Socinianism Unmask'd A DISCOURSE Shewing the Unreasonableness Of a Late Writer's OPINION Concerning the Necessity of only One Article of Christian Faith And of his other Assertions in his late Book Entituled The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scriptures and in his Vindication of it With a Brief Reply to another professed Socinian Writer By IOHN EDWARDS B. D. and sometime Fellow of S. Iohn's College in Cambridge LONDON Printed for I. Robinson at the Golden Lyon and I. Wyat at the Rose in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCVI THE INTRODUCTION THE following Discourse which was finish'd above two months ago but by reason of some Intervening Occurrences found not its way to the Press is design'd against the undertaking of a late Author in his book which bears the Title of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. But the Writer himself is wonderfully pleased with his Lying hid and being No Body I grant there may be Reasons why a man may sometimes conceal his Name and not prefix it to the Book he is Author of But there are some Reasons that are proper and peculiar to this Writer's circumstances for this is perfectly after the Mode of our late English Racovian Writers who constantly appear Nameless and accordingly herein he shews himself to be of the right Racovian breed And another good reason is this which indeed argues something of Modesty he would not set a Christian Name before that book wherein he so grosly abuses Christianity and renounces the greatest part of it I will not wast time and trouble the Reader and my self about guessing who this Writer is Out of Christian good will and charity I am backward to believe that he who is vogued to be the Father of these Extravagant Conceits is really so I will still perswade my self that there is an Error of the Person upon which account I shall be more free than otherwise I should have been But to come to the Book it self there was to express it in the most Learned and Rhetorical Stile of our Author himself a great flutter noise and buz raised about it even while it was yet under the Printers hands There were certain Factors and Emissaries who extravagantly extolled it and it was observ'd this Applause came from the Racovian quarter Those of that way knew before it came out that it was in favour of their Cause whence it was that they so mightily raised the Expectations of those they convers'd with and highly magnified this Piece before the world had seen it And as soon as it was blessed with the sight of it their language ran to an exorbitant heighth as if Christianity had been never known before the time of the compiling of this book All that went before this Author were deluded Creatures and were perfect Strangers to the Articles of the Christian Faith and to Christianity it self Now is risen up an Infallible Teacher all must obsequiously repair to this Great Oracle Now the Socinians have another Champion now they look brisk upon it and the day is their own Now Converts come in apace and the Youth begin to have a Polonian Aspect and in a short time we shall have a Brood of Socinians we shall be stock'd with Young Racovians And to let you into the whole Project this is the short account of it Socinianism was to be erected at this time they can stay no longer and in order to that all hands are to be employed i. e. all that they can get Among others they thought and made choice of a Gentleman who they knew would be extraordinarily useful to them and he it is probable was as forward to be made use of by them and presently accepted of the Office which was assigned him Now thinks he I had best to make use of this opportunity and to set up for a Divine Not only the Illiterate bulk of mankind but their Reverences and Right Reverences to use the words of a Writer of our own Brotherhood shall come to Me to have their understandings inform'd for we have but a sorry unthinking sort of Teachers now a-days whether they be Conformists or otherwise I could never approve of their Systematick genius their doating upon Creeds and Confessions and rendring our Faith cumbersom and burdensom It may be even these men will give ear to what a Thoughtful Musing Man dictates to them though they never think themselves but take all upon trust and swallow Epistles and Gospel together I have attained to such a heighth and perfection of knowledg that I am able to instruct these people after another rate I must tell them which I know they will look very strangely upon that the Apostles when they wrote the Epistles to their Christian Converts designed not to trouble their heads with any Articles or Truths that were necessarily to be believed they only dropt a few Occasional Documents And it may be now and then that One Article which I have propounded to the world may be hook'd in by the by but that is no place to look for any Necessary and Fundamental Truth of Christianity which is absolutely to be believ'd by us This seems to be Novel Doctrine and so indeed it is for I have the honour to be the first famous Inventer of it but I doubt not but in a short time I shall not only propagate this but the Cause to which it is subservient in a wonderful manner To this purpose I will carry it cunningly whilest the Double-Column'd Prints are openly and in a down-right way advancing the Cause I will do as much service under-hand They look directly towards Poland or Transylvania they publickly profess themselves to be Socinus's Followers but I 'll be upon the Reserve and so disguise my self that it shall be very difficult to discover me I will make the world believe that I never heard of such a man as Socinus and if they tell me that I speak his very language as perfectly as if I were a Native of Sienna I 'll face them down that I had it not by fingring of any Socinian Authors but by a kind of Natural Revelation Well this cause must be carried on and I can do it as well as any man by maintaining that there is but One Article of Christian Faith necessarily to be believ'd to make a man a Christian necessarily to be believ'd in order to salvation For if there be but One Point necessary to be believ'd then the doctrines concerning the Trinity concerning the Incarnation and Divinity of Christ concerning his Satisfaction c. are rendred unnecessary as to the making us Christians And this I will shove on under the colour of being serviceable to the bulk of Mankind of being obliging and merciful to the Multitude and Rabble and Poor People though to say the Truth I shew my self to be so far from obliging the Multitude that I do them an infinite deal of Mischief Yet if I compass my End it is enough and I care for no
upon us by the Messias are necessary matters of our Belief for we can't duly acknowledge him for our Benefactor and Saviour unless we believe that these Great Prerogatives are confer'd upon us Moreover it is of undoubted necessity in order to our being Christians that we know and believe what the Messias requires of us which is contained in such general Texts as these That ye being delivered out of the hands of your enemies may serve him Christ our Deliverer without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Luke 1. 75. The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts c. Tit. 2. 11 12. He gave himself for us that he might re-redeem us from all iniquity c. Tit. 2. 14. This is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thess. 4. 3. Without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Which places yield us such Propositions as these that the Messias who vouchsafed to come into the world to redeem lost Man requires of him universal Holiness and Righteousness and the abandoning of all sin and ungodliness That it was one grand end and design of Christ's visiting the would to redeem men from their iniquities to sanctifie their Natures and to make them entirely godly sober and righteous in their Lives That without these there is no Salvation no Seeing of God in the regions of Glory no hopes of Everlasting Happiness The disbelieving of these Articles hath made so many Sorry Christians as we see every where such as lay claim to that Honourable Title but are regardless of that Holiness which should accompany it We must not only believe that Iesus is the Messias but we must believe this also that we can have no Benefit by this Messias unless we by Faith and Obedience adhere to him Neither is this enough it is further matter of our Belief as we are Christians that our Salvation springs from the mere Favour and Bounty of God through his Son Iesus Christ and that this is the only source of that Happiness which we expect By grace we are saved through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saveth us Tit. 3. 5. Where there is not this perswasion and belief the true notion of Christianity vanishes and the conceit of Merit comes in its room Wherefore there is a Necessity that we believe and be perswaded aright as to this matter We are Worthless Creatures of our selves but there is a Worthiness derived to us from the Unspotted and Meritorious Righteousness of him that is the Eternal Son of God He that knows not this he that believes not this deserves not the Name of a Christian I should have been glad to have found something of this nature in this Gentleman's Christianity But he endeavours to seduce his Readers by other apprehensions he tells them that the bare assenting to this that Iesus is the Messias is the Summ Total of the Christian Faith and the Gospel requires no more Lastly The doctrines of the Resurrection of the Final Iudgment and of Eternal Glory in heaven are contained in such passages of the New Testament as these Christ will raise up his at the last day Iohn 6. 44. The Lord Iesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 1. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Iohn 17. 24. And are not these Truths the proper Object of our Faith now under the Gospel they so peculiarly belonging to the doctrine and belief of the Messias Can we believe in him and yet not believe these Great things which are brought to light by his preaching the Gospel For though they were in some measure discovered and revealed before i. e. the General Doctrine concerning a Future State and the Endless Happiness accompanying it was not unknown yet Christ's Words and those of the Apostles do more abundantly assure us of the truth of them especially Christ's Rising from the dead and ascending into Glory have irrefragably confirmed the reality of them according to that of St. Peter We are begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 4. Who but the Vindicator could imagine that these Evangelical Doctrines are not Necessary Matter of Faith to Christian Men Who but he could fancy and which is more publickly assert that the belief of the Messias's being sent from God without being acquainted with his gracious appointment as to our Future Rewards is all that is required as necessary to constitute a Christian Believer Especially when it is said He that comes unto God must believe that he is a Rewarder Heb. 11. 6. Observe it he must believe then it is not indifferent but a Necessary Article of faith CHAP. II. The foresaid Articles and Doctrines are proved to be Necessary matter of Christian Faith Not that a man is supposed Actually to exert his Assent and Belief every moment That we may be True Christians All these Fundamental Truths must be imbraced and none excluded The late Writer's forgetfulness It is prov'd that he grounds his notion of One Article upon the Weakness of Vnderstanding and Capacity in the Generality of people Herein he follows the Steps of the Racovians who submit the greatest Mysteries to the judgment of the Vulgar and if they will not bear that Test reject them The Doctrine of the Trinity how said to have no Difficulty in it It contains in it no Contradiction This Proposition Jesus is the Messias is not more intelligible than any of the Articles before mentioned THUS I have briefly set before the Reader those Evangelical Truths those Christian Principles which belong to the very Essence of Christianity I have proved them to be such and I have reduced most of them to certain Propositions which is a thing the Vindicator call'd for p. 16. If what I have said will not content him I am sure I can do nothing that will And therefore if he should capriciously require any thing more it would be as great Folly in me to comply with it as it is in him to move it From what I have said it is evident that he is grosly mistaken when he saith Whatever doctrines the Apostles required to be believed to make a man a Christian are to be found in those places of Scripture which he hath quoted in his book p. 11. The places which he quotes are made use of by him to shew that there is but One Article of Belief viz. that Christ is the Messiah but I think I have sufficiently proved that there are Other Doctrines besides That
Writer's passing by the Epistles and not collecting any Articles of Faith out of them shew his Contempt of them His Evasion viz. that the Epistles were writ to those who were already Believers is proved to be groundless If it were true it is nothing to his purpose The Epistles teach Fundamentals His other Evasion viz. that the Fundamental Articles in the Epistles are mixed without distinction with other Truths discovered to be of no force and Retorted upon him The true Reason why he went no further than the Gospels and the Acts. His other Excuses for rejecting the doctrines contained in the Epistles examined and found to be Sophistical He travels as far as China for Prudence and there borrows it of the Missionary Jesuites The Rom. 14. 1. which he alledges authorizes him not to impose upon Weak Christians His Evasions are inconsistent with themselves and accordingly not well approved of by the Party His Objection about the Apostles Creed fully answered Our Church's Iudgment concerning the Articles of this Creed This Profession of Faith hath several Articles in it which Socinians will not subscribe to Whilest he is censuring he commits a great Blunder He mistakes and misrepresents the Gospel-Dispensation BUT the Gentleman is not without his Evasions and he sees it is high time to make use of them This puts him into some disorder for when he comes to speak of my mentioning his ill treatment of the Epistles which he purposely omitted when he made his Collection of Articles or rather when after all his search he found but One Article you may observe that he begins to grow Warmer than before Now this Meek Man is nettled and you may perceive that he is sensible of the Scandal that he hath given to good people by his slighting of the Epistolary Writings of the Holy Apostles yet he is so cunning as to disguise his Passion as well as he can He requires me to publish to the World those passages which shew his Contempt of the Epistles p. 19. But what need I Good Sir do this when you have done it your self I appeal to the Reader whether after your tedious Collections out of the Four Evangelists your passing by the Epistles and neglecting wholly what the Apostles say in them be not publishing to the World your Contempt of them But let us hear why he did not attempt to collect any Articles out of these Writings he assigns this as One Reason The Epistles being writ to those who were already Believers it could not be supposed that they were writ to them to teach them Fundamentals p. 13 14. Vindic. Certainly no man could have conjectured that he would have used such an Evasion as this I will say that for him he goes beyond all Surmises he is above all Conjectures he hath a faculty of Shifting which no creature on Earth can ever fathom Do we not know that the Four Gospels were Writ to and for Believers as well as Vnbelievers Are we not particularly and expresly told by St. Luke that he writ his Gospel to the most Excellent Theophilus Luk. 1. 3. whom all grant to be a Believing Christian of some eminent rank Or if this Author be so singular as to question it he may be satisfied in v. 4. by the Evangelist himself And so the Acts of the Apostles we find are dedicated to the same Eminent Believer Acts 1. 1. By the same Argument then that he would perswade us that the Fundamentals are not to be sought for in the Epistles we may prove that they were not to be sought for in the Gospels and in the Acts for even these were writ to those that believed And yet it is clear that this Writer did not make use of this Argument otherwise he would not have confined the Fundamentals to the Gospels and the Acts. Here then is want of Sincerity in a great measure which hath been accounted heretofore a good qualification in a Writer Again granting that the Epistles were all of them writ to those that already believed yet what can this be to his purpose Must no Believers have any Fundamentals taught them What is the meaning then of 1 Iohn 2. 21. I have not written unto you because you know not the Truth but because you know it Suppose they have forgot the Fundamentals or have corrupted and perverted them as was the case of the Galatians who mixed the Law with the Gospal Legal Works with Faith and of the Dispersed Hebrews who had received the Christian Doctrine but were falling away from it Might not the Apostle yea did he not in his Epistles to these Persons remind them of the Great Articles of the Christian Faith Did he not when he writ to the Galatians assert the doctrine of Justification through faith in Christ's Righteousness without the Works of the Law Did he not in his Epistle to the Wavering Hebrews endeavour to establish them in Christianity by displaying the Excellency and Transcendency of the Priesthood of Christ by convincing them of the Efficacy and Perfection of the One Sacrifice of the Messias on the Cross whereby the sins of mankind are perfectly Expiated So St. Iohn's first Epistle was written on occasion of the Christian Churches converted from Judaism being endanger'd by certain Seducers that were crept in among them and labour'd to unsettle their belief concerning the Divinity as well as the Humanity of our Saviour Whereupon this Apostle who had clearly delivered the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the beginning of his Gospel now more especially urges that Principal Article of their Faith the Deity of Christ chap. 2. v. 22 23. and also in express words asserts the Whole Trinity chap. 5. v. 7. Thus it is manifest that the Apostles in their Epistles taught Fundamentals which is contrary to what this Gentleman saith that such a thing could not be supposed and he would pretend That as a reason why he did not look for any Necessary Articles of Faith in the Epistles But we see how groundless his pretence is Hear another feigned ground of his omitting the Epistles viz. because the Fundamental Articles are here promiscuously and without distinction mix'd with other Truth p. 14. But who sees not that this is a mere Elusion for on the same account he might have forborn to search for Fundamental Articles in the Gospels for they do not lie there together but are dispersed up and down the Doctrinal and Historical part are mix'd with one another but he pretends to sever them why the did he not make a separation between the Doctrines in the Epistles and those Other Matters that are treated of there He hath nothing to reply to this and therefore we must again look upon what he hath suggested as a cast of his Shuffling faculty Or if he should excuse himself by saying that Necessary and Fundamental Principles can't be distinguish'd from those other Truths which occur in the Epistolary Writings any one may discover the insufficiency of such a plea because
more And my End is this to hale in Socinianism after a new manner You see what the Musing of this Gentleman comes to and I was so unhappy a man as to find it out to take notice of it and to discover it to the world in a late Discourse which I publish'd and thereby I have extremely exasperated this New Undertaker and his Adherents I do not wonder at it for now their Intrigues are laid open their Racovian Plot is detected and all their Measures are thereby broken But to keep up their hearts a Vindication as it is call'd of this Treachery is publish'd by him who was appointed to be the Chief Tool in this work Here he makes it his business to defend his New Paradox and to shore his Notion up again with some crazy props Throughout the whole he is pleas'd to Criticize with some Magisterialness and Pertness on the Reflections which I made on his book And now it is my turn again to be Critick and I shall discharge the Task with all impartiality and integrity It is true there is nothing of any Moment nothing Weighty and Argumentative in what he hath offered and therefore some in whose Judgment I could confide would have prevailed with me to add no more on this Subject which they were perswaded I had before sufficiently cleared but partly to shew somewhat further the great Danger and Mischief of this Writer's Opinion partly to prevent the Seduction of some well-meaning persons who may be apt to be led away by his smooth Pretences for though his Cavils and Evasions be weak yet they may chance to light into the Hands of some Weak Readers such as are not well establish'd in their notions Wherefore not on the account of his Petty Objections but for the sake of these persons I reassume this Argument and partly to lay open the Wilful Mistakes and Gross Dissimulation as I take it of this Writer and partly to gratifie those Gentlemens expectations who with some impatience seem to long for a Reply I have once again undertaken to employ the Press upon this occasion But the Chief and Principal Design as well as Motive of my appearing again in this Cause is to assert and defend the Christian Faith which this Author hath misrepresented maim'd and abused To which purpose I will set before the Reader the Heads of his pretended Vindication and in the face of the world make it appear how falsly and perfidiously he hath acted in the Cause of Religion And may it be the Readers Prayer as well as it is mine that this Enterprize may tend to the Glory and Honour of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Glorious Persons in One ever to be Adored Deity and to the Edification of the Christian Church Amen Ian. 27. 1695 6. ERRATA PAge 17. line 1. read World p. 22. l. 18. for Christ. r. Iesus p. 54. l. 20. r. Sylburgius p. 85. l. 9. r. Racovians p. 87. l. 23 after Iesus insert Christ. p. 116. line 3. after done make the other part of the Parenthesis p. 117. l. 18. after if insert the truth were known I believe it would appear that p. 120. l. 17. r. telling p. 125. l 8. r. him p. 128. l. 21. after hath insert had p. 131. l. 13. after religion insert who is so near a-kin to one that is voted a Socinian in the Brief History of the Vnitarians p. 135. l. 11. r. Socinianiz'd A Late WRITER's Unreasonable Opinions CONFUTED CHAP. I. The first General Charge against the Late Writer viz. That he unwarrantably crowds all the Necessary Articles of Faith into One with a design of favouring Socinianism He endeavours to shift off the Enditement but is cast by his own words His wilful mistake about the Article of the Deity He labours in vain to split One Article into Two It is shew'd that besides the bare believing of Jesus to be the Messias it is necessary to know and believe the Fall of Adam whereby Sin and Death entred into the World and were derived to his posterity It is necessary to know and believe Who the Messias is whether he be God or Man or both on which will follow the necessary belief of the Holy Trinity It is requisite to have a right conception concerning our Recovery and Restauration by the Messias i. e. to know what he undertook and did for us and to be acquainted with the Great Privileges bestow'd upon us by him It is of necessity to believe what the Messias requires of Vs. It is undoubted matter of our belief that our Salvation springs from the mere Favour and Grace of God through Christ Jesus and not from any works or merits of ours It is indispensably requisite that we believe the Doctrin of the Resurrection of the Final Judgment and of Eternal Life I Will now betake my self to the Task which is before me after I have told the Reader that I intend not to imitate our Nameless Author in his Childish Flourishes in his Spruce and Starched Sentences and in his Impotent Jestings which are sprinkled up and down his Vindication Nor will I follow him in his Impertinencies and Incoherencies in his trifling Excursions to eke out his two sheets and a half I will not resemble him in his Little Artifices of evading in his weak and feeble Struglings with a Strong Truth I will not personate him in the Confusion and Disorder of his Reply for it seems he had forgot that it is one sign of a Well-bred a Well-taught Man to answer to the first in the first place and so in order I will not imitate him in his Dry Common Places in his Set of Words and Phrases of Sayings and Apothegms which would have serv'd on any other occasion as the Intelligent Reader cannot but take notice Much less will I comply with him in his Angry fits and Passionate Ferments which tho he strives to palliate are easily discernible for he feels himself Wounded and is not able to disguise it I will betake my self I say to the present Concern with great application and mindfulness fully making good my Former Charges against his Book and clearing my own from those sorry Objections and Cavils which he hath since rais'd against it In the whole management I will sincerely acquaint the Reader first with his own words and then offer my Refutation of them and all along I will be careful to banish all Indecent Reflections unless those shall be counted such which are purely grounded on his own expressions and which his Freedom of Language necessarily and unavoidably administers to me The Main Charges are these 1. That he unwarrantably crowded all the Necessary Articles of Faith into One with a design of favouring Socinianism 2. That he shew'd his good will to this Cause by interpreting those Texts which respect the Holy Trinity after the Antitrinitarian mode 3. That he gave proof of his being Socinianiz'd by his utter silence about Christ's
satisfying for us and purchasing Salvation by vertue of his Death when he designedly undertook to enumerate the Advanvantages and Benefits which accrue to mankind by Christ's coming into the World And in the making good of these Particular Charges I shall as I did before evidence to the World that this Writer hath not only a design to cherish Socinianism but at the same time to make way for Atheism I begin with the First on which I will enlarge more than on any of the rest because it comprehends in it several other Particulars and because in discussing of this I shall have opportunity to lay open the Sophistry and Dissimulation of this Vindicator and likewise to discover to the Reader how Mischievous and Pernicious his Design is First it is observable that this Guilty Man would be shifting off the Enditement by excepting against the formality of the Words as if such were not to be found in his Book But when doth he do this In the close of it when his matter was exhausted and he had nothing else to say Vindic. p. 38. Then he bethinks himself of this Salvo whereas he had generally before pleaded to the formal Enditement and had thereby owned it to be True And indeed he can do no other for it was the main work he set himself about to find but One Article of Faith in all the Chapters of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and accordingly he over and over again declares that there is but that One Truth viz. Iesus is the Messiah necessarily to be assented to by Christians or as he sometimes words it absolutely required to make a man a Christian or a member of Christ. This is the SOLE Doctrin press'd and requir'd to be believ'd in the whole tenour of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching p. 192. of his Reasonableness of Christianity And again in the same place This was the ONLY Gospel Article of Faith which was Preached to them This he often inculcates having left out several considerable passage in the very Gospels and having thrown aside the Epistles as if they were no part of the New Testament hoping that some of his Readers would be bubbled by this means And when I told him of his One Article he knew well enough that I did not exclude the Article of the Deity for that is a Principle of Natural Religion whereas I only took notice of his passing by and wholly omitting those points which are Evangelical Yet he willfully mistakes me in this p. 27. of his Vindication and saith he doth not deny the necessary belief of a Deity or One only True God and so the belief of the Messias with that makes Two Articles Thus he would perswade the Reader that I misunderstood him and that I tax'd him with setting up One Article when he acknowledges two But the Reader sees his Shuffling for my Discourse did not treat neither doth his Book run that way of Principles of Natural Religion but of the Revealed one and Particularly the Christian. Accordingly this was it which I taxed him with that of all the Principles and Articles of Christianity he chose out but One as necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian. And though since he hath tried to split this One into two p. 28. yet he labours in vain for to believe Iesus to be the Messias amounts to the same with believing him to be a King or Ruler his being Anointed i. e. being the Messias including that in it Yet he hath the Vanity to add in great Characters THESE ARE ARTICLES as if the putting them into these Great Letters would make one Article two Such is the fond fancy and conceitedness of the Gentleman whereas in other places he hath formally declared that there is but One Article that is the necessary Matter of Faith This I had just reason to except against and now I will give a farther account of my doing so by shewing that besides that One Fundamental Principle or Article which he so often mentions there are Others that are as necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian yea to give him the denomination of a Believer in the sense of the Gospel Several of these I particularly but barely enumerated in my former Discourse and now I will distinctly insist on the most of them and let the Reader see that it is as necessary for a Convert to Christianity to give assent to them as to that other he so frequently specifies This Proposition that by one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and this which follows Death passed upon all men for as much as all men have sinned Rom. 5. 12. and that other that even the Regenerate for the Apostle speaks of himself and the Converted Ephesians are by nature the Children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2. 3. these I say are as absolutely necessary to be known assented to and believed in order to our being Christians as this Proposition Iesus is the Messias or Sent of God For I ask what was the end of his being sent Was it not to Help Mankind to rescue and deliver them from some Evil And where can we be inform'd concerning the Rise and Nature of this Evil but in the Sacred and Inspired Writings And do not these foresaid Texts which we find in St. Paul's Epistles acquaint us with the true Source and Quality of our condition by nature Do they not discover the Root of Mans Misery viz. the Apostacy of Adam for he is that one Man and the dreadful Consequences of it expressed by Death and Wrath And is this set down to no purpose in these Inspired Epistles Is it not requisite that we should know it and believe it Yea is not this absolutely requisite For it is impossible any one should firmly imbrace or so much as seriously attend to the Doctrin of the Messias unless he be persuaded that He stands in need of him And can he be persuaded of this unless he be acquainted with his Degenerate and Miserable State his universal Depravity and innate Proness to what is Vitious and with the true Original of it viz. The voluntary Defection and Fall of our First Parents and with that the loss of our Happiness The word Messias is an insignificant term till we have a belief of this Why then is there a Treatise published to tell the World that the bare belief of a Messias is all that is required of a Christian Again it is not only necessary to know that Iesus is the Messias but also to know and believe who this Iesus this Messias is viz. whether he be God or Man or both For every one will grant that there is a Vast Difference between the one and the other as much as there is betwixt Infinite and Finite and therefore that we may have a due apprehension concerning the Messias it is absolutely necessary that we should believe him to be what he is declared to
be in the Infallible Writings viz. God as well as Man The Word was God John 1. 1. The Word was made Flesh v. 14. And this Word is the Only begotten of the Father in the same Verse God was manifest in the Flesh 1. Tim. 3. 16. He is called not only God in these places and in several others but he is stil'd the True God 1 John 5. 20. and the Great God Tit. 2. 13. The Lord of all Acts 10. 36. God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. Hence we must conclude that there is a necessity of believing the Messias to be the very God of the same Essence with the Father and the Holy Ghost for these are the two other Persons included in the Deity So that hence it will follow that it is requisite to believe the Holy Trinity i. e. that there are in the Godhead Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost which is the Doctrin that our Saviour himself taught and he taught it that it might be believed Mat. 28. 19. where the Celebration of Baptism which is a solemn part of Divine Worship is commanded to be in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost who are One God 1 John 5. 7. These Three are One one Essence or Being as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports Those words of the Apostle are observable 1 Cor. 1. 13. Were ye baptised in the name of Paul As much as to say Baptism is in the name of God and not of a Man Therefore when it is said Go and Baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it is included that these Three are God i. e. Three Persons of one and the same Deity Thus it is manifest that the believing of Iesus's being the Messias or Anointed is not sufficient to make a Man a Christian Believer but he must further believe these Propositions or Articles viz. that the Son of God was made flesh i. e. assumed our Human Nature that Christ is True God that He with the Father and the Spirit are One God for these are not only expressed in the Gospels and Epistles out of both which we are to gather the Fundamental Articles of Faith and consequently are to be assented to by all Christians but the very Nature of the thing it self dictates that we ought to have a firm belief of these Truths for otherwise when a Man professes his belief in the Messias he is yet ignorant of the Person he pretends to believe in He doth not know whether he believes in a God or in a Man or to which of these he is beholding for the Good he looks for by the Messias's coming Now Sir you with your Reasonableness of Christianity what do you think of this Is it not reasonable that a Christian should as the Apostle speaks of himself know whom he hath believed 2 Tim. 1. 12. Nay is it not indispensably necessary that he should know whether it be a Divine or Human or Angelical Power that he is obliged to that so he may accordingly proportion his Affections and Service for what ever the late Set of Socinians hold there must be a difference made between the Homage which is paid to a Creature such as they declare Christ to be and that which is due only to the Creator I will refer the Reader to the Incomparable Bishop Pearson on the Second Article of the Creed where he shews the Necessity of our believing Christ to be the Eternal Son of God and God himself 1. For the directing and confirming of our Faith concerning the Redemption of Mankind 2. For the right informing of us about that Worship and Honour which are due to him 3. For giving us a right apprehension and consequently a due value of the Infinite Love of God the Father in sending his Only-begotten Son into the World to die for us Thus this Judicious Writer But our Nameless Author would persuade us that there is no necessity of believing any such thing Then in the next place we are to have a right conception concerning our Recovery and Restauration by this Messias who is God-Man And here those several Scriptures will furnish us with Articles As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteonsness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5. 18 19. He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9. 26. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Heb. 9. 28. Christ hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust 1 Pet. 3. 18. He gave himself a Ransom for all men 1 Tim. 2. 6. Ye are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. And to it is prefix'd ye know to let us understand that this Article is to be known and assented to We are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 20. and 7. 23. We are reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. 5. 10. By him now we have received the Atonement v. 11. By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. It behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day Luk. 24. 46. Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead Acts 17. 3. He was taken up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God Mark 16. 19. These and the like places afford us such Fundamental and Necessary Doctrins as these are that by and for the Meritorious Righteousness and Obedience of Christ the Second Adam we are accounted Righteous and Obedient in the sight of God That Christ was a Sacrifice for us and suffered in our stead That he satisfied Divine Justice by paying an Infinite Price for us That by vertue of that Payment all the Debts i. e. all the Sins of Believers are perfectly absolved That hereby the anger of the Incensed Deity is pacified and that we are entirely Reconciled to him That we have an assurance of all this by Christ's rising from the dead and ascending triumphantly into Heaven These are Principles of the Oracles of God Heb. 5. 12. These are part of the Form of sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. which are indispensable Ingredients in the Christian Faith which you may know by this that if a man be obliged to the belief of the Messias's Coming it is undeniably requisite that he should know what the Messias came to do for him and that he should firmly yield assent to it This I think no Man of Reason will deny and then it will follow that these Articles which I have last mentioned are the Necessary and Unexceptionable object or matter of the Faith of a Christian Man And here likewise it were easie to shew that Adoption Iustification Pardon of Sins c. which are Privileges and Benefits bestowed
which are requir'd to be believed to make a man a Christian. Why did the Apostles write these Doctrines Was it not that those they writ to might give their Assent to them Nay did they not require Assent to them Yes verily for this is to be proved from the Nature of the things contained in those Doctrines which were such as had immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of their Redemption and Salvation as any impartial judg by examining the several Particular Articles and Propositions will readily grant So that the sum of all amounts to this The belief of those things without the knowledg of which a man cannot be saved is absolutely Necessary but the belief of the foregoing Particulars is the belief of such things without the knowledg of which a man cannot be saved Therefore the belief of these Particulars is absolutely necessary None will be so refractory I suppose as to deny the first Proposition in this Syllogism therefore I am to prove the Second which is easily effected thus The belief of those things which have Immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of our Salvation and which are necessary for knowing the True Nature and Design of it is the belief of such things without the knowledg of which a man cannot be saved but such is the belief of the preceding Articles Ergò Not without good reason therefore I call'd them the Essential and Integral Parts of our Christian and Evangelical Faith And why the Vindicator fleers at these Terms p. 18. I know no reason but this that he can't confute the application of them Surely none but this Upstart Racovian will have the confidence to deny that These Articles of Faith are such as are Necessary to constitute a Christian as to the intellectual and doctrinal part of Christianity such as must in some measure be known and assented to by him such as must be generally receiv'd and imbrac'd by him Not that a man is supposed every moment to Actually exert his Assent and Belief for none of the Moral Vertues none of the Evangelical Graces are exerted thus always Wherefore that Question p. 16. though he saith he asks it seriously might have been spared Whether every one of these Fundamentals is required to be believed to make a Man a Christian and such as without the Actual belief thereof he cannot be saved Here is Seriousness pretended when there is none for the design is only to Cavil and if he can to expose my Assertion But he is not able to do it for all his Critical Demands are answered in these few words viz. that the Intellectual as well as the Moral Endowments are never supposed to be Always in Act they are exerted upon Occasion and not all of them at a time And therefore he mistakes if he thinks or rather as he objects without thinking that these Doctrine if they be Fundamental and Necessary must be always actually believed No man besides himself ever started such a thing And why should not every one of these Evangelical Truths which is another thing he puts into his Question be believed and imbraced They are in our Bibles for that very purpose as I have proved and therefore I need not undertake it again here Hence it follows that a man cannot be a Christian without the knowledg and belief of these Truths which are the basis of Religion the Standard of the Christian Faith the very Badges and Characters of Christianity Wherefore for any man to make up Christianity without the belief of these is a Ridiculous and absurd attempt and consequently we may guess that none would have ventured upon it but this Writer This is he that sets up One Article with defiance of the rest though he is much displeased with me for saying so p. 31. for what is excluding them wholly but defying them Wherefore seeing he utterly excludes all the rest by representing them as Vseless to the making a man a Christian which is the design of his whole Undertaking it is manifest that he defies them But let us hear what this Author pleads for himself He founds his conceit of One Article partly upon this that a Multitude of doctrines is obscure and hard to be understood and therefore he trusses all up in One Article that the poor people and bulk of mankind may bear it This is the Scope of a great part of his book But his Memory doth not keep pace with his Invention and thence he saith he remembers nothing of this in his book Vind. p. 27. This Worthy Writer doth not know his own Reasoning that he uses as particularly thus that he troubies Christian men with no more but One Article because that is Intelligible and all people high and low may comprehend it For he hath chosen out he thinks a Plain and Easie Article whereas the others which are commonly propounded are not generally agreed upon he saith and are dubious and uncertain But the believing that Iesus was the Messias hath nothing of doubtfulness or obscurity in it This the Reader will find to be the drift and design of several of his Pages And the reason why I did not quote any single one of them was because he insists on this so long together and spins it out after his way In p. 301. of his Reasonableness of Christianity where he sets down the short plain easie and intelligible Summary as he calls it of Religion couch'd in a Single Article he immediately adds The All-merciful God seems herein to have consulted the poor of this world and the bulk of mankind These are Articles whereas he had set down but One that the labouring and illiterate man may comprehend He assigns this as a ground why it was God's pleasure there should be but One Point of Faith because hereby Religion may be understood the better the generality of people may comprehend it This he represents as a Great Kindness done by God to men whereas a Variety of Articles would be hard to be understood This he enlarges upon and flourishes it over after his fashion and yet he desires to know when he said so p. 29. Vindic. Good Sir let me be permitted to acquaint you that your Memory is as defective as your Judgment for in the very Vindication you attribute it to the goodness and condescention of the Allmighty that he requires nothing as absolutely necessary to be believed but what is suited to Vulgar capacities and the comprehensions of illiterate men p. 30. It is clear then that you found your One Article on this that it is suited to Vulgar capacities whereas the Other Articles mentioned by me are obscure and ambiguous and therefore surpass the comprehension of the Illiterate And yet you pretend that you have forgot that any such thing was said by you which shews that you are Careless of your Words and that you forget what you write What shall we say to such an Oblivious Author as this He
of the Imputation and Enditement that they Aggravate it I leave the Reader to give the Sentence They deserve a Severe one at his hands but I desire him to be Merciful for the sake of our Lord JESUS CHRIST who forgave and pray'd for his greatest Opposers May the All-Merciful God forgive them and enlighten their minds that they may be convinc'd of their Errors and heartily renounce them The Lord give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil Then he runs to their Common Place which hath help'd to fill up their papers many a time and he thinks he doth great feats But he only epitomizes Crellius de Vno Deo Patre and offers a great many Texts which have been answered a hundred times as he but untruly saith on another occasion p. 8. This takes up 18 or 19 whole Pages and why Because this costs him nothing he borrows it all and he might have borrow'd a great deal more from the same Author Here he can afford to be very long and large but when he undertakes the Examination of what I had particularly objected against the Socinians he is like the dog at Nilus he is presently gone he is not furnish'd with any Answer that he dares insist upon or trust to Next I will observe to the Reader that this Author meddles not with my Argument which I drew from their own Professed Principle viz. that nothing is to be believed but what is exactly adjusted to Reason and thence prov'd that upon the same account that they reject the doctrine of the Holy Trinity they may likewise quit the belief of a Deity This I enlarg'd upon in seven pages together it being as I then conceiv'd and am more confirm'd in it since an Unanswerable Proof of what I laid to their Charge He only grazes on it a little p. 19. but wheels off presently and fixes upon that subject before mentioned God's Vnity because he knew where to have enough of it but did not know how to take off the force of that Argument which I propounded and insisted upon In the next place he will turn Critick and see whether he can thrive in this employment seeing he hath so ill success in his former attempts His nice palate disgusts the word birth as applyed to Adam p. 38. but thereby he only shews his want of skill in the Denotation of words He is so poor a Dabbler in Grammer and Criticism that he knows not that by the Hebrew jalad and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin nasci and accordingly our English to be born are signified in a general way the Origin Rise or Beginning of things or persons and consequently Birth or Nativity is not to be taken always in the Vulgar Sense He might have read in Genethliack Writers that the word is applied even to Cities and Houses But I need not go so far to defend the Expression The use of it and that in the very way that I have applied it is to be found in Scripture Art thou the first man that was born Iob 15. 7. Or we may read it if we please more exactly according to the Original Art thou born as the first man or Adam i. e. as the Context will shew it art thou as understanding as the man that was first born viz. as our First Parent Adam By reason of this birth Adam is call'd the son of God Luk. 3. 38. Whence the Socinians would gather that Christ hath that name upon the like account because of his Extraordinary Original because of his Miraculous Birth Thus we have found that this Gentleman is ignorant of the true meaning of words in Common Authors that he doth not know the acception of them in Holy Scripture nay that he doth not know what his own Authors say which evinces him to be triply a Blunderer and that he deserves no more to be call'd an Examinator Then he thinks he doth mighty things p. 39. by quoting Limborch a very Learned Foreigner a System-maker for he hath compiled a Large System of Divinity though he gives it another Name and why then doth this Gentleman talk so reproachfully of Systems p. 44. c. but this his Author is a Second Episcopius and therefore it was wisely done to bring him in to tell us what are the Fundamentals of Religion But it was more cunningly done in the next Paragraph to fetch in the Sixth Article of the Church of England in favour of the Vindicator's Conceit Surely this his Patron at whose feet he lays his Papers will give him little thanks for this for he jeers him rather than defends his Cause Thus though they are agreed and understand one another so far as to Impose upon the world yet they cannot and never will agree to speak Truth And indeed this Worthy Writer foresignified something of this nature He is a boding sort of man you may perceive for thus he speaks in his Humble Dedicatory to the Vindicator If I have mistaken your sense or used weak reasonings in your defence and behold here he doth both I crave your pardon And so you may and I will tell you for your comfort he will soon forgive you for he knows that your heart is right i. e. for the Good Cause and therefore a little Mistaking of him out of weakness is pardonable Then he hales in Mr. Chillingworth by head and shoulders p. 40. pronouncing him very definitively the ablest defender of the Religion of Protestants that the Church ever had which is too high a Character for him though he was a person of Great Parts and Learning Why must he be said to be the Ablest Defender when we can name so many Eminent Writers in other Countreys that have perform'd this task Or if he means the Church of England why must he have the absolute Preference to Others that we can name here especially that Great Ornament and Glory of our Church whom I had occasion to mention before who hath so Learnedly defended the Religion of Protestants I but he writ against Crellius and therefore he must not be the Ablest Defender Again there is a reason well known to the world why Mr. Chillingworth hath the Preheminence in the opinion of this Writer and his Confederates but of that at some other time perhaps Let us now go on and see what this Gentleman gets by his producing of Mr. Chillingworth and it is no other than this a plain confutation of the Vindicator's Project concerning the reducing of Religion to a Point and no more For these are that Worthy Man's words The Bible the Bible I say the Bible only is the Religion of Protestants And I say so too but this Gentleman and the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity are of another opinion for according to them it is not the Bible but a very Small Portion of it that is the Religion of Protestants