Serious Advice TO A PRESERVATIVE Against the Blasphemous Heresie OF SOCINIANISM Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect Hatred I count them mine Enemies Psal 139.21 22. By J. G. G. LONDON Printed for Geo. Grafton and are to be Sold by Ric. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1695. Serious Advice to a Preservative against the Blasphemous Heresie of Socinianism NOW more than ever there is cause to say the last Days and Times foretold by the Apostles * 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5. St. Paul and ‖ 1 John 2.18 St. John are come upon us For not only Iniquity in Practise doth abound every where and the Man and Manner of Sin is daily more and more discovered But also Perverseness in Judgment in no less than Heresie and Blasphemy walks bare-faced with those who are so far delivered up to Satan as to deny the Lord of Glory For abominable Socinianism which is a Sink of the Cerinthians Ebionites Sabellians Samosatenians Photinians Arrians Semi-Arrians Anti-Trinitarians Pelagians and of several other Hereticks doth now proudly appear and in Effect defie Christian Religion and attempts to overthrow the Foundation of the Gospel not in one but several parts thereof It is for me a Matter of Wonderful Grief to see the Boldness and Impudence of that Abominable Heresie as it were Triumphantly to come in of one side and the Silence and Sluggishness of those that should oppose it on the other * Jer. 9.1 O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might Weep day and night for the Guilt which is thereby contracted upon the Nation My Purpose is for the present by the Grace of God only to give in my Evidence in the Case and that as briefly and plainly as I can to condescend to the meanest Capacity But if by Providence I be further engaged in the Matter I shall grudge neither Time nor Pains upon so Just so Necessary and so Glorious an Account as to bear Record for the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion Laelius Socinus the Uncle and Faustus Socinus his Nephew both of Siena in Italy soon after the Death of Detestable Servetus did the first conceive and the second bring forth their Damnable Opinions which amongst the rest are these They deny the most Holy and Adorable Trinity Christ's Divinity his being Coeternal in Time if we may use that word with the Father Coessential in Nature and Coequal in Power they will not own he hath given the Father Satisfaction for our Sins but only obtained for us by our Faith and Obedience to satisfie for our selves They say he died for our Good but not in our Place he died for himself not for his Sins but for the Mortality and Infirmity of our Nature which he had assumed he became not our High Priest till after his Ascension into Heaven How Man before his Fall was Naturally Mortal and had no Original Righteousness that in us there is no Original Sin as it imports a Deformity of Nature The Holy Ghost they admit not to be God no more than Christ whose Incarnation they affirm to be against Reason and without Proofs of Scripture With Pelagians they are against Providence and Matters of Grace All these and others abominable Errors which destroy the whole Foundation and Work of our Salvation are to be found in the Books of Socinus Crellius Ostorodius c. How far will Men go when once they are fallen into and engaged in an evil way When God hath left them in the Blindness and Darkness of their Understanding and given them up to the Imaginations and Counsels of their evil Hearts to the Temptations of Satan and to their own Natural Corruption We see it in the case of that Wicked Arrius who within a short time from the Year 323 till 336 drew a great part of the World after him and in the other of that great Impostor Mahomet who agreed with Arrius against the Deity of the Lord Jesus wherein he is followed by Socinians That Man thorough a Judgment of God * 2 Thess 2.11 sending a strong Delusion that Men should believe a Lye by the means of a Foolish Book of a Nonsensical Alcoran of pretended Trances and Raptures when he was in his Fit of the Falling-sickness and of the Cheat of a Pidgeon picking as it had been taught some Grains out of his Ear as if the Angel Gabriel under that shape had then been Suggesting his Religion and Doctrine to him with some Allowance to the Pleasures of the Flesh in this World and Promises of the like in the next by these means and the Trick of his Tomb at Mecca hath drawn a great part of the World after him In order to settle their Impious Principles Socinians go about two things First To overthrow the Ground of our Faith and Religion with their attempting to undermine Holy Scriptures which are the Foundation and Rule of it To bring it about They affirm the Old Testament to be needless for Christians as for the Books of the New they allow not the Authors thereof to have been Inspired by the Spirit of God positively against what is said 2 Tim. 3.16 and therein they would have some places to contradict others grant this and you take away the Infallibility and Truth of Scripture and if it be yielded of one Text why not of many more If so What will become of Christian Religion grounded upon the Gospel For if we must believe St. Paul who * Gal. 1.11 12. Certifies it is not after Man for he neither received it of Man neither was he taught it but by Revelation of Jesus Christ The second thing Socinians do to promote their Blasphemies is To make Natural Reason the Principle of Religion for they give all to Reason as if it was Infallible and could not be imposed upon and nothing to the Authority and Consent of the Church nor of Scripture it self according to this Rule of theirs That no Interpretation of Holy Scripture is to be admitted except it doth agree with Natural Reason and to the Evident Experience of outward Senses Instead of the Traditions which Papists bring in they would have their own Reason without the Influences of the Spirit of God to be the genuine and proper Interpreter of God's Holy Word So take away the Rule and you bring in Disorder and Confusion We know and own how Faith doth not destroy Reason rather it doth Refine and Purifie it so God forbid we should exclude Reason from Religion for 't is Subservient to it Reason indeed hath something of Religion for by the Light of Nature in things of the World and Course of Providence one may be convinced how there is a Being of Beings a first Cause of all and a God whose Power and Wisdom appeareth in the Works and Order of Nature which as * Psal
19. David saith and ‖ Rom. 10.18 Paul after him takes notice of day unto day uttereth Speech and night unto night sheweth Knowledge But our Religion and Faith in Christ is not a Doctrine of Nature or else Salvation thorough his Name had been known to every Man but Experience convinces us of the contrary And St. Paul doth positively and plainly declare upon the Matter in the case of those who wanted no Natural Reason when by the Rules thereof they would measure true Religion * Rom. 1.21 22 Became vain in their Imagination and their foolish Heart was darkened Professing themselves to be Wise they became Fools All and the best Natural Reason in the World nay the greatest Gifts of Nature in Knowledge Wisdom Parts whither innate or acquired by the Philosopher Orator c. come very short of Faith which in us is the Soul of our Religion for * 1 Cor. 2.14 The Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him neither can he know them for they are Spiritually discerned So that with St. Paul we may upon this account ask * 1 Cor. 1.20 Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World Where is the Rational Man Hath not God made Foolish the Wisdom of this World The Reason that is meerly Natural he hath infatuated and to shew that Reason alone cannot bring us to true Religion that is to the Gospel it is called a Mystery * Eph. 3.4 the Mystery of Christ and ‖ 1 Tim. 3.9 the Mystery of the Faith and a great one too * 1 Tim. 3.16 for without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the Flesh then Christ is God for none but he was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up in Glory all these are appliable to Christ and to none but him to God made Flesh The Knowledge of this is so far above Reason that to make it known 't was necessary it should be revealed * Eph. 3.3 How that by Revelation he God made known to me the Mystery yea such a Mystery as Natural Reason could not attain unto for 't is * Col. 1.26 the Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and from Generations Surely during these Ages and Generations there were those Men who wanted not good Natural Reason but now is made manifest to his Saints not to every Man for * Matt. 13.11 unto you it is given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given Then it comes not by Natural Reason but 't is a Gift of God Now the Gospel and the Preaching of Jesus Christ is the Doctrine of Christian Religion and this * Rom. 16.25 According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began If we want another Apostle's Evidence we have it in St. Peter in the case of the Prophets under the Old Testament who * 1 Pet. 1.10 11 12. enquired and searched diligently of the Grace that should come unto you all which had been in vain but they got it by Revelation unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you no need of Revelation where Natural Reason can attain unto yet without Revelation the Prophets which wanted no Natural Reason could not I go further and say Angels who are clear sighted far above Men * 2 Pet. 2.11 greater in Power and Might and have a greater depth of Reason What of them Which things says the same Apostle in the same place that is the Mysteries of the Gospel the Angels desire to look into not to dive but to look into to see and adore that Incomprehensible Mystery they cannot look into or else they would not desire it for none desires to have that which he hath Angelical Nature cannot fathom those Depths and do we think the shallow Brain of the most Rational Man can Hereupon I think I may follow our Blessed Saviour's way of arguing in the case of the Day of Judgment only he doth from the lesser to the greater and I from the greater to the lesser * Mark 13.32 Of that Day and that Hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels which are in Heaven Thus the Mystery of the Salvation of Mankind knoweth no Angel much less any Man be he never so Rational only as much as God hath been pleased to reveal in the Gospel that Knowledge comes not by Reason or any thing else of Nature but by Grace I think this sufficiently sheweth how deficient Natural Reason is to lead us to True Christian Religion without Revelation which God effected by means of Angels Prophets Apostles and Evangelists and this not with a bare outward Declaration but an inward effectual Working and Revelation of his Holy Spirit But I must not exceed the narrow Bounds I prescribed my self So then in Opposition to Socinians as we believe the Perfection and Infallibility of Holy Scripture we also must own there are in our Holy Religion several things above Reason Indeed Matters of Fact do fall under our Senses but those of Faith go far beyond them Material things such as our Senses hold no Proportion with Spiritual such is Faith highly elevated also beyond Reason Certainly this Generation of Men come under the Curse pronounced by St. Paul * 1 Cor. 16.22 If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha 'T is to Hate and not to Love him as to go about to derogate from his Right and as much as in them lies to deprive him of his Due and dishonour him as he told the Jews * John 8.49 Verse 12 18 24 28 29 40 42. I honour my Father and ye dishonour me Wherein It is set down in several places of the same Chapter as namely they would not believe him to be the Light of the World nor the Witness which he and the Father did bare of him and that he was he that is the Messiah the Christ the Son of God who had told them the Truth he had heard of God whom he there calls often his Father for I proceeded forth and came from God Yet 't is as true as strange that notwithstanding so many clear Proofs of his Divinity in Scripture Socinians deny him to be God without which he had not been qualified to be Mediator between God and us for a Mediator must have the Nature of both Parties nor gotten the Victory over all the Enemies of our Salvation Though to avoid Prolixity I must not insist upon the Proofs of our Lord's Divinity which is the Life of our Faith Hope and Comfort yet something I must now say to it If we had no other
of his Father he hath declared him which no body else could it must be God's only Begotten the reason is given in the beginning of the Verse no Man hath seen God at any time Shall not God's only Begotten Son receive and be Partaker of his Father's Nature If absolutely no Man hath seen God at any time he that hath seen and declared him must needs be God Though this Matter be so copious yet to keep my self within my narrow Bounds I shall to this Point add a few words more St. John saith that * 1 John 2.18 in his time there were many Antichrists and ‖ Chap. 4.1 many False Prophets were gone out into the World These Opposers of Christ were of two sorts some who denied Christ Jesus to be come into the World or in the Flesh that is That the Messiah which took up the whole Expectation of the Jews was not come for we know the Messiah and * John 4.25 Christ to be but one and the same Now those that confessed not Jesus Christ to be the promised Messiah were Antichrists the Messiah was to come in the Flesh that is To take upon him our Humane Nature and become Man All Prophesies and Types under the Law in every Circumstance were fulfilled in the Person of the Lord Jesus born of the Virgin Mary and whosoever denied it was an Antichrist The second sort of Antichrists in St. John's time were those that as the Ebionites did then the Arrians since and now Socinians do own Christ to be a Prophet and a Saviour but would have him to be meerly a Man and only a Creature a Man they would not deny him to be but disowned him for a God Now against these the Apostle doth speak * 1 John 4.15 Whosoever shall confess saith he that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God So by the Rule of Contraries and the Stile of Scriptures we do infer that whosoever shall not confess that Jesus is in a true and a proper Sence the Son of God God dwelleth not in him nor he in God both which that is the Validity of this Inference and the Apostle's Position that Jesus is the Son of God do appear in the following Chapter * Chap. 5.9 10 11. He that believeth not that Christ is the Son of God hath made him a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son For this is the Witness of God which is greater than the Witness of Men which he hath testified of his Son Wherein the Apostle relateth not only to the Time of our Saviour's Baptism when the Voice came from Heaven saying * Matt. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased but also to the Transfiguration when the Voice came out of the Cloud with the same words with this Addition * Chap. 17.5 Hear ye him which St. Peter takes special notice of when he saith For he Jesus Christ ‖ 2 Pet. 1.17 18. received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount Where the Apostle plainly declares That as the Voice came from God the Father so it was spoken of and to God the Son or else the distinction of Father and Son had been improper and superfluous God in the Voice calls him his Beloved Son the Apostle saith the Voice came from God the Father If there was not some special Energy and Signification in the word Father the Apostle would only have said that Christ received from God Honour c. but speaking of the Father and of the Son who are Relatives that shews the distinction of two different Persons of the Godhead This Voice was the Application to the Person of whom long before Psal 2. wherein the Kingdom of Christ was Prophesied of * Psal 2.7 The Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Yea such as David whose Son he was according to the Flesh in Spirit calls him Lord which place our Saviour makes use of against the Pharisees for after they had answered his Question Whose Son Christ was He much to his purpose asketh them * Matt. 22.42 43 44 45. If David then call him Lord How is he his Son This could not be in the Capacity of his Son for the Son is not Lord over the Father wherefore it must be upon some other account there was between them another Relation it could be no Humane one within such a distance of Time Hence is appears That if God doth so often and in so singular a manner call the Lord Jesus his Only Begotten Son in whom he is well pleased If God I say speaks Truth the Lord Jesus must be his Son not in that way of Favour and Grace only as Socinians would have it and as all his Elect are but in a stricter and essential Relation to beget is to communicate his Nature and Substance and in this Sence he is the only Begotten Son there is but one thus properly God's Son We have a Text which speaks plainly to the purpose and gives a right Interpretation of the Phrase the meaning whereof the Jews understood very well it is said * John 5.18 The Jews sought the more to kill him not only because he had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God So then when Christ called God his Father he meaned that he was equal with God the Jews say so the Evangelist doth not say they were mistaken and our Blesied Saviour * Ver. 19 21. the best Interpreter of the thing confirmeth they had a right Notion of the Matter for in the 19 and 21 Verses he affirmeth his Equality in Power with the Father For what things soever he doth these also doth the Son likewise For as the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth them so the Son quickneth whom he will This Equality in Power argueth an Equality in Nature for though God can do great and miraculous things by some Creatures yet still 't is the working of his own Power but God cannot bestow an Infinite Power upon a Finite and bound Creature which it is not capable of because it would imply a Contradiction An Infinite Power in Christ such as the Father hath doth in him import an Infinite Nature But at this time I must not suffer my self to be drawn too far into the Matter Well as we heard St. John calls Antichrist him that denies Christ to be the Son of God * 1 John 2.22 He is Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son Surely Father and Son must have the same Nature deny one and you deny both Who is a Liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ To what he calls Antichrists and Liars St. Paul giveth the
Name of Blasphemers and begins with himself as he was before his Conversion * 1 Tim. 1.12 13. Putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor Wherein was he such He speaks something of it when he saith ‖ Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth What doth he mean by the Name of Jesus His Person he could not reach his Members he persecuted as much as he could nay as he saith he compelled them to do as he did What 's that To Blaspheme he compelled them to Blaspheme his Name Acts 26.11 his Religion and say many things against his Person and deny him to be the Messiah the Son of God and the Profession of his Gospel to defame and dishonour him And do not Socinians do part of this and the worst of it with as much as in them lies depriving him of his Godhead attacking him in the best and most sensible Part Methinks these Men should have observed and taken warning by God's signal Judgments upon former Blasphemers against the Person of Christ Arrius their great Founder whilst he was easing himself of the Necessities of Nature his Bowels came forth and with them his Life Artemon Samosatenus and several more in former and later Ages came to miserable Deaths The end of Julian the Apostate is well known These should make them Fear and Tremble However in them is a Hardness as was in the Jews whose Arguments they borrow * Acts 13.45 Blaspheming and Contradicting as they did to what concerning this Matter was spoken by Paul and Barnabas The Grounds of their Error I shall not at this time go about to refute that I reserve for another occasion if God permit However two things I shall mention which like two Rocks they commonly split upon and this being well understood affordeth Answers to most of their Arguments St. Peter's words by him spoken in another case I here shall make use of * 2 Pet. 3.5 For this they are willingly Ignorant of namely the difference of Christ's State of Humiliation and that of his Exaltation The Jews who receive not the New Testament may be ignorant of this yet not willingly but Socinians who say and pretend they admit it cannot be Ignorant but willingly After this Rule we may resolve those places in Scripture the Sence whereof thorough their Prejudice they mistake wherein Christ is made Inferior to the Father and the Father said to be greater than he 'T is most true that as he performed the Office of Mediator as he was Man as at that time when he was upon Earth in that low and humble Condition he then was Inferior to the Father but it was not so before for he to obtain Salvation for us voluntarily left that Glory which he had with the Father before the World began and of himself as the Apostle saith * Phil. 2.6 7 8. took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Man and he humbled himself and made himself of no Reputation He had a Being before he was made Man and that Being as the Apostle faith in that place was the Form and Nature of God whereby without Robbery or Usurpation he was equal with God After the time of his Humiliation was over he went up to the place whence he was come down again to appear in his Natural Glory which Glory here he had still but it was under a Cloud which made it invisible to Man His Humane Nature was that Cloud which Scripture calls * Heb. 10.20 the Vail of his Flesh which under the Law was typified by the Vail of the Temple because the Light of the Sun when 't is behind the Clouds doth not appear bright and glorious in our Eyes Must Men say he hath no Brightness nor Glory Still there is enough left to convince us that in it is a Light or else it would be quite Dark So though the Lord Jesus his Divine Glory and Majesty was eclipsed for a time yet several Beams of it appeared in his state of Exinanition as in his Baptism Transfiguration and when * John 12.28 29. the Voice came from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and I will glorifie it again which made some of the People that stood by say it thundred and others An Angel spake to him Besides those many miraculous Works he did which none but a Divine Power could effect all these leave unbelieving Enemies of his Divinity without Excuse for they refuse to receive the Testimony of God the Father of Christ himself and of the Apostles and Evangelists which is as good as to call him a Deluder and an Impostor Their other Stumbling-block and Rock of Offence is the Incarnation of the Son of God or his taking upon him our Humane Nature out of the Virgim Mary thorough the Operation of the Holy Ghost which by no means they will own though Scripture saith in that Famous Prophesie of the Coming of the Messiah * Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall Conceive and bring forth a Son and they shall call his Name Immanuel ‖ Matt. 1.23 to this answers John 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 Which being interpreted is God with us What doth this Interpretation God with us signifie else than an Union of Divine with Humane Nature one Person to be both God and Man which doth meet in the Person of our Blessed Saviour who for Confirmation of this is in Scripture so often called God Son of God and Man Son of Man Can there be any thing more positive than this * John 1.1 14. The Word was God and the Word was made Flesh by Flesh is meant Humane Nature then God was made Man as to the Manner it could not be by Transubstantiation change of Substance of Divine Nature into Humane which had imported an Annihilation of Divine Nature which to think is Blasphemy elsewhere Scripture saith positively God was manifest in the Flesh a Text parallel to that of John to prove the Incarnation which the place sheweth to be said of Christ in whom are terminated all the Prophesies and Figures under the Law about the Messiah and though the Modus and Manner of things be above the reach of Men to dive into and so we must not be rash about it yet God in his Word having revealed the thing to be and said something about the Manner it must not be neglected by us See the Angel's answer to the question of the Virgin * Luke 1.34 35 How shall this be seeing I know no Man The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee This indeed is a high Mystery the Coming of the Holy Ghost the overshadowing of the Highest Yet however this is plain that that Holy Thing or Person to be born of Mary should be the Son of God and really called so for