Greek nor Hebrew so could make no such Quotations and Observations as we read therein There he questions the Text of 1 John 4.3 Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God where he adds a Parenthesis when there is none thereby to exclude the words Jesus Christ is come in the flesh from being in the Original farther he saith in Jude 4. where are these words denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ The word God is not in the Alexandrine Manuscript this tends as they think fit to make Scripture subservient to their ends and to make things therein doubtful by adding taking away Rev. 22.18.19 1 John 5.7 or altering whereupon I give him warning to mind what is said in the word But because the Text of John about the three in Heaven is what he most insists upon though I elsewhere have spoken of it here I shall again say something about it although many Learned Men before have so examined the place See my Book again Socin p. 273. and my answer to the I. letter p. 36. that hardly any thing can be added to what hath been said They argue the Verse is not in some Antient Greek Manuscripts nor in the Syriac but this is not Argumentative for though it be not in some it is in others and if we should go only upon that bottom the reason is equally as good for us as for them * De Vnitate Eccles Cyprian who lived about the middle of the third Century made use of the Text and Jerome or the Vulgata hath it Erasmus upon better Thoughts and after a more mature Deliberation had it in his new Edition of the New Testament and at this day the Greeks have it in their book call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must needs be in Conformity to some Antient Greek Copies If it be not in some of the Antient Copies we may well suspect some Anti-Trinitarians of those times according to the usual way of Hereticks who went about corrupting by Additions Diminutions or Alterations those Texts which hit them to the quick to have expunged and taken it out it might also happen through the mistake of the Copist for whom as at this time 't is found by experience 't was not impossible through carelessness or unfaithfulness to leave out a whole Verse and there is a particular Reason why it may be so in this for there are two Verses one after another 7 and 8. which begin with the same words There are three which bear record in c. which might easily cause a mistake in the Copist and take the last Verse for the first and so omitting one to go on in the other besides that the Sense leads us to see there must be such a Verse to make three in Heaven answer three upon Earth without which there would be a breach left in the place and something defective to answer the Apostles design who already in Verse 5 and 6. hath mention'd the three for he saith Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believes that Jesus is the son of God That is of God the Father so here are two of the three Persons and in the next Verse the third Person namely the Holy Ghost is named It is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth So that this Verse 7. is a deduction of what hath been said in the foregoing and the expression beareth witness used in the Verse in question confirms it as the Spirit is one of the Witnesses so are the Father and the Son besides that as the beginning of Verse 7. contains a Reason of what is said in Verse 6. how the Spirit beareth witness which is expressed thus For there are three c. so the Copulative Particle and which is the first word in Verse 8. joyns and makes it answer the foregoing But because I find the Man makes use of Simon Crit. v. t. c. 2. the Oratorian's Critick a Man who of his own Head in several things speaks over-boldly and who seems to be of his Opinion he should know that his Writings are by Protestants to be read with Caution for in all those kinds of things especially in this case he goes upon his Popish bottom how the Authority of Scripture depends upon the Testimony of the Church so that nothing is Canonical and to be believed as such but what the Church saith to be so therefore upon that account they believe the Apocrypha and their Traditions to be of an equal Authority with the Canonical Books thus all such Papists according to their Principles will say ye must believe that Verse to be in because the Church saith it But to come to * Simon 's Critick upon 1. John 5.7 p. 8. Simon he mentions some Manuscripts he hath seen in the French King's and Colbert's Librarys which saith he have not the Verse in question not in the body of the Book but in the Margin they have Yet mark what he writes The writing of the Addition appears to be no less Antient than that of the Text the like he saith there of some Manuscripts in the Benedictines Library of St. Germain's Abby and the Addition therein is as old therein as the Text it self since the Additions in the Margin are as old as the Text it self there is ground left to believe that they were at or about the same time when the body of the Copy was and that the Copist saw he had forgotten it and having no room left to insert it in he did it in the Margin but Father Simon hath omitted a very material thing for he ought to have said whether the Copy and the Addition in the Margin appeared to be written by the same Hand for if so then the Copist intended thereby to mend his Omission In matter of Manuscripts some things must be observed like as we do in the case of Medals for both relate to Antiquity we go by some certain Rules to find whether or not the Medal be true or false stampt or cast and the time when it was so we have Coins of Roman Emperours of Kings of Macedonia Syria c. which though of a good Workmanship yet we value them not because posteriour to the time when such an Emperour and such a King lived and this we know by the nature of the Metal the edges of the Piece the form and disposition of the Letter how round how long and how close one with another for all those differences we find in Medals which to learn requires indeed much Experience for want whereof some Men who have a great Erudition about those things and are excellent in the Theorical part of that noble curiosity yet when it comes to the Practical they easily are imposed upon and cannot discern the Genuine from the Counterfeit Nay about these things there is sometimes such a Dexterity used by those who make a Trade of it
them This calling and Ordination was from hand to hand to pass to after Ages for the things that thou hast heard of me Acts 6.6 2 Tim. 2.2 1 Tim. 5.22 saith the same Apostle among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also and upon this account he gives him a Caution to lay hands suddenly on no man till after a due examination about the Doctrine whether sound and a competent knowledge to teach and a strict inquiry about Morals a Good Life and Conversation Moreover doth not the word positively affirm 1 Cor. 12.28 Ephes 4.11 that God hath set some in the Church First Apostles Prophets Teachers c. again he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers So in the Church there is a Ministry by way of Office which no Man may take upon himself but he who is lawfully call'd to 't The Church is God's House who is the God of order therefore to prevent confusion and usurpation therein he hath appointed not only the spiritual bread and food for his Children but also the Stewards and Ministers who are to distribute it And verily verily I say unto you he that enterreth not by that Door into the Sheepfold but climbeth up some other way the same is a Thief and a Robber Thus 't is visible enough how dangerous to the Church are Socinian Principles seeing they tend to ruin her Doctrine and allow every one a liberty to give God's Word what Interpretations they think fit also to set up any one for Ministers of the Gospel and thus to destroy the Order and Oeconomy which God hath setled in it whence Confusion will necessarily follow About these things and in all Disputes concerning Religion we ought to have a rule to go by and that is Scripture well explained and understood that is according to the true signification of the Words and Sense in the Original the scope of the Place and the analogy of Faith this rule must be true and certain which cannot be as long as every one is allowed to turn it to his own Sense and private Interpretation * Jonah Schlich ting in Symb. Epist ad loct p. 3. One of their Authors in his Exposition of the Creed saith that 't is most ancient and most simple and from the beginning no Man doubted but that it contained the Apostolical Doctrines But he saith not enough for that Creed must be received not only as to the words but also in the sense wherein the primitive Church took it It is very unreasonable in them to go about setting up their own private Opinions over and above and to the prejudice of the publick and universal ones 't is too much to abound in their own sense and to despise the general consent of the primitive Church as if excepting a number of Hereticks all the World had been blind and in darkness till Socinus came so before there was not nor is there now any true Church but of their own Sect they refuse to joyn with those who went before because say they they were fallible yet they would have us to joyn with them so 't is but reasonable for us to ask them to prove their infallibility it argues a great pride in them that in matters of Religion even as to the Fact which cannot be proved meerly by the light of Reason they will not in the least submit to the judgment of others who are witnesses of the times yet take upon themselves to frame a new Religion make new Articles of Faith and set up for Judges whether or not at their pleasure to receive or reject matters of Faith and the Doctrines hitherto received by the Universal Church 't is true they have been cunning enough to enlarge much the pales of their Society therein to receive more Men and of all sorts to that effect Socinus's System is compiled of a Rapsody of complicated Heresies therefore to avoid the name of Innovator he saith nullum c. †Apolog. Epist ad Martin Vadovit In my publick writings I asserted no doctrine which before my coming hither into Poland had not been owned by others in this Kingdom or elsewhere Yet his Uncle Laelius who had been his Teacher and whose Opinions he defended in the Preface of his Explication of the 1st Chap. of John's Gospel declares his Interpretation to be new the true sense whereof saith he had been mistaken by all Expositors that were before 'T is true that generally most of his Heresies were broach'd before him whereunto his Uncle and he after added some few things and thereunto gave a new form which to give a greater Authority unto he saith how * Epist ad Squarcilupum Tom. 1. p. 382. in what he had written in answer ad palaeo-logum de Magistratu he owned no other Master or Teacher but God and Scripture besides his Vncle Laelius dead long before or rather some few Writings or Annotations of his this in the same place he also extends to the universal knowledge of Divine Things And tho he owns there be still some things which he might learn yet hitherto he met with none therein able to teach him And this Man who seems to scorn to learn any thing of others hath forged and fram'd a new Body of Divinity and squeezed what he could out of his Brains that very same he publish'd and would have us to believe as Divine Truths as if to the exclusion of the whole Church he had been constituted the only true Interpreter of God's Word however this must be said that to gain more Men to himself he allowed others the same liberty he took to Interpret Scriptures as they pleased yet he insinuates how in his Interpretations are the fitter rules for them to go by and to please many Men about this they give leave to bring in commodam Interpretationem as they call it that is not the truest but most to their purpose the easiest most commodious or convenient under which cloak they wrest it to a contrary sense and in matters of Salvation Socinus is so complacent as to say that though one believeth things contrary to Scripture Tom. 1. p. 502. as to believe some things therein to be forbidden or commanded which are not he is thereby in no danger of being deprived of Salvation or excluded from Heaven Yet Men should know how the Gospel and Christian Religion is a Depositum a thing given in trust whereof the Ministers are the keepers for saith the Apostle to his Disciple 1 Tim. 6.20 O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust 't is then a thing delivered to not invented by thee not thine own but Christ's 't is not of thy contrivance but like a Steward thou hast received it and must dispose of it not according to thine own fancy but according to the rule prescribed thee without any alteration But as their Principles
to be possible for a Man after the knowledge of the Truth never to Sin for saith he * Resp ad frantz disp 6. de bon oper thes 43. 1 Kings 8.46 Jam. 3.2 neither Scripture nor sound Reason nor any thing else hinders but that he who Sinn'd before may come to that degree of perfection as never to Sin hereafter This is to set up a Perfection in this life and freedom from Sin whilest Scripture doth abundantly affirm that there is no Man that Sinneth not that after the knowledge of the Truth and after Conversion in many things we offend all even the best all are under Sin Rom. 3.23 and all have Sinn'd and come short of the Glory of God One said well †Remigius in Cens Act. Synod Caris c. Go. tescal vivere absque peccato c. To live without Sin in the World belongs not to the state of the present Life but to the happiness of that which is eternal during our Life some Canaanites are still left to be Thorns in our Sides and the best Men have a Thorn in the Flesh So that freedom from Sin is certainly part of the Glory of God which in this World no Man whatsoever can attain unto and to pretend to 't is the Sin of the Devil and of our first Parents namely Pride and an Ambitious desire to be like God and equal with God their steps do Socinians follow who though they would seem to be great Enemies to Popery they in matters of Grace in every thing are a bad and in some worse than Papists By this principle of theirs they also make Salvation an easy thing though the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 4.18 Jerem. 13.23 the Righteous is scarcely saved and the Prophet 't is no more possible for them to do good that are used to do evil then 't is for the Ethiopian to change his Skin or for the Leopard his Spots There is a natural impossiblity by reason of Sin reigning in every Reprobate and dwelling in every Believer 1 John 1.8 wherefore we are commanded daily to pray to God to forgive us our Trespasses for indeed if we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us The Orthodox Doctrines about the Sacraments Faith Justification and in sew words every Article of our Holy Religion they more or less do depravate thus they set up a new one of their own making as it hath plainly been demonstrated by several Protestant Divines They set up two ways of Salvation one under the Old Testament the other under the New We own there are several ways to Hell yet there is but one and that strait too Heb. 10.20 leading to Heaven which is the new and living way which he Christ hath consecrated for us thorough the Vail that is to say his Flesh This in Substance though under different Circumstances was for his People under the Old as 't is under the New Testament The whole Church of God though consisting of Jews and Gentiles is but one Church so there is but one Head Lord and Saviour and so but one way to Salvation Now that Church God Christ hath purchased with his own Blood that is by the Merits of his Death Rom. 3.25 God hath set forth the Messiah Jesus Christ to be a propitiation thorough Faith in his Blood for his People under the Old as under the New Testament and we are justified by his Blood Chap. 5.9 Ephes 1.7 Col. 1.20 Heb. 10.19 Also we have Redemption thorough his Blood the Forgiveness of Sins Withal he hath made peace thorough the Blood of his Cross And the boldness we have to enter into the Holiest it is by the Blood of Jesus So then under both Testaments Men are justified and saved by Vertue of the Death of Christ Mediator and thorough Faith in him as 't is at large expressed Heb. 11. whether to come with the Jews Acts 4.12 or already come with Christians for the Apostle's words are full plain and general neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved Yet this clear truth they will not yield to for saith * Smalc cont frantz disp 4. thes 8. one of them what Frantzius Writes that the Ancients believed in Jesus to come and thorough that Faith were justified ought to be reckon'd among the grossest errours Justification by Faith was never profered to Men before the coming of Christ neither was it promised that Man should be justified by Faith yet Abraham was justify'd by Faith Gal. 3.6 for Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness wherein did he believe God Not only in the promise that his Posterity should be very numerous but also chiefly at the promise that the Messiah should come out of his Seed Gen. 12.3 and in thee shall all the Families of the Earth be Blessed which was a renewing of the Promise made to our first Parents of the Woman's Seed which then God fixed in Abraham's Family now this Seed of his in whom all the Families of the Earth should be blessed is what Abraham believed and that Faith of his concerning it was to him accounted for Righteousness and there is no doubt to be made but that God who so familiarly conversed with him as with a Friend for so Scripture calls him Isai 41.8 in a special manner revealed to him the Mystery of his coming in the Flesh for it was the Son of God the second Person of the most holy Trinity who at several times under the name of an Angel and in the shape of a Man appeared to Abraham who as our Lord saith rejoyced to see his day with the Eye of Faith that day or time when he appeared in the Flesh which Abraham who lived so long before did see not as actually present but as to come and that Faith whereby Abraham believed in a Saviour to come he was justify'd by and as he is called the Father of all them that believe so all believers must have the same Faith which he had Ephes 4.5 for there is but one Faith and one Lord which imports one and the same object of that Faith only with this difference upon the account of time that Abraham believed in him that was to come and we in him who is already come Now to the later part of what Smalcius saith that there is no promise that Man should be justified by Faith I say if it be not by Faith it must be by Works for there is no middle but seeing St. Paul in several places of his Epistle to the Romans doth so positively exclude Works not only those of the Law but also those call'd Evangelical with the same Apostle we must conclude Man to be justified by Faith without Works but they are thorough paced Rom. 3.28 for regeneration and other good works Love Invocation Obedience Hope Charity
nothing and the like according to that Spirit they little care what interpretations they make of God's Word which thus they impiously make a stalking Horse of to their wandring Thoughts and for sinister ends of their own namely as they and our modern Socinians here say to improve theit Parts promote Learning and make 〈◊〉 discoveries that is in plain English they may be prophane at God's own cost if they have a mind to improve their parts let them make choice of other matters as Philosophy Mathematicks and of what other humane Arts and Sciences they please and not for their Pride and Vain Glory to prophane God's Field and therein sow their own Tares and to make Religion and the Church subservient to their Evil intents and purposes Another thing they do as may be seen in most of their late Pamphlets which indeed is neither fit nor decent is often to commend themselves and bring in others who speak well of them but it had been much better not to have brought themselves under a necessity to need Begging or Borrowing such Certificates of their good behaviour This puts me in mind of what our Saviour said to the Pharisees ye are they who justify yourselves before Men but God knoweth your Hearts Luke 16.15 'T is true there hath been some who may be out of a Principle of Charity and a Spirit of meekness would have invited them out of their Errours but these are so far gone in that way as to stand in need to make some kind of Apology for themselves yet that method of gentleness is ill bestowed upon Men of an obstinate and stubborn Spirit and hitherto hath proved uneffectual for by the abuse of the thing they are grown Haughtier and Prouder so that sometimes they make their own Panegyrick as I * P. 27. observed in the Vindication of the Epistle and preface to my Book And in a place of the mock Apology against me one of them saith one †P. 20 21. of our Learn'd Bishops doth not think the Vnitarians would dishonour Christ only they think that to make him equal with the Father is a disparagement to Almighty God Such a passage may be though I do not remember to have read it yet I am apt to believe with passing thorough their hands it hath gotten a tincture of Socinianism but what makes those Men so busy as to decide that to make the Son equal with the Father is a disparagement to God Almighty when the same in several Texts of Scripture quoted elsewhere makes him his equal Zech. 13.7 and in one place calls him my fellow and in many Texts of the New Testament Christ makes himself equal with the Father But let me warn those who have a favourable Opinion of them to have a care of what they Write for thereby we see how apt they are to take Advantage of any thing so every stroke of a Charitable Pen they would use as an Argument of their good and sincere intentions and of their being in the Right for as they make of it a Trade to wrest Scriptures so they do the Writings of others which I have a particular cause to take Notice of because I said that some Arminians went Hand in Hand with Socinians presently as well observed by * In his Letter to Dr. Edwards Mr. Lobb and in the †P. 12. remarks on a Paper sent by some Eminent Presbyterians to the Congregational c. They lookt upon 't with a multiplying Glass and would bring under their Banners not only almost all the Church but half of the Presbyterians c. Which in my Answer to the two Letters I take Notice of as of their want of sincerity and to speak plainly I now may call it one of their Tricks which they are so full of As indeed in their whole Carriage one may easily perceive it for it hangs altogether and in the bottom it appears in their Doctrines and Practices so contrary to Faith and to the Rules of the Universal Church besides the Self-Conceitedness and Pride of their Pen-Men who despise all that are not of their Mind and with Blasphemy deride true Religion and to that purpose make use of lies and Calumnies but when hard press'd are reduced to pityful shifts their zeal for Christ and Gospel Truths which as much as they are able they pervert may be look'd upon as meer Hypocrisy and in defence of their Errours they shew a great hardness of Heart and disingenuity and as they betray the Truth so spare not those who defend it against them and load them with invectives full of gall and bitterness which is an effect of Passion so contrary to the Meekness and Moderation which they would seem to pretend to as we find Socinus doing against Puccius whom he sharply upbraids * Epist 〈…〉 â—â—lith 〈◊〉 1. P. 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 much relying upon his Opinions which exactly was Socinus's Original and inherent Sin the extraordinary care also which he took to publish and every where to disperse his Works argues in him no small Vanity and Ambition as for his Passion when he disputed which then he could not command so well as at other times we have the Evidence of a familiar Friend of his in these words * Squarcial Epist ad Socin Scio non suspicor c. I do not guess at but know thine immoderate hate in dispute how often have I warned thee when thou wast about disputing or wrangling concerning light matters and disturbing all things with the greatest Clamourousness This Man who against the proper and natural sense of Scriptures would force his own upon them †Assert posnan 10. in oper Soc. p. 510. to fill up his measure doth scornfully speak of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds received by the Universal Church but what need we go so far backward as Socinus's time for these things when now among us we have a fresh Evidence of that Spirit of theirs in a late * The Charitable Samar Pamphlet how unworthily doth that Scribler speak of the Council of Nice which saith he was principally Composed of a pack of wrangling contentious Grecians Men bred up in Controversy all their Life and perpetually quarrelling one with another all this he saith gratis and as his own deluded Opinion that among them there might have been some such ones I will not dispute but he cannot say all were so that Council was summon'd by a great and Christian Emperour Constantine who was present and upon that account things must be thought to have been managed with good order besides that what he saith is not to be purpose the question being not about their Temper but about the Matters lying before them Acts 15.39 a cause is never the worse in it self for the frailties of those that own it may any one disparage the Gospel preach'd by Paul and Barnabas because they fell out and parted about a thing of no moment whether or not they
To believe is what the Gospel requires of us thus Christ said to Jairus believe only In Matters of Salvation is on our part required an Obedience of Faith for as the Apostle saith We walk not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 Col. 2.2 4.3 or by senses but by faith So when Scripture saith We must acknowledge the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ we ought to believe there is such a Mystery for so Paul calls it after the Revelation of Christ and of the Gospel and 't is a damnable Presumption to bring these Truths of God under the Scrutiny of human Reason and submit them to it and reject them when that poor blind corrupt and unsound Reason cannot understand them 't is a most false Inference to say I understand neither the Trinity nor the Incarnation therefore there is no such thing as if I should say I cannot understand what God is therefore there is no God my Reason cannot understand the Infiniteness and Eternity of God therefore God is neither Infinite nor Eternal I do not apprehend the design of God's Wisdom therefore no such thing in him He permits Evil and because I cannot comprehend his Reason for it must I blasphemously say he is wicked These are such impertinent Conclusions that any Novice in the Philosophy or Divinity Schools would hiss out I would hear by what Authority I may set up my Reason as Judge over that which is so much above it and which I do not well know All these Wanderings of Men I say can conclude nothing except they prove their Understanding to be infallible and infinite What to fathom these great Depths of God with the very short Line of humane Reason this is an intolerable Self-conceitedness If at first when Watches were made one who never saw one neither understood the Watch-Maker's design seeing the several Pieces asunder upon a Table would have said This is of no use and good for nothing had not such a one deserv'd to be laugh'd at as a shallow Pate void of good Sense and Reason Yet 't is transcendently more foolish for any one to say his Reason must judge whether what God hath revealed be true or not O the nonsensical silly shallow Brains of some Men As in another place of this Discourse 't is observed how God said that he would dwell in the thick darkness Ps 97.2 and that clouds and darkness are round about him so 't is to shew how Men must not attempt to pry into 't for they cannot see the great dark mysterious and incomprehensible things of God 1 Sam. 6.19 Let the dreadful Punishment inflicted upon the Bethshemites for looking into the Ark of the Lord serve for a Warning to all who make themselves guilty of the like Attempts 'T is also faid That God dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto 1 Tim. 6.16 which tends to keep men from meddling too far and presumptuously attempting to look into the secret and glorious things of God beyond what he hath revealed But Socinians pretend to be clear-sighted enough to see through that thick darkness and to be strong-sighted enough with the Eye of their humane Reason stedfastly to look on the Infinite Glorious and Unaccessible Majesty of God and as it were to stare him in the face but they should know how in this sense no man shall see his face and live After this rate these all-knowing Men may happen to attempt giving a Description of Heaven which according to their Principles is a thing not above their Reason to do or beyond the reach of their Capacity so no Mystery to them Thus they shall go beyond Paul and know more than he who though he was caught up to the third heaven into Paradise yet saith 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell and there he heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter We would desire Socinians whom as they say nothing in Religion is a Mystery unto and who think their Reason can and may know that which others say they neither can nor may know because they are Mysteries I say we would desire them to give the World an account of what that Paradise is and what are the unspeakable words which Paul hearâ— there and which it was not lawful for such a Man as St. Paul to utter But once for all to come to the Jugulum Causae to the very heart of the point in all Matters ' of Religion we must have a fixed Law and Rule to be guided and judg'd by which Rule must be backt by an infallible or Divine Authority to stand to which is our Case against Papists who would have the Authority or the Reason of the Church to be that same Rule as Socinians more unreasonably would have every private Man's Reason to be it which as occasion shall serve can by Fancy or Interest under the name of Reason be wrested and by assed so that Reason so apt to be blinded and imposed upon cannot be the Law for there is no reason why one Man should be guided and directed by the Opinion of another if he hath no Commission from God proved by Miracles for the wisest of Men may happen to be blinded by Ignorance as the best corrupted by Interest and Lust After this Men will never stand to any thing but will quickly run into thousands of Confusion Superstition and Idolatry both in respect of God and of his Worship Without a true Divine Rule and that 's only God's Word no certainty of the true Knowledge of God and of his Worship for all the Precepts of Nature are doubtful and uncertain for they must be drawn from long Observations of Nature it self great strength of Reasoning deep skill in Philosophy and so many other dependencies and circumstances that 't is almost impossible to find a Man endow'd with all such necessary Qualifications So then to depend upon one's natural Reason as a Guide to Salvation is to trust upon a bruised Reed on which if a Man lean it will go into his hand and pierce it but if we trust in God's Word which is the Word of Truth the Holy Ghost will thereby in order to Salvation make all safe and sure to us whilst he leaves those who abound in their own sense to do so still and those who will not understand what they will not believe to continue in their Ignorance Unbelief and Wilfulness as for us Scripture is our Rule Now Scripture speaks of the Son of God long before his Incarnation as of a Person Acting Punishing Delivering c. an unanswerable proof that he then Existed or else he would not have acted for Modum essendi sequitur modus operandi none can Act except he be which as observed could not be in his Humane Nature Now in the Word of God we read no such thing of the greatest and best Men as Moses Elias John
When he had made a Scourge of small Cords he drove them all out of the Temple And 't is observable John 2.15 that what he said in John Make not my Father's House a House of Merchandise In two other Evangelists 't is said My House is the House of Prayer Mat. 21.13 Luke 19.45 so his Father's House and his is the same And John mentions that his Disciples remembred that it was written The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up Here is a Precedent for all in Authority that love Religion and the Honour of God to be zealous to suppress and punish those who Prophane and Blaspheme it and I must own it to be sad Times when no restraint or curb is set upon them It hath formerly been made a Question which of these two is the worse either when every thing is lawful or when nothing is lawful Tho' both be extremes which commonly are vicious yet the first I reckon to be the worse of the two for I had rather to be deprived of some kind of Liberty than to see others with trespassing upon that Liberty to do and say what they list I can in Temporals be content to part with some Liberty rather than to see others in Spirituals to take a Liberty of Blaspheming and Prophaning God's Holy Name and Religion Yet I would not have a sort of People in the World to take an Advantage of this so as to deprive me of a just and honest Liberty under the Notion of restraining others from an unlawful Freedom in indifferent and circumstantial Matters Liberty may be allowed when it must not be in necessary and Fundamentals That busie and restless Spirit of Socinianism doth upon all occasions discover it self whereof we have a late instance in what happened at Canterbury which is to huff and defie our Church in the very Face of the Primate 'T is a shame that some few Foreigners Tradesmen and others corrupted by their own Natural Confidence and tho' encouragement they here meet with should be suffered to mock our Holy Religion and in spight of our Laws after Tricks Shufflings and such Circumstances as make the thing the more odious to set up Antichristian Meetings as those who are informed of the Matter well know They have the Face to pretend to the benefit of the Toleration Act passed in the first Year of William and Mary but by a Clause in the same they are not qualified for it except they declare their Approbation of and subscribe the 39 Articles very few excepted which relate to the Church Government and Ceremonies for the Act is intended for the Ease and Liberty only of those who differ in Circumstantials or at most those who overthrow not the Fundamentals which they who do are unworthy of or else it were by Law to allow of Impiety Blasphemy Idolatry or any Heresie and in that part of the Act relating to Quakers a Sect very unsound in the Faith there is a great tie upon them for 't is said they shall subscribe a Profession of their Faith in these Words I A. B. profess Faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son the true God and in the Holy Spirit one God blessed for evermore and do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration Here is a Test for Socinians wherein is asserted the first of the 39 Articles of one God in three Persons so they declare they believe the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as also the Divine Authority of Scripture Now I say that tho' this be expressed only in that part of the Act which relates to Quakers yet we must take it to be the Intention of the Law to reach every one that comes under the benefit of the Act and this is so plain that about the latter end of the same all Anti-Trinitarians such are the Vnitarians are excluded from the benefit of it the words are plain Provided always and be it farther Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that neither this Act nor any Clause Article or any thing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to give any ease benefit or advantage to any Papist or Popish Recusant whatsoever or any Person that shall deny in his Preaching or Writing the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity as are declared in the aforesaid Articles of Religion After this we may well wonder at any one who will say there is any benefit by this Act intended for Socinians it appearing so much to the contrary that there is no Toleration allowed them By what I said out of the Act it sufficiently appears how binding it is against those who deny the Holy Trinity as Socinians For they who pretend to the benefit of it to qualifie themselves must not only take the Oath to the Government but also subscribe to every Doctrinal Article of the 39 in the first and second whereof chiefly the Anti-Trinitarian detestable Heresie is fully Condemned This as to the Letter of the Law but herein according to the Gospel there is a Christian Prudence to be used Socinians as well as Jesuits have Equivocations and mental Reservations They sometimes to serve their turn subscribe things which as some of them have been heard to say either they do not understand or else have within themselves a particular meaning thereof Now upon such occasions the Officers concerned to tender the Oaths and receive Subscriptions ought to be Cautious how they admit some Men to 't In a Tract I have written concerning Oaths I mentioned several necessary things upon this matter only this I shall say for the present that when there is no ground of Suspicion nor any thing to create doubts of the Sincerity of him or them that are to Swear and Subscribe then the Oath and Subscription to end the business may be admitted leaving it for God to judge of the Truth and Reality of the Party concerned But it should be otherwise when there is cause to doubt of a Man's sincerity for fear of being Instrumental in his Ruin and Damnation I would not easily believe a Man whom I have ground to suspect he is a Lyar nor tender an Oath to one whom I hear to be apt to forswear I do not say a Man may absolutely refuse to put him to his Oath but not to be accessary to his Perjury I would be very wary and cautious and endeavour to find out whether he be real or comes with an ill design Why should I put a Dagger or a Cup of Poison into the hand of one who may happen not to be sound in his Mind and not Compos Mentis therewith to Stab and Poison himself or others in this case of Heresie we have a considerable instance in the Person of Arrius whom we heard of when I spake of the Council of Nice 't is thus The Emperour Constantine upon the suggestions of an Arrian Priest whom