sense of Scripture tho' never so contrary to the intention of God's Spirit therein and as said before never so Erroneous and Heretical only because it is according to a man 's own private Opinion and deluded Imagination which is to take away the Obligation whereby Conscience and the whole Soul are bound to believe the Truth of Scripture only and not false Interpretations Besides there is in Scripture some matters of Faith which are not so obvious to the Soul and to Reason as matters of Fact are to the Eye and Ear as also there are others not to be Interpreted according to the plain and literal sense as they seem to be Out of the number and variety of such afforded in the Word I shall bring only two Instances Can they think that this Consequence by our Saviour God is the God of the living and not of the dead therefore there shall be a resurrection of the dead is plain and obvious to any man or that this is true Paul is a robber of Churches because he said I robbed other Churches Hence appeareth the danger and inconvenience of allowing of such a particular free liberty of Interpreting Scripture seeing it can be and is so much abused We are taught in the word that we have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God and which the Holy Ghost teacheth if human Reason were a sufficient Light for a Man to enable him to interpret Scriptures then Paul's Prayer that God would give the Ephesians the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of their understanding being enlightned c. The like for the Colossians were in vain for 't is frivolous to ask what one hath already and wants not at all this Liberty which they allow themselves every day to search and find out new Interpretations whereby the Minds of Men are tossed and never to be setled cannot consist with the true Faith revealed in the Word of God which we are commanded to be stedfast in and to be rooted and built up in Christ and stablished in the Faith and not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines Certainly that freedom of interpreting is herein forbidden and so are we forbidden to believe those false Glosses and Interpretations for saith the Apostle Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God the reason is this Because many false Prophets are gone out into the world who allow themselves a freedom of interpreting Scrpiture according to their own humour and fancy no ways allowed by the Laws of God and should not be by the Laws of Men a Curb ought to be put upon such wandering profane Thoughts at least upon the publishing of them The Adversaries who are so fond and conceited of their human Reason Learning and Wisdom might take notice how the Apostle hits them when he calls those who give false interpretations of and wrest Scriptures both unstable and unlearned certainly those Men are unstable who make use of a pretended Liberty ever to give Scripture new interpretations as suggested by their Reason so to day they may give one and the next another different from and contrary to it and is not this Change a Fickleness and Unstableness These unstable Men would make those different interpretations to be a part and proof of their Learning but far from that for Peter calls them unlearned whereby he gives a great blow to that Diana-Idol of theirs But as I hope hereafter by the Grace of God to have an occasion of enlarging upon this I shall for the present forbear saying any more to it What he brings in of Bonner and Latimer about the Interpretation of the Words This is my Body cannot answer his purpose that Instance indeed can shew how a Text may differently be interpreted and that one may happen wrongfully to suffer for a good Cause and how the strongest side and most supported is not always the best But this cannot prove that because one has unjustly suffered the other may not justly suffer that sort of Men who are always wholly bent to provide for their safety would infinuate how no Man should be called to account for any wresting of or putting false interpretations upon Scripture tho never so false blasphemous impious and heretical because he who doth so believeth them not to be such which is their own case it doth not follow that a Truth tho made doubtful because to day 't is supported and to morrow shall be oppressed must not be owned and a Restraint put upon those who oppose it The Merit of the Cause is impartially to be enquired into and when Truth is found out not only it must be exalted but also its contrary is to be kept under Tho Queen Mary supported a bad Cause and suppressed a good one it doth not follow but that Queen Elizabeth did well to suppress a bad Cause and support a good one Tho an innocent be brought to suffer yet the guilty must not go free for all that Because formerly innocent Blood was shed must not Justice now be executed upon Criminals 'T is not the Opinion of Men but the Truth of the Thing which makes any one guilty or innocent the Law is judge of it So in Matters of Religion 't is not the Interpretation of the Text nor the Opinion which the Interpreter hath of the Soundness of his Interpretation that makes it Orthodox and sound but the Word which explains it self for what in one place is dark is plain in some other and when some Men contrary to those Lights will set up heretical and blasphemous Opinions and therein grow obstinate only because they think to be in the right upon such account the Word of God authoriseth Men to enact such penal Laws as they shall think most conducing for the glory of God and to have them put in execution chiefly when the Parties against the known Laws of the Land do publish and in defiance of all at the Parliament Doors offer their heretical Books with words to this purpose I put a most excellent Book into your hand pray read it with attention and when you are Converted strengthen your Brethren thus profanely abusing God's most holy Word They are by no means pleased with my way of Writing but I like it the better for their disliking it They find fault first with the Matter Order and Expression secondly with my often using Scripture thirdly with my Sallying as they call it into sundry Metaphors The first of the two ironically talks of depth of Learning height of Fancy c. which is proper to Fantastical Men who would transform Fancy yea all Religion into Reason The other calls it A World of School Cant which now adays goes for deep Learning So both tho' in a different way talk of depth of Learning that People would have others like themselves to build upon
still lay under the Lash for it is a silly Calumny as you say yet 't is no Calumny but a Truth and that no silly one I shall anon take notice of your Stile Deism is not only an absolute denial of all Revelation but also 't is a giving the preference to Humane Reason before Revelation which is done when you set up your own Reason to be a Judge of Revelation and here I hold you fast for else you would give the Slip. Tho' you have not the face to deny Christian Religion to be of Divine Institution yet your own Reason which your Brother calls the only Guide which God hath given us to Judge and Interpret that Revelation you exalt above it Is not this to set up a Tribunal over and above the Word of an Infallible God and to make your poor silly Humane Reason the Oracle or Revealer of the true Sense of that Revelation So I leave you to refute this Charge of Deism as well as you can the Racovian Catechism shall afford you no help except you mince it as you use to do other things which by and by I shall by the Grace of God take notice of A Deist we call him who makes a God of his own reason as you do that is sets up a false God now between such a one and an Atheist there is not the direct opposition which you imagine for in these Times Deist is taken in an ill Sense and in a way of Reproach but to believe a God is no Reproach and ought to be taken in a favourable Sense so 't is the use of the words that shews their signification Besides as there are two sorts of Atheists the one in Theory the other in Practice for as there is a Fool whom David speaks of who saith in his heart there is no God so there is a Fool that saith so in his Actions and lives as if there was no God The like we say of Deists some are Speculative such as believe as you do their own Reason to be the only guide in Matters of Religion others are Practical Deists who accordingly own no other Sense of Scripture but what is their own Interpretation And others through-paced I may add who are both Practical and Theorical Deists and I make no doubt but that ye know well where they live tho' you question much whether we have any of these Socinians in England Profaneness and Immorality follow next Profaneness I call a handling of Holy things without a due Respect which in a high degree is the guilt of Socinians as in several places of my Book I made it plainly appear how bold and sawcy are they with God's Word How contrary to the analogy of Faith the design of the Spirit of God and the natural usual and proper signification of the Words do they wrest Scripture to make it serve their own turn They irreverently use it as a Stalking-Horse to answer their ends and by forcing unusual and far-off-fetch'd Interpretations as much as in them lieth would make it contradict it self This and prefering Humane before Spiritual and Heavenly things like Esau whom Scripture calleth a profane person for selling his birth-right for a morsel of meat I brand with the name of Profaneness and shall not I call so the Preference which you give your Humane Reason above Divine Revelation when you make it to be the Judge of it In some places of your Letters your own Example is a proof of Profaneness attending on Socinianism let the particular of your Jesting at the Name of Christ's mystical Body to signifie the Church serve for all you cannot be but wilfully ignorant how in several places of Scripture an express mention is made of the Body of Christ whereof we are said to be the Members and Christ is called the Head of the Church and the Saviour of the Body This cannot be spoken of his Natural Body which now is in Heaven so it must be of another Body of his and that 's our being in him by Faith and he in us by his Spirit which Scripture calls a Mystery so in Scripture Phrase we may call that a Mystical Body without giving profane Men cause to Jest at it as you do God's Name saith David is Holy and Reverend but ye make bold to profane it As for Immorality it consists both in Words and Actions Carriage and Conversation so that tho' one was not an Immoralist either in every Kind or in every Degree if it be but in one 't is enough to denounce him an Immoralist As for Me who neither have nor desire to have any Society with the professed Enemies or false Friends of Christ I do not meddle with their Actions for 't is not my business but leave every one to God besides that I ever avoid as much as I can making or medling with Persons only with Things But I say that Profaneness is usually attended with Immorality for commonly Sins go by couples and he who is so profane as to Jest with God and his Word is soon drawn to that jesting foolish talking and filthiness which the Apostle joineth together And you may know how Paulus Samosatenus Bishop of Antioch one of your first and great Ringleaders kept young Wenches and allowed his Clergy to do the like Tho' the Persecuting Accuser as I am call'd have not the Wit of Machiavel nor of his Villains yet he hath Truth on his side which is better And the Negative Argument how neither the Racovian Catechism nor Socinian Author hath written so cannot put off the Blow indeed Men must wholly have forfeited common Sense and Reason who in their Writings and in the face of the Sun will set up for Champions of Profaneness Immorality Atheism Impiety Blasphemy or Idolatry But what they do not plainly express is often drawn by good and lawful Consequence in any of your Books you do not say ye are Profane but out of what you say in your Two Letters how that as to your selves you are the Judges of Scripture and that your Reason is your only Guide in giving such Interpretation as ye think fit is not this to make bold with Holy things Tho' I had no other Evidence which yet I am full of I say that only is a sufficient ground for me to conclude your Principles to be Profane which make you prefer your own Reason before the Teaching of the Holy Ghost out of that same Scripture and those who embraced your Principles are thereby led into Profaneness What you say about the Means used by some Men to promote Heresies by high pretences to Piety and Vertue may be true and what I say too every Bait is not proper for every sort of Fish so Men have several ways to get Proselytes according to the several Tempers of those whom they would draw to themselves do but find the predominant Passion of a Man and except God be pleased to strengthen him ye
they are the Metaphorical Doctors of the World who make bold to turn almost the whole Scripture into Metaphors even to set up a Metaphorical God O Sirs first pull out the Beam out of your own eye and then ye shall see clearly to cast out the Mote out of your Brother's Anon we shall meet with some more Cavils of theirs They appear at the Bar whereto indeed they deserve to be called and Plead for themselves thus The first of the 39 Articles saith There is but One living and true God and in Vnity of this Godhead there be Three Persons of one Substance Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost As to the latter part which is the main Question they pretend to come off with mincing the matter and say by some of their late Prints meaning Socinians I perceive that they for Peace-sake submit to the Phrase of the Church and expresly own Three Persons tho' they think the word Person not so proper as another word might be The weight of the words of the Article lieth so heavy upon them that under it they must either break or bend this last they chuse to do and would seem to yield not because they believe it but only for Peace-sake Peace to themselves to avoid the Penalty They think the word Person not so proper as another might be still they reserve a Back-door why do they not name the word which is in their opinion more proper than that of Person that word remains in petto in their Breast till there be a fair occasion to declare it Their speaking of Peace is well if with it they join Truth for they ought not to be asunder no Christian is to betray Truth for Peace-sake Now if a Person of the Godhead be described as it is by an incommunicable Subsistence of the Divine Essence the Socinian shall not be acquitted as he pretends It is not my work neither is this a place to shew how frivolous that Plea would prove at the Bar of the Law but I am sure in my Book I sufficiently demonstrated it to be a vain Subterfuge and against the Gospel That trimming Spirit in them which because they have not the upper hand one may easily perceive to Rule throughout in both Letters puts me in mind of the Popish Methods in such Cases as among other Instances it appears by what passed in 1561 in that great Assembly at Poissy in France which the then French King Charles IX appointed to meet and in his Presence therein to have free Conference about Religion between some of the Popish Clergy and some of the Protestant Ministers Because as yet things were not ripe for their Designs they by means of those Conferences would try whether some way might be found out to plaister things over and for the present to compose Differences in order thereunto after some discourses about the Sacraments which between the Cardinal of Lorrain and Theodorus Beza had happened in the K. of Navarr's Chamber where they met accidentally the Popish Party being not willing to venture their Cause upon Disputes first by the Doctors of Sorbon and lastly by the Cardinal of Tournon in the name of the whole Clergy desired the King and Queen-Mother to give the Protestants no Hearing who by the Mouth of Beza had already made a Speech in the Assembly and given an account of their Confession of Faith So then these Publick Conferences not doing the work they did set up Private ones first between Two and Two then between Five and Five of both Religions and among these for the Protestants Peter Martyr was one the Point was about the Lord's Supper On the Popish side the design was not to find out the Truth but only such words as each side might Interpret on his behalf To that purpose several Formules which here I need not to insert were by the Papists offered the Protestants but being ambiguous captious and such as might be understood in a double sense Beza for Conclusion said We must say all or nothing because indeed the Mystery of that Holy Sacrament must be explained The like was practised in their Council of Trent where happened great Heats between the Dominicans and Franciscans about several Points wherein they differ but to displease neither side their Canons about those Matters before they were passed they shewed to both Parties and penn'd them in such Words and Expressions as each side might favourably Interpret for his own Opinion Thus Socinians would follow the same way and admit of such words as may be taken in their Sense and ours too yet tho' we should agree about the Terms they know we do not in the Signification they for Peace sake submit to the Phrase of the Church and own Three Persons yet Interpret it not as the Church doth Again They seem desirous to wash their hands of Socinianism yet defend it as much as they are able Vpon the prudent Explication which hath been given of some obnoxious Terms they weave the Dispute and come in as Brethren yet still believe not as the Church doth nay if we will believe them we are all of a perfect Agreement but if we examine it will be found if by these pretended last Concessions of theirs we agree 't is about some Words when the difference about Things still remains And as then Papists were only to have things quiet for the present so I perceive Socinians are now content it should be so between us to see whether Times may happen to turn for them then indeed they would declare by the word Person they mean not an Incommunicable Subsistence of the Godhead but only an Attribute as Wisdom Love that Christ is God and Son of God by Favour not by Nature and by eternal Generation But all such Trimmers to speak in Job's Words are Physicians of no value and such Remedies cannot cure the Wound but it will break out again and this I call daubing with untempered Mortar 't is not enough to ease of the Pain but the cause must be removed which is the only way to cure for certain and to prevent Relapses this I bring in to shew how Socinians are not so averse from such Popish Practices as they pretend to be and if we narrowly inquire into it we shall find they are willing to join with them in the Practice of the following Maxim where they are the weakest they first pretend for Moderation and Toleration then for an Equality afterwards struggle for Superiority and at last destroy any one that to a hairs Breadth would not come up to what they would have for as Papists brag of a Spirit of Infallibility intailed upon their Church so Socinians are of opinion that the Spirit of God if they own any such thing is departed from other Christian Societies only to be among them who look upon themselves as the only true Interpreters of God's Word as Socinus doth applaud himself in his new fangled Expositions
did use the Superlative degree instead of the Positive But these are but Quibbles of your own which argues that seeing you stick at such things you have little else to say for your selves ye leave things for Words and like drowning Men lay hold upon any thing that lieth in your way to save a sinking Cause when no serious Man but would think it below himself to stay upon such things all your Observations and Inferences are an effect of a distemper'd Imagination and not of a sound Reason whereby you deserve the name of the Ridiculer ridiculed As well as you we know Essence to be one thing and Circumstance another but that were tolerable if ye did not as ye do jest with Holy things But I think to know where the Sore lieth ye do not like the words Essential nor Essence derivative nor primitive and tho' in the Schools of Divinity and Philosophy they be used yet ye dislike them because in so many Letters not to be found in Scripture but here you might see I use it not in a Religious but Civil account I own I am at a loss to find a way how to please such nice Spirits as ye are for of one side ye would not have us to use the words Essence Trinity Person because you say they are not in the word of God yet ye both find fault with me for making use of Scripture so much as I do against you in my Book So ye Gentlemen prodigies of Learning may now see which if you do not others do how ye sin against very common Rules what then will become of the four things you learned after you put your Wits to the rack to make others pass for Nonsensical Scriblers who hardly can write three words of good Sense Thus if your witty Premises do fall how can your learned Inferences stand These miserable Shifts which every solid Man would scorn to trouble his head with do tend only to shew how in you is an earnest desire but want of power to make others who differ from you to pass for Silly and Ridiculous so take to your selves what you had prepared for others But what 's all this to the Cause but a putting it off and running away from it Having shewed how when I penned my Epistle I thank God I was in my right Senses the next thing I must do is to prove my Charge against Socinianism which he calls false and disagreeing yet I make no doubt but it will stick First I call it Blasphemous and I shall prove it out of better Authority than that of the Polonian Knight or Bidle's or what the Reasons to the contrary of the Authors of both Letters can come to In order to 't I say there is a twofold Blasphemy one Positive when Men call or otherwise make God a Liar and to deny himself or the like and the other Negative when Men deny him to be Infinite Almighty or Eternal the first when God is made to be what he is not the second when he is deny'd to be what he is That Blasphemy is an abominable Injury directly against God's Nature Attributes or Works is so plainly and frequently set down in Scripture that I think unnecessary for me to prove it and if the same offence committed against God's Nature Attributes and Works be called Blasphemy and that committed against the Lord Jesus's Person be called Blasphemy it follows first that Jesus Christ is true God then secondly that whosoever denies Christ to be God in his Nature Attributes and Works he is a Blasphemer Now Socinianism denieth our Saviour Divine Nature and Essential Attributes of that Nature therefore Socinianism is a Blasphemous Opinion and Doctrine as much for denying Christ to be true God by Nature as by denying Divine Nature Almightiness and Eternity Now that the Sin called Blasphemy is sometimes committed against the Lord Jesus we learn it out of his own mouth upon the occasion of the Pharisees saying he did cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils this he called Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost the chiefest of all And when he was in the hands of the Jews the things by them done and spoken against him were by the Evangelist called Blasphemy and many other things spake they blasphemously against him Thus when the Jews spake against the things that were spoken by Paul and what were those things That Christ was the Son of God which to prove he made use of the words of Psalm 2. Thou art my Son c. in the proper Sense their speaking against this is call'd Contradicting and Blaspheming upon the same account in another place 't is said they opposed and blasphemed Thus Paul saith of himself he was before his Conversion a Blasphemer and compelled others to blaspheme that is to deny and speak ill of Christ so to say that Christ is not God of the same Nature and Power equal with the Father is as great a Blaspemy as to say he was or is a Sinner which any one that hath a religious Honour and Love for him and hopeth for Mercy at his hands when at the last day he shall appear in his Glory cannot and as much as in him lieth must not endure The next Charge against Socinianism is Atheism and Deism he doth couple them thinking to shew a Contradiction but there is none I say to worship the true God not in a true manner is Idolatry as well as to worship a false God Jeroboam for worshipping the true God in an undue manner is branded with Idolatry and provoked God as much as Ahab for worshipping Baal or a false God or else with Papists we must take away the Second Commandment In like manner I say not to know the true God in a true manner is Atheism as well as not to know him at all and the true way to know God is to know him in Christ without whom no true knowledge of God to that purpose the Apostle saith unto the Ephesians that at that time when they were without Christ they also were without God in the world That is they were Atheists and is it truly to know God in Christ only to know him there in a Creature seeing the very Heathens can tell us Praesentemque refert quae libet herba Deum and not rather as in him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily These fragments of Scripture please not Socinians for they not knowing God in Christ as his Eternal and Natural Father are thereby branded with Atheism As for Deism I take it in the Sense wherein it is taken now adays for a Deist is he who prefers Humane Reason before Faith and Revelation so you own my Charge is not a perfect Nonsense tho' in some degree you would have it still to be a Nonsense for you are pleased thus magisterially to decide Now I confess this sort of Charge is not so perfect a Nonsense as the other however I
already setled by Law you thereby introduce Confusion into the Church which may soon become Anarchy in the Government which to prevent in my humble Address to the Parliament I thought the Laws now in being about such things might be executed and if in their Wisdom they thought fit new ones be enacted What Papists believe or do as to Authority about Interpretation of Scriptures is no Rule nor Precedent for us there is a sad Experience in the World of the nature of the Spirit which they are acted by and of the Methods they have taken to support their spiritual Tyranny over the Consciences and Souls yea Lives of Men they made themselves Parties and Judges and would admit or hear of no Reasons contrary to theirs which were grounded not upon God's Word tho' in some things they pretend it but their own Traditions and Practice to their Church Now among us you find no such thing the Law is open for you if you take Scripture to be it whereof you sadly wrest the Words contrary to their natural Sense without giving any good Reason for it and you stand by your selves in defiance and opposition of the general Consent of the Universal Church which condemned those unsound Men when they appeared against the Person of our Saviour and Lord. And here I must say we no more than you receive the Authority of Antiquity or of Fathers upon their own bottom for we agree they were fallible when they said so and so but whether in so saying they spake truth is well worth enquiry into I will compare them with Scripture and if they agree with it I will agree with them And this is to me a strengthning Evidence that I am not singular seeing others as well as I could in the Word of God find those Truths which I do believe Wo be to him that is alone abounds in his own Sense and thinks he knows more than all the World besides for the application of Scripture Truths it may be every ones Right to direct himself by his own Reason enlightned by the Spirit as to the Explication a very great care ought to be had and still according to the Rule of God's Word with all the help he can get besides but when they have Opinions which they find are generally opposed People so modest so quiet and of the Character they give of themselves not to disturb others should keep it within themselves and not be so servent as ye are to spread it abroad whether your Zeal be without or against Knowledg And if every one who pretends to be a Member of the Church be so busie as ye are to promote their Opinions and no Curb be put upon Interpretations then no end of Heresie Blasphemy or of all sorts of the worst Opinions But before I proceed I think fit to pull down that Strong-hold of theirs as they take it to be tho' rather Sandy Foundation of a free liberty for every one to make what interpretations they please and that I shall the more willingly do tho' as briefly as I can because 't is a Matter controverted between them and us which I had no occasion to meddle with in my Book To begin I say as there is a Right so there is a false Interpretation of Scripture The Right is that which gives the true sense and meaning the False on the contrary Now if every private Man might Interpret Scripture what monstrous Interpretations would there be as we see it too much in the World and this is the ground of Heresy Blasphemy and Fanaticism which to prevent the Lord Jesus as St. Paul saith in those two places where he mentions the Offices in the Church hath settled Prophets and Teachers Every private Man may Read but not Interpret Scripture which in this Case is the first thing to be known For saith the Apostle knowing this first that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private Interpretation so the Interpretation must come from whence the Revelation came 't is but one and the same Spring therefore in the next Verse he clears the Matter For Prophecy came not in old time by the Will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost which doth exclude as humane private Revelation so also humane private Interpretation And herein Paul joineth with Peter when he puts this Question Do all Interpret Which contains an Exclusive how all do not no more than all are no workers of Miracles Furthermore we must know how Scripture hath a binding Power not only directive but also decisive over the Conscience so that thereby the Conscience far from having that free liberty is tied and bound to the determination of the Word or else no Man that believes an Opinion contrary to sound Doctrine and never so heretical and blasphemous could be guilty of Sin But we are assured of the contrary for they who wrest the Scriptures do so unto their own destruction tho' a man must be very cautious not to go against his Conscience yet where there is a Competition between God and Man the Word of God and the Judgment of Man when each challenge of us a Consent we must give it the Word which certainly is true and infallible preferably before the Conscience which may be seduced and erroneous which happens often when 't is guided by humane Reason In Scripture is in matters of Faith a convincing and constraining Power which in Conscience we are bound to submit to in Humane things the Judge is not properly Judge except he Judges according to the Law for he hath no power to alter or corrupt but to declare the true sense of it The Interpretation of the Divine Law which the Question is now about may happen to be mistaken but the Law never for 't is Infallible as being the Word of the True and Infallible God hence is derived its Divine and Undisputable Authority beyond that of any thing else and it should work upon men more than Miracles even than raising from the Dead which may be called the greatest of all for they that hear not Moses and the Prophets will not be perswaded tho' one rose from the Dead The reason is because therein the Spirit of God speaks and thereby leads us into all Truth And indeed if Scripture was not the end of Debates in matters of Religion our Conscience could never be settled nor quiet for that same thing no Humane Reason Power or Judgment is able to effect but we aquiesce to rest and depend upon the Word of the God of Truth and if at the Bar of Conscience there was no such binding Rule but men were left to their own private Judgment none would be bound to believe Scripture but always live amidst Doubts Difficulties and Conjectures not to say singular Notions Fancies and Dreams and so we could never be at a certainty Besides that after this there were no Sin in any man to receive any
Guide it must be first subordinate to Revelation which is the prescribed Rule and from which it ought not to recede no more than a Judge from the Law as Paul told Ananias or else he is in danger of falling into Precipices that 's the Light it must follow and as the Soul is guided by Reason so must Reason be by Revelation neither can Reason and outward Revelation do the Work without inward Revelation whereby Reason is supernaturally endowed and this is Faith a Gift of God this is the ground of our Blessed Saviour's giving his Father thanks for revealing the Mysteries of Faith and Salvation unto Babes that is those who as yet in his Sense were not capable of Reason and plainly tells Peter that if he knew and confessed him to be the Son of the living God Flesh and Blood or his natural Reason had not revealed it unto him but his Father which is in Heaven When the Lord Jesus was upon leaving this World he promised his Disciples a Guide what their own Reason no such thing but the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth who should teach them all things and bring to remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them and he was to abide with them for ever this Spirit of God is the right Guide whom true Protestants own to lead and guide us in the way of Salvation and this he doth not according to human Fancies or private Inspirations but according to the Rule of the Word for saith our Saviour he shall receive of mine that is my Word and shall shew it unto you for he shall not speak of himself he teaches and applies the Word and his working is by the Apostle called the Spirit of a sound Mind which God hath given us so that a sound Mind an Orthodoxy in the Faith is an Effect of God's Gift not of our Reason or of any thing else in us wherefore David saith give me Vnderstanding according to thy Word But these things Socinians have been told over and over and in the Preface and latter end of my Book I think I said enough to satisfie unbyassed Persons so have others too this is the sure and infallible Guide which God hath given us and not any human Authority different from or contrary to it the Pope we cannot own for he is a Party and sets up for himself nor the antient Writers if they deviate from the Rule but 't is a good Argument for the things wherein they follow it Men must not be so selfish and wilful as to despise others who may have the Spirit of God as well as themselves and being Witnesses of those Times are able to inform us how things stood in their time and cannot be partial for this wherein we live The Author of the first Letter hath a touch upon the matter and that 's all 't is about the interpretation of what S. John saith the Word was made Flesh I confess there is a great difference in the interpretation we say according to the natural Signification the Word or Son of God took upon him our human Nature they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate the Word signifies Reason rather than Word and they infer that the Reason or Wisdom of God was communicated unto Jesus Christ this is a very much forced Interpretation and fetch'd afar off for all along the Word is spoken of as a Subject and they would make a shift to turn it into the Predicate Now what shall we do of these two Opinions to find out the true one for if every Person or Party be allowed such a Latitude as to interpret things after their own Fancy there will be no end of false Glosses and wrong Interpretations how doth the Goldsmith do to know true Gold or Silver from that which is false he brings it to the Touch-stone so must we in this case between them and us is a Difference the Party must not be the Judge 't is not just they should be Judges in their own cause nor we in ours then we must agree about a Judge such as is impartial and infallible and none but God is such now God doth not immediatly speak from Heaven for he doth it in his Word that is his Will and ought to be our Law and Rule in matters of Faith I will believe no Man's Assertion except out of Scripture he proves it to me the like he may justly expect from me but in case of that Text of Scripture he and I give different Interpretations what 's to be done we ought still to keep in the same Court and wait for a Decision from the same Judge then I must prove my Interpretation by some other place of Scripture or else he must not believe me nor I him except he doth the like and if Men will but lay aside Prejudices and be acted by a real and sincere desire to find out the Truth God will not leave them but therein afford such Helps as shall answer their Good for all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect Now let us come to our Point and reduce the Rule to a Practice the Question is Whether by the Word is meant a Person as we say or a Quality as they would have it there is a great Difference between Persons and Things now to find out the Truth this Text must be compared with others we need not to go far for in the first Verse of the Chapter we read thrice the same Name in the beginning was the Word was signifieth existed had a Being which relateth to a Person and not to a Thing the same Word was with God and was God what a Quality with God and a Thing God doth the Evangelist begin his Gospel in so high a strain only to tell us how Reason was in the beginning how Reason was with God and Reason was God or in plain Words that God was Reasonable which is a Truth known to every one so no need to tell it but he would acquaint the Readers with things before unknown to them besides doth this hold any proportion with the Nature and Excellency of the Gospel and great Tidings of Salvation this indeed is to exalt Reason and because they make a God of their Reason therefore for Name 's sake Reason must be deified then according to their Principle this Reason must be an efficient Cause of all for all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made to create and make things is the Property and Act of a Person and not of a Thing in him as in a Person and not as in a Thing was Life and the same Apostle calls him the Word of Life that Life which was manifested and that Eternal Life which was with the Father first and then was manifested unto us as if
and said what might be expected from a Member my work being to Vindicate the Honour and Right of my most blessed Lord and Saviour as far as he will be pleased to enable me and to pull off the Vizard from these falsly pretended Members of the Church In the Pamphlet are several Trifles under the Head how wide Socinianism is spread which yet in my way I shall take a short notice of not minding what he saith of my ill-natur'd and malicious Paper for by this time he hath pretty well used me to ill Language as to an idle foolish talking and which is the worst ridiculing and profaning Holy things In several Parts of Europe where I happened to meet with the dispersed Jews I sometimes took an occasion to discourse with some of them about our blessed Saviour but in them all from the highest to the lowest I found a gall and prejudice against him and have cause to think those whom we have here in England to be acted by the same Spirit and by some words heard to drop out of Manasseh Ben Israel's Mouth when in Cromwel's time he came over I perceived that if ever they were suffered to stay here they in Matters of Religion would be as ready to do us harm as themselves good in another way and I thought that I being about naming the Enemies of Christ the Jews we have here might not be omitted and I am of opinion that in case among them there be any Man of Parts Socinians would not be backward to gather out of them what Arguments they could against the Person of our blessed Lord no not from Mahometans if any were near and able to afford them and this I said in relation to Servetus one of their Ringleaders who in his Youth being in Africa among Jews and Mahometans suck'd their Blasphemies and brought them into Europe and to shew how in relation to the Principles of Religion about our Saviour's Person 't is possible for a Socinian to become a Turk I prove it by the Example of Alciati one of their Gang and Socinus's Companion who out of Poland fled into Turkey and became Mahometan Do not think I do you any wrong when speaking of Socinianism I mention Mahometanism for tho' as well as you they deny our blessed Saviour to be God yet they own him to be a great Prophet sent by God 'T is observable how Mahomet himself in that part of his Alcoran wherein he relates that notorious Imposture of his having been carry'd up into the highest Heaven there to see great and strange Mysteries whence may be you borrowed your Dream of an imaginary Ascension of our Lord and Saviour after his Baptism before he began to Teach when at his coming to the first Heaven he met with Adam in the second Noah Abraham in the third c. he saith they all one after another commended themselves to his Prayers but when he came into the seventh where he met Jesus himself he commended to Jesus's Prayers And if ye will know how in many things about the Trinity and Christ's Divinity Socinians agree with Mahometans I refer you to Hottingerus in his Histor Orient l. 2. c. 3. Yet tho' what I speak upon the Matter be words of Truth and Soberness he has as good as call'd me Mad and fell into such a long raving Fig as I think it would require a strong dose of Hellebore to purge away the Matter which caused it and that makes him so often talk of Fire and Faggot and such other things as he brings in over head and shoulders and so looks upon me as one who would see all Socinians put to death Socinianism indeed I would gladly see rooted out but to have Men put to death is neither my inclination nor my work yet as there is a Sin of concealing what one hath seen or known so I cannot but take notice of that as in the case of a false Swearer God said thine Eye shall not pity so the Blasphemer was by his immediate command put to death He would take advantage of something I said about Arminians and upon that occasion would act the States-man's part and shew I have taken wrong measures to gain my Point and so would ironically give Counsel By what they say in several places I see they are free enough to Advise tho' undesired and unfit but they should know we are not used to take the Counsel of our Enemies Men who stand for the Truth are not byassed by Worldy Considerations and Designs tho' never so plausible and specious I thank God in Matters of Religion I have no squint Eye I am neither ashamed nor afraid openly to own a Truth if I was not satisfied it is so I would not own it but it being I will do 't by the grace of God as long as I live till I see cause to the contrary Therefore 't is but time and labour lost for such Advisers their wise Counsels let them keep for themselves for some things which they call Sense and Reason others upon better grounds call Sensual Reason And here Sirs I must tell you how you talk so much of want of Learning in others as if ye were the only great Doctors of the World if as ye say I am a Mystery to you so is your Learning a Mystery to me by your Letters I cannot find where it lies nor no Man else I think But to speak confidently to lodge all Brains in the World within your own Skull to outface Men to wrest and misrepresent what others say and to set up for Judges of all good Sense Wit and Learning that indeed ye sufficiently learned and every one may well be satisfied how great proficients ye are in that kind of Learning But to take my turn to Advise you do not always trust your own Looking-glass for it doth but flatter you and represents not after Nature ye would appear unto the World as if all Wit Parts and Learning were monopolised to your selves and all besides you lying in Blindness and Ignorance That Original Sin derived from and inherent in Socinus's Family that old Leaven in you ought to be purg'd but God knows when it will be if at all for ye look very big upon all others like the proud Pharisees This people who not knoweth the Law are Cursed but we sit in Moses his Seat Matters of Grace and Providence I believe to be of the highest Importance and such as our Salvation depends upon and in my judgment I am fully satisfied Arminians to be much in the wrong but however if a Comparison be made between the Socinian and Arminian Principles no Man that is acquainted with both can but make a difference for tho' in many things they agree yet in others of the most Essential as about the Trinity and the Person of our blessed Saviour they differ from them and therein join with us against that common Enemy Socinians lay under open Blasphemy and condemned Heresie by
part and thereby stop the Course of Justice certainly the Magistrate is to look into 't This Man who in several places abuses Convocations would to serve his turn in this seem to be much concern'd for the Lords Bishops Of this false Accusation he gives two Reasons the first is this For tho' several of them have written learnedly and angrily against Socinianism some in the Real some in the Nominal Trinitarian way yet Mr. G. takes no notice at all of this and for this reason he affirms he most audaciously and slyly slurs the Honour of my Lords the Bishops His second Reason is He often declares his aversion from the Arminians of which Perswasion most of the Bishops have shewn themselves Is this good Logick I am against Arminianism therefore against Episcopacy because it may be some of the Bishops are Arminians it will not stick I disprove Arminianism and honour the Bishops as some of their Lordships can witness but to aggravate he falsly and foolishly saith I have thereby slyly and desperately wounded the Honour of the chief Defenders of the Orthodox Faith Out of this he would prove me to be a rank Socinian or else I would not saith he have done so wherein he confesses Socinians to be desperate Enemies to the Lords Bishops And to retort it he being a Socinian must be an Enemy to the Bishops But I see the Devil is Devil still a Slanderer a false Accuser tho' hypocritically he pretends much Meekness and Charity This very same Man who but one Leaf before blames one much better than himself for not taking care of his Language for his liberal Railing and throwing his Wit and his Foam about he in many places of his Letter doth so against me slanderously charging me with impudent Reflections and again Is it not the highest Impudence in him and in other places they throw such like words upon me Therefore thou art unexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things Nay not only so but the Man hath from first to last broken not one but most Rules of Humanity it would be a happy thing if every Man could but know the Plague of his own Heart And were it not that a good Advise which he doth much want bestowed upon him would be so much time and labour lost I would put him in mind how by God's command there was no Sacrifice offered without Salt an Emblem of Prudence to shew how God would not have Men rashly to meddle with Holy things and except with a serious and humble frame of Spirit and with an awful Reverence which was the true Preparation of the Sanctuary they were qualified for it otherwise he would not relish or accept but only to speak in Solomon's words account it to be the Sacrifice of Fools This under the Gospel in Matters of Religion ought to be a Rule for us as in relation to God so between Man and Man for the Apostle saith Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man which being joined with another Apostles Exhortation Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear or Reverence as the Greek word doth also signifie doth teach us how we ought to speak with Grace Fear and Reverence of Matters of Religion and with Meekness towards those whom we speak to But these Men do quite the contrary for of one side they jest with Holy things and on the other they injuriously use those whom they deal with that is are profane with God and rude with Men They cry up Moderation and Mildness yet with their Railing ironical and brutish Stile and Language are ever the first to break the Rules thereof to call one Impudent and at several times too and to give the Lye it argues in them neither Breeding nor good Nature therefore they must expect that Men thus unhandsomly provok'd will take some notice of it tho' it be contrary to their natural inclination and practise Here upon this account I must desire the Reader to take special notice of the Spirit which this sort of Men whom we now deal against are acted by and in particular of the want of Sincerity Moderation Modesty and Judgment and this shall be within a narrow compass out of what is said by one of the Men as I take it whom I have to deal with in the Apology for M. Toland are with great approbation quoted some Lines of one of their own whom he calls that Celebrated Vnitarian in the Agreement he hath written of the Vnitarians with the Catholick Church p. 54 55. He highly commends that Man with the name Celebrated in hopes upon occasion of the same return of Flattery from him for Asinus asinum fricat The very Man whose Letter I now am about examining would charge me with slurring the Honour of the Lords Bishops and desperately wounding the Honour of the chief Defenders of the Orthodox Faith Would not one think that this Man is highly concerned for and hath a great Honour for the Bishops whom he well calls the Chief Defenders of the Catholick Faith but this must needs be either out of Hypocrisie to serve as he thinks his present turn against me or by an Irony for Socinians love neither Bishops nor Convocations for will they sincerely call Defenders of the Orthodox Faith those who writ against them And for proof of this let us observe how in the fore-quoted place of the Apology they use one of our most Eminent and Learned Bishops when I speak thus the Reader will presently know I mean my Lord Bishop of Worcester who by them is named in the place I know not saith he what it was to his Lordship's purpose to fall upon Mr. Toland ' s Book but if he knows it not his Lordship did and we may suppose it was to some purpose or else he might as well say the Lord Bishop knew not what he did One would think they cannot have the face to teach him what he must do but here follows that which is worse but if he would needs attack the Book he should have dealt fairly Which plainly enough implies the Bishop hath not dealt fairly and to shew herein that I am not mistaken he adds and not carp'd only at a few Passages and those too so mangled and deformed by his representation of them that I dare to affirm Mr. Toland doth not know his own Book in the Bishop's representation of it Is not this a plain demonstration of the great respect which such Men have for the Lords Bishops and of the Reason this Man hath to accuse me for slurring and desperately wounding the Honour of the Bishops But let us turn leave and see in how different a Stile that Socinian speaks of