thought the Articles of that Creed are affirmed I have examined some of his principal References and can say of 'em they are either Perversions or downright Falsifications of what the Authors referred to did intend Dr. Wallis whose dishonest Quotations out of the Socinians have been detested by every body is hardly more blamable in that kind than Mr. Edwards saving that the Doctor being as one rightly tells him somewhat more than a Socinian did but foul his own Nest by his Forgeries but we cannot certainly say what is the opinion of Mr. Edwards in the great Article in question among us But come we to the Creed which he says is ours as I promis'd I will answer to every Article of it sincerely and directly I. I believe concerning the Scriptures that there are Errors Mistakes and Contradictions in some places of it That the Authority of some whole books of it is questionable yea that the whole Bible has been tamper'd with and may be suspected to be corrupted That there are Errors Mistakes and Contradictions in the H. Bible was never said by any person pretending to be a Christian if by the Bible you mean the Bible as it came out of the hands of the inspired Authors of it As on the other side that there are Errors Mistakes or Contradictions in the vulgar Copies of the Bible used by the Church of Rome for instance or the English Church was never questioned by any learned Man of whatsoever Sect or way and least of all can Mr. Edwards question it He has published a book concerning the Excellence and Perfection of H. Scripture in which book he finds great fault with our English Bible He saith in the Title of his 13th chapter It is faulty and defective in many places of the Old and New Testaments and I offer all along in this chapter particular Emendations in order to render it more exact and compleat As to the Hebrew and Greek copies of the Bible 't is well known some are more perfect and some less They differ very much for in the Old Testament the Hebrew Critics have noted 800 various readings in the New there are many more Mr. Gregory of Oxford so much esteemed and even venerated for his admirable Learning says hereupon and says it cum Licentiâ Superiorum There is no book in the World that has suffer'd so much by the hand of Time as the Bible Pref. p. 4. He judged and judged truly that tho' the first Authors of the Bible were Divinely Instructed Men yet the Copiers Printers and Publishers in following Ages were all of them Fallible Men and some of them ill-designing Men. He knew that all the Church Historians and Critics have confessed or rather have warned us that some copies of the Bible have been very much vitiated by the hands as well of the Orthodox as of Heretics and that 't is matter of great difficulty at this distance of time from the Apostolic Age to assertain the true reading of H. Scripture in all places of it Yet we do not say hereupon as Mr. Edwards charges us that the Bible much less the whole Bible is corrupted For as to the faulty readings in the common Bibles of some Churches and in some Manuscript Copies the Providence of God has so watched over this sacred Book that we know what by information of the antient Church-Historians and the writings of the Fathers what by the early Translations of the Bible into Greek Latin and Syriac and the concurrent Testimony of the more antient Manuscript copies both who they were that introduced the corrupt readings and what is the true Reading in all Texts of weight and consequence In short as to this matter we agree with the Critics of other Sects and Denominations that tho' ill Men have often attempted they could never effect the corruption of H. Scripture the antient Manuscripts the first Translations the Fathers and Historians of the Church are sufficient directors concerning the authentic and genuine Reading of doubtful places of H. Scripture Farther whereas Mr. Edwards would intimate that we reject divers Books of H. Scripture On the contrary we receive into our Canon all those Books of Scripture that are received or owned by the Church of England and we reject the Books rejected by the Church of England We know well that some Books and parts of Books reckoned to be wrote by the Apostles or Apostolical Men were questioned nay were refused by some of the Antients but we concur with the opinion of the present Catholic Church concerning them for the reasons given by the Catholic Church and which I mention in the Reply to my Lord the Bp. of Chichester If Mr. Edwards would have truly represented the opinion of the Socinians concerning the Scriptures he knew where to find it and so expressed as would have satisfied every body He knows that in the Brief Notes on the Creed of Athanasius they have declared what is their sense in very unexceptionable words The Holy Scriptures say they are a divine an infallible and compleat Rule both of Faith and Manners Br. Notes p. 1. The Church neither requires nor desires that they should say more II. I believe concerning God That he is not a Spirit properly speaking but a sort of Body such as Air or Aether is That he is not immense infinite or every where present but confined to certain places That he hath no knowledg of such future Events as depend on the Free Will of Man and That it is impossible such things should be foreseen by him That there is a Succession in God's eternal duration as well as in time which is the measure of the duration that belong to finite Beings That Almighty God is Incorporeal Omnipresent and Omniscient has not only been confessed but proved by the Unitarians of this Nation in divers of their late Prints As to the other that all Duration that of God as well as of Creatures consists in a Succession is affirmed by some Learned Men of all Perswasions and Ways as well as by the Unitarians It should seem Mr. Edwards holds that God possesses eternal Lite all at once that to God Eternity is one standing permanent Moment St. John is of another mind for he describes the duration of God by a Succession by was is and is to come Grace be to you and Peace says he from him which is was and is to come Rev. 1.4 'T is undeniable by any but affected Wranglers that here the duration of God his continuance in being is distinguished by the threefold Succession was is and shall be which is common to all Beings Eternal life possessed all at once is one of the monstrous Paradoxes which our Opposers maintain for all that I can see meerly from a spirit of contradiction for it has no manner of ground either in Reason or Holy Scripture I desire to know of 'em how the duration of God is the less perfect because 't is said to consist in a Succession
AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. Firmin's RELIGION AND OF The Present State OF THE UNITARIAN CONTROVERSY London Printed in the Year 1698. AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. Firmin's RELIGION MR. Firmin was remarkable above almost any private Man of this Nation and Age for his care and agency on behalf of the Poor and his zeal and activity for his way or Sect of Religion I shall say nothing of the former we have an account of his diligence and methods for the Poor from some friends of his that knew him longer and with the nearest intimacy But concerning lib Religion I may claim to know as much of it as any other It was the same in general with that of all Protestants that is the H. Bible and the Apostles Creed as the abridgment of the Christian Faith contain'd in that Book But as for the Explication of Articles controverted it was that which he and his party call Vnitarian but others Socinian Mr. Firmin and the English Vnitarians never were entirely in the sentiments of F. Socinus they embraced the opinions of Mr. J. Bidle Mr. Bidle differ'd from Socinus and the foreign Vnitarians as in some other points so in that he believed the H. Spirit is tho' not God yet a Person in the vulgar sense of that word Mr. Firmn was a very discerning but not a learned Man Some others of his party have all the qualities for which the foreign Socinians have been so much esteemed that is to say besides an acuteness and dexterity of Thought they are excellently Learned especially in the sacred Criticism But that which in my opinion most commends him and them is the freedom and sincerity which they have all along practised in judging of the controverted Articles of Religion They followed indeed an first Mr. Bidle as he espoused the Tenets of Socinus but so that as soon as there appeared better light to use a Scripture Phrase they rejoyced in it From the time that F. Socinus and his Doctrines began to be taken notice of the Churches of all denominations were persuaded the difference between Socinianism and the doctrin of the Catholic Church was Real Great and even Unreconcilable Many learned Men have thought some such degree of accord between the Church and other Dissenters might be devised that they might bear with one another and hold occasional Communion But Socinianism was supposed to be a departure from the Churches Doctrin so far and in so many points that no Coalition in Communion much less in Doctrine might ever be hoped And of this mind were the English Socinians as well as the Foreign and both of them no less earnestly than the Church But as I said the English Vnitarians or Socinians being Men of ingenuous and free Minds and Principles and therefore always ready to entertain farther light after 8 or 9 years late contest in print with the principal Divines of this Nation they have been so dextrous and happy that instead of farther embroiling the points in question which is the usual effect of the Paper-war they seem to have accommodated whatsoever differences depending between the Church and them A greater Service or any equal to it was perhaps never done to the Catholic Church For as on the one side the Socinians being so much the Jesser Party flood exposed to all the poenal Laws in any Nation that had ever been enacted against any fort of Heretics So the Church was more dangerously threatned by this Cloud of the bigness of a man's hand than by all other Dissenters or Opposers whatsoever The opinions of the Socinians had that appearance of Reason such an agreement with all the yielded Principles of Philosophy whether Natural or Metaphysied that if they had been fostered by the helps under the cover and shelter of which other denominations of Religion have made shift to subsist Socinianism would have flourisht and spread like that Tree in the Prophet Daniel the hight whereof reached to Heaven and the sight thereof to the ends of all the Earth Other Sects by the favour of Princes or the quality of the times have obtained an exemption from Mulcts and Penalties of the Laws and thus their course not being impeded by any dams or banks they have over-spread sometimes considerable parts of particular Countries If Socinianism had any where enjoyed those Halcyon-days its sudden irresistible Progress would have been that I may again borrow one of the sacred Comparisons as Lightning that rusheth out of the East and shineth even to the West Alas on equal Ground and with equal Circumstances the combat between unintelligible Mistery and clear Reason between seeming Contradictions Absurdities and Impossibilities and a rational obvious accountable Faith would soon have been ended But 't is better ended The Divine Providence and Goodness in mercy to both Parties has granted a Peace instead of a Victory It has pleased God to favor the suffering side with an unexpected Light he has shown 'em what may seem incredible that their Opposers think as they the Vnitarians speak that their difference is not in the ideas or notions but only in the terms or words To manifest this Mr. Firmin caused the following Scheme of Agreement offer'd to him by a Person long conversant in these questions to be considered by some of the principal Vnitarians in England And being approved by him and them it was published about a year since The Scheme of Agreement Mr. Edwards after having published divers good Books and one that may deserve the epithet of Excellent his Demonstration of the Existence and Providence of God found an inclination in himself that he could not it should seem resist of contriving a New Religion or rather Impiety and of imputing it to the Socinians By whom he means it appears the Vnitarians Those in England who call themselves Vnitarians never were entirely in the sentiments of Socinus or the Socinians Notwithstanding as our Opposers have pleas'd themselves in calling us Socinians we have not always declined the name because in interpreting many texts of Scripture we cannot but approve and follow the judgment of those Writers who are confessed by all to be excellent Critics and very Judicious As particularly and chiefly H. Grotius who it must be granted was Socinian all over And D. Erasmus who tho' he lived considerably before Socinus commonly interprets that way and therfore is charged by Card. Bellarmine as a downright Arian Non poterat says the Cardinal Arianam causam manifestiùs propugnare Erasmus could not more openly espouse the Arian Cause than he has done in his Notes on the Fathers and on the principal Texts of H. Scripture Praef. ad libros 5. de Christo But tho as I said we are not Socinians nor yet Arians seeing Mr. Edwards has contrived a Creed for us under the name of Socinians I will answer both directly and sincerely concerning the several Articles of the Creed which he saith is ours As to the References unto places in particular Authors where Mr. Edwards would have it
or what is the same to be distinguished by was is and shall be seeing 't is confessed on all hands that he carrieth all Perfections into every Succession of his Duration But is it not a Scandal that some Unitarians of foreign Parts have denied the Spirituality or Incorporeity of God his Omnipresence and Omniscience saying and contending for it that he is a Body with such Configuration of Parts as Men have consequently that he is in Heaven inspecting indeed and governing all things but by the ministry of the several Orders of Angels and that he doth not foresee contingent Events but only such Events as are necessarily not arbitrarily produced by their Causes Doubtless but no more a scandal to the Unitarians than to their Opposers for they are Errors which some of the Fathers even the most antient learned and pious of 'em have defended as Truths Nay it should seem they were some time the prevaling Opinions in some places namely when the Anthropomorphite Doctrine was so zealously espoused that the Hermits and Cenobites would not indure their Bishops if they but suspected 'em of Origen's Doctrine that God is a Spirit without Parts or Passions And in denying the Spirituality and Omnipresence of God they must needs be understood not to believe his certain and absolute Prescience of contingent Events About the year 400 when almost every body concerned themselves in condemning and departing as far as possible from the opinions of Origen the Anthropomorphite Doctrine and its consequences were the Standard Orthodoxy of many places and were Heresy no where Even St. John Chrysostom at Constantinople hardly defended the Fratres Longi from the Prosecutions of Theophilus Archbishop and Patriarch of Alexandria who was a profest Anthropomorphite and had expelled the Fratres Longi for adhering to Origen's Doctrine of the Spirituality and Omnipresence of God But as I said we not only dislike but utterly reject the dangerous Doctrine That God hath a Body is like to Man toge-with its consequences That he is neither Omnipresent nor Omniscient It may as well be said he is not at all nay this latter tho the Anthropornorphites see it not seems to be implied and included in the former But we condemn not the Schechina or glorious Appearance of God in Heaven which many Learned Men hold nor the spiritual Body of Christ III. I believe farther concerning God That there is no distinction of Persons or Subsistences in God And that the Son and Holy Ghost are not God The former of them being only a Man the latter no other than the Power or Operation of God That there was nothing of Merit in what Christ did or suffered and that therefore he could not make satisfaction for the Sins of the World But Mr. Edwards too much mistakes The question is not at all concerning three Persons or three Subsistences in God but whether there are three infinite Subsistences three eternal Minds and Spirits We deny the latter with the whole Catholick Church against the Tritheists We never questioned the former Persons or Subsistences but only as Persons are used or taken for Spirits Minds and Beings I shall explain this matter however more fully in my Answer to the Bishops of Worcester Sarum and Chichester annexed to this Agreement or any one may see what is our sense in the Judgment of a disinterested Person concerning the Controversy between Dr. S th and Dr. Sherlock By a Divine of the Church of England What that Author makes to be the Doctrine of the Nominals and of the Church concerning the Blessed Trinity the Divinity of our Saviour and the Satisfaction is and ever was the belief of the Unitarians as well as of the Catholick Church But we say the Lord Christ is only a Man and the Holy Spirit only the Power of God No we say our Lord Christ is God and Man He is Man in respect of his reasonable Soul and human Body God in respect of God in him Or more scholastically in respect of the Hypostatical or Personal Union of the Humanity of Christ with the Divinity By which the Catholick Church means and we mean the Divinity was not only occasionally assisting to but was and is always in Christ illuminating conducting and actuating him More than this is the Heresy of Entyches and less we never held tho we confess that careless and less accurate Expressions may have been used by both Parties of which neither ought to take advantage against the other when it appears there is no heterodox Intention That by the Spirit of God is sometimes meant in Holy Scripture the Power of God cannot be denied but concerning the Three Divine Persons we believe as the Catholick Church believes That they are relative Subsistences internal Relations of the Deity to it self Or as the Schools after St. Austin explain this Original unbegotten Wisdom or Mind reflex or begotten Wisdom called in Holy Scripture the Logos and the eternal spiration of Divine Love But do you not say There was no Merit in what Christ did or suffered and that he could riot make satisfaction for our Sins He may for our parts be Anathema that teaches or believes that Doctrine We believe that the Lord Christ by what he did and what he suffered was by the gracious acceptance of God a true and perfect Propitiation for Sinners that repent and turn to the good ways IV. In the next Article he makes us to believe a great many things as that The first Man was not created in a state of Vprightness As if it were possible that men in their right senses should think the first Man was created a Sinner That By his Fall Adam did not lose Righteousness and Holiness which are part of the Image of God As who should say that by being a Sinner he did not sin or become unlike to God That Adam's Posterity have received no hurt nor stain by his Apostacy As if you should say that neither his bad Example nor the Curse that made the Earth so much less fruitful was any hurt and that the Rebellion of an Ancestor no not against God is not any blot in his Family I shall grow quite out of conceit with these Unitarians if they say many more such weak things But in very deed I imagine Mr. Edwards had a mind to have charged 'em more home when he does we shall consider what to answer I am of opinion that in this part of the Article he was somewhat ashamed of his own Doctrine and that he feared to make himself and Party ridiculous by a clear and distinct Representation of their opinion That Mankind notwithstanding Adam's fall have by nature an ability to desire and embrace all spiritual Good and to avoid all that is sinful or vitious They are bold Britains What embrace all the Gospel-precepts by mere nature when 't is not possible so much as to know divers of them but by Revelation Divine And can they avoid too all that is vitious at all times