wrong Sense on Orthodox Terms and Phrases To clear this I will only observe That as they will have the Term Instrument when spoken of Faith in Justification to signifie the same with Condition whereby there is a great Turn made in Controverse as the Arminians Improve it so they impose on the Phrases Vice nostra Loco nostro a Sense most contrary to their ancient and constant Meaning It's well known that Socinus Crellius and their nearest Followers did concur with the Orthodox about what was the Genuine Imports of those Phrases holding that they signified a Proper Surrogation where one is put into the Place State or Condition of another sustaining his Person and one with him In conspectu fori Sabrogatam sapit naturam ejus in cujus Locum Sabrogatur These Phrases taken in this Sense the Socinians stoutly opposed loading the Orthodox with all the horrid Consequences which slow only from an Assertion that Christ did take on him the Condition of the Sinner in every little Circumstance or Accident But my Lord Bishop of Worcester hath cleared the Maxim of Surrogation from the least Pretence of such a Charge by distinguishing Inter Naturam Primordialem Accidentalem and proving that Sarrogatum sapit tantum naturam Primordialem non Accidentalem That in this Sense the Orthodox Universally understand these Phrases Vice nostra Loco nostro is so manifest that whoever is acquainted with their Writings can't but acknowledge it And it 's no less Evident from the Scriptures That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for when it 's said Christ Suffered for us signifieth a Proper Surrogation which is Essential unto Satisfaction made to Punitive or Vindictive Justice However there are a set of Men of the Arminian Tang who will have it That Vice nostra or Loco nostro signifie no more than nostro â—â—co that when it 's said Christ dyed in our stead the meaning is Christ dyed to besâ—â—â—ad us and only that the Blessed Effect of his Death might be made ours Another expresseth it thus If Christ dyed for our Benefit so as some way or other by Virtue of his Death and Sufferings to save us from the Wrath of God this for ought he knows is All that any body means by his dying in our stead By such Practices as these it is that many are unawares ensnared into divers Pernicious and hurtful Errors First to the entertaining corrupt Apprehensions about Christâ—s Satisfaction and then to a downright denyal of it whence it is apparent that the Arminian Errors lead the way to the Socinian as the Socinian do to the Abomination of the Deist Thus much may suffice touching the Methods taken by Forreign Socinians and the Arminians to instill and propagate their Doctrines I will go on in the next place to consider what Arts are used by our English Socinians to spread their Heresies CHAP. IV. Some of the Various Methods taken by the English Socinians to Insinuate and spread their Errors Detected SECT I. The English Socinians can't agree in any one Particular Formula of Faith or Catechism Sundry Differences amongst themselves in Matters of Importance Their Unanimity in taring up the Foundations and commonly received Systems of Divinity IT being the Expectation of our English Socinians that Consid â—n the explic of the Trin. p. 32. if we attack the Doctrine of their Books or describe their Opinions we do it out of their own Writings not from the Books of Forreigners I will confine my self in the Account I give of them to their own Prints First then it must be observed That the English Socinians have not made such Advances in their New Divinity as to be able to give a distinct Idea of what it is they do Believe The Reason is Obvious To Invent 〈◊〉 Improve a New Religion which they who Reject the Old must do if they will have any is not Easy Nor is there a Man amongst them Great enough to Prescribe to the Party And the Fondness Hereticks have for their own Particular Notions is such as will not suffer them to Part with any thing of their Own for the sake of a Scheme or System of anothers Composure Though Mr. Biddle did some Years ago Emit a Confession Reprinted 1691. and a Catechisme yet I cannot find that the English Socinians do Adhere thereunto any more than the Followers of Socinus beyond the Sea's have done to the Racovian Catechisme which as My Lord of Worcester Observes was so far from Pleasing all that the New Editions were with some Important Alterations And whoever will Consult what hath been Written by our Gentlemen since 1690 will see that they Pretend not to give a Particular Summary of the Positive Parts of their Religion 'T is true they Generally Profess a Zeal for the Apostles Creed One of 'em tells us That he Resolves his System into the Creed of the Vniversal Church Some Thought supâ—â— Dr. Stel. Vindic. p. â—8 which by Reason of it's Antiquity but especially of the Authority of its Doctrines is Rightly called the Apostles Creed and Admitted of all Christians notwithstanding their Implacable Hatreds and Divisions Thus they Confining themselves to Generals leave us in the Darkâ— about the Particular Articles of their Faith besides their Presences about the ANTIQUITY of this Creed are as hath been Unanswerably Proved by the Learned Vossius most Weak and without the least Shaddow of Reason and their Sense of it if in favour of their Anti-Trinitarianism Contrary to that Received in the Churches ever since its first Composure whereby we are as much at a loss touching the System of their Faith as if they had said nothing at all of it We will therefore Look into the Brief Hystory of these Vnitarians Letter 1. p. 3. as they call themselves and see what they say there Sir In Answer to Yours Demanding a Brief Account of the Vnitarians called also Socinians also their Doctrine concerning GOD in which only they differ from other Christians the Remonstrants PROFESSEDLY Agreeing with them in other Points of Faith and Doctriney and the Defence they usually make of their Haeresie They Affirm GOD IS ONLY ONE PERSON not THREE They make our Lord Christ to be the Messenger Minister Servant and Creature of GOD They Confess He is also the Son of GOD because He was Begotten on Blessed Mary by the Spirit or Power of GOD Luke 1.35 But they Deny that He or any other Person but the Father is GOD Almighty and Eternal The Holy Ghost or Spirit according to them is the Power and Inspiration of GOD Luke 1.35 Tho' we might Reasonably Expect a very Particular and Exact Account in this History of what they hold yet they stick in Generals Referring Us to the Remonstrants for a Catalogue of all besides their Renouncing the Blessed Loctrine of the Trinity so that we are still where we were before we saw this History For as the Remonstrants do not PROFESSEDLY Agree with them in the other Points of
Account thereof The Ministers and Elders of the Church at Vilna were much movâ—d at Calvin's writing against him and therefore after they had reprovâ—d him do advise him to reconcile himself unto Blandrata who was to their Knowledge Ubi sup 258. a most sincere Man free from the least Suspicion of Errors For they believed not a word of what Calvin had said to the contrary However Calvin persists in the Opinion he had of Blandrata and can by no means be taken off from exposing his Heresies and evil Practices expressing his Trouble to observe him by his crafty method to get such an Interest in the favour of so eminent a Person as his Anonymous Friend was In his Letter to Stanislaus saith he I cannot but observe how all men in a manner as if they had been under a Fascination admire Blandrata 't is you alone who begin to suspect the Truth of what is said of him but that you may obtain a more certain Knowledge of him I must tell you that Valentinus Gentilis whose wild Notions I have confuted is of the same Faction and another Blandrata altho the one will not give place unto the other If his Frauds his Ensnaring and crafty Courses had not been taken notice of in Poland it might have been more tolerable but I am amaz'd to think that a Man who hath nothing else but Pride and Ostentation to recommend him should get such a Reputation amongst you as to be esteemed the Atlas that bears the Church on his Shoulders In his Answer to Felix Cruciger and his Collegues and other faithful Pastors and Ministers in Lesser Poland There is oâ—e thing I cannot but suggest unto you saith he that they who did with so much Humanity and Respect entertain Blandrata were not so cautiâ—ns and wary nor did they consult your Reputation as they should have done and am more surprized that some of the Chiefest Rank are greatly offended because I did as it became me discover the Man I beseech you not to believe that I have hastily taken up any Reports I have written a Narrative which will clear the Truth of Matter of Fact And to the Ministers and Elders of the Church at Vilna Tho you saith he have no Suspicion touching Blandrata his Errors and Practices yet with me he is clearly convicted and so he is before this Church Ye believe not what I say why then should I believe what you say You have much time to spare to call Synods about such Tristes You admire him as if he had been an Angel dropt down from Heaven but he is in other Nations a Man of no Account A brief History of him I will give you and lest you should have no regard to what I say it is attested by the Elders of the Italian Church with us and by the Renowned Peter Martyr The History they give of him is to this purpose 〈◊〉 â—â—orge Blandrata a Physician demeanâ—d himself amongst us for some time very peaceably and with much Temper desirous of Instruction so that we innocently receivâ—d him into our Number At length he began to talk as if he designed to call in question the Article of Christ's Divinity and privately spread this Notion amongst the more ignorant Then would he weary Calvin with his Enquiries and seem abundantly satisfy'd with his Answers but carry'd it so that at last Calvin discover'd his persidious and deceitful Courses and his Carriage to be such as made it necessary for the Senate to deal with hâ—m where altho he was convicted of notorious Falshoods against Calvin yet never blush'd His intimate Friend and Companion was Johannes Paulus Alciatus who said that we worship three Devils much worse than all the Popish Idols because we hold Three Persons There arose a fresh Complaint of the Italian Church against him for using Clandestine Arts to ensnare the Vulgar to a Closure with his Dotages Thus this Man a real Enemy to the Fundamental Doctrines of Christian Religion the great Patron of Socinus and his Partizans to the end he might the more effectually propagate his Errors pretends a Zeal for the Truth joyns himself to the Orthodox subscribes sound Confessions gains a Reputation amongst the châ—efest of the Orthodox for being sound and sincere This deceitful Method of â—landrata hath been exactly observ'd as by many of the same Principles abroad so by the Socinians in our Country who notwithstanding the Contradiction there is in the Doctrines by Law established to their Tenents and the strict Subscriptions required of all that enter into the Ministry get into the Church and fix their Communion there That they may pave the way for the Consciences of others their Attempts are to make the Subscription to the Thâ—rty-nine Articles to signify nothing The Belief of the Athanasian Creed not requiâ—ed by the Châ—ef Eng. p. 2. Those Thirty-nine Articles say they are not Articles of Faith but Peace As several of her most learned Bishops have declared and in a word the Title of the Articles says as much and the Preface before them And yet in the Title 't is declared that these Articles were agreed upon for the avoiding Diversities of Opinion and for the Establishing of Consent touching true Religion And in the Preface 't is declared That the Articles do Contain the True Doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to Gods word And the Charge his Majesty gives is That no Man shall either Print or Preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the Plain and full meaning thereof And shall not put his own sense or Comment to be the Meaning of the Article but shall take it in the Literal or Grammatical Sense So that whatever any Bishops have declared The Import of the Title and Preface is That the Subscribers Agree in Believing the Doctrines contained in the Articles to be True that the Articles taken in the Literal and Grammatical Sense are agreeable to God's word How can a Socinian then subscribe the first Article where 't is said There is but One Living and True God and in Unity of this Godhead there be Three Persons of one Substance Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Doth this Article contain in it the Truth If it doth the Socinian Principle is False If it doth not they subscribe to a Lye And tho' the Church did not Require the Belief of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity as delâ—vered in the Athanasian Creed as Necessary to Salvation Yet seeing it Requires the Belief of this Doctrine as True they who deny this Doctrine can't without being guâ—lty of grossest Hypocrisy subscribe it But what can't a designing English Socinian do Thus you see that tho' the Thirty-nine Articles are as expressly against the Dogmata of our â—nglish Socinians as words can make them yet can they not keep an English Socinian out of the Church And having broken their Subscriptions they go on to tell us Trinitar Scheme
look to themselves SECT IV. The Difference there is between the English and Foreign Socinians The Foreign Socinians Represent the Principles Embraced by the Generality of the English to be Heretical tending to Mahometanism and Judaism THE English Socinians do not make us so bad but Socinus and his Partizans abroad are even with them making their Case the same with the worst of Hereticks Mahometans and Jews To clear thus much I must show what the Foreign Socinians hold touching Christ's Divinity and the Worship due unto him together with the Representation given of such as do herein differ from them When Vujekus charged the Socinians with Mahometanism Socinus in his Answer declares Resp ad Praef. Vujek p. 8. Ed. A. D. 1624. That they held Jesus Christ to be that Man who was by the Holy Ghost Conceived in the Womb of the Virgin Mary and Born of her that this Man is the only begotten Son of God whom the Holy Scriptures Recommend unto us nor is there any other besides or before him To this Man is given by God the Father such a Divine Power and Authority that the Name of God and Divine Worship is Deservedly and Necessarily perse given unto him This is their Doctrine the Foundation of their Religion the Great and Glorious Mystery of their Gospel without the Belief of which no Salvation can be had Although say they Christ never Expresly said He was the true God Sâ—â—in ubi sâ—p p. 19. yet from what he has oft declared it may Easily yea Necessarily be inferred that He is that is to say as he is really and truly Invested with Divine Power and Authority And there are several Texts in the Holy Scriptures which make it most clear that not only the One God p. 26. but that Jesus Christ also as he is distinguished from that One God is to be Adored with Divine Worship Time would fail me to enumerate the many Texts that are not only in the New Testament but also in the Old for the Worshipping Jesus Christ as distinguished from that One God with Divine Adoration They then ubi sup p. 27. who deny it to be Lawful to give Divine Worship to Two Gods whereof One is Subordinate unto the Other and wholly depends on him may as well deny the Sun shines in the clearest Day and do moreover discover their Ignorance of the Greatest Mystery of Christian Religion and if Treated with Rigor must be Deprived of the very Name of Christians That they who are against rendring unto Christ Divine Worship or oppose the Invocating him are to be Condemned for Hereticks yea for worse than Hereticks in that truly they deny unto him the Care of the Church which is the same with their Denying him to be Christ This is the Notion they have Espoused of Jesus Christ They Affirm him to be a True God a True Subordinate God entirely depending on that One Most High God A True God because this One God hath given to him Divine Power and Authority or as they sometimes Express it because God hath by his Inhabiting Word or Power given to the Lord Christ a Faculty of Knowing all things and an Ability to Relieve all Wants This Divinity in Christ they make to be the Ground and Reason of their Adoration and Invocation They do also make God's dwelling in Christ by his Spirit a Ground of Worship Socinus in the Defence of his Animadversions on the Theological Assertions of the Posnan College Cap. 8. p. 250 251. Ed. A. D. 1618. against Gabriel Eutropius tells us To justify our Adoring Christ it 's sufficient that God doth in an Eminent manner by his Spirit dwell in him speak in him give Answers whence he is called the Image of the Invisible God and they who have seen Christ are said to have seen the Father and they who Adore him do in him Adore the Father If then the Israelites who Worshiped before the Ark of the Covenant because God shewed himself in it present to them and as from his proper and peculiar Place There gave Answers and after a sort There dwelt were free from the Guilt of Idolatry much more may we be so tho' we Worship Christ of whom the Ark was but a Type or Shadow and infinitly below him This way of Arguing tho' used by a Man of Note amongst our selves was so turn'd by Vujekus and Bellarmine two Jesuits against Socinus as to Confound him That Christ is worthy of Divine Worship say they because God dwells in him Res ad Vujek p. 418. is by no means to be Allowed For then 't would follow that the whole World may be Worshiped especially the Angels and â—oly Men in whom God doth in a more peculiar manner dwell And as the Socinians do make this sort of Divinity the Reason of their giving Divine Worship unto Christ even so their Ascribing this Divinity and giving Divine Worship unto him makes the Discriminating Character Animadv in Assert p. 49. by which alone they hope to clear themselves from being of the Religion Invented by Mahomet which doth not Invocate nor Worship him No One saith Socinus who is in his Wits will affirm that False Notion Mahomet had of Jesus of Nazareth Vid. Defens Animadv p. 373. is what Paulus Samosatenus held For Samosatenus acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the True and only Begotten Son of God and our Lord affirming that he ought to be Worshiped c. which things Mahomet denyed They insist so very much on the Adoration of Christ that they esteem those who are against it to be such Hereticks as subvert the very Foundations of Christianity and deserve not the Name of Christians I do not saith Socinus see any thing throughout the whole Christian Religion of more Importance to be Published De Invocat Christ ex Epist ad Quend Tom. I. p. 353. than a Demonstration that Invocation Adoration or Divine Worship belongs to Christ altho' he is a Creature If this be but once fully proved all the strong holds of the Trinitarians will fail them For they lean on this one Foundation viz. That that Adoration and Invocation which is due only to the Most High God must be given unto Christ And on the other hand the True Power and Majesty of Christ will hereby be cleared and firmly fixt in the minds of all whereas without the Knowledge of it neither God himself nor any thing Divine can be Rightly Understood nor the way of our Salvation clearly Known but what is said in the Holy Scriptures of the Expiation of our Sins by Christ will be strangely mistaken the whole of Christian Religion brought into Doubt or at least be expos'd to a sudden Change if not to utter Ruin and the Chiefest and most Principal Foundations of our Hope and Trust in God destroyed And elsewhere he saith Socin Christ Rel. Instit Tom. I. p. 656. That they who are against the Worship of Christ cannot be Christians because in
Lismaninus and Blandrata were very active Lismaninus who was first infected by the Endeavours of Laelius Socinus and confirm'd in his Heresies by George Blandrata falling into Suspicion takes Heart and in a Letter to Stanislaus Ivanus Karninscius boldly defends Blandrata But that he might do his part to remove all grounds of jealousie touching his Orthodoxy he Prefaces his Epistle with a short Prayer to God the Father from whom are all things through the Lord Christ by whom are all things Consubstantial and Co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Ghost And in the Epistle it self he gives a summary of his own Faith and of the Faith of them who dwelt at Pinczow in these words We Believe in God the Father from whom are all things who is Infinite without beginning and from whom not only all Creatures are but also the Divinity and Bonity of the Son and Holy Ghost as Nazianzen teacheth in his Apologie We Believe also in our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who is the Incarnate Word God-man God of God Light of Light True God of True God Consubstantial Co-eternal and Coequal in Essence or Nature Power Glory Authority and Honour with the Father And We Believe in the Holy Ghost the True God of the Father and the Son or as the Greek Doctors teach in an unutterable manner from Eternity proceeding from the Father by the Son Consubstantial Coeternal and Co-equal with the Father and the Son in his Essence Power Majesty Glory Authority and Honour Blandrata in a Synod at Xiansia Anno Dom. 1562 declared his Belief Lubien Hist Ref. Pol. l. 2. c. 6. p. 130. In one God the Father in one Lord Jesus Christ his Son and in one Holy Ghost each of which is Essentially God A Plurality of Gods I Abhor saith he for with us there is but One God only whose Essence is Indivisible I do confess that there are Three distinct Hypostases that the Deity of Christ and his Generation is Eternal and that the Holy Ghost is True and Eternal God proceeding from both In these Confessions there is the Denial of a Plurality of Gods and a Profession that the Son and Holy Spirit are of the same Essence Consubstantial Co-eternal Coequal with the Father in words as full as its Possible for the Vindicated Author who holds the Persons of the Trinity to be Three distinct Essences to express it Howbeit these Men were justly Charged with the Tritheistical Heresie Peter Martyr as Lubieniescius reports doth in a Letter Anno Dom. 1558 Hist Ref. Pol. l. 2. c. 6. p. 126. speak of Blandrata's bringing into the Deity a Certain kind of Monarchy denying the Essence of the Father and the Son to be the same from whence a a Plurality of Gods doth follow which thing as he was told Gribaldus did in express words Assert In like manner Lubieniescius himself tells us That Lismaninus and Blandrata Agreed in this that unless it be setled Ibid. pag. 131. that God who in the Holy Scriptures is called the Father of Jesus Christ is the most High God no satisfying Answer can be made to Stancarus nor can that Worship which is due unto the most High God he given him for Christ himself doth say my Father is Greater than I. These Men and their Followers notwithstanding these Confessions were so far from believing the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be Coessential Coeternal and Coequal that as Gentilis made the Father to be the Essentiator and the Son and Spirit to be the Essentiati so these were Positive that there was a Preheminence of Causality in the Father above the Son and Holy Ghost that the Essence of the Son and Holy Spirit was not Vnoriginated Vncaused and from it self only but from the Essence of the Father that is to say the Father was the Essentiator and the Son and Spirit the Essentiati and making the Essence of the Son and Spirit so very distinct from the Essence of the Father they were for three Essences in the Trinity Three distinct Essences and therefore were call'd Trideitae which is not only the Observation of Beza but the Confession of Lubieniescius who saith That they were injuriously by the Adversary called Trideitae tho' nothing more manifest than that they being the Worshippers of God the Father by Jesus Christ the only mediator were therefore in Transilvania called Vnitarians The Notion then of Gentilis Lismaninus and Blandrata was that the Son and Holy Ghost were Consubstantial Coequal and Coeternal in Essence with the Father they were of one and the same Nature and yet three Infinite and Eternal distinct Essences and Spirits which is the same for substance with what our Vindicated Author so Vehemently Contends for whence I argue If our Authors Asserting one Individual Essence or Deity will secure his Three Infinite Essences or Minds from Heresie it must also clear Gentilis Lismaninus Blandrata and their disciples ay Severus and Theodosius too from the same Charge But if it won't clear them from being Heretical it cannot sufficiently Vindicate Him But this Tritheism is not only as I have already intimated an Heresie But the same that the Italian Hereticks pitched on to Introduce their Samosatenianism and whoever will make a close search will see that it hath a Tendency thereunto not only as hereby a Trinity of Persons is made a Trinity of Gods to the setting the Minds of many against the Truth it self but as this their Principle leads its Embracers to take into their Faith the several Consequences which Naturally and Necessarily flow from it For Answerable to the various Capacities Inclinations and Interesis of them who will have it that the Persons in the Trinity are three distinct Essences Sundry Errours do arise But 〈◊〉 to insist upon them to escape the Blasphemous Absurdities which flow from their aâ—â—erting Three distinct Infinite Essences Spirits or Minds As for instance their making them Three distinct Infinite Co-equal Gods they ascribed unto the Father an Hyperoche a Preheminence and Superiority above the Son and Holy Ghost But then the Inequality which did immediately follow from the Preheminence and Superiority assigned to the Father being such as was in every Bodies Judgment inconsistent with the Sons and Holy Ghosts being Consubstantial and Co-equal with the Father they were at a loss how to Explain themselves An Inequality as to the OEconomy Dispensation and Office they lookâ—d on as insufficient The Arians and Samosatenians therefore say it must be an Inequality of Essence But this being so Gross a Contradiction to the Son 's and Holy Ghostâ—s being of the same Nature and Co-equal with the Father Server us Gentilis with the Pinczovians would not at first expresly allow of more than an Inequality as a Cause or Principle making the Essence of the Father to be the Principle or Cause of the Essence of the Son and Holy Ghost affirming that tho the Essence of the Father was Vnoriginated and from it self yet so was
But are I cannot forbear saying so Impudent as to tell us Letter of Resolu concerning the Trinity and Incarnation p. 1â— That the Supremacy of the Pope was the First-born of the Trinity that from the Doctrine of the Incarnation arose the Worshiping of the Blessed Virgin the Apostles and other Saints Transubstantiation and the Worship of Images But what Connection can there be betwixt the Trinity and the Pope's Supremacy Or why must the Apostles be Religiously Worshiped because the Humane Nature of Christ who is God was born of the Virgin Is there any Sense or any Learning in such Sophistry No certainly and therefore § 2. They do with the Quakers in the next place Acts of Athanasius pag. 4. cry down Learning They Charge us for doing what is next to the Denial of the Holy Scriptures in that we elude say they the Plainest Text by Scholastick and Metaphysical Subtilties I know very well saith One Some Thoughts pag. 12. speaking of Us why they fancy Socinians to be Subtile Men It is because they oppose that Vain Learning which hath been introduced into the most Popular Catechisms and unto which most Men are Inured The Dirty Spring which hath Afforded their False Learning is the Gnosticism which boasted of Great Mysteries but of no Holy Practices They were the first Hereticks who made Perfection to consist in High Knowledge They also talk of the Mischievous Feats of Learning confirmed by Disputes between Protestants and Papists Both of 'em say they will make use of Metaphysicks and by the Help of such Theological Instruments each one will free himself from Difficulties and it shall not be known which of them gets the better In Effect each one will avoid the most pressing Arguments by contriving a Distinction more absurd than the very Opinion which he maintains one absurdity helping on another or by finding out a New Sense of the Authority brought against them They being sensible that when we Discourse of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation by the help of such Learning as their Sophistical Arguments are Detected and Exposed do find themselves necessitated to cry it down or give up their Cause The Latter they are not willing to do and therefore oppose the Former whereby the Herd of that Party are led Blindfold to a closure with such Notions of God as are Destructive of his very Being For whilst they are arguing against Scholastick Terms such as Trinity Coessentiality Modality Personality Eternal Generation Procession Incarnation Hypostatical Vnion and the like They meet with another Army of School Terms which are necessary to give us the clearer Ideas of what may be known of God such as Infinity Eternity Immensity Absolute Simplicity Pure Act Incorporeity Incomprehensibility And that they may the more roundly reject the Trinity and Incarnation they set themselves against the Infinity Immensity Simplicity Incomprehensibility c. of the Deity Some Thoughts p. 14. and thereby turn the Glory of the Incorruptible God into the Image of Corruptible Man To know saith One of 'em whether there is an Immensity of Essence or of Operation these are Metaphysicks out of my Reach Revelation doth not speak precisely about this A page or two before The Confessions of Faith which are puffed with Metaphysical Terms are nothing else but a Debaucht Faith What Notion then have they formed of God Their Admired Biddle will tell you God hath a Shape Prâ—sace to his Catechism hath his place in the Heavens and knoweth not our free Actions till they come to pass Thus they make God to be another such as themselves which is the Effect of that Contempt they cast upon Learning For when once they have with the Papists made Ignorance the Mother of Devotion they soon impose what they list on their Illiterate Admirers But seeing so long as Learned Men are amongst us in Reputation 't will be impossible for them to conceal from every body the real worth of such Studies or for themselves to escape the strength of their Arguments To make sure work therefore of it their next Endeavour is to load such Persons with the vâ—lest Reproaches § 3. They vilify the Learned now as the Quakers formerly have done The Learned say they if you speak of such as are Priests 〈◊〉 to Freâ— Enquity p. 3. and Ministers or Beneficed Men have such a Brass given to their Minds by the Awe of their Superiours to whom they are Accountable by Fears of Deprivation in Case of Professed Heterodoxy by their Subscriptions before they were able to Judge to the Articles of their several Churches that it may be said their Learning gives no Authority to their Opinion 'T is plain enough their Opinions are such as the Conditions and Terms of Preferment appointed by the Laws of the Country do Require of them except when a Party is grown Powerful enough to despise or to evade the Laws While they are shackled by early Subscriptions Hopes of Preferment Fears of Punishment and the like Restraints they are fitter to support the Kingdom of Darkness than to revive the true Light and Genuine Gospel of our Lord Christ None can escape their Revilings neither my Lord of Worcester nor my Lord of Glocester No not his Grace the late Arch-Bishop Answer to the Arch-bishop p. 44. These are made the great Pensioners of the World 'T is certain say they we have a mighty Propensity to believe as is for our Interest and Turn Men will perswade themselves to a great deal only to be Quiet But if you bribe 'em too with great Rewards what wâ—ll they not say what will they not do But the Church hath taken a further care to keep her Sons in the Right way for the Fears and Awes she proposes are even Greater than her Bribes For as they who bestow their Children upon the Church reckon they are Amply provided for in the Care and Favour of so Wealthy a Mother and therefore seldom give those Children any further Inheritance So this is the Occasion that these Adopted Sons should they do or affirm any thing contrary to the Commands or the Declarations of the Church they are sure to starve because they are sure to be cast out I think therefore it 's no Immodesty to say that our Opposers being under the Power of such Fatal Biasses their Doctrine is the more to be suspected and the more to be examined because 't is theirs They are Great Men indeed every way great that Defend against us the Doctrine of the Trinity but then 't is that they must maintain it Set 'em at Liberty Discharge 'em of their Awes and Fears Let the Church Preferments be proposed only as the Rewards of Learning and Piety as they were first intended not of holding these or those Opinions and Doctrines and it shall be soon seen how many Eyes this Liberty would open These Passages do shew with what Tenderness Respect and Modesty English Socinians do Calumniate their Learned Adversaries
Deity A God without a Deity is a false God because he wants Infinite Perfection a true God then hath Infinite Perfections and therefore must be the most High God except there are Perfections more High than what are Infinite But thus much they Deny tho' Christ be a true God yet he is not the Most High God He is but a Subordinate God in his Essence This then is their Notion Christ is a True Subordinate God i. e. A True God whose Perfections are Infinite a Subordinate God in his Essence whose Perfections can be but Finite and therefore can be no God at all Again 2. Christ is they say God on the Father's giving him Absolute Dominion over all things with a Power and Knowledge whereby he knoweth the Distresses of all and is able to Relieve the Distressed But seeing Nothing short of Omniscience and Omnipotence can know and Relieve and these together with absolute Dominion are Essential Properties of the Most High God How comes it to pass that Christ is not the most High God Here are the Essential Properties of such a God and yet no such God These are some of their Mysteries The Holy Ghost is an Eternal Omnipotent Increate Being but not God He is neither a Creator nor a Creature but an Omnipotent Somewhat different from Both Increate or Unoriginated Omnipotence is not sufficient to evince the Eternal Spirit to be God but a Derived Omnipotence is enough to make a Creature to be a True God Unoriginated Omnipotence is not Reason enough for the adoring the Eternal Spirit but Derived Omnipotence is a good Ground for Rendring Divine Worship to a Creature These Gentlemen you see are the Grand Transubstantiators for they can Transubstantiate a Creature into a True God and still remain a Creature they can Transfer the Essential Properties from one being to another and each Being remain the same it was before the Translation They can Order and Dispose of the Divine Properties in such a Way that they shall be insufficient to Denominate him a True God in whom they were from all Eternity and yet be Powerful enough to make him in whom they were not two Thousand Years ago to be a True God Whether these are Real Mysteries or Real Contradictions let the Prudent judge I will not treat these Over-Wise Men with that Scurrilous Language they do the Mysteries of the Holy Trinity But without Exaggeration I will proceed to Examine what they say of God the Father III. That God the Father is only the most High God is their Assertion of whom they have nevertheless form'd such an Idea as fails of Infinite Perfections So that if we pursue their Notion of a Deity to its utmost Length we must at last sit down amongst the Atheists For the clearing this I do in Concurrence with the Common sentiments of Mankind averr that what Being soever is destitute of an Infinite Perfection is not cannot be God The Essential Properties belong to the Divine Nature including Infinite Perfection that being which is destitute thereof wants what is Essential to God and cannot be the True God If then the Socinians deny any one Infinite Perfection to belong to their God it must be acknowledged that he wants what is essential unto God and is not God And that they Deny thus much is Evident from the Notion they frame of his Eternity and their Rejecting his Immensity and Omniscience I might begin with what they say of God's Eternity but I will only observe what the English Socinian saith of my Lord of Worcester's arguing from Godâ—s Eternity to prove Somewhat in the Attributes of God incomprehensible who instancing in Eternity saith If God was from Eternity he must be from himself In their Answer they tell us To say a Person Ans to the Bp. Worces Serm. p. 5. or Thing was from it self is a Contradiction It implies this Contradiction It was before it was Thus our English Socinian who adds I am sorry an Eternal God must be a Contradiction had he no way to Defend the New Mysteries but by Espousing the Cause of Atheists In Return to this Gentleman passing by what his Lordship hath said in his Consuâ—ation of him I will only observe how he doth at once expose himself and his Leaders such as Socinus Crellius c. who speaking of what is the Essence of God say it is from it self Socinus in his Institution of the Christian Religion answering the Question Tom. 1. p. 651. What ought we to know of the Nature and Essence of God saith These two Things chiefly That he is and that â—e is only One Quest What is it to know That He is Ans It is to know that he hath from himself a Divine Fuâ—piâ—â— oâ—â—r us Besides He tells us that Eternity 〈◊〉 necessarily included in God's having Divine Dominion over us from Himself and so is his Justice Wisdom and Power A little after this he further saith That when it 's said God is One The meaning is There is but one who hath Dominion over us from himself tâ—â—i Sup. p. 681. In like manner the Tenth Argument Crellius presseth to prove that the Father of Jesus Christ is the only Supreme God is this That his Nature and whatever else is proper to the Supreme God he receiv'd from Himself On this Notion of God it is that they build the whole of their Religion and on which they insist to the End they may the more effectually enervate our Arguments for Christ's being God tho' from the Father But as Socinus Crellius c. fail of their Design in that when tâ—s said God is from Himself it must be meant of God taken Essentially not Personally so this Gentleman makes the whole of the Socinian Religion to be founded on a Chimera or Contradiction For if the Nature of God his Dominion Eternity Justice Wisdom and Power be from Himself he must be before he had Dominion Justice c. What then was He He was before he was or as the English Socinian phrases it He must be a Contradiction But as I said waving the Consideration of this Contradiction and their Notion of Eternity which they make to be a sort of Time where are the successive Parts of Past Present and to Come which cannot be without a First Second and a Third and yet must be without 'em or Eternity must have it's Beginning I will urge against them their denying Immensity and Omniscience to belong to God First then they deny God's Immensity and Circumscribe his Essence within the Heavens acknowledging him to be no otherwise every where Present than as he is by his Power Providence and Works Socinus assureth us Soci Frag. Catec Tom. 1. p. 685. he could see no Reason to conclude God's Essence to be Immense because his Power was so expresly declaring That the Divine Essence is not Infinite Crellius and Smalcius hold the same Resp ad â—ranc Dav Tom. 2. p. 735. But if Gods Essence