thing went otherwise when Emperours and other Men of Authority in the World became Christians then they became Nursing Fathers to the Church defended and maintained it against her Enemies by Arms against those who therewith assaulted it and by Councils against those who would have undermin'd her Doctrines And so it ought now to be against those who impiously Blaspheme that God whom the Christian Church ever own'd and worship'd whereunto the Adversaries agree for saith * Tom. 1. Sol. Scrup. 30. ad eum p. 327. Socinus Constat Justinum c. It is certain that Justin and Irenaeus had a different Opinion from what we have of the Person of Christ Therefore Men who willfully recede from such Fundamental and Universal Truths and Blaspheme there-against may very well be restrain'd and punish'd and by an Argument ad Hominem here upon the matter I return Socinus's own words upon himself for saith he †Epist ad Mart. Vadovit The Heresiarcks who raise Seditions and in promoting their Heresies mind only their own conveniencies ought most severely to be used as those whose Fault and Vice lieth not in the Vnderstanding but in the Will He farther adds How the Heresiarcks whose Frailty lies only in the Mind ought to be dealt with as furious Men and out of their Senses because though they be pity-worthy yet when found to do mischief are restrain'd and though these like the others may be pity'd yet if need requires their endeavours to propagate their Doctrine ought to be suppress'd even if otherwise it cannot be done with Bonds and Imprisonment That is in plain English if they had the Power in their hand thus they would use those who differ from them and by them are call'd Hereticks so upon themselves they pass a Sentence of Condemnation This Coercive Power at several times hath by the Magisttrate been made use of it was for an instance when several Bishops of the East met together to get Paulus Samosatenus an Heresiarck well known to Socinus remov'd from bis Bishoprick of Antioch for his Heresy and addressed to the Emperour Aurelian who effected it But to go much beyond the time of Christian Emperours we have a remarkable example of what is the Duty and ought to be the Care of Princes and Governours to make use of the Power which God hath put into their hands to promote his Glory and suppress all that is contrary to it Dan. 3.29 Nebuchadnezzar's Decree which he made after Shadrach and his two Companions had miraculously been deliver'd from the fiery Furnace that every not only Person but Nation and People that should speak any thing amiss or as it is in the old Translation Blaspheme against the God of Shadrach should be cut in pieces and their houses be made a dunghill If this Heathen King would not leave Blasphemy unpunish'd but mov'd by God's Spirit made a Law and appointed a Punishment for such Transgressours much more ought all who profess the Christian Religion take care to see such Impieties suppress'd or else as their Knowledge and Charge is greater if therein they be wanting they are in danger of suffering double Punishment What Treason is in Humane things that in some kind Blasphemy is in Divine for as Treason is against the King's Person or Government so Blasphemy is against God's Nature or his Works now as Treason is justly punish'd so there is a Punishment due to Blasphemy But to come to other things I say that for all their pretences to Piety and Vertue their Principles lead quite to the contrary and what I am going to say though there was nothing else can bring it home upon them here I positively charge them by means of some of their damnable Opinions to encourage Vice Prophaneness Immorality with all manner of Wickedness and this by the Grace of God I can make good so that it shall stick and let them wash it off as they can They are for the Mortality of the Soul after Death like the Body they would have her to be uncapable of Pleasure or Pains she neither acts nor is acted by but is asleep together with the Body till the Resurrection-Day to this purpose speaks * Epist 5. ad Volk So. Epist 3. ad Dudith p. 507. Socinus which was †Def. Puccii ad Resp Soc. tom 2. Oper. Soc. p. 264.267 Fr. Puccius's Charge against him Non me latet c. saith Puccius I know that thou deniest the Immortality of the Souls of those who are not Christians in the Resurrection so with the Epicureans thou believest the Impious Doctrine that the Souls dye with the Body and are both Annihilated by Death We use to say sins are linck'd together and go by couples so one Errour draws into another thus by a good consequence they deny there is now a Triumphing Church consisting of the Souls of those who enjoy God's presence when Scripture saith Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit Rev. 14.13 that they may rest from their labours Upon this Subject Calvin hath written an excellent Treatise call'd Psychopannichia about the condition of Souls after this Life to be seen at the beginning of his Opuscula's which I refer the Reader to not to trouble my self with refuting the Dream of the Soul falling asleep after Death till the Resurrection They also deny that there shall be a Hell being for a total Annihilation that is after Judgment the Wicked shall be reduc'd to nothing as if they had never been then no Torments for them to suffer upon this †Epist 3. ad Dudith nec de Immortalitate animae c. Socinus speaks plain enough I don't believe that any where in the whole Old Testament any clear mention is made either of the Immortality of the Soul or of any other Life Here is your Saducee but what 's become of the Soul after Death Solomon speaks to the purpose Then shall the dust that is the Body Eccles 12.7 return to the Earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it now in God's presence is fullness of joy and at his right-hand pleasures for evermore Psalm 16.11 Certainly the Soul when 't is with God in that special manner must feel Joy and Comfort but Socinians are of a contrary Opinion for they affirm * Smalc Err. 100. Err. 81. Err. 98. Animae Sanctorum c. The Souls of Saints after Death feel nothing and enjoy nothing Nay they deprive them of the blessed Vision of God for he adds The Souls of Saints do not see God before the Day of Judgment yet Scripture speaks of a place of Ease and Rest call'd Abraham's Bosom and though Parables be not Argumentative Luke 16.22 25. yet they are Illustrative to make us understand as far as we are able a thing that is and that same place without any Parable our Saviour calls Paradise when speaking to the repenting Malefactor
't is spoken of the same two Persons whom the Name Lord belongs to The Father's Person is but one but the Father's and Son's Persons are two Persons yet but one Jehovah or Lord with this difference That as the Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son so the Son doth Administer and Execute all Judgment in the World commanding and making use of this Authority sometimes under the Name of the Angel before whom stood Joshua cloathed with filthy Garments Now that this Angel was really and truly God it appears by his commanding of his own Authority Joshua's filthy Garments to be taken away from him and by his saying to him Behold I have caused thine Iniquity to pass from thee which none but the true God can say or do for none can forgive sins but God alone which is a Phrase equivalent to this I have caused thine Iniquity to pass from thee this more and more appears out of what is contained in verses 6 and 7. And the Angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua thus saith the Lord of Hosts If thou wilt walk in my ways and if thou wilt keep my charge then thou shalt also judge my House and shalt also keep my Courts Who but the true God can speak after this manner And that no ground should be left to doubt of this Truth that same Angel calls himself the Lord of Hosts for the Angel of the Lord protested saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts as if he had said I who am the Lord of Hosts protest unto thee If thou wilt c. then I promise thee so and so c. this is the proper style of him who absolutely is Lord and Master of all Hence we may learn another thing which is that Joshua being the High-priest was a Type of Jesus Christ our High-priest in things pertaining to Salvation who as Peter saith His own self bare our sins which are the filthy garments spoken of by the Prophet in his Body 1 Pet. 2 24. and which by his Death having made a full Atonement for he was cloathed with change of Raiment or with his own Righteousness Heb. 1.3 And when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high But farther to prove his Divinity here I shall bring in two Arguments which no where else I made use of before The first is this All men that is meerly men and no more than men are Sinners but Christ is no Sinner therefore Christ is no meer man but more than a man According to Rules this Argument is in Mode and Figure and both of these Propositions can fully and unanswerably be proved out of God's Word As to the Major 't is made good in two ways first by positive Assertions secondly by Examples The first hath two Branches whereof one is That every man is originally a sinner by nature for human Nature is sinful and corrupt the other is That every man is an actual sinner for as said before as at first the Person infected the Nature so since the Nature hath infected the Persons for by one man sin entered into the world Rom. 5.12.24 and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned though not every one after the similitude of Adam's transgression and when David saith Psal 5.3 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me he meaneth it of all men as well as of himself for without any difference or exception Ephes 2.3 we are all children of wrath even as others As for the other part That every man is an actual sinner 1 Kings 8.46 Jam. 3.2 't is plain for there is no man that sinneth not and Paul saith All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and another Apostle saith In many things we offend all wherefore in Scripture sometimes men are call'd by the Epithet of sinners and sinful But in Scripture the Holy Ghost is not satisfied to affirm every man to be a sinner but he therein gives Instances of and mentions the sins of the best and greatest Servants of God Adam's sin I shall not name which whole Mankind has cause to remember with a witness but I shall take notice of Noah's Drunkenness Gen. 9.21 chap. 19. chap. 12. and 20. chap. 26. chap. 43.15 Gen. 45.13 Exod. 4. Ps 106.33 James 5. Act. 15.39 of Lot's Drunkenness and Incest of the Mistrust and Dissembling of Abraham twice the like of Isaac of Joseph's learning to swear by the Life of Pharaoh with something of vanity in him when he said to his Brethren You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt of Moses's Refractoriness to obey God when he commanded him to go to the Children of Israel in Egypt and to Pharaoh and his Unadvisedness so Job's Impatience David's Adultery and Murther Solomon's Idolatry and that zealous Servant of God Elias was subject to like Passions as we are so Peter's Denyal Paul and Barnabas Falling out about no great Matter In few words every Servant of God had their Flaws and therefore in a way of defiance Solomon asketh Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Now I unquestionably proved every man to be a sinner Now must I prove the Minor Proposition of my Argument That the Lord Jesus is no sinner which to do is an easie task He never was nor is a sinner for though he assumed our human sinful Nature yet by the immediate working of the Holy Ghost which sanctified that part of the Substance of the Virgin out of which was form'd our Saviour's Body it was preserved from natural corruption wherefore the Apostle calls him Heb. 7.26 holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners And as he ever was free from Original so he never committed any Actual sin which made him defie the Jews thus Joh. 8.46 Heb. 4.15 Which of you convinceth me of sin None could for though he was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin 1 Pet. 1.19 therefore the Apostle calls him a Lamb without blemish and without spot and in the next Chapter he adds who did no sin chap. 2.22 1 Joh. 3.5 neither was guile found in his mouth and in him was no sin saith another Apostle which Truth I look upon as undeniably proved And so from the Premises I may well conclude That seeing the Lord Jesus is a Man yet not a sinner he must needs be no meer Man but more than a Man and so God and Man if he had been a meer Man ut sic reduplicative he also had been a sinner but seeing he is not a sinner then he is not a meer Man In this case any consideration drawn from Angels is not pertinent for the question is only of Divine and Humane Nature not of the Angelical for He took not on him the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but he
as if done to himself and consequently will punish the Magistrate for hindring them from worshipping those false Gods when they believe them to be true ones Good God! What Times are we come to that such things are suffered to be Printed and go unpunish'd The Magistrate may not punish those who dishonour the true God when they ought to punish those who dishonour false Gods Thus Papists do well to punish those who despise their Wafer-God but those who despise and blaspheme the true Son of God the Lord Jesus must not be meddled with These abominable Lines of Idolatrous Theology I read a second nay a third time thinking I had been mistaken at the first reading A Man who dares to write such things will say any thing else In another place he denies or at least doubts of God's care of his Church or of his power to defend it For he saith pag. 61. If the Pagan Emperours had been for promoting by force what according to their Sentiments was the true Religion they had utterly extirpated the very Name of a Christian A great mistake in him for several of them as Maxentius Diocletianus and many before and Julian the Apostate through cruel Persecutions did all they could towards it but God suffered them not and he never will for our Saviour hath promised Matth. 16.18 The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church Thus they make little of the Church if at Man's pleasure it may utterly be destroy'd whereunto answers their making Religion to be meerly a Priest-craft as they term it also the Author makes no difference between acting for a good or for a bad Cause and so alters the Question which is not Whether every Magistrate may in matter of Religion punish every Opinion contrary to his own But whether a true Christian Magistrate be bound to suppress what overthrows the Fundamentals of true Christian Religion pag. 81. Therefore his Instances of Gallio of the Town-Clerk of Ephesus and of Felix are not to the purpose I suppose he will own the Christian Religion to be now the true one in opposition to the Pagan or to the Jewish in as much as relateth to the coming of the Messiah that one must oppose not Truth but what is contrary to 't therefore the Persons named are not fit Patterns to be imitated by Christian Magistrates Gallio was a Deputy of Achaia Acts 18.12 17. there to maintain the Roman Authority wherefore he prudently would not meddle nor trouble himself with a Difference about Religion among the Jews which was not his business A Town-clerk wisely took care to avoid giving the Romans cause to say that in a tumultuous and seditious way chap. 19. without a just cause they had gathered together to disturb the Government which thereupon might have call'd them in question As for Felix he was the Roman Governour who minded to enrich himself and not to decide Matters of Controversie about Religion among the Jews a Covetous Man who hoped that Money should have been given him of Paul ch 24.26 So these Examples hold no proportion with the Duty of a Christian Magistrate to act against those who would overthrow Christianity And why should not the Magistrate take care of the good of the Souls as well as of that of the Body of the Subjects and punish Soul-destroying Errors and Practices Among the Jews a stubborn Son upon this Accusation by the Parents before the Elders how that he was a Glutton and a Drunkard Deut. 21.20 was stoned to Death and shall they who among Christians Blaspheme God be unpunished Of two contrary Propositions if one be true necessarily the other must be false 't is so of two Opinions in Religion if the Doctrine for the Most Holy Trinity and Divinity of Christ be true as it is then its contrary must be false And do not God's Laws bid us to follow adhere unto and be for the truth so as to promote it Every one in his Station ought to be against what is contrary to 't And to say the truth as this is the interest of Religion so 't is become the Magistrates concern to mind it upon his own account for that sort of Men with open Mouth and plainly tell him he hath nothing to do to meddle with their Religion whether true or false nor tho' Blasphemous and Idolatrous And on the other side this Author would influence the Members of Parliament who are for Penal Laws against their Blasphemies with suggesting that thereby they may happen to act against themselves which cannot be except they were of the same Principles with them thus he speaks pag. 43. Therefore it shews the greatest Indiscretion in those who tho' they have a share in the Legislature yet are subject to the Laws themselves to consent to any persecuting ones because they cannot be sure but that they are contriving Rods for their own Backs They cannot forbear ever calling Persecution any thing tending to restrain them the cause must be examined to find out the true Name of the thing 't is not the manner but the cause of Death that denominates one a Martyr 't is Justice not Persecution to punish Idolatry and Blasphemy and make use of a restraining Power Herein the Protestant Maxims differ from the Popish that these require a blind Obedience and will not admit others to speak for themselves but Protestants do We cannot approve the Socinians Latitude in advising and encouraging every one to read all manner of Books stuffed with Heresies and Blasphemies pag. 119. which is as dangerous as to put a Cup full of Poison into a Child's Hand or of one who knows not what it is Must every Ploughman or other Ignorant Person who neither knows nor understands the things of himself explain matters of Salvation or be Judge thereof In God's Name let every one read Scripture for all therein is excellent and good no Poison therein as in some Mens Books and therein let them be instructed and when Difficulties occur advised and directed by sound and knowing Men But chiefly upon the reading of the Word let them often be upon their Knees to beg of God to guide them by his Holy Spirit Some are not able to discern a Fish from a Serpent which commonly lies hidden in those unsound Books and by reason of natural corruption some would be apt to choose the worse I know that when the necessary means prescribed in God's Word to inform and make us understand have been used then every one must apply it to himself not of himself for that application is the Work of God's Spirit every one is not able to understand only those whom from above 't is given to pag. 120. 'T is not out of any mistrust of the Goodness and Truth of our Cause as he seems to insinuate that we would not have those that are not sufficiently instructed in the Grounds of it Converse either with the Heretick Persons or
in the Soul because God is a Spirit without Body yet some Conformity there is for it affords some Organs which are subservient to the Actions of the Soul and so the Body is in its manner an Image of Divine Perfection it doth hear and see and is a Symbol and Instrument of the Perfections of the Soul and of the Maker for the Wisdom Power and other Attributes of God are commonly represented by the Members as the Eyes Ears Mouth and Hands of the Body Lastly The Image of God did consist in the whole Person in Relation to the dominion which God gave Adam over all other Worldly Creatures also as to Happiness and Immortality for as God is Lord over the whole Work of Creation and Enjoys a Supreme Felicity so he constituted him Lord of other Creatures and placed him in a State of happy Immortality But several of these they deny or have corrupted they would not have God's Image to have consisted in Immortality and Righteousness for they affirm Adam to have been created Mortal and that he had died though he had not sinn'd but if so then God's Threatning his Disobedience with Death had been in vain and to no purpose if he had died whether or not he had sinned then Death had been no Punishment for his Sin yet the Apostle saith Rom. 6.23 Chap. 5.12 the Wages of Sin is Death he said before By one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin Though his Body was made of a frail matter yet thorough God's Gift it might have been Immortal as it shall be after the Resurrection that Immortality of our first Parents we call a power and faculty of not dying which to them was Natural for if they had continued in their integrity they had not died and in that State 't was as Natural not to die as not to Sin Death necessarily follows Sin and no Sin no Death as to that holiness and Righteousness wherein chiefly consisted the Image of God in which they were created the Apostle speaks of it when he saith Epes 4.24 that ye put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true holiness which in the verse before he called to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind which implies that once in us there was such a thing but was since decay'd and lost in Adam we had and lost it in him but in Christ were restored thereunto but Socinians who pretend to a right of making all things to be as they would laugh at it primum c. to affirm saith one * Smalc exam Err. err 104. That the first Man received in his Creation holiness and supernatural gifts is an Old and stinking Fable They also would have the pains which Adam and Eve underwent to have been natural Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Chap. 1.31 Chap. 2.17 V. 20. when we read they were a Punishment for their Sin this in them imports a reflection upon God their Maker and 't is to give Scripture the lie when it saith and God saw that every thing he had made was very good and also when God said to Adam in the day that thou Eatest thereof thou shalt surely Die. They say farther that he had not the excellent and certain Knowledge of the Creator nor of the rest of the Creatures which if true then he had been an imperfect Work of God but seeing God who was a competent Judge of the thing left it for him to give names to all Cattel and to the Fowl of the Air and to every Beast of the field which God approved of we must believe he had that certain Knowledge †Se statu prim hom c. 6. v. 23. though Smalcius be of a different Opinion and we also read he knew his Wife to be bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh Now when I am upon this point about Knowledge I shall pass to another which they oppose 't is this That there is a Natural Knowledge of God whereby we mean that Men who have the use of Natural Reason may without special Revelation by the consideration of God's Works in the World know that there is a God a first Cause of all who hath his being of himself and hath given all things theirs but they being used to gainsay Scripture affirm that by the light of nature Men cannot know that there is a God though Paul saith that which may be known of God is manifest in Men Rom. 1.19 20 21 28. for God hath shewed it unto them and it may more appear in the Verses quoted in the Margin and this knowledge is such as to leave them without excuse and this carries them so far as that by nature they do the things contain'd in the law which shew the work of the law written in their hearts Chap. 2.14 15. their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another an evil Conscience attended with terrours for fear of punishment and a good one with joy do demonstrate there is a God revenger for evil and rewarder of good but what 's that to them let Scripture speak never so positively and plainly things must be as they will have them to be The next thing is about Original Sin that is the stain and corruption which we bring into the World and as it is in humane nature 't is so call'd because it hath it's spring and origine from Adam and also because 't is originally and naturally from the Womb in every Man Woman and Child it consists in the privation of that original righteousness wherein the first Man was created and in the corruption inherent in our nature whereby we are averse from good and inclined to evil which Socinians who are a line of the generation spoken of Prov. 30.12 Isa 65.5 that are pure in their own eyes even from the Womb and so being righteous in their own conceit think they may say to others come not near to me stand by thy self for I am holier than thou yet 't is said they are not wash'd from their filthiness of this Sin there are two parts the imputation and the inherency as to the first Adam was a publick Person the representative of all Mankind which was in his Loyns as Levi was in Abraham's when to Melchisedec he paid the tenth part of all Heb. 7.9 upon which account as the Apostle observes Levi paid Tithes in Abraham by the same reason whole Mankind which were in Adam's Loyns when he sinn'd are accounted to have sinn'd in him God's Promises and Threatnings were not confin'd in him but extended to his whole Posterity which would have enjoyed the benefit of his Obedience if he had continued in his integrity as they have smarted for his Disobedience as 't is usual among Men to see the Blood and Family of Traytors to suffer for the Crimes of Parents and thereby to forfeit Estates and Dignities this imputation
work the Tabernacle the Sanctuary and all things thereunto belonging which was the place where till the Building of the Temple all those Levical Ceremonies were perform'd so this Ceremonial Service was no Priest-craft as most wickedly called but a most Wise Divine Institution Nay all the Pins of the Tabernacle and of the Court round about which seem the least things about it as before observed were of God's own immediate Appointment and Direction Exodus 27.19 as executed chap. 38.20 31. The Apostle saith Col. 2.16 all these Ceremonies were a shadow of things to come but the Body of Christ Therefore no vain nor idle things but Types and Figures as were Gideon's Fleece and the Brazen Serpent which contain'd much of Gospel in it Paul in the case of some Legal Ceremonies saith that thereby the Holy Ghost signified things Heb. 9.8 and if in that case we may well conclude in others too whereof in that same Epistle chap. 13.11 is one That the Bodies of those Beasts whose blood was brought into the sanctuary were burnt without the Camp One would think there had been no meaning in it but in the following verse the Apostle saith the contrary Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctisie the People with his own Blood suffered without the Gate So without the Gate and without the Camp answered one another as the Antitype and the Type and 't is so certain that Moses received those Laws from God himself that by the last of the Prophets he own'd it and put them in mind to observe it as his own Mal. 4.4 Remember the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments The Apostle Paul who had been brought up in Jerusalem at the Feet of Gamaâ—iel a great Doctor of the Law and who better than any Socinian understood the nature use and end of the Ceremonial Laws declareth how The Priests that offered gifts according to the Law Heb. 4.5 6. served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things which are no vain things nor Moses's Invention for 't is added As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Tabernacle for see saith he that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount So 't is no less than Blasphemy to say God's Institution is Man's Invention but what care they for't Blasphemy is their Element which they cannot live without This Samaritan hath led us somewhat out of our way therefore we must return where we left about the Imputation and Inherency of Original Sin But against this truth sprung up as detestable an Heresie as ever was broached by Man for Pelagius said All the harm which thereby befel Mankind was only an ill Example given so that Nature is as whole and sound as ever whereby the excellency and necessity of Grace is wholly annulled and to what purpose a Saviour and Mediatour for where is no Distemper there needs no Remedy and if there be no Original Sin yet Death is an effect of Sin how is it then that Children dye though they committed no actual Sin Now Socinans have espoused that Cause and value nothing of what Scripture can say or Arguments thence deduced conclude Socinus in his Exposition of Rom. 5.12 saith * De stratu primaevi Homin Apostolus nequaqam c. The Apostle doth not in the least affirm that all have sinned in Adam which is the very thing that there Paul doth affirm but Socinus makes nothing of that Sin for he saith †Praelect c. 4. in c. 10. p. 195. Vnum illud peccatum c. That one sin had no power within its self to corrupt Adam himself much less all his Posterity To the same purpose speaks the Racovian Catechism and in the last quoted place of Socinus he confidently saith * Peccat Origin nullum prorsus est c. Ex peccatô c. From that sin of our first Parents there is no necessity that any stain or pravity should have been propagated in whole Mankind To this we joyn what the Racovian saith in the fore-quoted place Original sin is nothing at all therefore it could not hurt free-will neither doth scripture teach that Adam's fall was a punishment imputed either to him or his Posterity But as I shew'd Scripture abounds in proofs to the contrary That Heresiarck denies also †Socin praelect c. 4. non fuisse c. Original Righteousness to have been in the first Man which is as positive as are the Words by another used to maintain that Humane Nature was not in the least Prejudiced or Corrupted through Adam 's first sin But one carries on the thing farther saying * Smale contr 〈…〉 206. Illum ab omni c. To say that God for that first sin of Adam punish'd all his Posterity whilest then they were Innocent is very far from Equity and Justice therefore it cannot without Blasphemy be attributed to God Here they challenge God's Justice as elsewhere they have his other Attributes and they slight one of the most important things in our Religion As they sacrilegiously presume upon the Nature and Person of our blessed Saviour so they do upon his Office of Mediator and would Rob us of the Advantages and Benefits which he thereby purchased for us And indeed they go about to corrupt the whole work of our Redemption and overthrow our Deliverance from Sin and Death for to omit here what they 〈◊〉 against his Royal and Prophetical Offices which â— mention'd elsewhere I shall take notice how they 〈◊〉 either wholly deny or partly corrupt what Scriptuâ—â— saith about his Propitiatory Sacrifice his Priesthood Merits Death Resurrection Glorification sitting at the Right-Hand of the Father and his Intercession for his Church His Sacrifice they deny to be true and real only allow it to be Metaphorical thus as they make of him a Metaphorical God so he must be only a Metaphorical Mediator or Saviour and Priest Christus c. saith one * Smale resp ad nâ—va Monst par 2. c. 3. p. 129. Christ our High-Priest was appointed to make an Offering improperly so called and he is improperly Metaphorically and Allegorically called by the name of Priest Thus after this we are Improperly and Metaphorically saved which is a strange sort of Salvation Paul calls Christ proprerly A Priest for ever Heb. 5.6 Psal 110.4 after the Order of Melchisedeck So had David long before the Lord hath not barely said but sworn thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedeck To be a Priest after an Order is really and properly to be a Priest yet let David and Paul say what they please Smalcius is of another Opinion when he saith †Err. 57.65 Heb. 3.1 4.14 15 5.5.10 c. He is not a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedeck shall we believe David and Paul or Smalcius How often is our
blessed saviour call'd an High-Priest in one Epistle And in his kind of Priest-Hood he was as much a Priest as ever Aaron was in his and he offered himself as really as ever any expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice were offer'd under the Law therefore his pretious Blood which was shed upon the Cross till Death intervened is so often mention'd in Scripture chap. 9.12 ver 14. By his own Blood he entered in once c. and the Blood of Christ which through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God even to Death Again Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ver 16. ver 26. Ephes 5.25 Acts. 20.28 thereby to save and sanctifie his Church for he loved it and gave himself for it and so hath purchased it with his own Blood which could not be done without a Sacrifice and a Priest there 's no true proper and real Effect without a true proper and real Cause As the Article of Christ's Satisfaction is one of if not the most Fundamental of our Salvation so the Holy Ghost hath in Scripture taken special care to confirm it in both Testaments Isaiah 53.10 read the whole chap. His Soul was made an Offering for sin saith Isaiah and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all thereby the Prophet alluding to the Ceremony of the scape Goat Asasel Levit. 16.21 1 Joh. 2.2 1 Pet 2.24 which was loaded with the Sins of the People so in several places of the Psalms c. in the New Testament he is said to be the Propitiation for our sins and who his own self bare our sins in his Body on the Tree with several others to the same Effect full and plain enough 2 Cor. 4.4 except to those in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds Yet Smalcius as if once had not been enough * Exam. 100 Err. Err. 57.66 said elsewhere That Christ is Metaphorically and improperly called a Priest and that he never offered a true but only a metaphorical sacrifice Again 't is false that Christ upon Earth purged our sins therefore they utterly deny the Merit of our Saviour's Death and thus impiously would overthrow the Foundation of our Salvation whilest St. Paul in several places of his Epistle to the Hebrews doth plainly demonstrate the Necessity Excellency and Efficacy of our Saviour's Sacrifice of himself for our Deliverance from God's Wrath the Curse of the Law and from Sin and Death Here I may shew an instance how far in an Impious way Men can go when God hath left them unto themselves These are the Words Et si nunc Vulgo c. * Racov. Cat. p. 177. And though now it be the Common Opinion of Christians that Christ by his Death hath deserved Salvation for us and fully satisfied for our sins yet that Opinion is Deceitful Erroneous and very Pernicious Where is that Fear of God Modesty Soundness and Humility which that worst sort of Men would in their Opinions and Expressions seem to pretend to But to omit so many other Evidences of their Blasphemous Writings I shall only add some Words of the same Smalcius †Exam. Err. 47.72 Christum nobis c. Christ hath not reconciled God to us nor when offended appeased him towards us God of himself and of his own Will is become favourable to Men without any ones Reconciliation Christ hath not obtain'd the Forgiveness of our sins by the shedding of his Blood for us So then with Paul we may say the Preaching of the Gospel is vain 1 Cor. 15.14.15.17 our Faith is also vain we are yet in our sins and the Apostles are found false Witnesses of God at one blow they with denying Christ's Satisfaction for us to Divine Justice would blast our whole Joy Comfort and Assurance in this Life and hope of Happiness in that which is to come 'T is certain that in the Work of Redemption to give and receive are Relatives for as a Man cannot properly be said to receive a thing except it be given him by another so no Man can properly be said to give except there be another to receive Thus in the Work of Redemption the price which Christ gives the Father receives it as Scripture saith Rev. 5.9 Ephes 5.2 Heb. 10.5.7.10 1 Pet. 1.18.19 Thou hast Redeemed us unto God through thy Blood and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor Again Ye know that ye were not Redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold But with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot The Blood of Christ and his Death by the Sacrifice of himself is the Meritorious Cause of our Redemption and Salvation This Gospel-Doctrine should not be scoffed at by Men who would pass for Christians yet thereby make Heathens of themselves in joyning with Heathens to mock God's Institutions of the Ceremonial Law which represented Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross let an Heathen who knew no better say †Cat. Distich de Morib l. 4. Stultitia est morte alterius Sperare Salutem 'T is a Folly to look for Salvation by another Man's Death but no Christian should say so I am apt to believe that Roman was not a meer stranger to the Custom of the Jews but as well as Ovid he might have read Moses's Books whereof the Translation by the Septuagint was then Extant and long before for by what that other in his Metamorphoses saith of the Flood of the Tower of Babel represented by the Gyants attempting to scale up to Heaven and some such other things we have ground to believe that he had read the Book of Genesis so might also Cato who though accounted a Wise Man by the World if he by the Verse of his already Quoted intended any thing against the Ceremonies of the Law about Sacrifices which represented that of the Messiah's Death whereby Salvation to Mankind was to be purchased according to the Prophecies of David Isaiah Daniel c. then we may reckon him to have been one of those whom Paul speaks of who professing themselves to be Wise became Fools Rom. 1.22 1 Cor. 1.23 24. so we may all others of his Opinion because as the Doctrine of the Messiah or Christ was to the Jews a stumbling Block so to the Greeks or Gentiles it was Foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and the Wisdom of God but we find Socinians to take part with those who barely are Jews and Greeks but not with them which are called so are more unexcusable than Cato and other Heathens who never had the Gospel-Light shining upon them as they have As they deny Christ's Satisfaction so wholly to deprive him of his Priestly Office they also would take away his
should take Mark with them But 't is fit I should say something in vindication of that Famous and first Christian General Council summon'd by a Christian Emperour now when by this occasion I am put upon it We must not wonder if some Heretick condemned by the Council such as Sabinus at that time the head Man of the Macedonian Heresy and now our Samaritan would reflect upon it but the account we have of the qualifications of those who were in the Council is much different and contrary to what he would insinuate there were Men of great Learning Piety Exemplary Life Wise Eloquent Sober Discreet Modest and of Courteous Behaviour some considerable for their sufferings and others respected for their great age and as that Assembly was notable for Quality so for number there being above 300 Bishops of which number were Paphnutins Spiridion Eusebius of Cesarea c. Men of great Fame with a vast number of other Divines with several Lay-Men good Philosophers to assist them therefore not so despicable as unworthily and falsly he would traduce it so consisted not of wrangling Greeks but if we may believe * Constant l. 3. Eusebius there were Divines out of Egypt Lybia Theboea Arabia Palestina Phoenicia Syria Cilicia Galatia Pamphilia Cappadocia Pontus Persia Asia and Phrygia one from Scythia and Hosius Bishop of Corduba in Spain much esteem'd by the Emperour also there were some from Macedonia Thracia as out of Achaia and Epirus This I mention not only to shew his want of Sincerity and Truth and that the Council was not contemptible as to the quality and number of Persons as he would make it but to demonstrate how weighty upon several accounts was Arius's condemnation by so Eminent an Assembly with the Emperour at the head who was a Pious and Wise Prince as his Carriage during the whole time of the Council declared him to be Besides that every one was allowed to say and defend his Opinion so things were not rashly carried on but seriously sifted and debated as for instance in the explanation of the word homoousius of the same substance which admitted of great debates wherein the cautious Eusebius Pamphilus appeared much it was agreed that the Son is of the Father but not part of the Father after all the Council at last by a free and unanimous consent agreed upon the Creed from the place call'd Nicene which was signed by no less then 318 Bishops well by that Council so lawfully assembled and after the debates which upon such occasions are usual was Arius and all of his Opinion Anathematized he in particular forbidden to go into Alexandria where he lived before and by the Emperour banish'd Now People may see what kind of Assembly was that famous Council which our present Samaritan would revile had it been Socinus's case as 't was Arius's he should have undergone the same Condemnation who in one point chiefly is worse than Arius who said our Saviour had by way of Creation a Being before the Virgin 's time and was the first of the Creatures which after Paulus Samosatenus Socinians deny The Council in their Synodical Epistle to the Church of Alexandria calls Arius's Tenets his impious opinions or rather madness and blasphemous expressions So do Socinian Heresies deserve to be call'd Here I shall add how the Council condemned not only the Heretick and his Opinions but also a Book of his call'd Thalia to shew how one of the ways to suppress Heresy is also to suppress Heretical Books after this came in the civil Authority and acted its part first the Emperour did upon the business write an excellent Letter to the Church of Alexandria and after into other parts also he ordered that if any of Arius's Books could be met with they presently should be burnt and farther declared that if any Person happened to have any of his Books and did not immediately produce and burn it he should upon his being found guilty presently suffer death and 't is to be observed how herein the Emperour acted in his civil Capacity and in the last Letter with no relation to the Council which he doth not so much as name And to carry on his Zeal farther Arius and Arians to make them more odious and detestable he branded them ordering they should be called Porphyrians from Porphyrius an impious and utter enemy to the Christian Religion herein we see a happy union between Church and State to punish and suppress Blasphemy and Heresy and when that wicked Man by means of intrigues had been readmitted into the Emperour's Presence upon condition to subscribe and swear to the determinations of the Council which both he did and thereupon thought all safe for himself from Man's side whom he had deluded and to have again been admitted into the Church God who cannot be deceived and will not be mocked executed Judgment upon him for the day before he should have been restored in Constantinople in a House of Office where he was gone to ease himself his Bowels fell out of his Body which before had been Judas's Punishment as being crushed to death by the fall of an House had been that of Corinthus So let all the Son of God's enemies be confounded if they will not be converted After their malicious aspersions cast upon Councils one must not wonder if they do what they can to abuse private Men 't is their ill nature which they neither can nor will part with they are in their element when they revile and speak ill of others and when Poison lies in the Heart Men must expect to see it break out what I now say of them I speak it out of my own experience witness their Apology and in one * The Grounds and Reasons of the Controversy concerning the Vnity of God of their late Pamphlets the Author is pleased to mention me in three places in the first pag. 15 he saith I reburnt Barth legat and goeth on thus it is a better Argument for that poor Man's seriousness in his religious perswasion then it is for the sincerity of Mr. Gailhard and the honour of Calvinism that he thirsts after the blood of Thousands He much pittieth that poor Martyr for the Socinian cause so no question but that tender heart of his doth poor Vanninus who was burnt for denying there is a God 't is pity Legat should suffer for his Religious Perswasion a very Religious Opinion to deny the most Holy Trinity with the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost why upon every account do they over-hand and shoulders bring in Calvin who is not concerned in our Dispute I did not so much as name him only to vindicate him from their false and slanderous aspersions how doth also my sincerity come in The matter of fact I related is plain enough and sincere too let them gainsay it if they can and because I say'd he was burnt for Socinianism is it a sufficient ground to entitle me to the name