A Defence and Continuation OF THE DISCOURSE Concerning the KNOWLEDGE OF Jesus Christ And OUR Union and Communion with Him With a particular respect to the Doctrine of the Church of England And the Charge of Socinianism and Pelagianism By the same AUTHOR LONDON Printed by A. C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Pauls Church-yard M. DC LXXV TO The most Reverend Father in GOD GILBERT By Divine Providence LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council c. May it please your Grace IT is not unknown to your Grace that in a late Discourse according to my mean Abilities I endeavoured to vindicate Christian Religion from those uncouth and absurd Representations which some modern Divines who are the great Fomenters of our present Factions have made of it And herein I thought I should do good service not only to the common Cause of Christianity which is exposed to the scorn of Atheistical Wits for the sake of such Doctrins as are so far from belonging to Christianity that they seem to be invented on purpose to affront the general sense and understanding of Mankind but also to the best constituted Church in the World which is rent and torn into a thousand Factions for the sake of these new Discoveries which are admired for no other reason but because they are not understood And I have met with such a Reward as those men use to do who oppose any popular and inveterate mistakes hard Words and hard Censures though as soft and gentle Arguments as I could wish But my Adversaries have used one extraordinary piece of Art which alone I hope will be sufficient to make my Apology for this Address It is well known my Lord what Friends they are to the Church of England and yet now they take Sanctuary in our Church and pretend a mighty Zeal for the antient Catholick Doctrin of it Their great quarrel with me is that I have contradicted the Doctrin of our Church and they are very jealous lest the Church should by this means be disadvantageously represented to the world and think it the concernment of the Reverend Bishops either to confute or censure such Doctrins And indeed would those grave and wise Persons hearken either to Papists or Fanaticks they should never want work for whenever they find themselves gravelled they call upon the Church of England to defend them against her most zealous Advocates and hearty Friends My Lord were I in the least conscious to my self of having deserted the Doctrin of our Church there is no Person whom I should so justly dread as your Grace whose quick and piercing Iudgment would easily detect such a Prevarication and whose great Authority could as easily crush so weak an Adversary and whose syncere and hearty Zeal and Fatherly Care and Affection for this Church would not suffer such Tares to grow up in the midst of the Wheat But these excellent Accomplishments wherewith God has in great goodness endowed your Grace for the Preservation and wise Government of this Church in such dangerous and critical times render you as sure a Refuge and Sanctuary to the Friends of our Church as they make you formidable to her Enemies In this Assurance it is that I humbly lay this my Defence at your Graces Feet and entirely submit it and its Author to your Iudgment and Censure If I have said any thing blame-worthy it has been hitherto out of invincible Ignorance and Mistake which I hope will plead my excuse And if I have as I am verily persuaded I have made a true and faithful Representation of the Doctrin of our Church and vindicated it from such Fanatical Innovations as give the greatest and the justest cause of Scandal to all wise and considering men I humbly beg your Graces Patronage which is the only Security and Protection I desire from the rude Clamors and vehement Reproaches of my Adversaries I beseech Almighty God to preserve your Grace long among us in Health and Vigor to protect his Church by your wise Counsels and Conduct and to adorn your See with your exemplary Virtues which is the hearty Prayer of Your GRACES Most Humble and Dutiful Servant William Sherlock Imprimatur Ex Aed Lambethanis April 2. 1675. Tho. Tomkyns AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DEFENCE and CONTINUATION OF THE DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST c. CONTAINING The Reasons which moved me to write that DISCOURSE THere is not a more lamentable sight in the World than the present state of Religion which is assaulted by so many subtil and malicious Adversaries crumbled into so many Sects and Factions pester'd with such infinite Disputes that it is time to cry out as the Disciples did in the Storm Help Lord or we perish And that which makes the case so desperate is that the Disease is too strong for the Remedy and the wisest Prescriptions do only stir and provoke not expel the Humors or as it is in some complicated Distempers that w ch is proper for one disease is very hurtful for another which makes the state both of the Patient and Physician very dangerous the one being likely to lose his Life and the other his Reputation I was not wholly ignorant of these difficulties when I ventured my late Discourse into the world but have now a more sensible experience what it is to oppose inveterate prejudices and what little hope there is of doing much good when a man must contend not against Reason and Argument in which way any ingenuous persons will be glad to be overcome but against Passion Interest and popular Clamors and the rude assaults of a spightful and unchristian Zeal And yet I cannot say that my labour is lost for I am sensible that my Discourse has already served to rectifie the mistakes of some honest and unprejudiced men and I hope may do so still for those little and unmanly Arts which have been used to disparage it and its Author cannot long abuse any ingenuous minds and when the cheat is discovered it will but give the greater reputation to abused truth and honesty For this Reason I am resolved not to betray a good Cause but to venture once more and to leave the success to the Divine Grace and Providence which is more peculiarly concerned for the interest of Religion and true goodness and if I should see no other good effect of it yet I can abundantly satisfie my self in honest intentions and worthy and generous designs For if I know my own thoughts and I think no man knows them better it was not a disputing humour nor an affectation of Fame and Glory which gave birth to that Discourse Popular errors are a more likely way to procure a popular esteem than despised and persecuted truths and though the judgment of the wise is more valuable yet the opinion of the people gives a name as Dr. Owen very well observes from his own
must understand all the difficulties of Quantity and whether it consist of Divisibles or Indivisibles and must understand the differences of Matter and the reason why he can bite one sort of Matter with his Teeth but can make no impression upon another and how the parts of matter hang together and the like There is a more general indistinct apprehension of things which is sufficient to govern our Actions though we do not understand all the Niceties and Philosophy of them But if our Author can find such subtilties in those plain matters which are taught Children in the Church-Catechism which are objections that will indifferently lie against the plainest Instructions what does he think of those sublime matters of the Eternal Decrees and Counsels of God Election and Reprobation and such-like Mysteries which are so familiarly thrust into Catechisms What subtilty is required in Children to understand these deep Points and to comprehend the subtil and artificial Schemes of Orthodoxy This is much like another Cavil against the intelligibleness of our Union with Christ I am sure says our Author that our Union with Christ is an Union No doubt Sir and if it be so it cannot be very easie to be understood because the Metaphysical notion of Union is as difficult as any other transcendental term Why then let the Metaphysicians dispute it out but for all that I can easily understand and I believe any one else can what it is to be related to Christ as Subjects are to their Prince and Disciples to their Master and Wives to their Husbands c. This is enough to give the Reader a taste of our Authors Skill and should I add any more it might bring my own discretion into question for next to making foolish and cavilling Objections it is an argument of a very little Wit to answer them And therefore to proceed Dr. Owen observes that I have writ against his Book which was writ and published near twenty years since I confess I do not well understand the force of this Objection unless he imagine that his Book is now grown venerable for its antiquity but where-ever the force of it lies I am sure it answers another grand Objection against me which is so often repeated that I am a Young Man a defect which time will mend and which Industry will supply However I suppose the Doctor was not very old twenty years ago and it argu'd some Modesty in the young Man rather to attack a Book writ by the Doctor when he was a young Man too than rudely to assault his Writings of a later date which may be presumed to be the effects of a more mature Judgement and riper years and I hope this consideration will plead my excuse with him for not undertaking that task which he has so kindly allotted me right or wrong to answer all his late voluminous Treatises which I think I may as soon be perswaded to do as to read them that magnificent Title of Exercitations which used to be prefixed before some learned Discourses invited me to take a little taste of them till I found my self mistaken and deceived with some jejune or trite Observations which has so put me out of conceit with flattering Titles that I shall never again believe the Titles of Books or Chapters for his sake But this Book has had the approbation of as Learned and Holy Persons it may be as any the Doctor knows living in England or out of it who owning the Truth contained in it have highly avowed its Usefulness and are ready yet so to do I fear that either the Doctor 's Acquaintance with Learned and Holy Men is not very great or that this is not true for I cannot conceive how very holy men should so approve a Book which is so little a Friend to Holiness or that learned men should be pleased with such loose and inconsequent Reasonings but let that be as it will I am sure there are as learned and as holy men who do as little approve it unless the Doctor thinks that Learning and Holiness are confined to his own Party or that the approbation of his Writings is the only sure test of Mens Learning and Holiness But the great charge of all which runs thorow his whole Book is that I have mis-represented his words and perverted his sense which sometimes he attributes to ignorance sometimes to malice sometimes he calls it an impudent falshood sometimes flagitiously false and shows very great Skill at varying phrases which he is much better at than at writing Controversies Whether this Charge be true or not shall be examined particularly as far as I can reduce the several particulars of this Charge into any order But to abate the wonder a little I must inform my Reader that this is Dr. Owen's way of answering Books to deny those Doctrines which he dares not own or cannot vindicate I am not the first who have been charged with such falsifications Mr. Baxter was taxed with it long since in a whole Book written for that very purpose intitled Of the Death of Christ and of Iustification the Doctrine concerning them formerly deliverd vindicated from the Animadversions of Mr. R. B. where this grave man is corrected as magisterially as if he had been such another Stripling as my self Towards the conclusion of that Discourse I meet with a very excellent Prayer If I must engage again in the like kind I shall pray That He from whom are all my supplies would give me a real humble frame of heart that I may have no need with many pretences and a multitude of good words to make a cloak for a Spirit breaking frequently thorow all with sad discoveries of Pride and Passion and to keep me from all magisterial insolence pharisaical supercilious self-conceitedness contempt of others and every thing that is contrary to the Rule whereby I ought to walk It is great pity that Forms of Prayer are not lawful for this is too good a Prayer to be used but once in a mans life which I doubt is one reason why we see no better effects of it in the Doctors Writings But there is a heavier Charge than all this behind which is frequently hinted by Doctor Owen and more expresly managed by Mr. Ferguson who in his Preface tells his Readers That I treat the sacred Writers with as much contempt as I do T. W. and Burlesque the Scripture no less than others have done Virgil's Poems This would be a terrible Adversary were he as good at his proofs as he is bold and daring in his Charge This is a crime of a very high nature to burlesque Scripture and the foulness of the imputation might justly have provoked a tamer man than my self did not his weak and ridiculous proofs more deserve contempt than any serious resentment He waves the proof of this in his Preface but in his second Chapter where he entertains his Readers with a tedious impertinent Discourse about Metaphors and
perfect and unsinning Righteousness so that he only confidently affirms what was in dispute and this goes for an Argument This Argument he silently passes over only he transcribes the last clause without taking any notice of the reason of it and huffs it off with an Appeal to his Reader Any man may easily guess by the management of this whole Discourse that the Doctor had no mind his Readers should know what was in dispute or what Arguments were alledged on either side and I do readily believe what he says That he is weary of every word he is forced to add for it is enough to tire any mans heart out to be forced to say something and not to have one wise word to say But to return from this long Digression it were very easie to give several other instances of this way of arguing from Metaphors as when they prove that we are wholly passive in our first Conversion because we are said to be dead in trespasses and sins from whence they infer that we can contribute no more to our own Conversion than a dead man can to the quickning of himself and that we are born again and are made new Creatures and created to good Works and the like but to discourse this fully would take up too much time and possibly may fall under consideration in a proper place What I have already discours'd is sufficient to acquaint Mr. Ferguson that I am no Enemy to a sober use of Metaphors and that he and his Friends do very much corrupt Religion and perplex and entangle the plainest notions of it by the abuse of Scripture-Metaphors CHAP. III. Concerning the DOCTRINE of the CHURCH of ENGLAND THose Objections if they may be so called of which I have taken notice in the former Chapter are but some slight Skirmishes but the main Battel is still behind the great out-cry is That I have contradicted the Doctrine of the Church of England contained in her Articles and Homilies This I confess were a very great fault if it were true and if it be not it is a very great calumny And yet whether it be true or false every one may believe as he pleases for the Doctor is not at leisure to make good the Charge this he leaves to the Bishops and Governours of our Church to consider which is very wisely done of him But all that he takes leave to say is That the Doctrine here published and licens'd so to be either is the Doctrine of the present Church of England or it is not If it be so what then Why then the Doctor shall be forced to declare That he neither has nor will have any Communion therein But I thought there had been no need of declaring this now If this be all the hurt my Book has done to force the Doctor to renounce the Communion of our Church after so many years actual separation from it the matter is not great But why so much haste of declaring Why as for other Reasons at which you may guess so in particular because he will not renounce or depart from that which he knows to be the true ancient Catholick Doctrine of this Church What a mighty Reverence has the Doctor for the Church of England That he will rather separate from the present Church of England than renounce the Ancient Catholick Doctrine of the former Church of England That he will not renounce any thing which he knows to have been the True Ancient Catholick Doctrine of this Church But does he indeed speak as he means Does he account the Authority of the Church of England so sacred as to make it the Foundation of his Faith and a sufficient Reason to renounce any Doctrines which she condemns and to own what she owns If he does not I would desire him to explain the force of this reason and if he does I would beg of him for the sake of his Reason to renounce his Schism though upon second thoughts I fear this is no good Argument with the Doctor Well but if it be not so that is if the doctrine here published be not the Doctrine of the present Church of England as he is assured with respect unto many Bishops and other learned men that it is not What then What account will he now give of Renouncing the Communion of this Church Nay not a word of that but he has a little Advice to the Bishops and Governours of it It is certainly the Concernment of them who preside therein to take care that such Discourses be not countenanced with the Stamp of their Publick Authority lest they and the Church be represented unto a great disadvantage with many What a blessed change has my Book wrought in the Doctor He is now mightily concerned for the Honour and Reputation of the Bishops and Church and fears lest they should be disadvantagiously represented to the World Who could ever have hoped for this who had known the Doctor in the blessed times of Reformation And yet I vehemently suspect that after all his Courtship to the Church and Bishops the Doctor designs a little kindness to himself and his Friends in it to perswade the Reverend Bishops not to suffer any Books to be Printed against them which they cannot answer which may represent them to a great disadvantage with many The Looking-Glass-Maker transcribes several passages out of the Homilies to what end he himself knows best for I should not readily have guessed my self concerned in them had it not been for that ingenious Reflection How ill Mr. Sherlock hath fitted his Cloth to this Pattern he that is not very blind may see So that now every one must acknowledge for the credit of his eye-sight that I have contradicted the Homilies by which artifice as I have heard some waggish Fellows have perswaded silly People to confess that they have seen some strange Prodigies which they did not see and which indeed were not to be seen But to gratifie the ill nature of these men let us for once suppose that which they cannot prove that I have contradicted the Doctrine of the Church of England what then Why then I have contradicted the Doctrine to which I have subscribed if I have done so it is very ill done of me but what then Why then this is a sufficient Answer to my Book But I pray why so Do they believe the Church of England to be infallible Do they think it a sufficient proof of the Truth of any Doctrine that it is the Doctrine of the Church of England Why then do they reject any of the Articles of our Church Why do they renounce Communion with us If they attribute so much to the Judgment and Authority of our Church is it not as good in one case as it is in another Every one I suppose knows what Obedient Sons they are of the Church of England how they reverence the Authority of their Mother and is it not a plain Argument how hard they are
put to it when they are forc'd to take Sanctuary in the Authority of that Church which they so much reproach and vilifie when they dare not trust to any other Weapon to defend their Cause but the despised name of the Church of England Those I am sure must be very blind who cannot see through so transparent a Cheat. The meaning then of all this noise about the Church of England is no more but this They are conscious to themselves of a bad Cause which they can no longer defend by plain Scripture and Reason and therefore shelter themselves in the Authority of the Church and would fain perswade the Bishops and the Church of England to defend them since they cannot defend themselves and having little else to say they make long Harangues about Articles and Homilies and pretend a mighty Zeal for the True Ancient and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of England And now methinks the Church of England and the Reverend Bishops are very much beholden to me for they have not had so many good words from these men in many years before and must never expect the like again but upon such another occasion and I hope the People will begin to consider what a Church they have forsaken whose Authority is much greater than all other Arguments with their own Teachers But I see it is very dangerous to be too much in love with any thing for this great zeal and passion for the Doctrine of the Church of England has betrayed the Doctor and his good Friend the Author of the Speculum to some hasty Sayings of which it may be they may see cause to repent when they are better advised They are great Friends you must know to Liberty and Indulgence and take it very ill if they may not only think and act as they please in matters of Religion but make Parties and Factions too and controul the Commands of Secular Powers and yet these very men who so much extol and magnifie an Indulgence and so much need it give plain intimations how far they would be from granting that Liberty to others which they challenge to themselves The Doctor tells me There is great reason to pity the People committed to my Charge what regard soever ought to be had unto my self i. e. though I should starve for want of my Rectorship as he expresses himself elsewhere Had this man in their days treated this Doctrine with his present scoffing petulancy he had scarce been Rector of St. George Buttolph-Lane c. Nor should I be so now could he hinder it But what becomes of Liberty and Indulgence then in matters of Religion Must the Conscience be set free in matters of External Order and Government but tied up in Doctrines and Opinions This indeed is the Doctors avowed Principle as great a Friend as he is to Liberty He would be excused himself from subscribing Three of the XXXIX Articles but as for the other XXXVI he would have no man suffered to live in England who will not subscribe them and the Doctor can remember when he proposed this very unseasonably The Author of the Speculum desires his Friend to bid me consider whether if the Parliament should meet they might not find leisure enough to censure my Discourse as they did Mr. Mountague ' s who in vain pleaded for himself that he had writ against the Puritans and was left alone to suffer though others had instigated him to write The Commons of England will scarce endure to find the Doctrine of the Church of England struck at though it be through the sides of Dr. Owen and Dr. Jacomb But now suppose the Commons of England should think it as reasonable to secure the Government and Discipline as the Doctrine of the Church what would become then of Indulgence Would not our Author then change his Note and repent of such Intimations as these Or if the Commons of England should happen to have other thoughts of that Discourse than our Author has and should think it necessary to prevent the Debauching of Mens Minds by such corrupt Doctrines as are there opposed what would become of most of the Conventicles in England Could he with any Confidence then cry out of Persecution when he himself hath sounded the Alarm to it This it is to fence with a two-edged Sword which cuts both ways and may wound a Friend as soon as an Enemy This is sufficient in answer to my Adversaries who are well skill'd at drawing up a Charge but have no faculty at proving it But I think my self upon this occasion concerned to vindicate the Doctrine of the Church of England from the mis-representations of these men as if it favoured such uncouth and absurd notions as besides the ill consequences of them have no foundation in Scripture or Reason which I doubt may represent the best Church in the World to great disadvantage with many I mean with all wife and considering men The principal thing which these Men object against me is the Doctrine of Justification as it is explained in the Articles and Homilies of our Church And I am contented the Controversie should be put upon this issue whether they or I speak most consonantly to the Doctrine of the Church of England in this matter The Doctrine of Justification is contained in Article XI which is this We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Merits and Deservings Wherefore that we are Iustified by Faith only is a most wholsom Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Iustification The Article is plain and expressed in a few words without any Scholastical Subtilties we are not clogged here with the several Modes of Causality with the Efficient Formal Material Instrumental Causes of Justification which fill up every Page in the Books of Modern Divines All that our Church requires us to profess is only this that we are accounted Righteous before God only by Faith and for the Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that neither Faith nor Works are the Meritorious Cause of our Justification but that all the Merit of it is to be attributed to Christ who died for our sins and fulfilled the Law so that whoever acknowledges the Merits of Christ and denies the Merits of Good Works answers the end and design of this Article For this was the great Controversie of those days between the Papists and Protestants whether we were Justified freely by the Grace of God and the Merits of Christ or by the Merits of our own Works and the principal design of this Article was to oppose the Popish Doctrine of the Merit of Good Works But we are referred to the Homily of Justification for a larger Account of this Doctrine and thither I willingly appeal And to proceed with all possible ingenuity I readily acknowledge that there are several Expressions in
to us and our being united to him that is our being reckoned to him because the Holy Spirit which works faith in us is bestowed on us for Christ's sake and upon account of our Union to him And then certainly the Holy Spirit does not primarily unite us to Christ but is an effect and consequent of our Union to him And this I expresly asserted in my former Discourse that this Union to Christ entitles us to his peculiar care and providence to the influences of his grace to the power of his Intercession c. And thirdly for the same reason I did not so largely and particularly discourse of Christ's being an Influential Head though I expresly own those influences of grace which we receive from Christ because he is so only as he is a Political Head That is as Temporal Princes govern their Subjects by external Arts and Methods of Discipline So Christ who is a Spiritual Prince governs his Subjects and dwells in them by his Spirit The gift of the Spirit is an Act of his Regal Power is bestowed only on his Subjects and is dispensed in such regular ways as he has prescribed for the external Conduct and Government of his Church Thus the Spirit is at first conferred on us in Baptism and the daily supplies of it are administred upon our constant and devout Prayers as our Saviour has promised that God will give his Spirit to them who ask him And we must expect the constant illuminations of the Spirit and the supplies of Grace in the administration of the Word and Sacrament of the Lords Supper By these means Christ as our Prince and Saviour conveighs his Grace to us which requires our Communion with his Church in all Sacred Institutions and is the true basis and security of Ecclesiastical Authority Thus St. Paul tells us That Christ is the Head from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying it self in love Eph. 4. 15 16. and Col. 2. 18. And not holding the Head from which all the body with joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God In which places the Apostle represents the nourishment and increase of the Christian Church and of every member in it by the growth of the natural body in which every member does not receive its influences and nourishment immediately from the Head but one member communicates to another in such just and equal proportions and regular ways as may be most for the good of the whole body Thus every Christian who is a member of the Church and body of Christ does receive the influences of Grace from Christ for his increase and nourishment but he does not receive these influences immediately but they are bestowed on him by the Ministry of men in the regular administration of those holy Institutions which our Saviour has appointed for that end and this is for the publick benefit and advantage of the Christian Church to secure the Authority of Church Governours and to preserve the Unity of Christians among themselves This gives a plain account why I would not call the Person of Christ the Fountain of Grace nor send Persons immediately to Christ for life and power and all spiritual supplies because though Christ be the great Minister of Grace yet we must not derive it immediately from his Person but he dispenses his Grace in the Preaching of the Word or the administration of Sacraments and such other regular Methods as he has appointed for the Government of his Church and the increase and growth of his spiritual body Whereas Dr. Owen and Dr. Crisp and the rest of the Antinomians represent Christ as such a Person who has not only done all for us but has undertaken to do all in us and that by such natural conveyances of Grace from his Person as there is of the animal spirits from the head to the rest of the members and that men must first be united to Christ before they can be capable of any spiritual motion So Dr. Crisp very agreeably to what Dr. Owen asserts tells us That Christ is the Head now the Head is the Fountain of all animal Spirits and of all motion without a Head a man cannot hear see walk feel stir nor do any thing seeing all these operations come from the Head Christ is the Head of his Church he is the Fountain of all spiritual sense and motion you may as soon conceive that a man is able to see whilst he hath not a Head as to think a man may have spiritual eyes whether the eye of Faith to behold Christ or the eyes of mourning to lament his wretchedness before there be actually the conjunction of Christ the Head to such a Body Thus Christ is called Life and can any one be an active Creature before there be life breathed into him As a Body without a Soul is dead so every Person in spiritual Actions is wholly dead till Christ the Soul of that Soul be infused into him to animate and enliven him For these men as I observed before having destroyed all the Arguments to a good life and all the regular and ordinary Methods of Grace are forced to resolve the renovation of our minds into a Natural and Physical and Immediate operation of Christ upon our minds which makes all his Institutions very insipid and useless things and destroys the Authority and Necessity of Christian Societies if all Grace be so immediately derived from the Person of Christ. These things deserve a larger discourse but I am now a hastening towards a conclusion and this is sufficient to vindicate my self and my notions from that unjust and scandalous Imputation of Pelagianism which can be attributed only either to the ignorance of my Adversaries or to their want of better Arguments or possibly to both CHAP. VI. Containing an Answer to the charge of Socinianism and the Conclusion of the whole IAm now come to the last part of my Task which may be dispatched in a few words Dr. Owen and Mr. Ferguson and the rest of my Adversaries do at every turn especially when they have nothing else to answer charge me with Socinianizing A charge which was as much unexpected as undeserved but is now grown a very familiar Art among these accusers of the Brethren to blast the Reputation of those men who make it their design to vindicate Christianity from those absurd and sensless and pernicious Doctrines which they have broached under the name of Gospel Mysteries and to reduce people to the Communion of the Church of England from which they have been seduced through the Witchcraft and Enchantments of sublime and Seraphical non-sense and if ever it be just to express some indignation it is in this case for as the Father observes In causa haereseos neminem decet esse
patientem It becomes no man to be tame and gentle when he is charged with Heresie and therefore I did not think fit wholly to pass over this charge in silence nor yet shall I insist long on it since there is no other foundation for it but unchristian spight and malice I suppose it will signifie no great matter to vindicate my self nor those who suffer with me under the same Imputation by a publick abrenunciation of Socinianism for if this would do it our Subscription to the Articles of our Church our constant use of the Liturgy especially the Litany and Gloria Patri the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds the old and allowed Tests of Orthodox Christians which no Socinian will allow and is the true cause why they renounce our Communion would be a sufficient justification both of my self and them But they who have made such a familiar practice of it to dispense with the most Sacred Oaths and Promises are apt to suspect all men to be as faithless as they have proved themselves But however because the clamours of these men have abused some innocent persons and betrayed them to very unjust apprehensions of my self and many others I do heartily declare that I am no Socinian and that I do not know any Divine of the Church of England who can reasonably be suspected of that Heresie though it is notoriously evident that those Sectaries who are so ready to charge us with Socinianism have derived the greatest strength of their cause from Socinian Writers especially in the case of Anabaptism Liberty of Conscience and unlimited Toleration and rejecting the Authority of Civil Magistrates in the External Conduct of Religious Affairs as they have borrowed their other Principles of Rebellion and deposing Princes from the worst of Papists The reason why Socinus has so ill a Character in the Christian Church is his denial of the Eternal Godhead and satisfaction of our Saviour but both these I own and make them the foundation of my Religion I expresly call him the Eternal Son of God that Eternal Son of God by whom the worlds were made I acknowledge that Christ died as a Sacrifice and Expiation for sin that by his Death he made Atonement for sin That he purchased and procured and scaled the Covenant of Grace in his own bloud That Christ by his Death expiated our sins and confirmed an Everlasting Covenant and being ascended up into Heaven he there appears in the presence of God for us and perpetually intercedes in the vertue of his bloud once offered which is of infinite more value than the repeated Sacrifices of the Law At this rate I discoursed not once or twice but as often as occasion served and if this be Socinianism I acknowledge my self to be a Socinian and if it be not let others judge what my Adversaries are But let us consider what pretences they have for charging me with Socinianism And first Dr. Owen affirms that I maintain the Socinian Notion of Iustification And now I am very well contented to be a Socinian for I have very good company in it even the Church of England her self as I have made appear above For my notion of Justification is no other than what the Church of England does own and assert But what is this Socinian Notion of Justification That we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ. This indeed the Socinians do assert and so do I and yet there is a vast difference between us because they reject the satisfaction of Christ as the meritorious cause of our Justification which I own Upon the same account Ravenspergerus such another zealous Bigot as my Adversaries charged Grotius with Socinianism even when he writ against Socinus at a better rate than these men are acquainted with because he attributed our Justification and pardon of sin to Faith in Christ and repentance from dead works as Socinus does and the answer which Vossius gives to him may serve my Adversaries Socinus â—t ipse censor agnoscit nullo alio medio interveniente hanc fidel attribuit securitatem id est liberationem a poena Grotius vero aliud statuit medium intervenire nempe perpessiones Christi habentes rationem poenae propter quas Deus nos à poenis velit liberare Grotio igitur prius est medium satisfactionis quam fidei at Socino solum medium est fides non satisfactio i. e. Socinus attributes our security from the wrath of God or our deliverance from punishment only to Faith without any other medium i. e. Without the intervention of the Death and Sacrifice of Christ But Grotius asserts another medium of our Pardon and Iustification viz. the sufferings of Christ under the notion of punishments for which God was pleased to deliver us from punishment And therefore Grotius first attributes our Iustification to the satisfaction of Christ as the meritorious cause of it and then to Faith as the Condition But Socinus acknowledges Faith but rejects Satisfaction And therefore Dr. Owen himself when he formerly charged Mr. Baxter with Socinianism upon the very same score and drew a parallel between that account which Mr. Baxter gave of justification and what is given by Slitchtingius and some other Socinians was so modest then as to confess that he was a Socinian in this point as far as any one could be who acknowledges satisfaction which is as much as to say that he was no Socinian Thus to proceed they almost every where charge me with transcribing my interpretations of Scripture out of the Socinian Expositors and therefore I must be a Socinian Now suppose this were true that I did make use of those Expositions which the Socinians give of many places of Scripture what hurt is there in it if there be no Socinianism in them For I have heard men who understand very well what belongs to expounding Scripture acknowledge the Socinians to be excellent Expositors where their own peculiar Notions are not concerned though no men play more tricks with Scripture where they are I do very often make use of Mr. Calvin's Expositions and why do not they hence conclude me to be a Calvinist And indeed in most of those places where they charge me with transcribing out of the Socinians they might as justly have charged me with transcribing out of Calvin and had they known all with greater reason too For Calvin I did consult upon all occasions but the Socinians I never did I have already taken notice of and vindicated most of those Expositions which my Adversaries charge with Socinianism as I have occasionally met with them but Mr. Ferguson has put together some Texts which he thinks I have so expounded as to destroy their evidence for the Godhead of Christ. I would not says our Author be thought to impeach Mr. Sherlock of opposing the God-head of Christ but this I affirm that if his glosses of Col. 1. 19. Col. 2. 3 8. Joh. 14. 20. Joh. 1. 14. which are