done but to give an Impartial Account of them in such Particulars wherein it is plain and evident that they swerve from the Truth and profess such doctrines as have a direct tendency to Irreligion and Impiety Nor do I comprehend all Socinianized persons in this Character I entertain some hope that there are some Innocent and Well-meaning people among them who being inveigled by the plausible pretences of their Leaders have taken up some of their Notions but are ready upon a discovery of the Falshood and Perniciousness of them to lay them down and wholly to abandon them Those that are of this sober disposition will I question not find this Present Undertaking beneficial to them and will be so far from censuring them that they will thankfully acknowledg my setting them Right in Perswasions of so great moment and importance such as are either of the Foundation of Religion or have a near alliance to it or have a necessary influence on our Christian Practice In short when Principles and Truths of the Highest Nature are struck at by bold Assailants when the Main Doctrines of Religion are depraved and perverted and when Christianity it self is endanger'd shall we sit still and not be concern'd * If these foundations be destroy'd if these Forts these Bulwarks these Strong-holds as some render the word be demolish'd what can the righteous do if these Fundamental Principles be overthrown what a wretched state will Religion and the Professors of it be reduced to Which is the very thing which we may justly fear at this time when we behold such a great and signal Defection from the Truths of Christianity from the Faith of the Gospel even in the Christian World How few are there at this day that can endure sound doctrine how many are there that call themselves Protestants and yet grow weary of those Main Articles of Religion which have been owned ever since the Reformation and have been defended and vindicated by the Pens of the Religious and Learned And shall we silently and tamely permit this No certainly That Charity which beareth all things endureth all things cannot suffer this Yea it is the highest Charity in such a dangerous juncture to acquaint persons with the true State of affairs to discover the Methods and Artifices of Seducers to lay open before the world their Cheats and Delusions and to shew what Errors they substitute in the place of Truth And this is that which is design'd in my present Performance wherein I have all along discover'd the Poyson of our Adversaries Doctrines in the first place and then I have been careful to administer an Antidote ERRATA PAge 6. line 1. before is insert it p. 29. l. penult for to the first of r. first to p. 35. l. 10. place ‖ before Episcopius p. 95. l. 13. f. of r. or p. 103. l. 7. r. needs p. 108. l. 13. r. deletion p. 123. l. 14. r. strange p. 125. l. 3. before it insert in p. 126. l. 6. before And begin the parenthesis p. 183. l. 5. f. professed r. pretended p. 184. l. 24. f. this r. that p. 197. l. 16. after as insert to p. 214. l. 13. r. Looks p. 243. l. 5. after it make THE TENDENCY OF THE Socinian Doctrines TO Irreligion Atheism CHAP. I. There is an obligation on the Author to give the World an account of the Irreligious Sentiments of the Socinians Their Abusing of the Holy Scriptures is a proof of their Prophane genius They hold there are Mistakes and Errors in the Bible as to lesser matters They disparage the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Writings of St. John They are wild and extravagant though very crafty and subtile in their interpreting and expounding of Scripture A particular instance of it in their interpretation of I John 1 2. Other instances of their false and perverse dealing Their notion of a Double Ascension of Christ confuted and the Texts which they alledge for it explain'd Their vilisying wresting and perverting of Scripture are tokens of their Irreligion I Am obliged to let the World see that I did not reproach and injure the Socinians when I laid to their charge the favouring and promoting of Atheism and consequently that what I said of them was not as they have suggested hastily and rashly spoken or written without due premeditation And thence it will appear that I am not to be represented as a Censorious or Uncharitable person which are imputations which I always abhorr'd and have carefully laboured to avoid Thus then I make good what I said Some of this sort of men cannot well be thought to have any true and right Sense of God and Religion especially the Christian because they have in their Publick Writings renounced some of the most Considerable things relating to Doctrine Worship Discipline and Practise in the Church of Christ. These are the four General Heads of my following Discourse I begin with the First As to the Doctrinal part of Religion these men are very faulty and upon examination will be found to be favourers of very Irreligious and Prophane Opinions And here I will reduce what I have to say unto these five Particulars viz. Their Notions concerning the Scriptures concerning God concerning the First Man concerning the Future State and concerning Christianity it self First It is no mean proof of their Prophane genius that they delight to vilifie and abuse the Holy Scriptures As to some lesser matters and such as are of small moment the Bible hath Repugnancies and Mistakes saith the Great Founder of Socinianism i. e. He from whom it takes its denomination And herein he is follow'd by Volkelius another Great and Admired Writer among those of the Racovian perswasion Smalcius grants some depravation in Scripture as to things of no great moment Episcopius who is owned to be a Socinian by the Party themselves tells us that the Penmen of the Scriptures were left to their own humane frailty in delivering those things which appertain to circumstances of Fact as time and place and the like And in the same place he attributes these Mistakes and Errors in the Bible to the want of Knowledge or weakness of Memory in the Writers Where then is their Infallibility which hath been owned by all Christian Churches Or can they be Infallible and yet Err What is the difference between these Writers and others but this that they were Immediately Inspired by the Holy Ghost and consequently are not liable in the least to Mistakes and Misapprehensions Those then that deny this must needs deny the Writers of the Holy Scripture to have been Inspired and to have been Infallible yea they must say that they were like other men faulty and erroneous in their Writings This you will say and that justly is an Ill Beginning here is a Bad specimen of their Sentiments concerning the Doctrinal part of Religion of which our Right Conceptions concerning the Holy
nothing is rais'd but what fell or was laid down for Rising answers to these but that Matter which is supposed to be substituted in the room of our bodies did not fall was not laid down therefore it cannot Rise and consequently there is no Rising again at all This Argument is thus represented by a Great Man The Identity of the body rais'd from death is so necessary that the very name of the Resurrection doth include or suppose it so that when I say there shall be a Resurrection of the dead I must intend thus much that the bodies of Men which lived and are dead shall revive and rise again For at the death of man nothing falleth but his Body the spirit goeth upward and no other body falleth but his own and therefore the body and no other but that body must rise again to make a Resurrection So that it follows hence that those who disbelieve the Resurrection of the same body in effect deny the Article of the Resurrection of the body for the same body must rise or none at all This is evident from 2 Cor. 5. 10. We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body The same individual body that died must revive that the same bodies wherein sin was committed may be punished for sinning And who can resist the force of those plain words Rev. 20. 13. which are spoken of the general Resurrection at the last day The sea shall give up the dead that are in it and death and the grave deliver up the dead which are in them What means this giving and delivering up the dead in those places unless the very same bodies that fell are to rise For bodies might be made and shaped out of matter in any other Places if the dead were not to appear at the day of Judgment in their own bodies in the very bodies they laid down in the grave or in the sea or any other Place It is true they shall not be the same as to their condition and quality for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal immortality but their identity shall be preserv'd in respect of their nature and substance these being the same that they were at their fall This doctrine saith that Excellent Writer before named is most agreeable to the language of the Scriptures to the Principles of Religion to the constant Profession of the Church And being so it is no wonder that it is disrelish'd by the Persons I am speaking of who are wont to disregard the Sacred Writings to subvert the Principles of Christianity and to slight the suffrage of the Universal Church In all which they manifest an Irreligious temper and more especially in disbelieving and opposing this Explication of the Article of the Creed they have shew'd an Atheistical Spirit which always disgusts that Truth which flows from the Scriptures and is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit in them for herein they let us see that they are backward to give credit to the Supreme Truth God himself And besides there is a farther Tang of Impiety in this Opinion of theirs because it bereaves God of the Glory of his Infinite Power in reuniting the same bodies to the same souls at the last day it eclipses the honour of his Mercy in rewarding believers in the same flesh wherein they serv'd and worship'd him in this life it obscures his Justice in punishing sinners in those very fleshly Vehicles which they had here on earth and wherein they did so much mischief in the world And lastly it being such a Diminishment of the doctrine of the Resurrection it is to be fear'd it will have too great an influence on the lives and conversations of men They being dissetled as to the full belief of this they will waver in their Faith of the Future State they will be regardless of that Mighty Concern and they will be backward to fit themselves for it Thus the Racovian doctrine is an impediment to Religion and a nourisher of Vice and Ungodliness CHAP. V. Their false apprehensions concerning the Last Judgment are detected They are not consentaneous to the design of that Great Transaction They are contrary to that Description which is given of it in Scripture They are a gratification to Atheists It is their belief and profession that the Ungodly after the Resurrection shall not suffer Torment but shall be Annihilated This is disproved from Luk. 10. 14. Mat. 18. 8. Mark 9. 44. 2 Cor. 5. 10. An Objection answered The Perniciousness of this doctrine and its tendendency to Atheism on several accounts Iâ—… is no wonder that Socinianism for the sake of this doctrine is plausible Nevertheless the doctrine is irrational and groundless and exploded by some of the Wisest Pagans THIS will be further discover'd in their notion concerning the Last Judgment which say they consists not in any Trial or Judging of the World in any calling them to Account but only in assigning them their different lots and conditions To be judg'd saith Slichtingius is to be rewarded or punish'd Volkelius makes no distinction between the Judging and Punishing of the wicked The Judg knows who are to be saved and who to be damn'd and therefore need not use any Formal Citation or lay open mens lives But those who talk thus should remember that human actions are to be exposed at that day not because God hath not a perfect knowledg of them but because it is his Pleasure that Men should be acquainted with them that the Good Actions of the righteous may be applauded and that the Evil ones of the unrighteous may be condemned in the face of the whole World That this is the will of God we learn from the Sacred Writ and where can it be learnt but there Therefore for these men to Argue and reason the matter notwithstanding the express will and appointment of God is a sign of a very perverse and irreligious frame of mind Is not the Transaction of the Last day represented to us as a Formal Judiciary Process Doth not the Scripture speak of the Judg Acts 10. 42. 2 Tim. 4. 8. Heb. 12. 23. Jam. 5. 9. of the Judgment-seat Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. or the Throne or Tribunal for Judgment Rev. 20. 11 and yet will there be no Judging Is it not said with particular respect to that day that God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts 1 Cor. 4. 5. Is it not said he will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Eccl. 12. 14. And do we question then whether there will be this Judicial Action which we properly call Judging or Trying Iâ—… there shall be this Manifestation of the Hearts and Actions of Men can we imagine that rewarding and punishing at that day are the very same with Judging Further
though of a different perswasion from the Church of England hath observed In pursuit saith he of the same Principles with those of the men of this way not a few begin absolutely to submit the Scripture and every thing contain'd in it to the judgment and sentence of their own Reason which is the true Form and Spirit of Socinianism visibly acting it self with some more than ordinary confidence What is suited unto their Reason they will receive and what is not so let it be affirmed an hundred times in the Scripture they will reject with the same ease and confidence as if they were Imaginations of men like themselves Both books that are written to this purpose and the common discourses of many do fully testifie this advance of the Pride of the minds of men And he is careless about these things who seeth not that the next Stage is downright Atheism This is that Dunghil which such blazing exhalations of Pride at last fall into It seems there are Others besides me that have had an apprehension that Socinianism tends directly to Atheism But see the mighty Prevalency of Truth It will forcibly make its way even from the mouths of its professed Adversaries The Old and New Socinians as you heard before agreed in this that Reason is the sole Judg in matters of Faith and that what is above Reason is not the object of our belief And yet both these sorts of men at other times abjure these Propositions as false and erroneous and thereby palpaby contradict themselves Smalcius expresly avers that Faith is above though not contrary to Reason And in his Catechism he lets us know the knowledg of the way to immortal life and happiness far exceeds humane Reason and he quotes 1 Cor. 2. 14. for it Again he grants that there are things which we ought to believe though we cannot render any reasons of them And in the Margin things expresly written are to be believed although the reasons of them appear not And more fully yet in the name of the Racovian Brethren he makes this Confession We freely acknowledg that there are many things in the Christian Religion which surpass Reason but yet they are of necessity to be believ'd by us on this very consideration that though they exceed Reason yet they are deliver'd in Sacred Scripture and they are very agreeable to that Reason which they exceed But how do our late Penmen approve of this Very well for they declare that Revelation is to be preferred before the clearest Demonstration of our Reason Whence it appears that the Unitarians deny what they have in other places affirm'd they disown what at other times they assert And so they betray their own Cause and patronize ours so Truth discovers and defends it self though for a while stifled or disguised And thus it is manifest that We are in the right even our Enemies themselves being judges Only here it is worth observing how fliâ—…ting how shifting how changeable Sozzo's Pupils are Are they not to be deem'd very slippery Gentlemen when they thus say and unsay They have alter'd the Racovian Catechism more than once and they may do it again when they see occasion And it is visible how our English Socinians vary their Note and affect to differ from themselves Whereby they let us know that they are unmindful of the Jewish Proverb When occasion serves we may gainsay others but at no time must a man contradict himself The Third Beloved Conceit of theirs concerning Christianity is that there are no Mysteries in it Which indeed follows upon the former Opinion for if nothing is to be believ'd in the Christian Religion but what is made out by Exact Reason then there is nothing Mystical and Obscure in it This is a Point mightily urg'd of late by our homebred Racovians and their Adherents who have publish'd a small Essay entituled An Impartial Account of the word Mystery as it is taken in the Holy Scripture where they cantingly tell us that MYSTERY is the Tutelar God of the New Systems framed by Worldly Christians and it is the Vail of Absurdities and such like foolish representations they make of it and think themselves very Witty and Piquant when they call the Trinitarians Mystery-men as doth the Examiner of the Exceptions against Mr. L's Reasonableness c. But which is far worse they pervert the meaning of the Sacred Writ and wilfully I fear represent the word Mystery otherwise than it is used in the New Testament of which I hope to give the Reader an account some other time and to settle the true sense and import of the word as it is applyed in those Holy Writings All that I will say at present is that True and Substantial Reason informs us if we attend to it that God's bare Word is sufficient to determine our assent and belief and the Holy Scriptures acquaint us that there are Unsearchable Mysteries in the Christian Religion that there is hidden wisdom 1 Cor. 2. 7. that there are deep things of God v. 10. that there are things hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3. 16. that we know in part and see through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. All which and many other passages in Sacred Writ assure us that there are Unfathomable Depths Unconceivable Abstrusities in Christianity and that it is out of our ken and reach to apprehend them Therefore we are obliged to believe some things which are unaccountable to our knowledg and reason Yea indeed the proper matter of Faith are those things which we cannot have any notice of by the mere natural exercise of our faculties Revelation here is enough as was said before and we ought and that with the greatest Reason to depend upon it entirely because we know it is Infallible But because I intend at another time to insist particularly on the proof of this Proposition that Christianity not only was but is a Great Mystery I will not prevent my self here Let it only suffice at present that I have caution'd the Reader against our Adversary's groundless Assertion that there is nothing dark and obscure in the Christian doctrines that there is no such thing as Mystery in any of the Articles belonging to this Holy Institution They pretend to oblige the world by divulging and laying all open to the Vulgar Others are dark intricate perplex'd and muddy but they only are the Authors that are Clear and Bright and write with shining Japan Ink. In brief they and the Deists talk much of the Oracles of Reason and brag of their making all things out by these though generally they prove as vain and idle as the Reasons of Etymologists and the common Rationale's of the Roman Service and Rites But here perhaps it will be Objected that I have in this and the foregoing particular misrepresented these men for it will be said that in one of their Writings it is positively asserted that there are some Mysteries and incomprehensible
Institution though they openly confess that Children are not capable of it though they publish to the world that there is neither Command nor Practice for it yet some of their Authors whom I have mention'd hold it may be practised in the Church What therefore is it that these men will not say or do if they have a mind to it The whole Sect of Anabaptists are against Paedobaptism and so far they are to be commended that they approve not of that in others which they are perswaded is unlawful in it self But here is a sort of Religionists that cry down the Baptising of Children as an empty and childish Ceremony as void of all Allowance from Scripture and unreasonable and absurd in it self and yet the practice of it is not unlawful in the Church He that hath a Talent of solving Contrarieties let him use it here for here is great occasion for it But this must be said indeed that some of the High-fliers among them who are most consistent with themselves and their own principles cry out against the Baptising of Children as Anti-Christian and not to be tolerated by any means in the Christian Church for truly if it be of that nature which we have heard it represented to be there is no reason it should be suffer'd any longer Wherefore those of the Party before mention'd are guilty of a double Irreligion first in slandering this Sacrament in prophanely scoffing at this Institution this Evangelical Rite ordain'd by our Lord himself Secondly in allowing the administring of it in the Church notwithstanding they have thus reproach'd it and represented it as a thing utterly unlawful What will the Impious Despisers of Religion what will the Atheists say to this Are they not hereby confirm'd in their dislike and contempt of what is Sacred Are they not taught to open their mouths against God and whatever is Religious and yet notwithstanding that to make some shew of outward allowing them Is not here an Example set them for this purpose and do we not see it daily followed Thus it appears that these men strike at Religion yea strike it down and then would pretend to raise it up as it were but this is only adding Dissimulation to their gross Impiety which renders their Guilt the greater and mightily aggravates their Crime CHAP. VIII The Socinians deny that there is any Distinct Order of men in the Christian Church This is disproved from the Evangelical Writings Though they are for Gather'd Churches yet they contradict this in their practice They can give no account of this and of their censuring other Congregations Their Indifferency in Religion is inferr'd from their having no Publick Assemblies As also from their concealing their Names and Persons Something worse than Cowardize is taken notice of in them They hold Officious Lies to be lawful The ground of this Opinion is shewed to be unreasonable Socinus's Explication of Mat. 5. 28. justly censured They assert that Immodesty Intemperance Wantonness Impure Desires and Lusts were not forbid under the Law The Badness of this assertion laid open They are enemies to the Civil Powers They will not permit them to punish any Offenders no not Murderers with death Herein they oppose themselves to the authority of the Old and New Testament The reason guessâ—…d at why they take the Sword out of the Magistrates hand They condemn all going to War as unchristian and unlawful HAving dispatch'd Two of the General Heads which I propounded I pass to the Third viz. Ecclesiastical Discipline or Government The Socinians deny that there is any Distinct Order of Men in the Church to whom it peculiarly and solely belongs to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments Socinus indeed grants that one Man may be chosen out of the rest to preach the Word of God and he sees no reason to the contrary he saith But neither he nor his followers admit of any Call or Mission requisite in order to this The †Racovian Catechism positively determines it so for though it seems to grant that it is more fitting and decent that professed and set Ministers should perform the publick offices in the Church and the Primitive Churches they grant observed this yet they assert that it is not Necessary because the Scripture doth not require it Smalcius expresly maintains this Volkelius gives us his judgment in these words That the Pastor or Minister should dispense to the rest the Supper of the Lord is wholly an indifferent thing seeing it is not commanded us by Christ nor can there be any reason given why it ought to be done at all It cannot be proved saith an Other that it is lawful for no man to do those things which he mention'd just before viz. preaching baptizing administring the Lord's Supper unless he be call'd and sent for that purpose and he endeavours to prove it by alledging several Arguments The Racovian Catechism hints that the Eucharist may be administred by the hands of Private Christians and such as are not devoted to the Ministry And what saith their famous Master As to the Lord's Supper there is no reason why we should suspect that it may not be celebrated by any one that professes the Name of Christ. And again Any Christian Man may exercise the office of Preaching and administring the Sacraments And the rest of them agree with him that there is not a necessity of a Distinct Order of persons in the Church and that a Layman may administer the Sacraments What their opinion concerning Preaching is may be learnt from the Racovian Catechism which tells us that there is no use of it since the Conversion of the Gentiles and since Christianity is setled in the world There is no Necessity of it saith an other Friend of theirs And yet in the Evangelical Writings which are the infallible Rule we are to direct our selves by and whence we are to learn what Ecclesiastical Constitutions are to take place we find that the Distinction and Peculiarity of the Ministerial Office and its Peculiar Function are settled 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. Eph. 4. 11 12. A peculiar Mission is expresly required Rom. 10. 15. 1 Tim. 5. 5. Tit. 1. 5. A Particular Call is made necessary Acts 14. 23. Heb. 5. 4. Upon which that Article of our Church is grounded It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of Publick Preaching or Ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he is lawfully call'd and sent to execute the same But this is disregarded by our New Modellers of Religion And who could expect any other thing for they who have so abused and perverted Christianity it self would not fail to treat the Ministers of it with contempt and disgrace yea wholly to make void their Office and Charge This is a fresh evidence of the truth and reality of what I formely tax'd them with One thing further I will observe that according to
by this concealment they are abler to do the greater mischief They lie hid and publish not their Names that thereby they may have the advantage of saying what they please and aspersing whom they will with their audacious pens that by this means they may have free liberty to disturb the world to unsettle men in their Opinions to beget Disputes and Wranglings to bring in Scepticism and Indifferency in Religion and at last Atheism I could moreover add under this Third General Head their unscriptural Notion concerning the Church viz. that like other Societies it may be extinct Whereas it hath been the constant profession of all Protestants as well as those of the Roman Communion that the Church of God is perpetual and shall never be wholly extirpated these men vouch that there is no necessity of asserting any such thing So Volkelius and Ostorodus and Smalcius against Frantzius holds the same and the reason they give is because it is in every man's power to Apostatize and deny the Faith and consequently it may so happen that there may be no Church in being in the world As much as to say God's Word and his Faithfulness on which it is founded can be superseded by Man's will and pleasure We are ascertain'd of the contrary from such expresâ—… and direct Promises as these God is iâ—… the midst of her she shall not be moved Psal. 46. 5. God will establish her for ever Psal. 48. 8. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 16. 18. I am with you always even unto the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. From these and several other plain passages in the Writings of the Old and New Testament it is evident that this is a Truth impregnable that the True Church of Christ shall never fail that God's special Providence attends it that it hath been and shall be preserved in all Ages and that it shall endure to the World's End But their contrary perswasion shews us what a mean esteem they have of what is delivered in the Holy Scriptures and how Indifferent they are as to the duration or extinction of the Church of Christ. Fourthly and Lastly I come to consider what their Sentiments are in reference to Practice and Morality But I sincerely declare I intend not here any reflection upon their Persons or Actions for I am a perfect stranger to them I know nothing of the Gentlemen but their Books or if I knew any thing that were a blemish in their Conversation if I were able to rake up materials to represent them blameable in point of Morals I should think it an unworthy act so much as to mention it for those are Weak and Feeble Arguers who make use of such Methods It is irrational to judg of Opinions from the Personal miscarriages of any men My business at present is to set before the Reader the thoughts and apprehensions of some of their Chief Writers concerning some Points of Morality Officious Lies were never forbidden either by Moses or Christ in the Old or New Testament consequently are lawful saith Volkelius And he adds this reason because they are profitable to some as if that would render them Lawful when the Apostle hath instructed us in the contrary Rom. 3. 8. We are not to be induced to do evil that good may come of it The consideration of Advantage and Profit cannot render that lawful which is otherwise in it self as all Lying is and the reason is because it is a Transgression of the Divine Law To prove that this Profitable Lying is not unlawful they alledge Examples out of the Old Testament but we may observe that at other times they make nothing of Examples thence because say they the Gospel requires of persons greater perfection than the Law did as their Gloss upon Mat. 5. evidences But now though they must not swear at all yet they may lie i. e. if it be in an officious and serviceable way notwithstanding those General Prohibitions of all Lying Exod. 23. 7. Lev. 19. 11. Prov. 6. 17. 12. 22. 13. 5. Eph. 4. 25. Col. 3. 9. If this Doctrine were generally preach'd as it is by these men it would have a pernicious effect in the world and all Lies would be reckon'd some way or other Officious and Truth and Sincerity would soon leave the earth I might mention Socinus's Explication of Mat. 5. 28. Whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart which he restrains to looking on a Married woman not on any other and he favourably speaks of the motions of Concupiscence even when he is discoursing of the Perfection of the Christian Law above that of Moses which looks very strange And besides he strikes in with the Doctors of the Church of Rome who determine Concupiscence to be no Sin Some of them hold that Polygamy and Concubinate were not forbid by the Divine Law whereas the contrary is evident from our Saviours words Mat. 19. 8. From the beginning it was not so for the Institution of God in the beginning was this They two shall be one flesh Gen. 2. 24. by which Primitive Law is condemn'd the Plurality of Wives Bernardinus Ochinus and David George both of them fierce Anti-Trinitarians held Polygamy under the Gospel lawful But I will not make use of their Opinion against the main body of the Anti-Trinitarians because I verily believe they approve not of it and some of them have particularly shew'd their dislike and abhorrence of it What their thoughts are as to some other Acts of Immorality we may learn from one of their Writers God commanded nothing saith he at all by Moses that concerns Modesty Temperance or Sobriety but granted them leave to seek out pleasures in meat and drink in apparel and the like And again The Law did not forbid unprofitable words jests gibes no nor lying swearing railing This he saith notwithstanding what we read in Prov. 23. 31. Look not thou upon the Wine when it is red c. and in Isa. 5. 11. Woe to them that rise up early in the morning to follow strong drink c. Socinus himself avers that Drunkenness was not forbid under the Old Testament nor was it punishable by God on its own account And that you may know what thoughts these men have concerning the Penmen of Holy Scripture a famous Unitarian pronounces thus concerning Ecclesiastes It is too certain that he doth not only in his way permit those things which belong to the pleasures of the flesh but he also in a manner exhorts to them And he further adds in the same place his opinion concerning this and other Writers of the Old Testament Whatever precepts appertaining to Morality are alledged out of Ecclesiastes and other such like books as the Psalms the Proverbs c. they indeed belong to the making of a well-moraliz'd and religious man but no person under the Law was