Reasons therein offered to maintain the things that were so boldly asserted as also to the Scriptures of Truth and sound Reason drawn from the same And I can truly say the more I lookt into both the more I were confirmed in my Faith and the more clearly did I see the unreasonableness though deep subtilty and cuning Sophistry of the Arguments that were laid down in those Books for denying our Lord Jesus Christ to be over all God blessed for ever more and for my own Memory sake I at first commited some Remarks to Paper and Ink and shewing them to a Friend he advised me to go on further in it Which accordingly I did and having almost finisht what I thought to do with respect to those two Books I Communicated it to another Friend and he shewed me and Lent me the great Boasting vain Glorious Considerator upon Four Sermons of his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Discourse of the Bishop of Sarums another of the Bishop of Worster and an Eminent Dissenter and I have now forgot who besides And he stumps it about like a Haberdasher of small Wits against his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury charges the Lord Bishop of Sarum with a Dissent from the Catholick Church and doth in Effect tell his Lordship though he be a Dignity of the Church yet he must vail the Bonnet to him as being a Freeman of the Common wealth of Wit and Learning and seems willing to perswade the the World that he is guilty of Sacriledge and that he hath Robb'd the Church of some of her best ornaments next to the Righteousness of Cnrist imputed to her and the Graces of his Holy Spirit wrought in her viz. Her Wit and Learning And as for the first of the Former and which indeed Constitutes her Truly Christian viz. the Righteousness of Christ imputed to her he will not own that she hath any Right or Title to it or that she shall ever be made partaker of it And as for the Second viz. The inwrought Graces of the Holy Spirit and which indeed makes her truly Glorious he hath brought up an evil Report upon it and will have it to be no other then Painted Paper-morality common to the Heathen And in order to perswade the World to believe him He tells us he is a Freeman of the Common-wealth of Wit and Learning What a mortification must it be to this Gentleman when he shall see that a Man of a mean capacity and Employment that never had the happiness to sit at the Feet of Gamaliel can see through his Sophistry And yet it must be acknowledged by all Men of common Sense that the Schools will give a Man great advantages in many things if he have but answerable Measures of Reason to improve the knowledge that may be attained there but Block-heads and Dunces must look like themselves as well when Posting from as when Whipt to and in the Cities of Oxford and Cambridge For indeed the Schools know better then to pretend to give Men Reason much less Vertue or Grace and yet we have a sort of soft-pated Gentlemen who because they can speak Three Languages besides their Mother Tongue will needs count themselves wise Men Ay and good Divines too but they will not pass for such among those that know what sound Reason and True Divinity is The Cosiderator by his Vanity and Boasting seems to be one of those Paper-scull'd Gentlemen I have therefore given him an Answer to some of his Arguments least he should continue to be wise in his own Conceit and to let him know that it better becomes such weak headed tho' perhaps well-meaning Gentlemen as he to learn of the Mechanicks than to contend with the Learned especially such of them as have answerable measures of Reason to improve the Knowledge they have attain'd by Learning for the same end for which God gave it them And I have taken Notice but of some of his Arguments neither because notwithstanding his great swelling Words of Vanity yet I find all his Arguments are briefly couch'd or may be reduced to our Short Accountant and to give that Gentleman his due he is as Stout a Champion for their Cause as the best of them all and so much the better because he is not so vain as the Considerator I thought therefore I ought not to let the Considerator pass without a Repremand for his sawcy insulting over the Dignities of the Church and thou wilt find Reader it is but a Reasonable one for I have quoted him Truly and Fairly as thou wilt see if thou compare Books and as for the Accountant I have Transcribed his Arguments almost word for word at least I have not knowingly omitted one Material Word in all his Book Now Reader I shall leave thee to Judge for thy Self whether it will be safest for thee to believe God to be as he himself saith he is or as pretendingly Wise but real Foolish Men say he is And if thou receive any Benefit by this Discourse let it be a Motive to thee not to lean to thy own understanding but to live by Faith on him that gives Wisdom to the simple and understanding to them that have no knowledge And if what is written may have any influence thereunto and in so doing to honour the Son even as we honour the Father he hath his end who is thine to serve thee so far as it is Reasonable for thee to Command or him to obey Nathanael Goldham A Reasonable Word TO THE DOCTORS OF REASON OUR Nameless Author in his Divine Vnity asserted spends his third and fourth Pages in laying down general Rules which must be used in discerning Truth from Error that we may not be deceived I shall therefore pass over those two Pages and consider how well he keeps to those Rules or to the Rules of Scripture or right Reason which he pretends to be so Great a Master of in clearing so Great a Controversie and which is so great a Mystery And first to begin with his Reasons which he lays down as a Foundation to build a Faith upon that shall reach to Heaven And he goes on and prospers in this building about as far as the Men of Babel did in their building in the Land of Shinar Gen. 11. 2 7. Indeed his Reason is as much confounded as their Language was for they did but contradict and so not understand one another and yet perhaps as great Doctors of Reason among them as our Author himself He tells us in page 5. that we have a Power of Reasoning or Faculty of encreasing our Knowledge by Industry whereby we come to a Certainty in many things Hence I gather from my Author 's Reasoning that there are various Degrees and Measures of Reason which the most High God is pleased to give to every Man according to the good Pleasure of his own Will to some more and to some less and to some so far as appears to By-standers none at
A Reasonable Word TO THE Doctors of Reason BEING Some Remarks on a Nameless Author in his Pamphlet Entituled The Divine Vnity asserted AND Some Observations upon a Short-Account of the Proceedings of R. S. Bishop of a Dissenting Congregation in London with some of the Brethren against a Member of that Church as an Heretick Shewing the Vnreasonableness of those Pretended Reasons that are offered for Denying our Lord Jesus Christ to be over All God blessed for evermore And Proving by the Word of God and Sound Reason drawn from the same That Jesus Christ is the True God and Eternal Life 1 John V. 20. ALSO A Reasonable Reprimand to Mr. Considerator for his foolish Boasting in his Letter to H. H. as if He and Those of his Tribe were the only Freemen of the Common-Wealth of Wit and Learning By N. Goldham a Lover of Truth and Sound Reason LONDON Printed by K. Astwood for the Author 1699. To the Right Worshipful Sir William Ashhurst Knight Alderman AND One of the Honourable REPRESENTATIVES of the City of LONDON in PARLIAMENT May it please your Worship THE Ensuing Sheets being the Work of some spare Hours last Winter Mornings redeemed not from my Employment or particular Calling but from my Rest and Sleep I know not unto whom of Right it doth more properly belong than to your Worship knowing that as you are my Governour my Person is under your Protection and my Manners fall under your Inspection I thought it meet therefore that a Work of this Nature coming from me should make its Acknowledgments to your Worship and I do hereby Humbly submit both the Work and the Author of it to your Worships Impartial Judgment and Censure And in doing this I know not how to give your Worship flattering Titles not only though chiefly because in so doing my Maker would be offended but also because I have Reason to believe that your Worship is so Noble and so truly Great that 't is as much below your Worship to receive them as it is Breach of Duty in me to give them Nor shall I with a Pretended shew of Humility the worst of all Pride make any Apology with a pretended Humble Petition for a Pardon for doing thus not only because in so doing I should be guilty of a Contradiction having already as in Reason I ought submitted both the Work and my Self to your Worships Impartial Judgment and Censure And knowing also such is the Gentleness and Candor of your Government that Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity are discountenanc'd and suppress'd with Admonition and Reproof or elfe punish'd with such Gentle and Fatherly Chastifement as may serve only for an Effectual Admonition to future Reformation And I can assure your Worship our Lord Jesus Christ who knoweth all things bearing me witness I lye not that at first and all the while I employ'd my Thoughts about the VVork it self and of submitting the same to your Worships most solid and penetrating Judgment I could not entertain one Thought of abusing Good Nature and a Gentle Governour at such an Unreasonable Wicked Rate as sinning wilfully in Hope of a Pardon will amount unto I am very sensible your Worship is called by the Good Providence of God and the Voice of this City to Much and Great Business in Publick Affairs both in this City and for this City and Nation among the Chief of our English Tribes the Heads of their Fathers Houses Men of Renown who have been and are to Assemble together in Parliament to Enquire and Determine what our English Israel ought to do That our Lord Jesus Christ may direct your Counsels and bless your Resolves is and ought to be the Prayer of every true English Christian I shall not therefore presume to detain your Worship with a Long Entry to a small Cottage yet I think my Self obliged to render to your Worship a Reason for my doing thus and among others this is one There is a Generation arisen up among us who call themselves Wits Freemen as they say of the Common-wealth of Learning but they prove themselves to be no other than a Select Number of Conceited Dunces who are far enough from being Freemen of the Common-wealth of Sound Reason And there is indeed no such thing as the Common-wealth of Learning that being a good Gift of God bestow'd but upon some but Reason is given by the same Author of every Good and Perfect Gift to Men as such yet neither is this universal in common to all Men in any great measures thereof witness our Pretenders thereunto And yet so vain are these Conceited Ones and of all Fools they are the worst that they not only say they are Freemen of the Common-wealth of Wit and Learning but they will needs make themselves as Usurpers in all cases do Masters and Magistrates of that which is Superiour to both viz. The Common-wealth of Sound Reason Hence it comes to pass that so many Nameless Letters have been sent to our Noble Senators with bold and presumptuous Exhortations to make Use of their Reason as if Christianity were an Enemy to Humanity Or as if Faith destroyed Reason charging all the Laity as well the Nobility and Gentry as the Commonality and more inferiour Mechanicks to be no better than Biggots to the Clergy And the Clergy no better than Arbitrary Imposers of Idolatrous Doctrines Since therefore these Bold Invaders on the Rights of Mankind in point of Reason as if they had ingross'd it all into their own Hands are grown so Vain and Insolent as to set Bounds not only to God's Word but to God himself they not having the Fear of God before their Eyes form an Idea of God according to the Dictates of their own Foolish Brains And whatever God saith of himself yet he must be no other than what they say he is and in all Probability the next Step will be to say he is not I therefore look'd for some Answers to those Unreasonable as well as Unscriptural Pamphlets from our Reverend Divines but finding these Pretenders had this Shift to put off what the Clergy had said And to amuse their Readers viz. That the Laity and efpecially the more inferiour Sort take those things upon Trust and are led by the Nose by the Clergy To Convince therefore these Gainsayers and to Honour our Lord Jesus Christ and to let those Gentlemen know that we Lay-men do see with our own Eyes and that every true Christian tho' the meanest of Mechanicks is not taught by the Clergy only but by the express Word of God to Honour the Son even as we Honour the Father For these Reasons have I thus employed those Redeemed Hours and forasmuch as your Worship hath an Undoubted Right to judge both the Author and his Work so I Humbly take Leave to cast both at your Worships Feet and Subscribe my Self as I am Your Worships Most Humble Servant Nathanael Goldham To the Rational READER IT is to be Lamented but not to be
had contradicted himself and his Argument would have been meer Nonsence and would have run thus a Man humbled himself and took on him the form and fashion of a Man Besides it is a Contradiction in the Nature of the thing it self and is no better Sence than to say a Man made himself a Man It may seem strange that Men should be so blind but how can it be otherwise when they will needs war against him who is the Light and Life of Men. I always thought that my Author was endu'd with a considerable stock of Learning only it look'd like a Jewel set in Lead for want of sound Reason and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ to manage it until I met with his reconciling Faculty in his aforesaid 18th page and that brought to my Mind what the Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 3. 15 16. where speaking of some of Paul's Epistles of which this to the Philippians and that to the Hebrews are some He saith There are some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also other Scriptures to their own Destruction And when I read these things I cannot for my Life forbear thinking on my Nameless Author For besides the flat Contradiction he gives the Holy Ghost it is directly contrary to the Scope of the Apostle which was to move them to Humility and Condescension one to another from Christ's Example But if he were a Man only to say nothing of the Nonsence that there is in saying a Man humbled himself to become a Man the Man Jesus considered as a Man only was highly honoured in his being conceived and brought forth of a Virgin in such a Miracnlous Manner So that consider the Text which way you will either with respect to the Words themselves or with respect to the Context we are bound to believe the Truth as it is revealed that He thought it no Robbery to be equal with God There is nothing more material in my Author which I have not taken Notice of and shewed how unreasonable it is especially where he pretends Scripture for his cunningly devised Fables And the Truth is those Gentlemen would make much surer Work in their Babel Building if they could but race out the Scriptures from among us than ever they will be able to do by wresting them one by one to speak according to their foolish Reason And indeed the Considerator in his Answer to his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury bids fair for it for though he had tryed in vain by false and absurd Glosses to make the first Chapter of John and many other Texts mentioned by his Lordship to speak according to his own and his Master Socinus his foolish Reason or rather corrupt Mind Yet he flies at first to his best shift though for Subtilty sake somewhat indirectly to except against the Gospel of St. John the three Epistles and the Revelations and would impose upon us that they were counterfeited by one Cerinthus in John's Name And therein he hath not only secur'd his own Cause but greatly oblig'd the Papists a piece of Wickedness they never had the Impudence to attempt though they kept them lock'd up in an Unknown Tongue Yes but the Considerator tells us that the Revelations of St. John were denied and writ against by some of the Papists as being no part of Divine Writ Well be it so every Body knows for what Cause we have it recorded in Acts 6. 10. because they were not able to resist the Holy Ghost that speaks therein and at the same time others of them are striving with all the might they have to ward off the Blow that the Spirit gives to that Interest in wresting it to any sence that may secure their Popish and Foppish Cause In like manner doth the Considerator not only with the Revelations but with the Gospel of St. John and his three Epistles and scarce any Text that is urg'd against them but they say either it is not right translated or it is no Scripture or else they manifestly wrest it from the plain Sence and Meaning of the Holy Ghost There in one Instance among many we have in the Gospel of John Chap. 8. v. 58. where our Lord saith Before Abraham was I am Considerator pag. 57. colume 1. that is saith he In the Decree and Counsel of God Why good Mr. Considerator what a great Secret have you found out now are not all God's Works known to him from Eternity were not you and I and all the Men that shall be in the World to the end thereof in the Counsel and Decree of God from Eternity Surely God is not like Man to determine and purpose one thing yesterday and another to day But pray Sir be pleased to take a View of your own Learned Countenance in your 6th page colume 1st and 2d There you give several Arguments to prove a thing cannot be possess'd before it is in being and in particular you instance the Day of Judgment which is not yet come and therefore not possess'd I hope you will not say it is not or that it was not in the Decree of God when and before he made the World Therefore your Saying after Grotius that a Man descending from Abraham could not be any otherwise before Abraham than in Divine Purpose and Decree is very true and turns the Argument against you Besides Abraham was in the Decree of God as soon as any Man Therefore you must own that our Lord did exist before he was born of the Virgin or that he spoke Nonsence for they themselves knew that the Decrees of God were Eternal and our Lord had not given them an Answer to their Question which was whether he had seen Abraham he being not fifty years old Besides our Lord had told a plain direct Lye if he had said he was in the Decree of God before Abraham For Abraham was in God's Decree as soon as Adam and therefore no Man descending from Abraham could be in God's Decree before him But the Considerator goes a little further and saith our Lord did exist in the Promise of God before Abraham which is very true also for he was promised the same day of the Fall but neither will this do the Business nor discharge our Considerator from charging our Lord with Folly or Nonsence or both For it was promised presently after the Flood long before Abraham that God should perswade Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem and yet the Gentiles the Seed of Japhet did not receive the Gospel till since our Lord 's coming in the Flesh So likewise was it prophesied of Josiah an hundred years before he was born could he therefore say before I was born I am Nay is not Mr. Considerator himself and the rest of his Learned Brethren prophesied of by Name in 2 Pet. 2. 1. where the Holy Ghost tells us there shall be false Teachers among Christians who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies denying