANS In Four Letters Written to a Friend Acts 17. 11. They searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Printed in the Year 1687. The First Letter Concerning the Unitarians vulgarly called Socinians SIR IN Answer to yours demanding a brief account of the Vnitarians called also Socinians their Doctrine concerning God in which only they differ from other Christians the Remonstrants professedly agreeing with them in other points of Faith and Doctrine and the Defence they usually make of their Heresy They are called Socinians from F. Socinus an Italian Noble-Man and a principal Writer of their Party They affirm God is only one Person not three They make our Lord Christ to be the Messenger Minister Servant and Creature of God they confess he is also the Son of God because he was begotten on blessed Mary by the Spirit or Power of God Luke 1. 35. But they deny that he or any other Person but the Father the God and Father of the said our Lord Christ is God Almighty and Eternal The Holy Ghost or Spirit according to them is the Power and Inspiration of God Luke 1. 35. That the Lord Christ was a Man the Son Prophet Messenger Minister Servant and Creature of God not himself God they think is proved by these as they call them Arguments 1. If our Lord Christ were himself God there could be no Person greater than he none that might be called his Head or his God none that could in any respect command him But the Holy Scriptures teach that the Father is greater than Christ is the Head and the God of Christ and gave Commandment to him what he should say and what he should do John 14. 28. My Father is greater than I. 1. Cor. 11. 3. The Head of Christ is God. John 20. 17. I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God. John 12. 49. The Father which sent me he gave me a Commandment what I should say John 14. 31. As the Father gave me Commandment so do I. 2. If our Lord Christ were indeed God it could not without Blasphemy be absolutely and without Restriction affirmed of him that he is the Creature the Possession the Servant and Subject of God or that for his Obedience he was rewarded and advanced by God. But the inspired Authors of Holy Scripture do say that the Son our Lord Christ is the Creature of God the Possession of God the Servant of God was obedient to God and for that cause by him rewarded and exalted also that when God shall have subjected all Men to his Son our Lord Christ yet even then shall he remain subject to God. Col. 1. 15. The first-born from the dead ver 18. of every Creature Heb. 3. 1 2. Consider the Apostle and high Priest of our Profession Jesus Christ who was faithful to him that appointed him In the Greek and in the Margin of our Bibles 't is faithful to him that made him 1 Cor. 3. 23. Ye are Christ's and Christ is God's Matth. 12. 17 18. That it might be fulfilled that was spoken by Isaias Behold my Servant Phil. 2. 8 9. He humbled himself and became obedient Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name above every Name 1 Cor. 15. 28. When all things shall be subdued to him then shall the Son also be subject to him that put all things under him that God may be all in all 3. He that is true God is not the Minister or Priest of any other Person or Persons he neither doth nor will being himself Omnipotent and All-sufficient mediate or intercede with any whomsoever for his Servants and People But 't is certain that our Lord Christ is the Minister and Mediator of God and Men a Priest that appeareth in the Presence of God and intercedeth with him for Men. Heb. 8. 6. Now hath he obtained a more excellent Ministry 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Jesus Christ. Heb. 2. 17. A merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God. Heb. 9. 24. Christ is not entred into the Holy place made with Hands but into Heaven it self now to appear in the Presence of God for us Heb. 7. 25. He ever liveth to make Intercession for them 4. Almighty God doth all things in his own Name and by his own Authority He ever doth his own Will and seeketh his own Glory he declares himself to be the prime Object of Faith and Worship and pronounces all Doctrines or Religions to be vain which proceed not from Him alone But in our Lord Christ all things are contrary for he declares that he came not into the World in his own Name or Authority not to do his own Will or seek his own Glory or propound himself as the principal Object of our Faith or Worship or to publish a Doctrine of his own John 17. 28. I am not come of my self John 5. 43. I am come in my Father's Name John 8. 42. I proceeded forth and came from God neither came I of my self but he sent me John 5. 30. I seek not my own Will. John 8. 50. I seek not my own Glory John 12. 44. He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on him that sent me Phil. 2. 11. That every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father John. 7. 16. My Doctrine is not mine but his that sent me 5. God was always most wise never ignorant of any thing He needeth not the concurrence of any other Person to assure him that he judgeth right He cannot saith St. James chap. 1. ver 13. be tempted And as he is infinitely great so he is no less Good. But the sacred Writers do not speak of the Lord Christ after this Tenor They say our Lord Christ increased in Wisdom that he professed himself ignorant of some things that he ascribed the Certainty and Infallibility of his Judgment to the Father's Presence with him that he was tried by great Temptations being thereto exposed by the Holy Ghost that he refused to be called Good because God only is Good. Luke 2. 52. Jesus increased in Wisdom and in Favour with God and Men. Mark 13. 32. Of that Day and Hour knoweth no Man In the Greek tis none knoweth no not the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son but the Father S. Matthew Mat. 24. 36. adds But the Father only John 11. 34. Where have ye laid him They say unto him Lord come and see John 8. 16. My Judgment is true for I am not alone but I and the Father that sent me Matth. 4. 1. Then was Jesus led of the Spirit to be tempted of the Devil Luke 18. 19. Why callest thou me good there is none good save one that is God. 6. God giveth what and to whom himself pleaseth he needs not the Aid of any other he entreateth
for the Godhead of the Son or Spirit because as now Christians are baptized unto them so the Jews were baptized unto Moses and John's Disciples unto John. 9. Luke 1. 16 17 76. Many of the Children of Israel shall he John Baptist turn to the Lord their God and he shall go before him in the Spirit and Power of Elias Thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the Face of the Lord to prepare his way Answ See on Isa 40. 3. 10. Luke 17. 5. The Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our Faith. Answ By thy Prayers to God which are always heard for us 11. Luke 24. 47. That Repentance and Remission of Sin should be preached in his Christ Name Answ The sense is Christ commanded the Disciples to require Men to repent and on their so doing to assure them in his Name or from him that God would forgive them 12. John 1. 1. c. In the Beginning was the Word c. Answ The Trinitarian Exposition of this Chapter is absurd and contradictory 't is this In the Beginning i. e. from all Eternity Answ From all Eternity is before the Beginning or without Beginning not in the Beginning In the Beginning must refer to some time and thing it must be in the Beginning of the World or of the Gospel or of the Word and in which ever of these senses it is taken the Word cannot be from all Eternity by Virtue or Force I mean of this Expression Was the Word i. e. was God the Son. Answ But where in Scripture is the Word called God the Son The Word was with God i. e. The Son was with the Father Answ It seems then that God in this clause is the Father But was not the Son also with the Holy Ghost and is not he too according to the Trinitarians God or a God If he is why doth St. John only say the Son was with the Father and how comes the Father to engross here the Title of God to the Exclusion of the Holy Ghost The Word was God. What shall we do here was the Word the Father for so they interpreted God in the foregoing clause No God in this clause hath a new meaning 't is God the Son. But in the whole Scripture there are not these words God the Son. The same was in the Beginning with God. How comes this to be again repeated for John had said once before that the Word was with God. They care not 't is said and that 's enough The Truth is according to their sense of this Context no account can be given of this Repetition and they must allow it to be a meer Tautology But let us say the Socinians hear Grotius interpreting this sublime Proem of St. John's Gospel Ver. 1. In the Beginning i. e. when God created the Heavens and the Earth For these Words are taken from Gen. 1. 1. was the Word The Hebrews call that Power and Wisdom of God by which he made the World and does all other his extraordinary Works his Word Psal 33. 6. By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made Heb. 11. 2. The Worlds were made by the Word of God. 2 Pet. 3. 5. By the Word of God the Heavens were of old They borrowed this Expression from Moses who in describing the Creation saith that God said Let there be Light Gen. 1. 3. God said Let there be a Firmament Gen. 1. 6. and so through the whole Chapter Undoubtedly Moses is not to be understood of a Word orally spoken for God is a Spirit but his meaning is God put forth his Power and Wisdom and thereby created Light and the Firmament c. As easily as Men can speak these Words Let there be Light Let there be a Firmament Thus we see why the Divine Wisdom and Power was called the Word by David and so many Writers of the New Testament The Word was with God i. e. It was not yet in the World or not yet made Flesh ver 10. and 14. but with God. The Word was God i. e. The Word or Divine Wisdom and Power is not something different from God but being his Wisdom and Power is God. 'T is the common Maxim of Divines that the Attributes and Properties of God are God. Which is in some sense true We may also here note that those Persons whether Angels or Men to whom the Divine Word hath been in an extraordinary Degree communicated have also had the Names Jehovah and God given to them The Angel who destroyed Sodom by a miraculous Tempest from Heaven is called Jehovah so is he that promised Abraham to cause Sarah to conceive a Son Gen. 18. 13. On the same account God says to Moses Exod 7. 1. See I have made thee a God to Pharaoh Ver. 2. The same was in the Beginning with God. This is here again repeated by the Evangelist to teach us that the Word is so God that it is not all that God is there being other Properties and Attributes of God that are communicable as well as the Word Ver. 3. All things were made by him The English-Geneva Translation saith here All things were made by It. But it matters not for the Word begins here to be spoken of as a Person by the same Figure of Speech that Solomon saith Wisdom hath builded her House and hewn out her seven Pillars Prov. 9. 1. And that David calls God's Commandments Counsellours Psal 119. 24. Ver. 4. In him i. e. In him when he was in the World and was made Flesh Ver. 10. and 14. Was Life i. e. By the Word when made Flesh or Man the way and manner of obtaining Life eternal Life was discovered to the Gentiles The way is the Doctrine of the Gospel John 12. 50. And the Life was the Light of Men i. e. The Life-giving Doctrine by him taught was that Light to and by which Men may and ought to direct their Steps in order to eternal Blessedness John 12. 50. So here the Doctrine of Christ the Gospel is called Light as before it was called Life Ver. 8. He John was not that Light i. e. John neither was nor was the bringer of the Light of the Gospel though he bare Witness to both 'T is usual in familiar Speech to call the Bringer of a thing by the name of the thing he brings and for this reason our Saviour is called Life and Light John 14. 6. John 8. 12. Ver. 10. He was in the World. Here the Evangelist returns to speak of the Word The sense is in Process of time the Word became incarnate that is Abode on the Person of Jesus Christ and so conversed in the World among Men. God communicated his Word that is a vast Effusion of his Divine Power and Wisdom to his Son the Lord Christ Acts. 10. 38. The World was made by him i. e. The World and all Men were made by this Word which afterwards abode on Jesus Christ and which
that our High-Priest and Intercessor having been in our very Circumstances is touched with a true Feeling of our Infirmities and therefore doth with great Earnestnest intercede for us all in general 35. Heb. 7. 3. Without Father without Mother having neither Beginning of Days nor end of Life but made like unto the Son of God abideth a Priest for ever Answ All acknowledg that these Words are spoken of Melchizedec And that because neither his Father nor Mother nor the time of his Birth or Death are mentioned in Scripture he is therefore said to be withour Father or Mother and without Beginning of Days or end of Life But he is not herein like the Son of God the time of whose Birth and Death is recorded in Scripture and whose Mother was blessed Mary and his Father the everlasting God but he is like the Son of God in that he abideth a Priest for ever 36. Heb. 10. 5. A Body hast thou prepared for me Answ 'T is undoubted that God prepared a Body for the Soul of Christ 37. Heb. 11. 26. Esteeming i. e. Moses esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt Answ The sense is Moses preferred being reproached and ill used by Pharaoh and the Egyptians as Christ was reproached and abused when he came to deliver the true Israel of God from the Bondage of Sin and Satan before all the Treasures and Riches which he as an adopted Son of Pharaoh's Daughter might have expected and had in Egypt So Grotius and others the most esteemed Interpreters 38. Heb. 13. 8. Jesus the same yesterdy today and for ever Answ This is prefaced to what here follows be not carried away with diverse and strange Doctrines as an Argument to perswade Constancy in the true Faith. The sense is the Lord Christ and his Gospel is the same thing that it always was be not therefore carried about to every novel Doctrine Ye will by Experience find that 't is a good thing to be establish'd in the Grace of the Gospel and not in Doctrines about Meats which the Jews from the Mosaic Law and the Gentiles from the Dictates of their Philosophers so much urge 39. 1 Pet. 1. 11. Searching what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ. Answ 1. The Spirit of Christ that is the same Spirit of Prophecy that was in Christ Or 2. The Prophetick Spirit in them which spoke of Christ So Grotius interprets here Others confirm his Interpretation by observing that the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error mentioned 1 John 4. 6. are those Spirits which speak the Truth and teach Error So we call Virgil the Poet of Eneas and Homer of Achilles and Vlisses because they have written and spoken of Eneas Achilles and Vlisses 40. 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. Quickned by the Spirit by which also he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison which sometimes were disobedient in the days of Noah Answ This Text seems to speak of Christ's descent into Hell. The sense is Christ being dead was shortly quickned or brought to Life again by the Spirit or Power of God by which also that is by assistance of which Spirit he preached and spoke to the Spirits imprisoned in Hell who would not harken to Noah who in his Life-time preached Righteousness to them 2 Pet. 2. 5. Cardinal Bellarmine has quoted above thirty of the Fathers who interpret this Text after this manner The Interpretation seems confirmed by 1 Pet. 4. 6. For this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead For that he speaketh of the real dead appears by the foregoing verse 41. 1 John 1. 1 c. That which was from the Beginning which we have seen with our Eyes of the Word of Life declare we unto you Answ The Word of Life here is the Gospel The sense is we declare or preach to you that Gospel or Word of Life which from the Beginning was in the Mind and Decree of the Father So St. John explains himself in these Words at ver 3. That eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested to us He calleth the Word of Life eternal Life as 't is the ordinary and appointed means and way to eternal Life He saith he had heard it and seen it with his Eyes and handled it with his Hands to signify by these Expressions that it was fully certainly and perfectly known to him For the Hebrews use to express full and certain Knowledg of things by Words and Phrases borrowed from the senses 42. 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us Answ Neither the Syriac nor almost any Greek Copy of the Bible hath the Word God in this Text. The true reading is hereby perceive we his Love because he Christ laid down his Life for us 2. Admitting the reading in the English Bible yet he in this Text is not God but Christ the Son of God who was mentioned ver 8. So Grotius And the Interpretation is certain for God cannot lay down his Life 43. 1 John 4. 3. Every Spirit that confesseth not that Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God. Answ This saying is come in the Flesh or in Flesh for so 't is in the Greek is opposed to those false Prophets and Teachers that affirmed Christ had not a real Body of Flesh and Blood but a spiritual and consequently was not a true Man nor the Off-spring of David On the contrary St. John here teaches that Christ is come in Flesh or in the Flesh that is was clothed with a real Body of real Flesh 44. 1 John 5. 7. There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Answ 1. This verse was not originally in the Bible but has been added to it 'T is not found in the most ancient Copies of the Greek nor in the Syriac or Arabick or Ethiopic or Armenian Bibles nor in the most ancient Latin Bibles 'T is not acknowledged by the Fathers who treated professedly of this Question of the Trinity 't is wholly rejected by abundance of the most learned Criticks and Interpreters and by all acknowledged to be doubtful and uncertain 2. Admitting this verse to be genuine yet the most learned Trinitarians confess the sense is not these three are one God but these three are one in their Testimony or they agree in their Testimony for they are here considered and spoken of as Witnesses So Beza Vatablus Calvin Erasmus the English-Geneva Notes And accordingly most of the Greek Bibles which have this verse in them read here as they do in the next verse not these three are one but these three agree in one i. e. in one and the same Testimony 45. 1 John 5. 20. We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an Vnderstanding