minded there If he tell me there is no hope of getting a Cardinals Cap because the Doctrine of the Trinity is maintained by the Church of Rome also I Answer the Being of God is an Article of their Creed too and yet I doubt not but Mr. Considerators great Learning hath delivered him from so much ignorance in Church History That he well knows some Atheists or Atheistical Fellows have by more Wit and Learning then by sound Reason Honesty and true God liness stept into the inâ—alible Chair for before now And this may serve for an Answer to Our Nameless Authors argument in his Pag. 18. where he would deny the Doctrine of the Trinity because t is maintained by the Church of Rome An Argument so Weak and Foolish that I did not think it worth my while to take any other Notice of it than occasionally by the way for sure we shall never be able to maintain the Protestant Doctrine If this be any Argument with us That we are right because we dissent from them or because in many or most things they are wrong but a foolish Cause must have foolish Arguments or none at all And indeed notwithstanding the Considerators vain glorious boasting of his great Learning I look upon him to be as great a dishonour to the Schools for want of Answerable measures of sound Reason as it must be an affliction to our Clergy to find such Hereticks harboured in the Bosom of our Church For although he boast so much of the Mighty Revolution that greater liberty in matters of Religion would make from Christianity to Socinianism or Deism yet if he had sonnd Reason and integrity answerable to his great Learning and the knowledge that he must needs have there by in Church History The remembrance of the Arrian Persecution must deliver him from that foolish Dream nor could he were his attainments in Divinity and sound Reason proportionable to his great Learning deny our Lord Jesus Christ to be the true God and Eternal Life according to the Scriptures 1 Joh. 5. 20. when he himself asserts That in his Pag. 11. Colum 2. and Page 26. Colum 2. which by sound Reason and by Just and necessary Consequence proves him to be so for he saith God neither hath nor can give him the incommunicable properties of the Deity such as Ominpotency Omnipresence Omniscience and the like so then it is but for me or any private Christian to prove that Christ hath those incommunicable properties of the Divine being and the Considerator himself will maintain that he is God Now Sir if you had not excepted against the Revelation of St. John as being no part of Divine Writ you know I could presently have proved that our Lord Jesus Christ is Omniscient Rev. 2. 23. I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts Pray Sir compare this with Jer. 11. 20 27. and 10. 9. But seeing the Seducers and Cunningly devising fable Men of our day under the Specious pretences of Learning and Reason would fain gather up us Lay-men as Branches cut off from the true Vine and may succeed therein among the withered Branches according to what our Lord hath foretold and threatned concerning such in the 15th of Joh. and the 6th Yet our Lord hath given his word for it that they shall not deceive the Elect though they may and shall deceive many Mat. 24. 4 5. and 22 23 25. And that those pretenders to Reason are those very deceivers among others there spoken of is evident not only from our Lords words in ver 11. calling them False Prophets and deceiving many which they could never be able to do if they did not pretend Reason for there Cnnningly devised Fables but also their own Practices should bewray them to be Wolves in Sheeps Clothing in treading in the very steps of the Grand Saddneers in our Lords-day who that they might carry on that Fundamental Herisie of denying the Resurrection the more successfully they denyed the greatest part of the old Testament and would own nothing for Divine Writ but the 5 Books of Moses and sticking there they thought to confound our Lord himself by their Rational and Learned Argument that there must be Confusion Contradiction Absurdity and Nonsence if the dead Rise And you know Sir they grounded their Argument upon Scripture and made their foolish Reason and ignorance of the Power of God Judge of the Cause Seeing therefore the Considerator is not ashamed to tread in the Sadduces Steps but will imitate them in denying part of the Word of God and yet at the same time as they did pretend Reason and Scripture for what they held And to give them their due there are as many contradictions and seeming impossibilities to Reason against the Resurrection as there are against the Doctrine of the Trinity and our Faith therein must be intirely resigned up unto the revealed will and Almighty Power of God But I say seeing the Considerator will imitate the Sadduces in denying part of the Scriptures I shall endeavour to follow the Example of my Lord Jesus Christ and prove from such part of the Scriptures as they will own that our Lord Jesus Christ is Omnicisent and and Omnipresent but at the same time protesting against their unreasonable partiality in choosing and refusing what they please for Divine Writ and saving to the Service of the Truth all those arguments that are or may be drawn from any part of the Gospel of St. John the Three Epistles and the Revelation for destruction from God is a terror to me and because of his greatness I cannot indure to add to those things nor take away from the words of the Book of this Prophesie least God should take away my part out of the Book of Life Job 31. 22. Revelation 18. 19. Now Sir I think you do not except against the Gospel of St. Mat. and there we read Chap. 28. ver 20. Christ Promised his Disciples to be with them alway to the end of the World Now Sir let me freely Discourse with you concenring this Promise our Lord Jesus Christ is gone to Heaven and his Humane nature is to continue there till the Restitution of all things neither can a Man be at two Places at one time Now what will you do will you give our Lord the Lye in this Promise or will you believe that a Man or the Humane nature of Jesus Christ is not only in the Sacrament of the Alter and so in Thousands of Places at the same time with the Papist but also every where in all places of the World where ever there is a Believer Or will you believe the Truth as it is in Jesus that he is the Omnipresent God and so is with his People in all places and in all Conditions according to his gracious Promise Joh. 14. 18. I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you Perhaps you will tell me that this is no more then Paul said of himself 1 Cor. 5.
Reason only their great Learning hath so stuft their Heads and Memories that they have almost forgot what sound Reason is as hath been already seen in examining the Stuff they call Reason It is to be lamented that one good Gift of God should fall upon such bad Ground as to drive out another but so it is what else is the meaning of that Word Let not the Wise Man glory in his Wisdom nor the Rich Man glory in his Riches c. But to shew that as the glorying in these things robs the Giver of his Due so it makes the Receiver become a poor weak Fool Jer. 9. 23. And indeed it is very unreasonable to think it can be otherwise for if every good and perfect Gift comes down from the Father of Lights and is dispensed to us through the Son by the Holy Spirit what can those Gentlemen do otherwise but discover themselves to be as they are who shall deny our Lord Jesus Christ to be as he is over all God blessed for evermore and thereby deny to live by Faith upon him and as much as in them lies cut themselves off from him in whom dwelleth the Fulness of the Godhead Col. 2. 9. But if Reason fail these Gentlemen say they will remove the Cause to the Scriptures of Truth most gladly therefore with them to the Scriptures I will go and guide and subject my Reason thereunto And indeed it is impossible for us to have a true Knowledge of God without the Revelation that he gives of himself by his Word and Spirit And here I cannot but take Notice of the foolish as well as slanderous Report that my nameless Author in his Divine Vnity asserted pag. 6. Col. 2. as well as the Considerator in his 19th and 20th pages of his Answer to the Bishop of Sarum gives to the Christian Divines saying That were it not for Church Awes and for fear of losing their Stipends they would deny the Doctrine of the Trinity themselves I thank God I lye under no Temptation of being byass'd by the Churches Smiles or Frowns I being no Clergy-Man nor the Son of a Clergy-Man and therefore my Judgment cannot be bribed with the hope os getting or fear of losing any Benefice But God having given me an Immortal Soul it becomes me and it is but my reasonable Duty as well as Interest to be as much concerned about the Eternal Salvation thereof as any of those whose Business it is being called of God as Aaron to serve at the Altar by preaching the unsearchable Riches of Christ and the great Mysteries of the Gospel and Godliness God manifested in the flesh Eph. 3. 8. 1 Tim. 3. 16. And here I must take leave to tell our Doctors of Reason that if the Scriptures tell me that Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life as I find it doth 1 John 5. 20. Tit. 2. 13. I must therefore believe this Truth because I find it Testified in the Scriptures of Truth although thereby I should practically give those Gentlemen â—he Lye who say he is but a Man and although to prove their Sayings they tell me their great Reason and Learning hath taught them so to say and believe therefore to do them right I do freely acknowledge that they have a just right to lay claim to the Title that the Apostle gives to those simple Gentlemen spoken of in the 2 Tim. 3. 7. Who were ever learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And yet it is evident that these were no small Fools in their own Conceit for in the next Verse the Apostle compares them to Jannes and Jambres whose Ignorance and Folly was over-laid with such a stock of Impudence that they had Confidence enough to resist Moses though he was one of the greatest Men that ever lived upon the Earth And there were such pretended Wits in the Apostles days Men of corrupt Minds resisting the Truth concerning the Faith reprobate But their Folly was made manifest as the Unreasonableness of our pretended Men of Reason at this day is But let us see how these Men reconcile Scripture to their Reason or rather pervert it for my Author in his 16th page colume 1. argues that because we are to love God with all our Hearts therefore the Son is not God for then our Love would be divided Which argues strongly that he is God because we are commanded to love and honour him as the Father as hath been proved by Scripture Command and the Example of the Worshippers in Heaven And also is an undeniable Argument that the Father and the Son are one whether my Author will receive it or can understand it or no. The next Scripture that I find Our Author mentions in particular after he had mentioned several to prove God is one which signifies no more to his Cause then if a Man pretending to prove there is no Night in our Climate should tell us when we see the Sun shine we may be sure it is day For all true Christians believe God is one and that the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost is this One God But the Text which he mentions and recites at Large is in his 18th Page 1 Colume Phil. 2. 6. where the Apostle speaking of Christ saith who being in the Form of God thought it not Robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no Reputation and took one him the Form of a Servant My Author saith the reconciling Sense is that is to there Foolish Reason that he thought of no such Robbery as being equal with God It is very strange that the Servant should so much excel the Master when the Devil himself transformed himself into an Angel of Light he did not Quote Scripture so Falsly nor pervert it so palpably as this amounts to when he Brought Scripture to Tempt our Lord to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple as any Christian may see by comparing the 4th of Matthew and 6th with the 91st Psal ver 11. But Let us Consider what the Holy Ghost was pressing on Christians in the Context that we may not Charge him with Contradiction and Nonsence how bold so ever we may be with his Disciples and here we find he speaks of some Person or being that was in the Form of God and therefore the other assertion that he thought it no Robbery to be equal with God was a necessary Consequence of the Former and to take it as my Author doth is but to give the Lye to the Holy Ghost or to Charge him with Contradiction let him choose whether Besides the 7th and 8th verses make it clear that the Apostle was speaking of some Person or Being distinct and infinitely superiour to Humane Nature and therefore speaks of his Condescension in taking on him the Form of a Servant and being found in the Fashion of a Man Whereas were this this He the Apostle speaks of no other but a Man the Apostle
Sufficient All-sufficient being without beginning Now though Reason rightly Arguing from the Effects to the Cause may find out the Eternal Power and God-head as the Apostle speaks that is know that God is an Eternal being Yet all the Doctors of Reason can never shew how it can be so any more than they can shew how the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost can be One God And I do hereby promise not to trouble the Learned about such impossiblities as either of these are that on the same Day in the Morning of which our Doctors of Reason shall give me a reasonable Demonstration how a being can be without a-beginning I will in the Afternoon of that same day before the Sun goes down give them as Reasonable a Demonstration how the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost are one God For when you have Magnified your Reason as far as you will or can you have but two ways to Work it by either you must argue from the Cause to the Effect or from the Effect to the Cause Not from the Cause to the Efect for the very Supposition of a Cause destroys the Nature of a Being without a Beginning nor can you find it out by arguing from the Effect to the Cause for where there is no Cause all Effects must cease So that the Argument is very Rational both against you that will not believe God to be as he is because your Reason cannot comprehend him Whereas if you could he must cease to be God for an Infinite and Eternal Being cannot be comprehended by a Finite Foolish Man As also against the greater Atheist who deny the being of God because they say there can be no being without a Beginning but that God is all his wondrous Works declâ—re for there could be no Effects If there were not a first Cause to Produce those Effects and he himself must be without a Cause or else he must be but an Effect of some other Cause and that destroys his Eternal Power and Godhead So that as the Works of God do clearly shew that he is and that he is and Eternal Being yet all the Reason in Man by the utmost searching can never find out the Almighty so to perfection as to give a Demonstration how he can be so So that however these Gentlemen of Reason cry out against Misteries yet this one Attribute of Gods Eternity is such a Mistery as all the Worshippers in Heaven both Angels and Men shall adore and admire God for as well as for his other excellencies and perfections even to Eternity And it is observable that in Rev. 4. ver 8. There the four Beasts that stood round about the Throne adore God for his Eternity and they rest not day and night saing Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come those Blessed Creatures adore and believe what they could not give a Reason for and for that very Reason they admire and adore God so much the more Whereas if they could have told how God was they would have declared it and not Ananias and Saphira like have kept back any part of their knowledge For we find in all their Thanksgivings they go as far as they can in Rev. 5. ver 9. in their new Song which they Sing they say the Lamb is worthy to take the Book and open the Seals thereof and when they Praise him for Redeeming them and making them Kings and Priests they rest not there but go as far as they can even to the Foundation of all saying who hath Loved us and washed us in his blood and thereby made us Kings and Priests unto our God Where by the way we may observe that all Gods Kings and Priests are made so by being washed in Christ Blood and not by their imperfect following Christ Example of which more in due place Upon the whole matter let our Men of Reason make never so much Noise and Clamor against the Doctrine of the Trinity as being contrary to Reason and after they have darkned Counsel by Multitudes of Words without Knowledge yet it is evident that all their Reasons may be reduced to one which lyes with equal force against the very being of God that is their Reason cannot comprehend how three can be One And I will for once venture to assert not knowing any Law nor Reason against it that their Reason can as little comprehend and their understanding is as much at a Loss to know how a being can be without a beginning So that notwithstanding their pretentions to Christianity they are but Factors to Atheism for if the Atheist can but prove that every Mans Reason is his sufficient Rule for what he ought to believe and Practice he will gain a great Point and the greatest Fools will never want Arguments to justifie their Foolish Notions and Practices For if the worst of Fools an Atheist come and say there is no God he will pretend Reason for it Though it be the most irrational thing that a Reasonable being can be guilty of For there can be no beings that we see but either made themselves or were produced by some other Cause or sprang out of nothing or else it is Eternal without beginning or Cause Surely we our Selves did not make our Selves nor could something of it self spring out of nothing much less could nothing produce somthing Therefore the Heavens and the Earth could not make themselves neither could such a Fabrick of it self arise out of nothing therefore it must have a Creator that by an Almighty Power could speak things into being without matter to Work upon Or else the Heavens and the Earth must be Eternal without Beginning or Cause and then they yield their Argument and contradict themselves If they say the Heavens and the Earth did by Chance jumble into the order in which they now are out of a confus'd Chaos of matter pre existant to the Heavens and the Earth to say nothing of the strangeness that it should not jumble back again into the same Confus'd Chaos by the same Chance before this time of day I Demand how this confus'd Chaos or disorderly matter came into being out of which this Heaven and Earth Chopt into into such an orderly Frame If they tell me that this confus'd matter was Eternal I answer That this is so sottish and blockish that none but Madmen or Fools can be guilty of it for who but those that have no reason or having had it have now lost it will deny an Infinite Eternal Being and yet attribute these Perfections to nothing or confused Matter which is worse than nothing But these are not the Fools I am concerned with I am treating with Gentlemen a Title too good and too great for the greatest Atheist in the World however they may assume it to themselves or their flattering Trencher dependants may as treacherously as well as cowardly give it unto them But the Gentlemen I am concerned with are Men of