the one cannot be enlarg'd nor the other enlightned are there not ten thousand things which your reason doth not understand which are certain Truths for all that and is not God able to enlarge your Capacity and your Understanding and make that appear to be truly reasonable which now by reason of your Ignorance you can see no reason for except you will say that you have attain'd to the highest pitch of Reason and Understanding that God can give you and consequently that you are infallible in all matters of Faith and in the very Nature and Being of God And if so you would do well to turn out that doating Fool at Rome and place a wiser in the Chair and lay aside the Scriptures and Simon Magus like set up for some great one in the World I still see reason to guide my Reason by the Scriptures and therefore I believe when I see a Man wise in his own Conceit I may have more hope of a Fool than of him Now though I have reason to believe that our short Accountant and our nameless Author are Brethren in this unreasonable Work of denying that Jesus Christ is the living and true God as much as Simon and Levy were in their unreasonable Zeal Yet if my Reason fail not I think they contradict each other For our nameless Author tells us pag. 5. colume 1. that Reason is a Power or Faculty of encreasing our Knowledge by Industry whereby if we rightly proceed we may come to an absolute certainty in many things So then Reason is capable of being encreas'd and growing by Industry Hence it follows that small measures of Reason can give a Man but small Certainty in many things if in any thing how contrary is this to my Accountants third Reason whose Capacity is not to be enlarg'd nor can any thing be true that is contrary to his present Understanding but when Reason is thus improv'd my Author himself tells me and I have Reason to believe him that it is but a certainty in many things so that some things are still exempted from a certain Knowledge of by Reason according to my Doctor of Reason his own Argument And if any thing be exempted surely Reason would inform a Man that the things of God should be some of those things especially those things that concern his very Being and Nature But to return to our short Accountants Third Reason for I would not hide any of his most comely Parts nor diminish any of his strongest Reasons he proceeds in his aforesaid pretended Reason and tells us Though he is bound to believe whatever God saith is True yet it is because I have Reason so to do But saith he I cannot believe the thing God saith till I know what he saith You are very right Mr. Doctor the Devil will tell the truth sometimes but he adds nor well believe pray Mark nor well believe God saith so and so till by Reason I am assured it is true Reason can never assent to that which appears unreasonable nor can I otherwise than by Reason assure my self that the Scripture is a Divine Revelation These are his very words for as I said before I will not hide his strong Reasons The first part of this Third Reason I have Answered already but he cannot well believe God saith so and so till by Reason he is perswaded it is true If Abraham had had such a Conceit of his Reason he might have Lived and Dyed in Unbelief for ought I know to the Contrary For what Reason had he to believe he should have a Son when his own Body was as good as Dead and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of Women but the revealed Word of God and he did not say this is according to my Reason therefore I will believe what God saith no he Argued quite otherwise and said though I see no Reason for this but a great deal against it as much as ever our Accountant can pretend to be Master of Yet because it is told me by that God that cannot Lye and Almighty power being ingaged to perform it therefore I do believe it and therefore it is said Rom. 4. 18. he believed against hope and therefore against reason but he would have had hope if he had had Reason for Hope will follow Reason and it would be an unreasonable peice of Nonsence and a contradiction for a Man to say I have Reason to believe I shall have such a thing but I have no hopes of it Rom. 4. 18. Yet our Accountant will needs set up for a Master of Reason though he knows not what he speaks nor where of he doth affirm Besides in this my Accountant gives no more Honour and Glory to God by believing then he or any Man else may give to the Devil For when the Father of Lyes speaks truth and that you know he will do sometimes then you may believe him if by Reason you are assur'd it is true but God is to be Believed on the Authority of his own Word It is no wonder that Men discover themselves to be Fools when no less Folly will satisfie them then to kick against him in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge Colos 2. 3. But I pass to my Accountants Fourth Reason in the aforesaid Third Page By Revelation saith he we are taught and it is no way contrary to Reason that this one God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is this one God Joh. 17. 1. Very true and how forcible are right Words but what doth your Arguing either prove or reprove from this We are Taught by the Scriptures of truth that Jesus Christ is the True God and Eternal Life and that the true God is Jesus Christ 1 Ep. John 5. 20. and John 17. 1. Titus 2. 13. Now whether this be contrary to my Accountants Reason or no it is nevertheless true for all that but I see no Reason to deny the Father to be God for all this and if I should yet my Reason and the Inference would be as Justifiable as his in denying the Son to be God His Fifth Reason you have in his aforesaid Third Page for you must know they being small will lye in a little room Whenever God the Father and Christ his Son are spoken of in Scripture they are spoken of as two distinct Persons and Beings as Joh. 7. 16. It 's certain they are so as the Scripture declares them to be yet the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost are but one God for all that And he adds Though they are said to be One in some Sense yet never but in such a Sense as God and others may be said to be One viz. in Love Agreement and Will One would wonder that a Man pretending to Reason and Religion should not be ashamed to tell the World such an unreasonable untruth as this what is Christ and God the
they might have as good a Stock of it as your self Sir for ought I know I say their Reason thought it reasonable so to do and it is not long since one of your Doctors of Reason told us if I am not mis-informed there was no God in his Leviathan and for ought I know to the contrary he might have as good Reason so to do as you have to deny our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to be God But our Author goes hobbling on according to that little blind Reason he hath and can any Man think it strange that he stumbles when he kicks at the very Fountain of Light and Life OUr Author is like one of Jeremiahs conceited Lords spoken of Jeremiah 2. 31. and therefore he will not come to him in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge Colos 2. 3. No he is so far from that that he will tell God to his Face that a Debt freely Forgiven and yet fully Paid is a contradiction For what doth it signifie for God to reveal himself to be a God pardoning iniquity forgiving transgression and sin and yet a God that will by no means clear the guilty This is a contradiction in this Gentlemans Reason and therefore cannot be true by Revelation Short Accountant Page the Third Reason the Third Yet least our short Accountant should Charge me with being too short in given up his Account of his Reasons for his denying the Lord Jesus Christ to be over All God blessed for every more I must step back to his 2d Page where after he hath given some Account of the unkind and if all be as he relates it unjustisible carriage of Bishop R. S. and the Church under his Care towards him He begins to lay down his Reasons which I shall consider without taking any notice of their Relative Neglects one to another I having nothing to do with either the Bishop R. S. or the Church over which he is Overseer I not knowing this short Accountant nor B. R. S. nor any of his Congregation that I know of no not so much as by Sight or Name till since I see R. S. on this Subject and upon inquiring after that I have been told his Name To begin therefore with the Account he gives of himself he saith As to his Life and Conversation he doth not know that any hath blamed him for it nor that he hath been charged with Immorality which is so far very well and is his Mercy that God hath not left him so far to himself as to run with many others into the same excess of Riot But he was not as he saith Able to bear the hearing that Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin was God by Nature Co-equal Coeternal with the Father And here I cannot but observe the dark ingenuity of the Gentleman who foreseeing that any Christian would be ready to grant that the humanity of Christ which was Born of the Virgin was not God for then he had not been Man but God only and so we should have been at a loss for a Mediator For there is one Mediator between God and Man theresore he saith He was not able to bear the Notion of a Compound of part God and part Man to make up one Person I do not find the word part God and part Man in Scripture but the Scriptures do plain enough declare that our Mediator is true God and true Man But now I shall consider my short Accountants Reasons why he cannot believe him to be so His first Reason is because God is represented in Thousand of Places of Scripture to be One single Person or Being and in some few mistaken and dark places that seem to infer a plurality of Persons in the Divine Being Now saith our short Accountant page 3. and our Nameless Author pag. 7. colume 2. We must not oppose a few Texts against many nor dark ones agaiust clear ones Very true and for the same Reason we must not oppose many against a few nor clear ones against dark ones and here any reasonable unbyast man may see how those Gentlemen contradict themselves Our Author saith page 4. colume 1. That if a thing does not appear clear to him he hath no good cause to affirm it And by the same rule if a thing appears dark to him it is presumptuous Folly in him to deny it for a Man to deny that to be true which he doth not know or understand to be so by an infallible Rule And I hope this Gentleman will not say his Reason is infallible in the things of a Man much less in the things of God such a Man is guilty of equal Folly with him that affirms a thing to be true though he do not know it to be so but upon Hear-say or by the Dictates of his own weak and erring Reason So my Author and I are agreed in this that Scripture cannot contradict it self But I proceed to my short Accountants Second Reason which is this That this Revelation of God as one single Being or Person is agreeing to the Notion taat I have of God in my Mind by my Reason as most High Best and the like Now tho' I do not pretend to any great stock much less to be Master of infallible Reason yet I must own that according to that measure of Reason that God hath given me this Argument seems most unreasonable and absurd and it is to believe a Man's Notions are true because they are his Notions what reasonable Proofs are these For though I never saw Hobbs's Leviathan yet I make no doubt but he had as good Reason as this to deny the Being of God for what is this more or less than for the Fool to say in his heart there is no God and then to introduce this Saying or Notion of his and produce it as an Argument or Reason to prove that there is no God I must needs say that I have reason to believe that the Scripture doth not say in vain that as the Fool walketh by the way his Wisdom faileth him and he saith to every one that he is a Fool Eccles 10. 3. And what if I had not reason enough to see this Truth of God would the Truth of God be ever the less vailed for my Ignorance I see my short Accountant falls much too short in giving a true reasonable Account of his Faith But I shall pass to his Third Reason and see if there be any more truth in that than in his two former and here he tells us What is not true in Reason cannot be true by Revelation For saith he pray mark the reason of the Gentleman's Argument What is above my Capacity to understand or contradictory to my understanding cannot be revealed to me Surely if our Accountant were not blinded with being wise in his own Eyes he would have seen his Ignorance in this Argument quick enough Why good Sir is your Capacity solarge and your Understanding so great that
gull the simple and unwary Reader There can be no Personal Vnion between God and a Creature he saith and pray why so why because the being of God doth not require the being of a Creature to his being or any thing but himself to make up his Person or Self This is a sort of Logick that the Gentleman may think may down well enough with Mechanicks and such like ordinary Fellows But it is strange the Doctors of Reason should send such stuff as this is abroad for sound Reason but I forget my Accountant and his Brother the Nameless Author are Doctors of Reason and perhaps they think they have ingrost all Reason into their own Hands and if so we must take what they will let us have and at their own price too or else one would think they could not be so vain and Foolish as to tell us there can be no Personal Union between God and a Creature Surely Almighty Power is able to take a Creature into Personal Union with himself and as for that Nonsensical pretended Reason that the being of God does not require the being of a Creature to his being What Sense or Reason is there in it If it had been necessary to his being it must have been Eternal as God himself is and then it could not be a Creature for no Creature is Eternal and then all the Condescention Grace and Love that the Scripture speaks of in Gods taking our Nature upon him must vanish away into Idle Tales or be led Captive at the Heels of our Accountants foolish Reason Pray try a little how this Argument will look in other Cases the being of God doth not require the being of any Creatures to make up his being happiness and blessedness therefore he cannot or will not descend to the Work of Creation and when they are all made they cannot all of them add one Tittle to his Essential Glory Therefore they were not made for nor are to his Glory now made Where is the wise Man where is the Scribe 1 Cor. 1 19 20. God will destroy the wisdom of the Wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent according to that old threatning against the Wise Men of this World Isa 29. 14. That wisdom should perish from the wise and the understanding of prudent Men shall be hid But I pass on to his Eighth Reason where I find our Accountant having past all bounds of â—ight Reason will needs break thorow all bounds of Truth and Modesty too and therefore tells us Whatever is said of Christ in Scripture is said of him as Man But he presently adds to cover this Story That the shift so many use of Christ speaking so and so as God and so and so as Man is unscriptural and Foolish and sounds no better then this that Peter as Peter denyed his Master but Peter as John did not deny his Master We look upon it as a prudential peice of Justice to suspect Common Lyars when they speak Truth and therefore I hope our Accountant will not think it any dishonour to him If I do by him as the Noble Bereans did by Paul search the Scriptures before I receive this assertion for Truth or sound Reason But upon a Second view of this Eighth Reason I find there is not one Scripture mentioned and therefore I may very honestly retort his assertion back upon him again and tell him this assertion is very Foolish and unscriptural But if I can give no other Answer than this I know my Accountant will out Reckon me by abundance for he is a Man of Reason and perhaps may be as ready to say to me concerning Reason as Zedekiah did to Micaiah concerning the Spirit and ask which way went Reason from him to me 2 Chron. 18. 23. But what faith the Scriptures in this Case for by them my Author thinks to dishonour our Lord Jesus Christ with no less then Robbing him of his Divine Nature Isaiah 9. 9. For unto us a Child is Born There his Humanity is spoken of but read out the verse and see if your Reason hath not robb'd you of all good Manners and Modesty You will not dare to give the Lye to the Spirit of God and there he is called the wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father The Prince of Peace see ikewise Rev. 1. 17 18. Now Sir will you have the impudence to give the Spirit of God the Lye in these two Scriptures or will you suffer your Reason to possess you with so much Madness and Folly as to charge the Spirit of God with Folly and say he speaks Nonsence chuse you whither But Our Accountant goes on and I am willing to follow him being willing to find out the reason of a thing and he tells us which he calls his Ninth Reason Page 4th That tho' Christ be truly said to be the Son of God yet he is never in Scripture caelled God the Son Now would I give you a Scripture to prove that he is called God the Son but you have told me already such Scriptures are dark but I cannot help that they are Scriptures notwithstanding and the darkness you speak of lyes in the weakness of your understanding and the Folly of your pretended Reason Besides the Scriptures were Written for this very purpose to give Wisdom to the simple but those that are Wise in their own conceit may be sent away as they came For you know God himself tells us that he sends the rich empty away Pray Sir Read Heb. 1. 8. but unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for Ever c. I think this is not so dark a saying but you may understand him to be called God the Son in those Words and admitting it were dark or hard as those said who told our Lord his sayings were hard when he spoke of giving them his Flesh to eat And no doubt but they were as much above their understandings and as contrary to their Reason as the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is above or against yours yet were they the Words of Truth it self for all that And Solomon tells us Prov. 1. 5 6. A wise Man will hear and increase Learning And for this Reason among others to understand the Words of the Wise and their dark sayings But our Accountant and his Brother the Nameless Author are Wise Men whether it be in their own eyes or others no matter for that Their Reason is the Touch-stone of Gods Truth and therefore whatever God reveals must First come and make its acknowledgments to Mr. Licenser General our Authors Reason and if it pass Muster in his Foolish Noddle it may go for Truth but if not as what reasonable Man can think that the Mysteries of God should be comprehended by the Foolish corrupted unreasonable though pretended Reason of Man Especially seeing the Carnal Mind is Enmity against God and the Scripture yea Reason it self may inform us that none knows the things of God
Reason only their great Learning hath so stuft their Heads and Memories that they have almost forgot what sound Reason is as hath been already seen in examining the Stuff they call Reason It is to be lamented that one good Gift of God should fall upon such bad Ground as to drive out another but so it is what else is the meaning of that Word Let not the Wise Man glory in his Wisdom nor the Rich Man glory in his Riches c. But to shew that as the glorying in these things robs the Giver of his Due so it makes the Receiver become a poor weak Fool Jer. 9. 23. And indeed it is very unreasonable to think it can be otherwise for if every good and perfect Gift comes down from the Father of Lights and is dispensed to us through the Son by the Holy Spirit what can those Gentlemen do otherwise but discover themselves to be as they are who shall deny our Lord Jesus Christ to be as he is over all God blessed for evermore and thereby deny to live by Faith upon him and as much as in them lies cut themselves off from him in whom dwelleth the Fulness of the Godhead Col. 2. 9. But if Reason fail these Gentlemen say they will remove the Cause to the Scriptures of Truth most gladly therefore with them to the Scriptures I will go and guide and subject my Reason thereunto And indeed it is impossible for us to have a true Knowledge of God without the Revelation that he gives of himself by his Word and Spirit And here I cannot but take Notice of the foolish as well as slanderous Report that my nameless Author in his Divine Vnity asserted pag. 6. Col. 2. as well as the Considerator in his 19th and 20th pages of his Answer to the Bishop of Sarum gives to the Christian Divines saying That were it not for Church Awes and for fear of losing their Stipends they would deny the Doctrine of the Trinity themselves I thank God I lye under no Temptation of being byass'd by the Churches Smiles or Frowns I being no Clergy-Man nor the Son of a Clergy-Man and therefore my Judgment cannot be bribed with the hope os getting or fear of losing any Benefice But God having given me an Immortal Soul it becomes me and it is but my reasonable Duty as well as Interest to be as much concerned about the Eternal Salvation thereof as any of those whose Business it is being called of God as Aaron to serve at the Altar by preaching the unsearchable Riches of Christ and the great Mysteries of the Gospel and Godliness God manifested in the flesh Eph. 3. 8. 1 Tim. 3. 16. And here I must take leave to tell our Doctors of Reason that if the Scriptures tell me that Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life as I find it doth 1 John 5. 20. Tit. 2. 13. I must therefore believe this Truth because I find it Testified in the Scriptures of Truth although thereby I should practically give those Gentlemen â—he Lye who say he is but a Man and although to prove their Sayings they tell me their great Reason and Learning hath taught them so to say and believe therefore to do them right I do freely acknowledge that they have a just right to lay claim to the Title that the Apostle gives to those simple Gentlemen spoken of in the 2 Tim. 3. 7. Who were ever learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And yet it is evident that these were no small Fools in their own Conceit for in the next Verse the Apostle compares them to Jannes and Jambres whose Ignorance and Folly was over-laid with such a stock of Impudence that they had Confidence enough to resist Moses though he was one of the greatest Men that ever lived upon the Earth And there were such pretended Wits in the Apostles days Men of corrupt Minds resisting the Truth concerning the Faith reprobate But their Folly was made manifest as the Unreasonableness of our pretended Men of Reason at this day is But let us see how these Men reconcile Scripture to their Reason or rather pervert it for my Author in his 16th page colume 1. argues that because we are to love God with all our Hearts therefore the Son is not God for then our Love would be divided Which argues strongly that he is God because we are commanded to love and honour him as the Father as hath been proved by Scripture Command and the Example of the Worshippers in Heaven And also is an undeniable Argument that the Father and the Son are one whether my Author will receive it or can understand it or no. The next Scripture that I find Our Author mentions in particular after he had mentioned several to prove God is one which signifies no more to his Cause then if a Man pretending to prove there is no Night in our Climate should tell us when we see the Sun shine we may be sure it is day For all true Christians believe God is one and that the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost is this One God But the Text which he mentions and recites at Large is in his 18th Page 1 Colume Phil. 2. 6. where the Apostle speaking of Christ saith who being in the Form of God thought it not Robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no Reputation and took one him the Form of a Servant My Author saith the reconciling Sense is that is to there Foolish Reason that he thought of no such Robbery as being equal with God It is very strange that the Servant should so much excel the Master when the Devil himself transformed himself into an Angel of Light he did not Quote Scripture so Falsly nor pervert it so palpably as this amounts to when he Brought Scripture to Tempt our Lord to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple as any Christian may see by comparing the 4th of Matthew and 6th with the 91st Psal ver 11. But Let us Consider what the Holy Ghost was pressing on Christians in the Context that we may not Charge him with Contradiction and Nonsence how bold so ever we may be with his Disciples and here we find he speaks of some Person or being that was in the Form of God and therefore the other assertion that he thought it no Robbery to be equal with God was a necessary Consequence of the Former and to take it as my Author doth is but to give the Lye to the Holy Ghost or to Charge him with Contradiction let him choose whether Besides the 7th and 8th verses make it clear that the Apostle was speaking of some Person or Being distinct and infinitely superiour to Humane Nature and therefore speaks of his Condescension in taking on him the Form of a Servant and being found in the Fashion of a Man Whereas were this this He the Apostle speaks of no other but a Man the Apostle
Reasons therein offered to maintain the things that were so boldly asserted as also to the Scriptures of Truth and sound Reason drawn from the same And I can truly say the more I lookt into both the more I were confirmed in my Faith and the more clearly did I see the unreasonableness though deep subtilty and cuning Sophistry of the Arguments that were laid down in those Books for denying our Lord Jesus Christ to be over all God blessed for ever more and for my own Memory sake I at first commited some Remarks to Paper and Ink and shewing them to a Friend he advised me to go on further in it Which accordingly I did and having almost finisht what I thought to do with respect to those two Books I Communicated it to another Friend and he shewed me and Lent me the great Boasting vain Glorious Considerator upon Four Sermons of his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Discourse of the Bishop of Sarums another of the Bishop of Worster and an Eminent Dissenter and I have now forgot who besides And he stumps it about like a Haberdasher of small Wits against his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury charges the Lord Bishop of Sarum with a Dissent from the Catholick Church and doth in Effect tell his Lordship though he be a Dignity of the Church yet he must vail the Bonnet to him as being a Freeman of the Common wealth of Wit and Learning and seems willing to perswade the the World that he is guilty of Sacriledge and that he hath Robb'd the Church of some of her best ornaments next to the Righteousness of Cnrist imputed to her and the Graces of his Holy Spirit wrought in her viz. Her Wit and Learning And as for the first of the Former and which indeed Constitutes her Truly Christian viz. the Righteousness of Christ imputed to her he will not own that she hath any Right or Title to it or that she shall ever be made partaker of it And as for the Second viz. The inwrought Graces of the Holy Spirit and which indeed makes her truly Glorious he hath brought up an evil Report upon it and will have it to be no other then Painted Paper-morality common to the Heathen And in order to perswade the World to believe him He tells us he is a Freeman of the Common-wealth of Wit and Learning What a mortification must it be to this Gentleman when he shall see that a Man of a mean capacity and Employment that never had the happiness to sit at the Feet of Gamaliel can see through his Sophistry And yet it must be acknowledged by all Men of common Sense that the Schools will give a Man great advantages in many things if he have but answerable Measures of Reason to improve the knowledge that may be attained there but Block-heads and Dunces must look like themselves as well when Posting from as when Whipt to and in the Cities of Oxford and Cambridge For indeed the Schools know better then to pretend to give Men Reason much less Vertue or Grace and yet we have a sort of soft-pated Gentlemen who because they can speak Three Languages besides their Mother Tongue will needs count themselves wise Men Ay and good Divines too but they will not pass for such among those that know what sound Reason and True Divinity is The Cosiderator by his Vanity and Boasting seems to be one of those Paper-scull'd Gentlemen I have therefore given him an Answer to some of his Arguments least he should continue to be wise in his own Conceit and to let him know that it better becomes such weak headed tho' perhaps well-meaning Gentlemen as he to learn of the Mechanicks than to contend with the Learned especially such of them as have answerable measures of Reason to improve the Knowledge they have attain'd by Learning for the same end for which God gave it them And I have taken Notice but of some of his Arguments neither because notwithstanding his great swelling Words of Vanity yet I find all his Arguments are briefly couch'd or may be reduced to our Short Accountant and to give that Gentleman his due he is as Stout a Champion for their Cause as the best of them all and so much the better because he is not so vain as the Considerator I thought therefore I ought not to let the Considerator pass without a Repremand for his sawcy insulting over the Dignities of the Church and thou wilt find Reader it is but a Reasonable one for I have quoted him Truly and Fairly as thou wilt see if thou compare Books and as for the Accountant I have Transcribed his Arguments almost word for word at least I have not knowingly omitted one Material Word in all his Book Now Reader I shall leave thee to Judge for thy Self whether it will be safest for thee to believe God to be as he himself saith he is or as pretendingly Wise but real Foolish Men say he is And if thou receive any Benefit by this Discourse let it be a Motive to thee not to lean to thy own understanding but to live by Faith on him that gives Wisdom to the simple and understanding to them that have no knowledge And if what is written may have any influence thereunto and in so doing to honour the Son even as we honour the Father he hath his end who is thine to serve thee so far as it is Reasonable for thee to Command or him to obey Nathanael Goldham A Reasonable Word TO THE DOCTORS OF REASON OUR Nameless Author in his Divine Vnity asserted spends his third and fourth Pages in laying down general Rules which must be used in discerning Truth from Error that we may not be deceived I shall therefore pass over those two Pages and consider how well he keeps to those Rules or to the Rules of Scripture or right Reason which he pretends to be so Great a Master of in clearing so Great a Controversie and which is so great a Mystery And first to begin with his Reasons which he lays down as a Foundation to build a Faith upon that shall reach to Heaven And he goes on and prospers in this building about as far as the Men of Babel did in their building in the Land of Shinar Gen. 11. 2 7. Indeed his Reason is as much confounded as their Language was for they did but contradict and so not understand one another and yet perhaps as great Doctors of Reason among them as our Author himself He tells us in page 5. that we have a Power of Reasoning or Faculty of encreasing our Knowledge by Industry whereby we come to a Certainty in many things Hence I gather from my Author 's Reasoning that there are various Degrees and Measures of Reason which the most High God is pleased to give to every Man according to the good Pleasure of his own Will to some more and to some less and to some so far as appears to By-standers none at
the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift Destruction Will you add so much Pride to your Folly as to say concerning your self as our Lord did that because I was in the Decree of God and prophesied of therefore 1600 Years before born I am Besides I Am is a peculiar Title to God signifying his Self-existence and Self-sufficiency which no created Being can take to himself without Blasphemy Well but after all the Considerator is resolved to be a good Champion for a bad Cause who will loose his Ground Inch by Inch And therefore he saith in his 57th page first colume That notwithstanding all this we must be Socinians or Arrians for Christians we may not be No by no means if the Considerator can but jump into the infallible Chair and prescribe a Religion for us Thus it is and thus it will be as the truly Rational and Learned as well as Pious Doctor Owen hath observed Truth will not please the Devil will subscribe to any Creed but that which God gives of himself in his Word But good Sir why must we be Arrians Why because Christ though he did exist before the World was made yet he was but a Creature for all that but the first that ever God made But neither will this shift enable you to overthrow the Christian Religion nor shall you thereby rob the Author of it of his Divine Nature who is the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us Titus 2. 13 14. For hereby you do but tread in your old Steps by resisting and contradicting the Holy Ghost as your Predecessors did in Acts 7. 51. For in Revelation 1. the 8th and 11th Verses our Lord saith he is the First and the Last And to put the Matter out of Doubt that it is Jesus Christ there speaks the 12th Verse to the End of the Chapter makes it evident he being in the Likeness of the Son of Man And in the 17th Verse he saith again I am the first and the last And in the 18th I am he that was dead and am alive All which shews that this was Jesus Christ and that this Jesus Christ is Godman for he being the first God the Father was not before him then he could not be first and he being the last End of all things all things must end and terminate in his Glory For God's Glory is the highest and chiefest Good and therefore must be the ultimate and last End of all things and that this was no other than Jesus Christ is evident in that he saith I am he that liveth and was dead Surely God cannot dye therefore this must be that mighty Child that was given to us who also was the everlasting Father spoken of in Isa 44 6. and Isa 9. 6. Godman God with us in our Nature And therefore he may well be called wonderful because he is Godman in one Person God he must be else he could not be the first nor last neither for God only is the last End as well as the first Cause of all things Man he must be else he could not dye and God he must be else he could not have power to raise himself again as he tells you he had John 10. 18. No man taketh it from me saith he but I lay it down of my self and I have power to take it up again And this compared with the next Verse together with Acts 20. 24. proves the Father and him to be one as he saith of himself in ver 30. of this 10th Chapter I and my Father are one Besides in the first Chapter of Gonesis it is said In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth Why then will you impose Arrianism upon us and contradict the Spirit of God by telling us that God created before the Beginning or before he created the Heavens and the Earth The Considerator therefore shall never impose his School-Divinity upon me of one Senior and two Junior Gods for unto me and unto us Christians there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 1 Cor. 8. 6. And indeed here lies these Gentlemens Mistake they find the Scriptures in many places speak of Jesus Christ as Man Therefore say they he cannot be God as my Accountant pag. 4. but as hath been observed we do not say that Man is God or that the Humane Nature is the Divine or that those two Natures are confounded but we believe according to the Scriptures of Truth that God took upon him our Nature Heb. 2. 16. and united that Holy Thing that by the over-shaddowing of the Holy Ghost was conceived and born of the Virgin So that it did not subsist nor was it a distinct being of it self but was united into a personal Union with God the Son and thus he continues to be two Natures in one Person for ever If you ask me how these things can be I answer such Knowledge is as much too wonderful for the Angels for ought I know as to know how God was and therefore neither you nor I must pretend to it It is enough these are the true Sayings of God and therefore it is to the Peril of those that will not believe it If you say it is impossible I answer with Men it may appear so and really be so but with God all things are possible If you say it is Nonsence and Contradiction I Answer it is the highest impiety and greatest impudence that a Man professing to believe there is a God can be guilty of to say that any thing that God reveals concerning himself or us is impossible or contradictory to it self And therefore after all the Considerators glorying of his own and the rest of his Brethrens Honour and Dignity as being Freemen of the Common-wealth of Wit and Learning Page 44. both Collums And after he hath spoken very Contumeliously of the Dignities of the Church and given himself a good Word as a Person fit for Preferment If the Honours and Profits of the Church were bestowed as they were at first designed upon Persons of Wit Learning and Merrit no doubt but he might come in for an Arch-Bishop And yet in all this glorying I do not find him mention one thing that Paul a Minister of Jesus Christ made any reckoning of his Study and glorying being to know Jesus Christ and him Crucified No the Considerator doth not speak one Word of this in all his own Letter of Recommendation though both Colums Pag. 44. be taken up about it yet there is not one word of Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ spoken of as being of any Concernment in a Minister of Jesus Christ And therefore seeing he hath such a conceit of his own Merits without those accounted unnecessary things I would advise him to step Over to Rome for if he make good Friends those things are not much
minded there If he tell me there is no hope of getting a Cardinals Cap because the Doctrine of the Trinity is maintained by the Church of Rome also I Answer the Being of God is an Article of their Creed too and yet I doubt not but Mr. Considerators great Learning hath delivered him from so much ignorance in Church History That he well knows some Atheists or Atheistical Fellows have by more Wit and Learning then by sound Reason Honesty and true God liness stept into the inâ—alible Chair for before now And this may serve for an Answer to Our Nameless Authors argument in his Pag. 18. where he would deny the Doctrine of the Trinity because t is maintained by the Church of Rome An Argument so Weak and Foolish that I did not think it worth my while to take any other Notice of it than occasionally by the way for sure we shall never be able to maintain the Protestant Doctrine If this be any Argument with us That we are right because we dissent from them or because in many or most things they are wrong but a foolish Cause must have foolish Arguments or none at all And indeed notwithstanding the Considerators vain glorious boasting of his great Learning I look upon him to be as great a dishonour to the Schools for want of Answerable measures of sound Reason as it must be an affliction to our Clergy to find such Hereticks harboured in the Bosom of our Church For although he boast so much of the Mighty Revolution that greater liberty in matters of Religion would make from Christianity to Socinianism or Deism yet if he had sonnd Reason and integrity answerable to his great Learning and the knowledge that he must needs have there by in Church History The remembrance of the Arrian Persecution must deliver him from that foolish Dream nor could he were his attainments in Divinity and sound Reason proportionable to his great Learning deny our Lord Jesus Christ to be the true God and Eternal Life according to the Scriptures 1 Joh. 5. 20. when he himself asserts That in his Pag. 11. Colum 2. and Page 26. Colum 2. which by sound Reason and by Just and necessary Consequence proves him to be so for he saith God neither hath nor can give him the incommunicable properties of the Deity such as Ominpotency Omnipresence Omniscience and the like so then it is but for me or any private Christian to prove that Christ hath those incommunicable properties of the Divine being and the Considerator himself will maintain that he is God Now Sir if you had not excepted against the Revelation of St. John as being no part of Divine Writ you know I could presently have proved that our Lord Jesus Christ is Omniscient Rev. 2. 23. I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts Pray Sir compare this with Jer. 11. 20 27. and 10. 9. But seeing the Seducers and Cunningly devising fable Men of our day under the Specious pretences of Learning and Reason would fain gather up us Lay-men as Branches cut off from the true Vine and may succeed therein among the withered Branches according to what our Lord hath foretold and threatned concerning such in the 15th of Joh. and the 6th Yet our Lord hath given his word for it that they shall not deceive the Elect though they may and shall deceive many Mat. 24. 4 5. and 22 23 25. And that those pretenders to Reason are those very deceivers among others there spoken of is evident not only from our Lords words in ver 11. calling them False Prophets and deceiving many which they could never be able to do if they did not pretend Reason for there Cnnningly devised Fables but also their own Practices should bewray them to be Wolves in Sheeps Clothing in treading in the very steps of the Grand Saddneers in our Lords-day who that they might carry on that Fundamental Herisie of denying the Resurrection the more successfully they denyed the greatest part of the old Testament and would own nothing for Divine Writ but the 5 Books of Moses and sticking there they thought to confound our Lord himself by their Rational and Learned Argument that there must be Confusion Contradiction Absurdity and Nonsence if the dead Rise And you know Sir they grounded their Argument upon Scripture and made their foolish Reason and ignorance of the Power of God Judge of the Cause Seeing therefore the Considerator is not ashamed to tread in the Sadduces Steps but will imitate them in denying part of the Word of God and yet at the same time as they did pretend Reason and Scripture for what they held And to give them their due there are as many contradictions and seeming impossibilities to Reason against the Resurrection as there are against the Doctrine of the Trinity and our Faith therein must be intirely resigned up unto the revealed will and Almighty Power of God But I say seeing the Considerator will imitate the Sadduces in denying part of the Scriptures I shall endeavour to follow the Example of my Lord Jesus Christ and prove from such part of the Scriptures as they will own that our Lord Jesus Christ is Omnicisent and and Omnipresent but at the same time protesting against their unreasonable partiality in choosing and refusing what they please for Divine Writ and saving to the Service of the Truth all those arguments that are or may be drawn from any part of the Gospel of St. John the Three Epistles and the Revelation for destruction from God is a terror to me and because of his greatness I cannot indure to add to those things nor take away from the words of the Book of this Prophesie least God should take away my part out of the Book of Life Job 31. 22. Revelation 18. 19. Now Sir I think you do not except against the Gospel of St. Mat. and there we read Chap. 28. ver 20. Christ Promised his Disciples to be with them alway to the end of the World Now Sir let me freely Discourse with you concenring this Promise our Lord Jesus Christ is gone to Heaven and his Humane nature is to continue there till the Restitution of all things neither can a Man be at two Places at one time Now what will you do will you give our Lord the Lye in this Promise or will you believe that a Man or the Humane nature of Jesus Christ is not only in the Sacrament of the Alter and so in Thousands of Places at the same time with the Papist but also every where in all places of the World where ever there is a Believer Or will you believe the Truth as it is in Jesus that he is the Omnipresent God and so is with his People in all places and in all Conditions according to his gracious Promise Joh. 14. 18. I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you Perhaps you will tell me that this is no more then Paul said of himself 1 Cor. 5.
3 4. where he tells the Corinthians that though he is absent in Body yet he as present in Spirit had Judged already as though he were present concerning him that hath so done this Deed And in the next verse tells them what they should do wehen they wre gathered together and my Spirit with the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ Colo. 2 5. to the same purpose but were not Mr. Considerator one of the best or rather the worst at perverting of Scripture and one of the greatest reproachers of sound Reason under the greatest pretentions to it I should not have mentioned these Scriptures as having the least shew of Reason in them to invalidate the Truth of our Lords Promise or that he will not be with his People and that really present with them to the end of the World in all Places and in all Conditions according to that gracious Promise in Isa 43. 2. When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee and the waters shall not overflow thee If you tell me this Promise in Isaiah must be understood of God the Father I answer if it be so it doth but confirm our Lords Deity the Promise being no more then what he Promiseth his Disciples which clearly proves our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Omnipresent God that fills Heaven and Earth with his presence for what Paul said to the Corinthians and Colossians is no more then what we may all say to one another when we are desirous to have a good Work carried on by the Church or any other Civil Society at which we have a right to be present as Member tho' we are else where detained yet approving the Work we say our Heart is with them our Mind and Spirit is in the Work But will Mr. Considerator say this is all the comfort our Lord promises his Disciples Mat. 28. Truly if so they might say of him as Job said of his Friends miserable comforters have ye been but our Lord cannot deceive any more then he can be deceived and therefore he will come unto his People and will take up his abode with them according to his gracious Promise in Joh. 14. 23. Jesus answered and said if a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Here the Son is to come and be as much present with his Disciples as the Father And in ver 16. of the same Chapter our Lord saith I will pray the Father and he shall send you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever All which with many other Texts of Scripture not only prove the Son to be Omnipresent but also the Unity of the Divine being and the Trinity of that Unity and doth undeniably prove to all sincere unbyast Christians the Divine authority and Truth of that Word in Joh. 5. 7. which Mr. Considerator and the rest of his Tribe do so much Bark at but they shall never be able to Bite it out of Gods Bible as long as the Sun and Moon indure nor can they though in Conjunction with the Gates of Hell be able to Rob the People of God of the comfort and Consolation that they enjoy by Communion with the real though Spiritual and Divine presence of Jesus Christ For when the Atheist and Deist and Mr. Considerator himself have Mock'd and Scoff'd at Communion with God as much as their Elder Brother Ishmael himself did at the Son of the Promise yet know ye there are that know their Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 3. And yet Mr. Considerator to shew what a Doctor in Capernaum and Nicodemus's Divinity he is proves himself as good an Advocate for the abomination of Transubstantion as Belarmine himself or any Cardinal of them all could do Yet is he no Papist but any thing so he can but do some thing against the Truth for in Page 21. Colum 2. and 22. He labours all be can to make the abomination of Transubstantiation to be a small sin if any which he calls a folly or a mistake it is not an impiety he saith but a Philosophical Error Colum 2. Page 21. and hath mis-represented that abomination that he might redicule the Truth For he saith it is not pretended by the Papist that the bread and Wine have received any the least change Where as this is the very thing they have burn'd many a Christian for because they would not believe that the Bread and Wine were changed or Transubstanstiated into the very Body and blood of Christ And as for his Body being present in a Spiritual manner it was the Doctrine of the Lutherans and not of the Papists And in his 20th Page Colum he saith himself the Papists say the words of our Lord import that the Bread of the Sacrament is really and verily made to be the Substance of Christ's body in which he was Crucified But in his Page 21. Colum 2. He tells us they are of another Mind and that they do not pretend that the bread and Wine have received the least change in what is an Object of Sense Why good Sir is not the very Substance of Bread an Object of Sense Perhaps this Gentleman may pretend a License to Contradict himself but the Trinitarians must have a care of saying any thing contrary to the dictates of Mr. Considerators foolish Reason for fear of being Guilty of the unpardonable sin of Contradicton But the Gentleman was labouring to Contradict Christ and to Charge him with Folly and Falshood therefore no wonder if he Contradict himself for our Lord hath promised to be with his People to be really present with them in this World This Mr. Considerator see would prove him to be God the only true God therefore he will Give our Saviour the Lye and say he neither is nor can be Omnipresent Page 11. Colum 2. But our Lord saith Mat. 18. 20. that where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them And that the will be with his People to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. Yet Mr. Considerator is pleased to say the Doctrine of Christ real presence is worse then the abomination of Transubstantiation But that his Fables may pass with some Colour he thinks it meet to colour his Charge with Falshood and tells us of some whom he saith ought not to call themselves the Reformed who believe the real Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament pag. 20. colume 2. But I know none of that Belief except the Papist nor the Considerator neither I believe but the Gentleman's Design was to deny the Real Divine Presence of Christ But that being too great a Truth to be beat out of the Scripture of Truth he contents himself in that place in denying his bodily Presence I have insisted the more on the Omnipresence of Christ because Mr. Considerator in his