Noted by us as that which gives great light in the present case The discovery of the Doctrines of the Gospel was Gradual It was by certain steps that Christianity climb'd to its heighth We are not to think then that all the Necessary doctrines of the Christian Religion were clearly publish'd to the world in our Saviour's time Not but that all that were necessary for that time were published but some which were necessary for the succeeding one were not then discover'd or at least not fully They had ordinarily no belief before Christ's Death and Resurrection of those Substantial Articles i. e. that he should die and rise again but we read in the Acts and in the Epistles that these were Formal Articles of Faith afterwards and are ever since necessary to compleat the Christian Belief so as to other Great Verities the Gospel increased by degrees and was not Perfect at once Which furnishes us with a reason why most of the Choicest and Sublimest Truths of Christianity are to be met with in the Epistles of the Apostles they being such doctrines as were not clearly discover'd and open'd in the Gospels and the Acts. Thus I have I conceive amply satisfied the foregoing Objection and I hope the Reader is convinc'd of the True Grounds why we must not expect all Necessary Points of Christianity in the Writings of the four Evangelists If our present Writer had thought of this and had distinguish'd of Times he had not formed such an Ill Notion of Christianity as we find he hath done But it is not only upon Mistake that this Author proceeds his fault is much worse It is too apparent that by this Abbreviating of Christianity and by his voluntary neglecting what the Epistolary Writings deliver he designs to exclude those Fundamental Doctrines which have been owned as such in the Church of Christ. So much for the First General Head which I propounded to insist upon CHAP. VI. The next General Charge against him is that the Texts of Scripture which respect the HOLY TRINITY are disregarded by him or interpreted after the Anti-Trinitarian Mode This is proved from plain Instances The latter more especially is evidenced from his interpreting the Messias and the Son of God to be the very same as to signification and that no more is denoted by one term than by the other The Weakness of the Socinian Arguing on this occasion fully laid open and the Texts where these terms are mentioned plainly cleared A Text produced and urged that confutes the vain surmises of the Racovians about those expressions and that reduces them to an unavoidable Absurdity The Messias is a Title of Christ's Office The Son of God is the Title of his Divinity The former is founded on his Mission from the Father The latter on his Peculiar Property as he is the Second Person in the Sacred Trinity and consequently they are not synonymous terms The Gentleman would wind in two Learned Prelates but his attempt proves ineffectual He is given to Shuffling He abuses Scripture by quoting it MY next Charge against this Gentleman was this that those Texts of Scripture which respect the Holy Trinity were either disregarded by him or were interpreted by him after the Antitrinitarian Mode And this he is so far from denying that he openly avows it Vindic. p. 22 23. By which he hath made it clear that he espouses that doctrine of the Socinians When I had offer'd those two plain Texts Mat. 28. 19. Iohn 1. 1. to prove the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity he takes no care to give any Resolution about them though he was absolutely oblig'd to do it because those Texts are not in the Epistles but in the Gospels out of which latter he saith he made his Collection of Articles but he should rather have said and that with Truth out of which he drew One Article Nay which is more strange though he particularly mentions p. 9. my taking notice of his omitting these Texts in his Treatise nay though he sets them down at large in his Vindication yet he hath the confidence to run presently to another thing and he shifts it off by one impertinent matter or other and faith not one syllable with reference to those Famous Texts which are such remarkable testimonies to the doctrine of the Trinity Who could do this but a Socinianiz'd Writer And who could do this but a man that was wholly careless of his Credit and did not care how he acted And this very thing doth moreover shew that this Author let him pretend what he will is as great a despiser of the Gospels when any thing in them doth not serve his turn as he is of the Epistles This will perpetually stick upon him and he will never be able to wipe it off If ever he accounts for this he must at the same time make an acknowledgment of his crazy memory and of something worse Again as it is evident that he rejects the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity so more especially and particularly he waves that of the Deity of our Saviour Which appears from this that he justifies the Charge against him viz. that he made these terms the Messias and the Son of God the very same as to Signification p. 23. Vindic. Which is the very thing that Slichtingius and other Racovians insist upon and make a great stir about And herein they write after their Master who largely pursues this Argument for so he reckons it to be viz. that there is no difference between the Name Christ or Messias and that other the Son of God He alledges the very same Text that our Vindicator doth and some others He argues from Matt. 16. 16. compared with Luk. 9. 20. Thou art Christ the Son of the living God saith the former place Thou art the Christ of God faith the latter therefore Christ and the Son of God are not only the same person but these two expressions signifie the very same thing and no more What a weak and pitiful Consequence is this For it is grounded on this absurd bottom namely that when any of the Evangelists speak about the same matter if one of them adds some words yea some material Passages which are not in the other these must be reckoned to be the very same with what the other said though they were utterly omitted by him Then we may argue thus St. Matthew saith Christ began to preach and to say Repent Mat. 4. 17. St. Mark saith He preach'd the Gospel saying Repent ye and believe the Gospel Mark 1. 14 15. therefore Repenting and Believing are the same and there is no difference between them Would not a Man be hooted at for such Arguing as this Yet this is the very Reasoning of our Racovian and of this late Proselyte of theirs In one Evangelist he saith our Saviour is called Christ in another the Son of God therefore the denominations of the Son of God and Christ are identified Again they endeavour to prove
They acknowledg that Some few Verses in several Chapters of the Four Evangelists and the Acts are matter of Faith or Religion but they do not cry the Bible the Bible the Bible they do not think that All and Every one of the Fundamental Truths in the Whole Scripture are the necessary matter of our Belief Thus I think this Reverend Scribe might have spared the quoting of Mr. Chillingworth unless he delights in confuting himself and his New Convert Afterwards he nibbles at some other passages in my Discourse but flies off into Impertinencies Only one thing I meet with that is very Remarkable and I request the Reader to attend to it There are saith he some that-of Deists have been reconciled to the Christian faith by the Vnitarian books and have profess'd much satisfaction therein p. 42. You may perceive that they are making of Proselytes as fast as they can and among the rest some Deists come in to them and so as the Apostle speaks of Seducers and those that are Seduced 2 Pet. 2. 20. the latter end is worse with them than the beginning for whereas before they owned a Natural Religion now they become guilty of perverting and prophaning a Revealed one They are so far from being reconciled to the Christian Faith that they oppose and contradict it and even defie the Main Articles of this Religion which is owing to Divine Revelation Such Converts as these have no reason to profess much satisfaction in the Vnitarian books unless Corrupting the Christian saith be to be chosen before plain Theism To speak the plain truth and it is the design of these Papers to do so and that which every Thinking and Considering Man cannot but discern the Socinians are but the Journey men of the Deists and they are set on work by them for these latter hope to compass their Design which is to impair the Credit of the Christian Religion and of those Inspired Writings which give us an account of it they hope I say effectually to compass this design by the help of such Good Instruments as they find the Socianiz'd Men to be You see then what ground this Gentleman hath to think that the Deists are Proselytes to the Vnitarians Then he proceeds to make a long harangue about the Obscurity of Systematical Fundamentals p. 44. c. but never was poor Creature so bewildred as he is Only he happily lights upon the Quakers p. 44 45. where it is worth observing that the man doth not know his Friends from his Foes nor these from them He rails against this sort of men who he saith would be counted the only People of God and yet it is certain that they are his brethren Socinians They utterly disown the Scripture as the Rule of Faith he saith and doth not our late Socinian Writer symbolize with them when he declares that the Divine Truths contained in the Epistles of the Holy Apostles which are a considerable part of Scripture are not the Necessary matter of Faith He complains that the Quakers turn the Gospel into an Allegory but the foremention'd Author doth much worse for he represents the greatest Part of the Gospel-discoveries as Superfluous and Needless In giving us the farther Character of the Quakers he in lively colours represents the Socinians for these are his words concerning them Retaining still the words wherein the Christian Faith is expressed though in an Equivocal Sense they have made a shift to be reputed generally Christians Certainly there could not be a better Pourtraiture of the Racovian Writers for it is known that they are crafty and sophistical and quote Scripture only to pervert it They acknowledg Christ to be God and an Expiatory Sacrifice but they mean it Equivocally they quit the true sense of Scripture though they retain the words and by reason of this latter have made a shift as this Author speaks to pass for Christians These men whatever some few English Writers of the Racovian way hold of late exactly side with the Quakers in crying down of Water-Baptism for so they both call it in derision In the Grand Point of the Trinity they both concur i. e. to reject it witness W. Pen's Sandy Foundation by which he means the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity In a quibbling manner wherein he shews both his Ignorance and Blasphemy he thus speaks If God as the Scriptures testifie hath never been declared or believed but as the HOLY ONE then it will follow that God is not an HOLY THREE Neither can this receive the least prejudice from that frequent but impertinent distinction that he is One in Substance but Three in Persons or Subsistencies To which all Socinus's followers say Amen The same Gentleman derides the doctrine of Satisfaction and scoffingly calls the Asserters of it Satisfactionists and who knows not that Transylvania agrees here with Pensylvania The Man that suffer'd at Ierusalem is the Socinian as well as the Quakers Stile And generally as to the main things that relate to our Saviour they perfectly accord viz. in making nothing of them If Quakerism then be no Christianity as this our Writer reports it in the same place then we may with much more reason conclude that Socinianism is none By this it appears that Socinus and Fox are well met and that they are very Loving Friends But they must seem to disagree as here in this Gentleman's Papers Lastly let us see the wonderful hand of God in suffering this Unthoughtful Writer to produce a Paper written by a Iesuite in the late Reign entituled an Address c. And in this Address he saith he goes about to shew that the Scriptures commonly alledg'd for the Trinity admit of another sense He goes the same way in the Article of the Incarnation What! had he not enough of the Quaker but he must bring in the Iesuite And must he tell the world that the Iesuitical Writers take the part of the Socinians must he publickly give notice that they both carry on the same work and joyntly conspire to pervert the Scriptures in order to it For the credit of the Cause it had been better to have placed this under a former head and to have told the Reader that some Iesuites as well as some Deists are Converts to Socinianism But he hath blurted it out that Ignatius Loyola and Faustus Socinus were of kin Surely this Author must not be employ'd any more to write in defence of the Cause He must be no longer a Double-Column'd Writer they must look out for a man that is not so Open-hearted one that can handle his Weapon with more Cunning for this man hath stabb'd his own Cause But because this Writer in the beginning and towards the end of his Papers is pleas'd to use some words of Deference and Respect I will not be backward to return his Civility in the same kind by letting him know that I suppose him to be a Person of Ingenuity and Learning only I wirh he had
takes no notice of what falls from his own pen and therefore within a page or two he confutes himself and gives himself the Lye The plain truth is he Socinianizes here but will not own it which makes him run into these Contradictions He follows the steps of his Good Patron Crellius one of the stiffest Racovians that we have who throws aside several Articles of faith because they are Dark and Difficult and not adapted to the Capacity of the Vulgar This very thing he alledges to set off his Arguments against the Holy Trinity viz. that the doctrine which he maintains is according to the understanding of the Vulgar The Common people he saith among the Iews the Fishermen did not apprehend the doctrine of Three Persons in the Deity neither do the Vulgar Christians at this day form any such notion therefore away with the doctrine of the Trinity And this is the guise and practice of our Socinians at this day it is known that they are wont to propound this Sacred Point to the very School-boys very great Judges indeed and to demand their Resolution of it and they pretend that they give it in the Negative All the appeal now is to Vulgar Capacities to the judgment of the Multitude If these please to allow of any more Articles of Belief than One then our Author will consent to it that we shall have them but he acquaints us that they are for no more but One and therefore we must be content with That This is his New Divinity And a Socinian Brother who undertakes the defence of his Notions seconds him in this telling us that the Articles of faith which are generally propounded by Divines are difficult obscur unintelligible abstruse but the One Article of Mr. Lock is not so but is exactly calculated for the Vulgar Meridian and therefore is the only Authentick and Necessary Point in the Christian Theology I think the Reader will bear me witness that I have refuted this wild Conceit by giving a distinct account of the Evangelical Doctrines and Articles before mentioned and at the same time shewing how Intelligible and Plain they are and by letting him see the Absolute Necessity of their being assented to and embraced by every Christian. No true Lover of God and Truth need doubt of any of them for there is no Ambiguity and Doubtfulness in them They shine with their own light and to an unprejudiced eye are plain evident and illustrious And they would always continue so if some Ill-minded men did not perplex and entangle them on purpose to render them contemptible yea to exclude them wholly from being the matter of our belief And as to the doctrine of the Trinity which is the Main Verity which these men set themselves against there is not any Difficulty much less any Absurdity or Contradiction as they are wont to cry out in that Article of our Christian Belief Indeed there is a Difficulty in this and several Other Truths of the Gospel as to the Exact Manner of the things themselves which we shall never be able to comprehend at least not on this side of Heaven but there is no Difficulty as to the Reality and Certainty of them because we know they are Revealed to us by God in the Holy Scriptures Nay as to the thing it self thus far we can apprehend that it is not impossible or absurd that the Three Distinct Persons in the Deity should be One God for there may be a Plurality of Persons in the same Infinite Essence Every Person doth not require a Single Particular Essence or if they will call the Three Numerical Subsistencies by the name of Essences yet they are united in One General Substance or Essence which is common to them all And when they say it is a Contradiction that One should be Three which is as much as to say One is not One this is soon taken off by replying and that most truly that One and not One in the same respect is a Contradiction but One and not One in different respects is no Contradiction Any smatterer in Logick know this And this is the case here for tho the Three Personalities be distinguish'd and that really yet they agree in One Common Essence and so the Divinity is both One and Three in different respects on different considerations And this is that which is abundantly testified in Scripture in the Gospels as well as the Epistles let our Author remember thâ—t there we learn that the Divine Essence or Nature is branch'd out into Three Distinct Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and that these three are One. Then as to the Proposition which this New Modeller of Christianity commends to the World as the only Necessary Matter of Faith although he pretends it is more Intelligible than any of those that I have named yet any Judicious Man cannot but see the contrary for this must be explain'd as well as those before his Vulgar Capacities can apprehend it Here first the name Iesus which is of Hebrew Extraction though since Greciz'd must be expounded and so must the Word Messias as I said before And when this is done they must be told even according to the confession of a late Socinian Writer whom afterwards I must discourse with a little the manner of his being the Messiah such as being conceived by the Holy Ghost and Power of the most High his being anointed with the Holy Ghost his being raised from the dead and exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour And then they must be told for what End and Purpose this was or else they can have no true belief of the Messias under which several Weighty Truths are comprehended And if he doth not agree to this viz. that the Words must be thus Opened and Explained and fully understood so that Christian Souls may have the true sense of them then he doth as good as say that the bare pronouncing of these Words Iesus is the Messias is enough to make a Christian. And we shall be apt to think that he intends this for a Charm or Spell and that the very Syllables will suffice to make one a True Believer especially if he be one of the Vulgar and Illiterate But it may be he hath something else to say to an Other Rank of Men Perhaps he holds that there is one Christianity for the bulk of mankind and another for the Finer and Better Sort of People And then it is likely he will tell us of two Heavens one very Spacious to hold the Multitude and the other of a Lesser Compass to receive the rest These are the Absurdities which I confess I delight not in exposing or so much as mentioning that this New Notion may produce Whence it appears that all his jargon and chatter about his One Article are vain and insignificant and are serviceable only to gull the Unwary Reader and which is worse to debauch Christianity it self CHAP. III. The late
adds to his Fault But this Author of the New Christianity wisely objects that the Apostle's Creed hath none of these Articles and Doctrines which I mentioned p. 12 13. Nor doth any considerate man wonder at it for the Creed is a Form of outward Profession which is chiefly to be made in the Publick Assemblies when Prayers are put up by the Church and the Holy Scriptures are read Then this Abridgment of Faith is properly used or when there is not generally time or opportunity to make any Enlargement But we are not to think that it expresly contains in it all the Necessary and Weighty Points all the Important Doctrines of our Belief it being only design'd to be an Abstract It is with this Creed as 't is with the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer If a man doth not more than is expresly enjoyned in the Decalogue he can't be said to Act as a Christian. If he prays for no more than is expresly mentioned in the Petitions of the foresaid Prayer he can't be said to Pray as a Good Christian. So if a man believe no more than is in express terms in the Apostle's Creed his Faith will not be the Faith of a Christian. And yet still it is to be granted that as all things to be done and all things to be prayed for are reducible to the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer so All matters of Faith in some manner may be reduced to this Brief Platform of Belief But when I call it an Abstract or Abbreviature it is implied that there are more Truths to be known and assented to by a Christian in order to making him really so than what we meet with here And yet I must take leave to tell our Vindicator that this Creed hath more in it than he and his brethren will subscribe to If he were not above Catechisms as well as Creeds I might remind him of Our Church's judgment concerning the Articles of this Creed Qu. What dost thou chiefly learn in these Articles of thy Belief Answ. First I learn to believe in God the Father who had made me and all the world Secondly in God the Son who hath redeemed me and all mankind Thirdly in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the Elect People of God These are killing words to a Disciple of Socinus who acknowledges neither the God-head of the Son nor of the Holy Ghost nor the Redemption or Sanctification by either Yet our Church with all the Christian Churches in the world owns these Truths to be contained in the Apostles Creed And there are other Articles of this Symbol let them palliate it as they please which the Racovian Gentlemen are unwilling to give their assent to They faulter about Christ's Iudging the quick and the dead they partly deny the Resurrection of the body they deny Life Everlasting as it respects wicked men for they hold that these shall be Annihilated of all which I may have occasion to speak another time At present I only take notice of their lopping off several Articles from this Creed But was it not judiciously said by this Writer that it is well for the Compilers of the Creed that they lived not in my days p. 12. I tell you Friend it was impossible they should for the Learned Usher and Vossius and others have proved that that Symbol was drawn up not at once but that some Articles of it were adjoyned many years after far beyond the extent of any man's life and therefore the Compilers of the Creed could not live in my days not could I live in theirs but I let this pass as one of the blunders of our Thoughtful and Musing Author Nor had he reason to think that those that made the Apostles Creed would have been censured by me for I have vindicated and asserted their Articles whereas he and his friends have new-modell'd the Creed yea indeed have presented us with One Article instead of Twelve and in order to that have sunk the Epistles because they are not Socinianized all over Socinianized If this Gentleman had said that the belief of Iesus's being the Messias was one of the first and leading acts of Christian Faith he had said right and none would have opposed it If he had said that the knowledg of the Gospel and consequently of the Doctrines of it advanc'd at first by degrees and shone brighter after our Saviour's Ascension than before he had spoken truth but when he positively and peremptorily declares that neither at first nor afterwards there was any Necessity of believing more than this that Iesus is the Messias he misrepresents the Gospel-Dispensation and mistakes the nature of Christiaanity To stop here and go no further is unsufferable This is as if a Breeder up of Children and Youth should carry them no further than the A B C. He is wholly for reducing of Christianity whereas he should have given it in its Full and Ample Extent especially he should not have kept back any thing of the Foundation CHAP. IV. The Christian Faith which this Gentleman describes is of the same scantling with that of the Mahometans The Affinity between the Turks and Anti-trinitarians The Devils are capable of a higher degree of Faith than that which he saith makes a Christian. A brief Idea of the Compleat Faith of a Christian. The Danger of asserting that there is but One Article of Christian belief necessary to be assented to This is the way to introduce Darkness and Blindness into Christendom and to promote the designs of that Church which cherishes Ignorance as the Mother of Devotion and Religion How far this Writer is instrumental in it What care he hath of mens Souls and of their Salvation It is the practise of Socinian Writers to curtail Christianity and to cut off as many Fundamental Articles from it as they can This Writer had his Platform from Crellius He is approved of and applauded by the English Socinians Three Reasons assign'd why the Socinians agree to maim the Heads of Christianity and to reduce all into One Article The Office of Catechizing was not instituted for the teaching of One Article of Faith only IT is likely I shall further exasperate this Author when I desire the Reader to observe that this Lank Faith of his is in a manner on other than the Faith of a Turk For the Alcoran acknowledges that the Spirit of God bore witness to Christ the Son of Mary a Divine Soul was put into him He was the Messenger of the Spirit and the Word of God And in another place God is brought in declaring that he had sent Christ the Son of Mary c. And in other places he is mention'd as a Prophet as a Great Man one Commission'd by God and sent by him into the world This is of the like import with what our good Ottoman Writer the Vindicator saith of our Saviour and this he holds is the sum of all that is Necessary
signification of both these Appellations is the same or that the Archbishop thought so And he would make use of the Authority of an Other Prelate now living of extraordinary Worth and Learning who speaking only in a general way represents these two as the same thing viz. that Iesus is the Christ and that Iesus is the Son of God because these expressions are applied to the same Person and because they are both comprehended in one general Name viz. Iesus Yet it doth not follow thence but that if we will speak strictly and closely we must be forced to confess that they are of different significations for we have different Ideas and notions of them the one being the Name of our Saviour's Office the other of his Person and Eternal Filiation But our Gentleman adheres to his good Patrons and Friends the Racovians and pronounces them the very same And we may for this as well as other reasons pronounce him the same with those Gentlemen Which you may perceive he is very apprehensive of and thinks that this will be reckon'd a good Evidence of his being what he denied himself to be before The Point is gain'd saith he and I am openly a Socinian p. 23. He never uttered truer words in his life and they are the Confutation of all his Pretences to the contrary This Truth which unwarily dropt from his pen confirms what I have laid to his charge that he did read the foresaid Texts with Socinian Spectacles that he interpreted them after the Racovian Mode that he passed by Other Texts yea the Whole Epistles themselves because he was sensible how many Illustrious Attestations to the doctrine of the ever to be Adored Trinity are contained in them It is true he tells us that he never read the Socinian Writers p. 22. but we know his Shuffling is such that there is no depending on his word But suppose he did not read those Authors yet he doth not deny that he hath Convers'd with some of them and hath heard their Notions and Arguments and this indeed he intimates to us when he lets us know that the generality of Divines he more converses with are not Racovians p. 22. which intimates that there are some Particular Divines he less converses with that are of another way What shall we say The Gentleman is a Racovian and yet pretends he doth not know it So we must number him among the Ignoramus-Socinians as they tell us in their late Papers of Ignoramus Trinitarians which is one sort of those folks it seems I will only further take notice here of what was truly said before he was aware that it was a dull work with him to quote Scripture p. 25. He hath sufficiently convinced the world in his numerous Quotations of Scripture that it was so He might have added it is a diabolical work for in quoting Scripture after that rate which he is guilty of he doth but follow his Pattern in Mat. 4. 6. His handling of Scripture and making that use of it which he doth is an Abusing of it Such treating of the Holy Book is desecrating it and whilest he talks Scripture he prophanes it So that a Socinian begins to mend when he leaves this work off p. 25. in comparison of what he did before So much for the Second Charge CHAP. VII The last General Charge against him is that when he professedly enumerates the ADVANTAGES of our Saviour's Coming he hath not one syllable of his SATISFYING for us Hence it is rationally inferr'd that he favours Racovianism He endeavours to evade this by pretending that in other places he uses such terms as import Satisfaction Herein he is refuted His Dissimulation discovered Even whilest he proclaims himself a Socinian he labours to disguise it Which argues his Weakness and Insincerity His Book is unworthy of the specious Title which he prefixes to it The Author's Conclusion of the foregoing debates ANother Proof or rather Demonstration of our Author 's being a Disciple of Socinus is this that when he mentions the Advantages and Benefits of Christ's Coming into the world he hath not one syllable of his Satisfying for us or by his Death purchasing life and salvation or any thing that sounds like it He makes nothing of the force of this Evidence wherefore it will be proper now to set it before the Reader in its true and native light He that was giving an Account of the Reasonableness of Christianity and was more particularly making it his business to shew for what End and Purpose Christ appear'd in the flesh and to let his Readers know what Good and Advantage were brought to them by the Messias he I say when he was about this work and Designedly undertook it in this part of his book was obliged to declare that one great Advantage of the Messias's Coming was to take away our sins by Expiating them that one Main End of his Coming was to make Satisfaction for us and thereby to purchase life and glory But this New Convert hath not any thing that sounds like it in this place where he professedly took upon him to acquaint us what are the Advantages which accrue to us by the Messias Though he hath the confidence to struggle with many other parts of the Charges against him yet here he submits and grants p. 5. Vind. he hath no such thing in the place where the Advantages of Christ's Coming are purposely treated of And if by his own acknowledgment he hath no such thing when he reckons up the Advantages and Blessings of Christ's appearing in the world then every intelligent man knows what Inference to make viz. that this Author was of opinion that Christ came not to Satisfie for us and to purchase life for us by vertue of his Death which is one of the Grand Points of Socinianism The force of this Inference is unavoidable and it will attack our Adversary be he never so cunning at Evasions be he never so closely intrench'd in his Equivocations For where should we expect this to be mention'd if it be not expresly taken notice of in that part or division of his Treatise where he Purposely sets forth the Benefits of the Messias's Arrival If he doth not make express mention of it here it is either because he forgot it but he owns no such thing or because he was careless but he doth not think himself whatever others do to be such a Writer or because he wilfully left it out and this indeed is the true Reason for all the world cannot but see notwithstanding his Shifts that his Subject engag'd him to reckon This in the number of the Benefits accruing by the Coming of Jesus Christ if he had thought it to be one When he was enumerating of those this could not possibly have been omitted because by all Writers that are not Socinians this is always put into the Catalogue of those Blessings which we share in by the Undertakings of our Blessed Saviour Hence it appears how
impertinent and ridiculous that is It was not in the place he meaning me would have it in p. 5. He should have said it is not in the place where every one might reasonably have look'd for it it was not in the place where his matter necessarily oblig'd him to insert it so that he was both faithless to his Subject and false to the True Cause in brief it was not in that place where if he had not been a Pupil of Socinus it would certainly have been found for no man but such a one did ever designedly undertake the Enumeration of those Benefits which we are partakers of by our Lord 's Coming and yet omit at the same time his Redeeming and Purchasing us by his Blood He pretends indeed p. 5. that in an other place of his book he mentions Christ's restoring all man kind from the state of death and restoring them to life and his laying down his life for an other as our Saviour professes he did These few words this Vindicator hath pick'd up in his book since he wrote it This is all thro' his whole Treatise that he hath dropt concerning that Advantage of Christ's Incarnation which I was speaking of and they are general terms too and such as every Racovian will subscribe to for they are not backward to own that Christ some way or other but not That before specified restored us to life and they cannot gainsay the express words of Christ concerning his laying down his life for his sheep Iohn 10. 15. but it is well known that notwithstanding this they deny the Satisfaction of Christ and his purchasing life and salvation by vertue of his Meritorious Passion and Death There is not any thing that sounds like this in that part of his Discourse where he peculiarly made it his employment and task to let the Reader know what Advantages we reap by our Saviours assuming our humane nature But he deridingly cries out What will become of me that I have not mention'd SATISFACTION p. 6. I will tell you Sir seeing you would know what will become of you you will ever hereafter be reckon'd by all understanding men an Egregious Whiffler or in plainterms a Notorious Dissembler For the case stands thus and I doubt not but the Reader will perfectly agree with me in it you believe Christ's Satisfaction or you do not if you believe there is such a thing and this was one of the Advantages we have by Christ's Coming then you were false and treacherous in omitting it if you believe it not you are as false and hypocritical in vouching your self to be no Socinian seeing this is one known Badg of a person of that Character Let him take which of these ways he will he forfeits his Truth and Integrity Was it not enough to make use of the Chief Socinian Arguments and to expound Texts in the Racovian way and to leave out plain and direct places even in the very Gospels that assert the Holy Trinity and moreover to throw off all the Famous Testimonies to this doctrine in the Apostolical Epistles and to balk the Satisfaction of Christ for us even when he was purposely telling the Reader what are the Advantages which flow to us from Christ's Coming Was it not enough I say to do all this which loudly proclaims him a Socinian but must he also hold the world in hand that he is none Can this Writer himself consider this and not blush Who doth not wonder at his Weakness that he should manifestly take the part of these Gentlemen and yet endeavour to perswade us that he is not of their number But who doth not wonder more at his Insincerity that he should act thus Must not this then be his Lasting Character that he hath in his Writings demonstated himself to be not only a Socinian but a False hearted one There are other Passages in his book which I might produce to confirm this Character of him but those may be taken notice of at another time At present let it suffice that I have shew'd that he hath not said one word in his Vindication that clears him of this imputation And as for his book it self of the Reasonableness of Christianity let it suffice to say that though there have been many Treatises concerning that Subject yet none ever could imagine that this which he offers could possibly be brought under that Title He saith some body is good at Conjecturing but if a man had the best faculty in the world that way it were impossible to guess and surmise that such a Title should be prefix'd those Papers which are an Unreasonable and False Representation of Christianity a Lame and Shatter'd Account of the Principles of the Gospel and in short a kind of Libel against the New Testament Finally let it suffice that I have demonstrated to the Reader that this Gentleman acts a Part in what he writes by which he hath gained this that he must never be believed for the future He that is such an Under-hand dealer can't be trusted there is no heed to be given to what he saith Thus I thought my self obliged to set before the Reader the state of the Case between this Gentleman and my self and to give an impartial account of our Sentiments I am satisfied in my Undertaking for whatever my defects in it otherwise be I 'm sure I have aimed aright at the vindicating the Glory of the Great Majesty of heaven and earth I have faithfully asserted our Holy Religion and the Divinity of the Blessed Author and Founder of it I have maintained the Authority and Honour of the Holy Scriptures To the pursuing of which Glorious Designs I shall dedicate my whole life and I hope from what I have written and shall hereafter write the World will bear me witness that I do so CHAP. VIII The Gentleman insinuates that the Author would represent every one as an Atheist that thinks not as he doth This Calumny is baffled He laughs at Orthodoxy and cries down Systems and Creeds This Indifferent Writer blames the Author for his Zeal Is angry with him for penetrating into his Thoughts and Intentions The Party inure themselves to Sophistry and yet make a shew of Simplicity and Plainness The Gentleman 's Uneven Temper observ'd What is meant by a known Writer of the brotherhood He is himself of an other Fraternity Though he pretends to be Grave he Scosss and Ieers He cannot be brought to confess himsef to be a Retainer to Socinianism though he hath given such evident proofs of his being one The Author shuts up all with seasonable Advice to him giving him some account of the Freedom which he hath used towards him in the preceding Discourse HAving now dispatch'd my Main Business and found the Bill against the Criminal not by Innuendo's but by Plain Express Proof I am at leisure to account with him for some Other Passages in his Vindication He insinuates that I would represent every one as an Atheist
of the Imputation and Enditement that they Aggravate it I leave the Reader to give the Sentence They deserve a Severe one at his hands but I desire him to be Merciful for the sake of our Lord JESUS CHRIST who forgave and pray'd for his greatest Opposers May the All-Merciful God forgive them and enlighten their minds that they may be convinc'd of their Errors and heartily renounce them The Lord give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil Then he runs to their Common Place which hath help'd to fill up their papers many a time and he thinks he doth great feats But he only epitomizes Crellius de Vno Deo Patre and offers a great many Texts which have been answered a hundred times as he but untruly saith on another occasion p. 8. This takes up 18 or 19 whole Pages and why Because this costs him nothing he borrows it all and he might have borrow'd a great deal more from the same Author Here he can afford to be very long and large but when he undertakes the Examination of what I had particularly objected against the Socinians he is like the dog at Nilus he is presently gone he is not furnish'd with any Answer that he dares insist upon or trust to Next I will observe to the Reader that this Author meddles not with my Argument which I drew from their own Professed Principle viz. that nothing is to be believed but what is exactly adjusted to Reason and thence prov'd that upon the same account that they reject the doctrine of the Holy Trinity they may likewise quit the belief of a Deity This I enlarg'd upon in seven pages together it being as I then conceiv'd and am more confirm'd in it since an Unanswerable Proof of what I laid to their Charge He only grazes on it a little p. 19. but wheels off presently and fixes upon that subject before mentioned God's Vnity because he knew where to have enough of it but did not know how to take off the force of that Argument which I propounded and insisted upon In the next place he will turn Critick and see whether he can thrive in this employment seeing he hath so ill success in his former attempts His nice palate disgusts the word birth as applyed to Adam p. 38. but thereby he only shews his want of skill in the Denotation of words He is so poor a Dabbler in Grammer and Criticism that he knows not that by the Hebrew jalad and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin nasci and accordingly our English to be born are signified in a general way the Origin Rise or Beginning of things or persons and consequently Birth or Nativity is not to be taken always in the Vulgar Sense He might have read in Genethliack Writers that the word is applied even to Cities and Houses But I need not go so far to defend the Expression The use of it and that in the very way that I have applied it is to be found in Scripture Art thou the first man that was born Iob 15. 7. Or we may read it if we please more exactly according to the Original Art thou born as the first man or Adam i. e. as the Context will shew it art thou as understanding as the man that was first born viz. as our First Parent Adam By reason of this birth Adam is call'd the son of God Luk. 3. 38. Whence the Socinians would gather that Christ hath that name upon the like account because of his Extraordinary Original because of his Miraculous Birth Thus we have found that this Gentleman is ignorant of the true meaning of words in Common Authors that he doth not know the acception of them in Holy Scripture nay that he doth not know what his own Authors say which evinces him to be triply a Blunderer and that he deserves no more to be call'd an Examinator Then he thinks he doth mighty things p. 39. by quoting Limborch a very Learned Foreigner a System-maker for he hath compiled a Large System of Divinity though he gives it another Name and why then doth this Gentleman talk so reproachfully of Systems p. 44. c. but this his Author is a Second Episcopius and therefore it was wisely done to bring him in to tell us what are the Fundamentals of Religion But it was more cunningly done in the next Paragraph to fetch in the Sixth Article of the Church of England in favour of the Vindicator's Conceit Surely this his Patron at whose feet he lays his Papers will give him little thanks for this for he jeers him rather than defends his Cause Thus though they are agreed and understand one another so far as to Impose upon the world yet they cannot and never will agree to speak Truth And indeed this Worthy Writer foresignified something of this nature He is a boding sort of man you may perceive for thus he speaks in his Humble Dedicatory to the Vindicator If I have mistaken your sense or used weak reasonings in your defence and behold here he doth both I crave your pardon And so you may and I will tell you for your comfort he will soon forgive you for he knows that your heart is right i. e. for the Good Cause and therefore a little Mistaking of him out of weakness is pardonable Then he hales in Mr. Chillingworth by head and shoulders p. 40. pronouncing him very definitively the ablest defender of the Religion of Protestants that the Church ever had which is too high a Character for him though he was a person of Great Parts and Learning Why must he be said to be the Ablest Defender when we can name so many Eminent Writers in other Countreys that have perform'd this task Or if he means the Church of England why must he have the absolute Preference to Others that we can name here especially that Great Ornament and Glory of our Church whom I had occasion to mention before who hath so Learnedly defended the Religion of Protestants I but he writ against Crellius and therefore he must not be the Ablest Defender Again there is a reason well known to the world why Mr. Chillingworth hath the Preheminence in the opinion of this Writer and his Confederates but of that at some other time perhaps Let us now go on and see what this Gentleman gets by his producing of Mr. Chillingworth and it is no other than this a plain confutation of the Vindicator's Project concerning the reducing of Religion to a Point and no more For these are that Worthy Man's words The Bible the Bible I say the Bible only is the Religion of Protestants And I say so too but this Gentleman and the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity are of another opinion for according to them it is not the Bible but a very Small Portion of it that is the Religion of Protestants