Imprimatur Henr. Aldrich VICE-CAN OXON July 10. 1693. A PRESERVATIVE AGAINST SOCINIANISM SHEWING The Direct and Plain opposition between It and the Religion Revealed by God in the Holy SCRIPTURES THE FIRST PART By JONATH EDWARDS D. D. and Principal of Jesus Coll. OXON The Second Edition OXON Printed at the THEATER for Henry Clements MDCXCIII THE PREFACE THO Custome hath in some sort made it necessary to entertain the Reader with a Preface before he enters upon the perusal of a Book shewing the design and the occasion of Writing of it yet in this case I hope there will be no need either to Court his Favour or Mollifie his Displeasure for undertaking the Defence of Christianity against the great and dangerous opposers of it For this being the common cause in which every man who is called by the name of Christ hath an Interest he may I hope without begging pardon or if he please without shewing any Reason engage in maintenance of our holy Religion embraced by the whole Church of God as well as by that of which he is a Member against all such who shall either openly oppose or secretly endeavour to undermine it Here every man is a Souldier and by his Baptismal Vow having bin listed under Christs Banner is obliged to fight under it against all the Enemies of his Savior and such are the pernicious Opinions here represented which carry in their forehead an open and declared Hostility and direct opposition to the Divinity and the Cross of Christ The adversaries of our Holy Religion have taken the Confidence to publish their Impious Opinions not only without Leave but in Opposition to the just Authority and the known and standing Laws of this Nation they have revived the Opinions reprinted the Books of some former Socinian Writers which had almost bin forgotten but they have taken care to refresh our memories and all this hath bin done in defyance to the Government as well as in the Face of it It hath bin as the occasion of trouble to all Good men so likewise matter of Wonder and Enquiry to all Considering men to find the Nation pester'd with such numbers of Socinian Books which have swarm'd all upon a suddain and have bin industriously dispersed thro' all parts of the Kingdom whereby many weak and unstable Souls have bin beguiled and their minds corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ Who they are who have bin the secret abettors and promoters of these Antichristian Doctrines as it is variously discoursed so I shall not Curiously Enquire least by Roaving and uncertain Conjectures the Innocent may be mistaken for the Criminals Only this I think is so evident that it may be taken for granted That since there have bin no considerable numbers of men formerly that we know of who have openly and avowedly professed the Impious tenents of Socinus They must have lain lurking under some other outward name and profession watching the first and most convenient opportunity to divulge their Opinions which for some just and weighty reasons no doubt they thought fit for some time to stifle and conceal I think there are scarce any among us so foolish as to imagine that like Cadmus his Off-Spring tho' without doubt the Old Serpent hath had no small hand in this Affair these men should spring out of the Ground or as some have fancyed of Woodcocks that they have dropped out of the Clouds among us it is therefore beyond all doubt that they have lain hid and disguised under the denomination of some other Sect or Party and Profession But among other persons or parties concerned in this Affair it would be a Miracle greater than any of late years pretended to be wrought in France for the Conversion of the poor Hugonots there if the Papists should not be engaged in it who never as yet have stood by as unconcerned Spectators when any mischief was in contrivance against our Church But have always watched and laid hold on the fittest Opportunity of Sowing and Increasing Divisions among us and who have by a late Experiment sufficiently convinced the World that they have a much better Knack at Unsetling and Disturbing our Religion than in Establishing and Defending their own No question it must afford matter of no small Sport and Entertainment to them to find a Generation of Men or Vipers rather shall I call them risen up in their stead who may tho' by different methods at length perfect that design which they have bin long since projecting viz. the Ruine of this poor Church and the destruction of that Holy and Excellent Religion which by Gods Right Hand hath bin Established and hitherto wonderfully preserved among us But whatever the Causes have bin of this suddain Appearance of Socinianism or whoever were the Authors that have secretly and in masquerade abetted and encouraged it much of which lies as yet in the dark the pernicious effects of it have bin and are at this day too Visible The minds of men as we said before throughout the Nation being strangely corrupted Infidelity and Scepticism universally prevailing Some deriding all Religion which they either laugh at as the effect of Folly and Superstition or detest as a meer Cheat and Contrivance of some Cunning and designing men Others profess themselves Enemies to Revealed Religion speak opprobriously of the Holy Scriptures deride the Sacred Pen-men of them and make but a jest of any thing that is said in vindication of their Authority and Inspiration A Third sort seem to own and profess to believe the Bible yet oppose nay not only so but Ridicule all the Great Mysteries of our Religion such as are the Doctrines concerning the Blessed Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God the Redemtion of the World by the Merit of his Death and Sufferings the belief of which have bin hitherto looked upon to be the Badge and Mark whereby Christians have bin distinguished from Jews and Mahometans Lastly a Fourth sort there are for you must know there are several Ranks and Orders of these Enemies of our Religion who receive the Holy Scriptures as we do and Believe at least they tell us they do so all the Great Mysteries of our Faith contained there but yet at the same time they take care to let us know that the belief of these is not necessary So that whether you are a Believer or an Infidel in these matters it makes no great difference forasmuch as the Honour of God the Welfare of Religion and the Salvation of your own Soul is not concerned either one way or other And if so I am sure no wise man ought to trouble himself much less to give others any Trouble about such Trifling and Inconsiderable Opinions And these I look upon to be the greatest and most dangerous of all the forementioned Enemies forasmuch as by the Observation of all Ages it hath bin found a much surer and speedier way to ruin any cause by betraying than opposing it and that
have a good opinion of themselves in that they make not only their reason to be the adequate Judge of his revelations but even their own passions and weakness the rule by which they measure at least make an estimate of his infinite nature and most adorable perfections an attempt besides the impiety of it more ridiculous then if a man should endeavour to take the dimensions of the Heavens with a single span or to fathome the depth and reach the bottome of the Ocean with his little finger In the next place we must consider God Relatively in the great mystery of the Trinity And that which the Scriptures teach us to believe of this matter is briefly summed up in the first Article of our Religion established in this Church concerning faith in the Holy Trinity in these words In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons of one substance Power and Eternity Father Son and Holy Ghost Or as it is with some alteration of words but to the same purpose expressed in the Doxology to be repeated upon Trinity Sunday wherein we are taught to make this acknowledgement of Almighty God That he is one God one Lord not one only person but three persons in one substance for that which we believe of the Glory of the Father the same we believe of the Son and of the Holy Ghost without any difference or inequality A brief but comprehensive Epitome of what is more largely declared and explained in the Creed which the Socinians and Remonstrants have so great a spight against commonly called the Athanasian Creed This is the Faith of all the Reformed Churches being herein Agreeable to the doctrine held by the Church of God in all Ages ever since the first planting of Christianity in the world what we and they believe of this matter being conformable to the plain and express declarations of Scripture and especially of what Christ and his Apostles have delivered to us concerning this matter in the writings of the New Testament For this you may consult the Harmony of their Confessions both Lutheran and Calvinist all exactly agreeing in this doctrine without any the least difference or variety where you may likewise see the consent of the Catholick Church from the first Ages next to that of the Apostles from whose inspired writings the Fathers received this Doctrine which by an uninterrupted Tradition thro all the successive Ages of the Church hath bin delivered and brought down to the times we live in In this Faith we have all bin baptized being at our first admission into the Christian Church solemnly consecrated to the worship and service of those three ever blessed and glorious persons Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28. These being the three that bear witness in Heaven and these three are one 1 Jo. 5. 7. For that Text we shall not easily part with notwithstanding the Cavils of the Socinians and the over officious endeavours of some others whether Papists or Protestants who would weaken the Authority of that Testimony and thereby rob us of the advantage of it For tho some Greek MSS. want it yet there are others more approved and of greater antiquity in which you may meet with it Besides it is to be found in the writings of the Ancients Tertull. Cypr. Athanasius and Jerome who quote these very words and if you have a mind to know more of this matter without going any further you may peruse what Mr. Poole in his Synopsis hath quoted out of Gerhard Dr. Hamond and other Writers in vindication of this Text. From which I think it will appear that the Authority of this place remains clear and in full force notwithstanding the attempts that have bin made to overthrow it Tho if we gave up this Text yet we should not the holy Doctrine contained in it which is so plainly delivered in other places of Scripture and shines there with so bright a lustre that a man had need wink hard who would avoid the conviction or else must have so great a confidence in his Eyes that he may hope in time to stare the Sun it self out of countenance For as in some places of Scripture he will find the unity of the Godhead asserted so in others he will find the name and not only so but to avoid any Cavils and exceptions that may be made about the ambiguous signification of that word he will find the same divine Attributes and Operations on all hands acknowledged to belong to God the Father ascribed likewise to the Son and the Holy Ghost who yet are allwaies mentioned as distinct from one another from whence by an easie and a necessary deduction it must unavoidably follow that since they are really distinguished from each other and yet agree in the same common nature as the same properties and the same operations irrefragably evince they must be what we have bin taught hitherto to believe and profess of them in the Language of the Church three Persons and one God And as we pretend to agree in the same doctrine with the Ancient Church so I think it is highly fitting and for many just reasons in a manner necessary to preserve the same words in which it hath bin delivered down to us in opposition to any new modes of speaking For the Ancient words by prescription and long use have obtained both a just Authority among Christians and a setled and determinate signification whereas new phrases may be liable to great exceptions and introductive at long run of new and unwarrantable opinions about these mysteries beyond the intention of them who first made use of them Now against all this the Socinians will tell you that this doctrine concerning the Trinity is so far from being a fundamental truth that it is indeed the foundation of all the errors that have crept into the Christian Church as being opposite to the Scriptures and plainly repugnant to reason it is a Popish doctrine so saith Socinus Lib. quod Regm Polon c. cap. 4. so Welsing Lib. de Oâ—â—ic Hominis Christiani and by so saying they do exceedingly advance the Reputation of Popery by making it of so great and venerable antiquity embraced by all sound Christians ever since the Apostles days It is a Paganish opinion Ethnicismum sapit so saith Smalcius Exam. Cent. Err. So opposite to reason that it is a wonder how any man in his wits could ever have thought of it So saith Ostorod he cannot imagine quomodo homini ulli ratione praedito in mentem venire posset Inst Rel. Christianae Cap. 4. that is sure it could never have entred into any mans head that ever had any brains there Nay it is not only a very foolish but a very dangerous error that puts a stumbling block and rub in mens way to Heaven Strange that that doctrine should be thought an hindrance to mens happiness the belief of which by all good Christians hath hitherto bin thought necessary to salvation but so it is if you
the ministry and the persons to whom Christ hath committed the care and government of his Church their distinction and authority to preach the Gospel and to exercise discipline in it concerning the Sacraments and the end of their institution and particularly concerning the nature and efficacy of Baptism and the Lords Supper lastly concerning a future state and the condition of men after this Life To which may be added some other doctrines which do not seem to have any connexion with the former but yet are of dangerous consequence to the peace and welfare of all civil Societies those I mean which he hath advanced about the power and authority of the Civil Magistrate the Lawfulness of War and Oaths in a Christian Commonwealth which have as mischievous an influence upon the order and peace of States and Kingdoms as his other opinions have upon Religion So that Socinus having observed what was wanting in the former Hereticks to make their attempts entirely successful against the Christian Religion being engaged in the same design but in order to make it more effectual he wisely resolved to correct what he thought was amiss in them wherefore laying aside what was more gross and absurd in the wilder and more extravagnt opinions of the ancient Hereticks and supplying the defects of the more subtile and refined who came afterwards he and his followers have at length given us a body of their divinity more compleat in its kind then ever the world was blessed with before their time Not but that in spight of all their art and skill such being the fate and folly of error they cannot avoid especially in the defence and maintenance of their opinions falling into many and those very plain contradictions Upon the whole matter I think it may be reasonably doubted whether Socinus any more than that grand Impostor Mahomet may be properly called a Heretick as being the Founder of a new Religion rather than the Author of a new name and sect among Christians For as the Alcoran of the former is as we are told a fardel of errors and absurdities arising from the impure mixture of Christianity Judaism and Paganism together with some idle and extravagant notions of his own so the doctrine of Socinus seems to be a composition of the errors of Arius Photinus and Pelagius c. together with some additions of his own not indeed so seemingly absurd as those of Mahomet but I am afraid no less dangerous to the Christian religion of which he hath retained only the name together with the empty sound of the words but with such false glosses such forced and malicious interpretations as have quite destroyed the true notion as the whole design of the Gospel in opposition to which he hath given us a kind of natural and new Religion not such as the spirit of God hath revealed in his word but such as his own carnal reason suggested to him in opposition to that revelation And that this may not be looked upon to be an uncharitable because a groundless charge I shall lay before the reader a scheme of the religion revealed by God in Holy Scripture and particularly that published by Christ and his Apostles in the writings of the New Testament and which hath bin embraced by all sound Christians in all ages of the Church from the first planting of one in the world to this day together with another of the new or newly revived opinions of the Socinians that by comparing of both he may be able to make a judgment of what is here suggested which upon examination I hope he will find to be agreeable to truth and not contrary to charity And first as it is fit we shall begin with the great object of our religion Almighty God in the knowledge and worship of whom together with an obedience to his commands consists the entire nature of religion And here upon enquiry I believe we shall find that what the Scriptures have revealed concerning the nature of God is widely different from the account which Socinus and his disciples give us of him As to what concerns the nature of God the Scriptures propose him to be considered two ways by us 1. Absolutely in his glorious and essential attributes or 2 ly Relatively in the great and adorable mystery of the ever blessed Trinity First if we consider God in his Attributes we shall find that the first great and if I may so call it fundamental attribute which the Scriptures reveal and indeed natural reason dictates concerning him is the unity of the Godhead Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. Deut. 32. 39. See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me 1 Cor. 8. 5. 6. For tho there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth c. But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is but one God and one Mediator between God and man c. Here undoubtedly it will be said that the Socinians are beyond all suspition orthodox all their studies and labors being employed in asserting and vindicating the unity of the Godhead in opposition to the doctrine of the Trinity which according to their apprehensions must infer a plurality of Gods But for all their boasts concerning this matter and assuming to themselves upon that score the name of Unitarians we must not be too hasty in acquitting them from the imputation of Polytheism for tho they deny the eternal generation and divinity of Christ and say that he had no existence before his being formed in the womb of the Virgin and appearance in the world and that the being which he then had was purely humane yet after his resurrection from the grave and his ascension into heaven they say that God the Father as the reward of his obedience and sufferings exalted him to the honour and dignity of a God not indeed to be the supreme and eternal God but however deus verus a true God distinct and separate from his Father and Socinus takes it ill of his adversaries that they should charge him with denying Christ to be God and complains against them that will not be brought to confess and worship him for their Lord and God who was once a weak and infirm man and herein he saith the power and goodness of God was discovered and his admirable wisdom displayed in extolling and deifying this man beyond what we can imagin And to the objection that might be made against this opinion as that which did unavoidably infer a plurality of Gods Wolzogenius will tell you that if by two Gods you mean one of whom are all things and we in him and one by whom are all things and we by him we are so far saith he from being ashamed of worshipping two such Gods that we rather glory in it But if it shall be farther said that to do them right they
you may much easier guard your self from the Open Hostility of a professed Enemy than from the Treachery and falshood of a pretended Friend To prevent therefore if it be possible and I hope it is not too late to Attempt it the Growth and Progress of that Infidelity which is to be found in many That Coldness and Indifference about the Great and Sacred Mysteries of our Religion which is to be observed in others All which are the blessed effects of Socinianism and which seem to have diffused themselves among all Orders and Ranks of men among us beyond the Example of former times It hath bin Judged an advisable course to shew the plain and direct opposition that is between the Doctrines of Socinus and those which are revealed by the Spirit of God in the Holy Scriptures and especially in the Writings of the New Testament And this among such especially who have not extinguished all Regard for Religion may as it is hoped be of some good use to fortify them aaginst the Infection of these pernicious Errors which have already spread like a Gangrene Our Writers generally have bin Employed and that very Commendably and for the most part with great success in vindicating our Holy Religion from the Bold and Impudent Cavils of these Hereticks and so have stood upon the Defensive part Now it may be thought for many good Reasons advisable to make an Offensive War upon these Infidels and to bring it into their own Territories That is that the charge of Vnreasonableness and Impiety which they with Equal Falshood and Impudence have laid at the door of the Christian Religion should be retorted upon their New and dangerous Opinions which upon Examination will be found to be Opposite to Piety Repugnant to plain Reason and in the conclusion such as will conduce to the Overthrow of all true Religion And to discover this which I hope in some measure is done in them is the design of these following Papers viz. That the Religion of Socinus as opposed to Christianity is both Impious and Absurd So that fairly to represent Socinianism will be the best method that we can take to Consute it and rightly to state the Controversy will be the speediest way to put an end to it I confess as to the point of Reason the Socinians have laid such a claim to it as if they did intend to Engross and Monopolize that to themselves which yet tho' in several degrees is the Right and Inheritance of all mankind And for their attainments in this they have so magnified themselves and have bin so undecently as well as unjustly magnified by others that many innocent and well meaning men have bin afraid to enter the Lists with these Sons of Anak these Champions of Infidelity But I dare venture to assure the Reader he needs not fear to encounter these Gyants upon the plain square of Reason notwithstanding all their Boasts and Brags of it And I think it may be easily made out that in Opposition to some Important Articles of our Faith upon pretence of their Repugnance to Reason they have advanced some other positions so contrary to Reason that when they come to be compared I believe it will be found that there is scarce any thing in Popery not excepting that Gross Fulsome Doctrine of Transubstantiation which contains greater Absurdities more opposite to and incomprehensible by natural Reason Particularly what they say concerning the Factitious Divinity of Christ is by far more unconceivable then what the Papists aver of the change of the Elements in the Eucharist And any man that hath abilities to judge of these matters will upon enquiry find that it is less Absurd and Impossible if there are Degrees of Absurdity in Contradictions and of difficulty in things that are Impossible that a piece of Bread should be Transubstantiated into Flesh than that a man should be Transformed into a God In short tho Reason be the Idol of these men yet I must desire to be excused if I do not stand in any great awe and admiration of it and truly for my own part I should much rather fear the Malice then the Reason of a Socinian at any time And I am afraid that if ever these men Quod avertat Deus should gain strength and numbers among us they would prove one of the most Cruel and Sanguinary Sects that ever yet disturbed the peace of the Church It is not to be denied but that they have in their Writings advanced some parts of Christian Morality to a great height and have spoke many and deservedly great things concerning forgiveness of injuries and patience under them in complyance with the commands and in Imitation of the Example of our Blessed Saviour But I should be loath to trust a Socinian for all that and if we were forced to make the Tryal tho I hope we are in no danger of the experiment I doubt not but we should find the forgiveness of these Men more Implacable than the Revenge of others and that their meekness and moderation would have more terrible effects than the rage and fury of the Arians and Donatists in ancient times And that the Reader may not think I utter this without ground tho I have a great many I will at present offer but one reason for my conjecture and that is taken from their Boysterous Impudent Scurrilous way of treating the great and adorable mysteries of our Religion which shews what usage the professors of them would in all likelyhood meet if they ever had them in their power The Blessed Trinity is by some of them styled Triceps Cerberus and the doctrine concerning it they have ascribed to the Invention of the Devil and tell us that it was fetched from Hell Sometimes they will speak very honourably of our Saviour but at other times and upon other occasions so reproachfully of his divine nature that they treat him worse then either the Jews or Romans who condemned and Crucified him And tho they pay Divine Honour and Adoration to him yet that doth not take off the guilt and impiety of their Sacrilegious denyal and as far as in them lies Despoiling him of his Divinity but herein they transcribe the Copy which the Roman Souldiers before mentioned set them after his Condemnation by Pilate who put a Crown upon his head and a Scepter into his hand and yet at the same time they Spit in his Face and Buffeted him One would think that the great and venerable mysteries of our Religion entertained by all the Wisest and Learnedst and best Men and Churches in all ages ever since Christianity was first planted in the World tho they had bin Errors yet had deserved to be treated with a little more Civility and Respect than these men have shewed in their Writings who have wanted something else besides a good Cause to defend for they have wanted Modesty and Civility in the Defence of a very bad one have wanted the Candor and Ingenuity of
looked for judgment behold oppression for righteousness behold a cry How saith he could it be said either with propriety or truth that if God had foreseen their obstinacy he could have waited and hoped for their amendment He farther refers us to two other places to Gen. 18. 21. Concerning Sodom and to that concerning Abram Gen 22. 12. this is certain saith he That God here by a new and an extraordinary experiment made a discovery of the faith and piety of Abraham which he was not certain of before he made this tryal of it And of the execrable Impieties of the Sodomites which he would scarce believe they could be guilty of till he came down from Heaven on purpose and made as it were his own eyes the witnesses of the truth and certainty of those matters For a further confirmation of his opinion he cites those places of Scripture where God is said to tempt Abraham that is to make a tryal of his obedience Gen. 22. 1. and so those other Deut. 8. 2. Judges 2. 21. where God is said to have lead the Children of Israel in the wilderness forth years to prove them and to know what was in their hearts and whether they would keep his commandments or no and to have left of the Canaanites in the land declaring his resolution not to drive them out thence that he might prove Israel whether they would keep the waies of the Lord as their Fathers did or no. From all which he concludes that he must be pertinacissimus extreamly obstinate that should oppose his opinion which if you believe him is supported not only by the evidence and strength of reason but by the Authority of Holy Scripture What Crellius here saith against Gods prescience he learned from his Master Socin Praelect Theol. Cap. 8. p. 585. Where the Master goes farther then the Scholar in aggravating the inconveniences that must attend the notion of prescience for from hence saith he it must follow that many things are ascribed to God in Scripture either falsly or else must suppose him guilty of such imprudence which we cannot imagine any man could be lyable to except he were stark mad And then quotes the places before cited by Crellius and to them adds Numb 14. 12. c. where God sware that the Israelites should not enter into the Land of Canaan which yet he sware to their forefathers he would give them and he did once really intend to put them in possession of it but their murmurings and rebellions caused him to alter his resolution Now if God had foreseen the disobedience and impieties of the Children of Israel which moved him to change his purpose concerning them in promising to bring them into the Land of Canaan and confirming that promise with an oath he must have acted saith this Bold man so as we cannot suppose any man to have acted that was not quite out of his wits But now against all this the foretelling of future events even such as are most contingent as depending upon the entire freedom of mens wills and the numerous as well as plain predictions of these matters which stand upon record in the book of God one would think should be an unanswerable objection And it seems it was so with Episcopius who though he agrees too well with Socinus in many of his other loose and dangerous notions concerning the nature and attributes of God yet here he leaves him and declares himself of a contrary Opinion being chiefly induced thereunto from this Argument of predictions But yet to mollify the matter and to give as little offence as might be to a party whose favour he courted he tells them and us that it was but a small matter about which they differ'd which should break no squares between friends for tho he affirmed and they denyed yet the matter of the dispute was purely problematical which had divided the opinions of the most learned Divines but never to that day had received any determination That there was not one Christian in a thousand had any knowledge of it in short that it was so trifling and inconsiderable a matter that neither Religion nor the worship of God was at all concern'd in it But what Episcopius could not do Socinus hath done or at least hath attempted the doing of it viz. the reconciling the truth of Gods predictions with the denyal of his prescience and it is worth our while to hear what he saith upon this occasion 1. Then sometimes Gods predictions are no more then his warnings Potius monet quam praedicit Socin prael Th. cap. 10. God dealing with men as men sometimes deal with children telling them that they will do such and such ill actions to deterr and shame them from so doing Solemus nos cum puerum ab aliquo errore committendo deterrere volumus c. Ibid. 2. God foretells some actions and particularly some wicked actions not as if he knew they would certainly be committed by evil men Quia ea certissime futura nosset sed quia sic plane verisimile erat Ibid. but because it was very likely they should be so that is what we call a prediction and what the Scriptures without any limitation deliver as such Socinus accounts but a conjecture that is a probable guess of what may likely come to pass But what may come to pass may likewise not come to pass and so for all their confidence the inspired writers and what we cannot think of without horror the Holy Spirit that directed them might be mistaken But forasmuch as these two former Answers may serve for some predictions but cannot give a reasonable Enquirer just satisfaction as to others which are so plain that the force of them cannot be thus eluded Therefore once for all to put an end to this objection and you may well imagine he was hard pressed before he would betake himself to this last and in him a desperate shift he is forced to take sanctuary at those very decrees of God which at other times he opposes with all his might like a Malefactor when close pursued and finding no other way of escape he flies for protection to those very Altars which at other times he hath so often profaned by his crimes For saith Socinus the things which God foresees are either good or evil if good he may absolutely decree what is so and make that necessary otherwise would be but indifferent nay he may impose a necessity upon the Wills of men and make them to do and choose what is good Now this is downright Calvinism and if you had a mind to believe it to be true yet the Socinians themselves and the Remonstrants their friends will furnish you with such Objections against the belief of it that to them at least they must be unanswerable For it is a known and an avowed Principle among them both First that where there is necessity there is
believe Socinus Lib. supra cit eodem cap. And indeed it is no wonder it should hinder men from going to Heaven if it be true that Volkel tells us that this doctrine of the Trinity is not an Error that is owing to the ignorance and mistakes of Men but to the delusion of the Devil That it is a blasphemous Doctrine as another of them saith hatched in Hell and from thence fetched by the Son of Perdition and obtruded upon the Church And if this be so I I must profess my self to be of the same mind with Smal. and to hope with him that this absurd and most false doctrine as he calls it will shortly be chased and hissed out of the World But farther particularly concerning Christ they tell us that he had no existence before his formation in the womb of the Virgin and the being which he then had was purely humane and therefore what is said of the Divinity of Christ is a mere fable owing to senseless and absurd interpretations of Holy Scripture The Account of his Eternal Generation is a meer Romance false impossible a plain contradiction the contrivance of some idle trifling persons who had nothing else to do but to invent such absurd and incredible notions Here by the way I must desire the Reader to take notice not only of the impiety but likewise of the unparallel'd impudence and scurrility of these blasphemers and consequently whether it be fit to entertain any favourable opinion of the doctrines of these men and much more to have their Persons and Writings in admiration 2 ly Concerning the Spirit of God they tell us that he is not a Person as the Church of God hath hitherto vainly imagined but only a quality an accident sometimes taken for the Innate power and virtue residing in God and sometimes for the operations that proceed from that virtue and faculty Crellius hath written a particular Treatise de Spiritu Sancto and therein he tells us that the word spirit in its first and proper signification denotes that breath which is expired out of the mouths of Men or other Animals and from the resemblance that is to be found between them it is transferred to signify that divine virtue in God which we call the Holy Ghost and therefore when Christ Joh. 20. 22. breathed on his Disciples and thereby conferred upon them the Holy Ghost he did thereby give them to understand that the holy spirit was an Emanation from God not unlike a vapour or breathing At this rate the Holy Ghost should it seems be a subtile and tenuious substance contrary to what he asserts cap. 1. where he plainly tells us that the Spirit of God is not properly a substance but a quality therefore called in the Scripture the power of the most High virtus proprie qualitas est p. 466. But forasmuch as many things by his own acknowledgment are affirmed of and actions ascribed to the Holy Ghost which cannot well agree to qualities but must suppose the thing to which they are ascribed to be a substance such as are Local motion Bodily shape division and the like to reconcile therefore these seeming differences he is of Opinion that the Spirit of God consider'd abstractedly in it self is a meere quality but yet this vertue may be impressed upon and conveighed into some subtile and coelestial matter ejus naturae valde congruae which is agreeable to its nature Ibid. As we find the vital energy of the Soul communicated first to the Animal Spirits and by them to all the other parts of the Body and as we find the influences of the Coelestial Bodies and qualities of Terrestrial ones Heat Light and Odors conveighed in some subtile effluvium's from the Bodies in which they are into the Air and some other subjects at a great distance So saith he by the Spirit of God is sometimes meant that tenuious matter which contains a divine quality in it and by which it is conveighed into the minds of men and in this sense he conceives the spirit of God may be called a Corporeal substance which hath extension and is capable of division as other Bodies tho spiritual are And by this notion he thinks he hath found out an easy way to solve the former difficulties concerning the Local motion of the Holy Ghost and particularly his descent upon our Saviour at the time of his Baptism and upon the Apostles in the day of Pentecost Of his being poured out of his being given sometimes in measure and sometimes without it of his being divided and distributed and the like which tho we interpret of the gifts he doth of the nature and essence of the Holy Ghost which according to this account he gives of it may like other steams and vapors be carry'd here and there and may be divided and distributed in greater and lesser quantities as there is occasion And thus God took some part of this Coelestial matter which contained that divine virtue with which Moses was endued and put it into the 70 Elders Numb 11. 25. and in the same sense Elisha had a double portion of the Spirit of Elias that is of that divine steam and vapor which enabled him to do wonders Now if we shall further enquire what that Coelestial matter is by which this divine quality which he makes to be the Holy Ghost is conveighed and distributed among men he hath not determined but hath left it to the Readers discretion to conjecture tho he hath given sufficient intimation how he would have him govern his Opinion For in the other instances which he produces the quality and the effluvium's proceed from the same subject and he gives you no limitation no caution in the least to think otherwise in this case it is plain that some of his friends as he tell us were of that Opinion that the Spirit of God was nothing but an Emanation a tenuious steam flowing from the very substance of God as the breath doth out of our mouths and nostrils quam sententiam saith he in medio relinquimus he will not give you his Opinion in this case it being but fit that in matters of Religion every man should be left to his own freedom and therefore he fairly leaves you to your own It is plain if he were not himself of that Opinion yet he thought there was no harm in it otherwise he would have given his Reader some caution about it which he hath not in the least done And now we are come to the Bottome or if you please to the very dregs of Socinianism and that which is the true cause and sourse of all those extravagant and indeed Blasphemous Notions which these men have of Allmighty God who in their most refined and exalted speculations cannot raise their thoughts to conceive any substance above matter It is true they call God a Spirit but it is as certain that they mean