no Foundation but Humane Reason which is not allowable chiefly in things of the nature of those now in question what they call Cant is out of Scripture Writings of Antient Fathers and out of Schools which as I think are the proper Store-houses whence to draw our Materials but with them every thing is Cant which doth not suit with their Tunes those Men would have all Notions of things manner of Expression and Stile to be but one and the same but theirs to be the Original for others to go by which especially in Men who so highly pretend to Reason is as unreasonable as if one would have all features in the Face all shapes of the Body all humours and inclinations of the Soul to be alike a thing impossible For every man saith the Apostle hath his proper gift of God one after this manner another after that However these great Masters of Wit Learning and Reason find fault with the way of other Mens Writing if it be not as they would have it that they call Nonsense and what else they please for their Tongues and Pens are their own wherewith they will do what they have a mind to Their Ironical Expressions may well be retorted upon them yet they should know how Truth is better when naked and needs no painting as doth Falshood to Paint is the part of an Harlot not of a vertuous Woman I ask Is not Gold Gold still and good tho' it be not Enamel'd or otherwise curiously wrought If they have their way of Writing I have mine which they shall not put me out of but will keep to 't till I see a Law enjoining others to Conform to theirs I thank God my ways are different from and would not change them for theirs tho' they would set up for Censors and Reformers of other Mens Works but by what Patent I cannot hear nor see and if I could help it I would have nothing Common with them because their Plague is in the Head and to give them their due in what they say there is more of flashy Wit than of solid and sound Reason they prefer the Bark before the Body of the Tree and the Cloaths before the Person who wears them They dislike my Quotations or Fragments of Scripture as one of the two calls them and good reason they have for they are so many strong and destructive Batteries against them they would not see the Mouth of that Cannon which shatters their false Opinions to pieces If to Quote Scripture be a Fault they are not guilty of it they travel not much into that Country and when they do 't is with a Cup of Venom in their Hand if possible to poison the Springs Their Reason is the God-Idol for whose sake they slight Revelation but saith he those Fragments are ill applied I see you had more Curiosity than your Brother which of the two is Simeon and which Levi I cannot tell however one calls himself a Lay-man for you read the Book but what 's the reason you give not one Instance of these Fragments of Scripture being ill apply'd surely you are apt enough to take advantage if any was offered and I cannot believe you would have so much Charity as to spare me for by the sowrness and gall of bitterness which I find in the Letters I have cause to think so you cannot so soon have forgotten all those Portions of God's word ill apply'd I had been glad to have seen some named then upon a good account I could have said something to you but you give me cause to think those Misapplyings to be the Man in the Moon I mean your Humane Reason As for me about Matters in question Scripture is my Stong-hold and the Arsenal whence I draw both offensive and defensive Weapons which they would have us to throw away but they must pardon us for not complying with them they themselves cannot and will not do so for therein they would find their Condemnation We follow better Examples those of great Captains in this Warfare as Paul who in this same Cause reasoned out of the Scriptures and at another time he testified concerning Jesus Christ out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning till evening He was not weary of it neither must we be let Socinians say what they will to the contrary And tho' he was immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost yet on all occasions he appealed to the Scriptures for a confirmation of what he said Thus when he affirmed that Christ died for our Sins he immediately addeth according to Scripture and in the 11th Verse he saith that he was buried and that he rose again still according to the Scriptures His Death Burial and Resurrection three Articles of our Faith he proves by Scriptures which is a Rule laid before us to prove his Divine Nature and Attributes which we ought to follow except we think we about such things know more than the Apostle And then Apollos whose great Commendation is that he was mighty in the Scriptures and that he mightily convinced the Jews publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ So if we will convince Socinians that Christ is the true Natural Son of God we must do 't out of Scripture as out of the same Apollos did mightily convince the Jews that Jesus was Christ Besides we have the Example of a number of People I mean of Berea said to be more Noble than those of Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things preached to them were so Thus we obey our blessed Saviours Command to Search diligently the Scriptures for they bear testimony of him And accordingly when he was with his Disciples he taught them out of the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms all things written concerning him as after his Resurrection he put them in mind of it then he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures without which no knowledge of him to be had and in these Matters the Question is about him his Person Besides that 't is usual as with Paul and the other Apostles so with the Evengelists out of Texts of the Old Testament to prove what they affirmed in the New nay in the Old we sometimes find one Prophet quoting some Texts of another and upon this very account of Sanctifying the Lord of Hosts the Messiah the Prophet sends the People to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them without it their natural Reason is but Darkness I am blamed for using Sundry Metaphors called A Flourish of wild Rhetorick but if it was transplanted into their Garden it would be Natural enough there as indeed it would be in its proper center If sometimes I make use of Metaphors I wonder why they dislike it in some respect it may be called a Creature of their own for
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
thing we go about we are to call upon God for his help and the gracious influence of his Holy Spirit being sure that without it we can do no good and we be sufficiently taught in Scripture to trust to no strength or abilities of our own and when in the World we meet with Men of Principles contrary to these we find it not strange for we know that there must be also Heresies among us or those called Christians that they which are approved may be made manifest among us Wherefore as long as we have about these Matters such a Foundation as Paul the great Preacher of Free Grace hath laid we need not to care for all Exceptions or Cavils of Men or Devils These are such Truths as we hope through Grace never to be ashamed or afraid to own unto the end even to lay down our Lives as he did his for so Glorious a Cause The Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Grace are so linked together that no Man strikes at one but the other feels it tho' may be in a different degree they have a common Enemy so he who is against one is against both which I positively affirm of Socinians Grace and Truth saith the Evangelist came by Jesus Christ who coming into the World brought Grace along with him for he is the Spring of it which he manifested in framing and redeeming of his Church the Foundation whereof and of our Christian Religion lies in this great and fundamental Truth whereof Peter made a Confession how Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God upon the verity whereof there our Saviour declared that his Church should be built and at the same time signified that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it For this is the House built upon a Rock which tho' the Rain descendeth and the Floods come and the Wind blows yet it falls not for it is founded upon a Rock In that Promise of his the Lord Jesus declares two things First The Gates that is the Power of Devils in Hell would afterwards make some attempt against that fundamental Truth of his being the Son of the living God As indeed it hath from time to time raised its strongest Batteries against it as not long after his Ascension even in the life time of his beloved Disciple and after his death the Assaults began by Simon the Sorcerer Ebion Cerinthus Menander and afterwards by other Hellish Instruments But in Arius's time great strugglings happened with so prodigious a success that all the World was said to be Arian hence came the Saying All the World against Athanasius and Athanasius against all the World so afterwards for the same Cause against our Saviour's Divinity several fought under the Banners of Hell as now tho' more cunningly Socinians do having taken up the Cudgels and as those Blasphemous Opinions were exploded out of the World so shall be in God's due time those which are raging for the present notwithstanding all the Craftiness Malice and Power of Hell and all Antichrists of Devils and Men This my so positively speaking is grounded upon Christ's Promise how the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the truth of his being the Son of the living God which his Church is built upon and this is the Second thing not only deduced from but plainly contained in those words of the Lord Jesus whose Person is a fit Object of Adoration as his Grace is of Admiration These Truths one may abundantly be satisfied with out of Scripture which I much have made use of because some places prove a Truth directly others collaterally and others are brought in to illustrate and give a light to the thing so that Scripture is of several uses nothing therein without some use 't is of it as of the Rivers in the Garden of Eden they all did not run one and the same way But now to conclude I in the first place put you in mind to Answer my Book and then take this Occasion which you give me in case ye knew it not before to acquaint you how upon those Matters I have written a Book hitherto Unanswered if you have such an aversion for them as you express do but give us in Print your Thoughts about it 't is a fair Field I offer you but be not afraid for 't is not Smithfield but if ye can defend that Cause no better than the Socinian about the Holy Trinity and Person of the Lord Jesus then it will be in you but Time and Labour lost in vain And if you go about it be more Serious in a Business of so high a nature and less Virulent and Malicious For shame leave off Jesting with Holy things and let it be without giving ill Language for therein I yield you know to do 't more than my self and write like Scholars and Gentlemen without breaking the Bonds of Humanity with Arguments as hard as ye please but softer Words and make no more haste than good speed if ye come in that way then by the Grace of God I will fairly Answer you in the like manner and tho' already there is Work enough cut for you I doubt more than ye are well able to compass yet several new Arguments I have to bring in but if in the usual Scolding Reviling way I will leave you to chew your Cud May be your Bantering way of Writing hath succeeded against some but be not mistaken with others it will never do come with good Arguments and then I am for you however come which way you will I declare I shall not in the least care whether you come asunder or both together FINIS BOOKS Printed for J. Hartley THE Blasphemous Socinian Heresie Disproved and Confuted c. With Animadversions on Mr. Toland's Christianity not Mysterious Dedicated to both Houses of Parliament By J. Gailhard Gent. Verdicts of the Learned concerning Virgil and Homer's Heroic Poems Regular and Irregular Thoughts in Poets and Orators Page 18. Page 15. Page 4. Page 3. Gal. 4. 18. Rev. 3. 15. Page 3. Luke 16. 8. pag. 59. 1 Cor. 2. 4 5. Acts 15. Eccles 4. 10. * 1 Cor. 12. 28. and Ephes 4. ii 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. 1 Cor. 12. 30. 2 Pet. 3. 16. Luke 16. 31. Luke 20. 38. 2 Cor. ii 8. 1 Cor. 2. 12 13. Ephes 1. 16 17 18. Colos 1. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Coloss 2. 7. Heb. 13. 9 1 John 4. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 16. Page 8. Page 4. 16 18. 1 Cor. 7. 7. Acts 17. 2. Acts 28. 23. 1 Cor. 15. 34. Acts 1â— 24 28. Chap. 17. 11. Luke 24. 44. Ver. 45. Isa 8. 20. Matt. 7 5. Pag. 6 7. Job 13. 4. Psal 74. 22. John 20. 31. pag. 6 8 pag. 11. Acts 2â— 3. Matth. 16. 17. John 14. 16 17. Chap. 16. 13 14. 2 Tim. 1. 7. Psal 119. 169. pag. 8. 2 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John 1 2. 1 Cor. 2. 15. 1 Tim. 3 16. Gal. 4. 4. Rom. 8. 32. p. 12 13. John 10. 33 36. John 14. 10. Chap. 11. 4. Isa 42. 8. Luke 2. 49. 50. Coloss 2. 9. Prov. 28. 26. Chap. 23. 4. p. 9 10. In 1565. and 1660. pag. 39. p. 6. 13. Page 14 2 Tim. 2. 25. pag 30. John 16 2 3. Joh. 8. 19. 1 John 2. 23. Matt. 3. 17. and 17. 5. Joh. 12. 28 Joh. 5. 37. Joh. 8. 43. Acts 3. 22 23. 2 Pet. 1. 16 17 18. John 10. 3 4 5. 2 Cor. 11. 13 14. page 17. pag. 19. pag. 18. Matt. 1â— 31. Luke 22. 65. Acts 13. 33 45. 1 Tim. 1. 13. Acts 26. 11. Ephes 2. 12. Coloss 2. 9. pag. 19. Psal 53. 1. pag. 22. Heb. 12. 16. pag. 25. Rom. 12. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 15. Coloss 1. 24. Ephes 5. 23 32. Psal 111. 9. Ephes 5. 4. pag. 20. Matt. 11. 27. Rom. 1. 21 c. John 8. 55. Chap. 14. 7. 2 Cor. 4. 6. pag. 21. pag. 18. 1 Pet. 4. 18. p. 22 33. p. 33. â—9 Rev. 2. 9. 3. 9. p. 7. p. 22. pag. 33. Lev. 5. 1. Deut. 19. 21. Lev. 24. 16 23. p. 25. p. 27. p. 18. p. 4. p. 27. p. 28. p. 29. p. 30. p. 30. Num. 16. 7. p. 31. p. 28. p. 33. p. 40. Rom. 2. 1. Coloss 4. 6. 1 Pet. 3. 15. pag. 42 43. Acts 19. 19. p. 31. Gen. 16. 12. Josh 7. 2 Sam. 21. 1. Joel 2. 25. Rom. 1. 32. Monday May 17. p. 36. p. 37. p. 14. p. 37. p. 38. p. 26 29. Acts 26. 11. p. 28. p. 35. p. 33. p. 41. p. 18. Phil. 4. 5. Luke 18. 11 12 13. Prov. 3. 5. John 1. 17. Matt. 16. 18. Chap. 7. 24 25. A Plea for Free Grace against Free-will * p. 9 20 33.