REFLECTIONS ON TWO DISCOURSES CONCERNING The Divinity of our Saviour Written by Monsieur LAMOTH in French and done into English Written to J. S. LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCIII REFLECTIONS on two Discourses concerning the Divinity of our Saviour c. AMong our other Opposers we are at length attacked by the Preachers and Monsieur Lamoth an eminent Demagogue of the French Nation hath published two of his late Declamations against us I know not whether he was chosen to or put himself upon the Imployment but I will allow that a more fit Person cannot be readily found for the Work by him undertaken He hath Art and Address enough and such a Degree of Confidence as to be above both Shame and Fear If he had either of those in any Degree left to him he would never have said as he does at pag. 15 16 17 34. that the Apostle Paul had not common Sense nor any tolerable Degree of Vnderstanding nay was a Mad-man and the rest of the Apostles were Blasphemers if we do not grant that the Doctrines of the Trinity and of the Divinity of our Saviour as they are now held are true Concerning all the Writers of the New Testament he pronounces at once as here followeth I make no Difficulty saith he p. 33. to assert they have deceived us most shamefully and their Writings are no better than continual Blasphemies if Christ be not true God As to the Christian Religion he saith at p. 18. It hath nothing in it that is great and sublime if you take from it the Divinity of Jesus Christ 'T is not to be doubted that in his next he will tell us our Saviour himself was an Impostor to speak of himself as he did if he were the Great Prophet only But in the mean time I shall tell him that 't is ill manners nay 't is unchristian and impious to set the Persons of the Apostles and the Holy Scriptures themselves on the same Level with the litigated controverted and therefore doubtful and uncertain Doctrines of this or the other Party of Christians so that both must stand or fall together for 't is to equal in their Authority our private Interpretations of the Word with the Word it self The latter will have its true Value allowed to it by all wise and good Men while the other private Interpretations or Opinions shall even among such undergo various Changes be believed in some Ages and rejected in others which all learned Men know has been the Fortune of the Doctrines in Debate between us and the Church But Monsieur Lamoth is heartily troubled that if you take away the Divinity of our Saviour we shall find our Religion to contain nothing that is GREAT or SVBLIME p. 18. The Socinians on the contrary judg that the Design of Religion being confessedly this to direct our Conversation and Manners 't is no Matter how plain and obvious it is and that it being intended for the Unlearned and Vulgar as well as for others there was a Necessity it should neither be sublime nor great We are well satisfied with the Character that Moses and St. Paul give of Religion 'T is not in Heaven or beyond the Sea or in the Deep as who should say 't is neither sublime nor mysterious but 't is in thy Mouth and Heart that thou mayst do it As if he had said 'T is an easy intelligible thing congennit and connate to every Man that none may say 't was sublime and he understood it not 't was great and he could not grasp it This is the Description that Moses makes of true Religion Deut. 30. 12. And St. Paul repeating his Words applies them to the Gospel This is the Word of Faith says he that we preach Rom. 10. 8. But Mr. Lamoth and his Party are not for such a Religion they must have a Religion that is great and sublime and accordingly they have contrived to themselves such a Religion a Religion of which they not only say but profess and boast that 't is above and beyond all Reason You require of me Sir that I should examine the Defence that Monsieur Lamoth hath made of the great and sublime Religion I will do so in the following Method 1. I will make short Remarks on the General Arguments dispersed up and down in his two Discourses as his Translator has complemented him though he should have said his two Declamations 2. I will give an Account of the Texts which whether they will or no he hath impressed to serve his Cause On his general Arguments I Omit that he is pleased to call us p. 52 55 62 63. Enemies of Jesus the Profane Innovators Adversaries of the Lord Jesus near Neighbours to Irreligion for these are Complements that some Preachers readily bestow on as many as differ from them Though again when he is in the Mood as at p. 62. he confesses that we seem to be innocent Lambs and that in our Writings are found glittering Notions and ingenious Explications We won't thank him for the Acknowledgments which Truth it self has extorted from him nor will I resent much his ill Language to us but I will endeavour to treat him though somewhat sharply yet in a more Gentleman-like way He saith p. 52 53 54. By denying the Divinity of our Saviour we make the Bible the strangest Book in the World The Old Testament will scarcely have the least Agreement with the New we find nothing but Thwartings and Contradictions between them This once supposed viz. that Christ is not the most High God 't is evident that Christ came not to fulfil the Law and Prophets but utterly to confound and destroy them Let us speak only of the New Testament What a Book shall we have of it if Jesus Christ be not God The New Testament is full of antient Oracles he meaneth of Quotations out of the Old Testament to the Honour of the Living God but 't is as clear as the Noon-day that the Applications that the Apostles make of them are mere childish Triflings and Blasphemies if our Saviour by one of his Natures be not the Living God Afterwards at p. 53 54. he proceeds to tell us how the Holy Ghost ought saith he to have spoken if Jesus Christ be not God For if he is God the Holy Spirit according to this Author has been as faulty and as blasphemous as the very new Testament and the Apostles are Let us hear what he saith Why say the Socinians might not the Holy Ghost speak magnificently of that Redeemer to whom we are so vastly obliged and whom Providence has raised to such a Degree of Glory For that Reason say I I Monsieur C. G. Lamoth the Holy Ghost ought to have spoke with more Reservedness of the Glory of Christ The greater he is the more is the Danger of his being taken for God his very Greatness makes us the more stand in need of Preservatives If he had not been God the Excess of our Obligations to
Trinitarian Scheme with Notes thereupon the Answers to Dr. Sherlock Dr. Wallis and Mr. Milbourn In which Pamphlets he will see enough to furnish him out against a much abler Sophister than Monsieur Lamoth His last General Argument against us is this that we cannot endeavour the Propagation of our Opinions wichout troubling the Peace of Mens Consciences and setting Christians together by the Ears They own us saith he to be in a State of Salvation and that we have retained all the Fundamental and saving Points of Christianity where therefore is the Charity of these rash Persons to shake a Doctrine which cannot be attacked with any Success without filling the Consciences of Men with Trouble and shedding whole Torrents of Christian Blood Such a Design as this cannot be the Effect of any thing but Pride they have a Mind to distinguish themselves by the Novelty of their Opinions and to advance their own Glory by abating that of Jesus Christ This is the Sum of what he saith p. 62 63. He is the unhappiest Man alive at arguing a Point whether great or small Let us suppose it to be as he says that Trinitarians have retained all the Fundamental Points of Christianity must we not therefore open our Mouths in Defence of so sacred a Truth as the Unity of God The Papists have retained all the Fundamental Points of Christianity in opinion of all Protestants but the Socinians their Fault and Error is only this that they have added abundance of Wood Hay and Stubble to the Gold Silver and precious Stones Shall I say hereupon with this Author where therefore was the Charity of those rash Persons the Authors of the French Reformation to fill the Consciences of Men with Trouble and hazard the shedding nay actually to shed as they did whole Torrents of Christian Blood He saith p. 62. Nothing can warrant the Attempts of the Socinians if the Doctrine which Trinitarians teach and believe is consistent with Salvation Then say I what shall excuse the first Reformers Luther and Calvin for Protestants believe Popery to be consistent with Salvation and I do not think that this bold Man himself will say all Papists are damned But I desire to know of him why Torrents of Christian Blood must be shed on Occasion of the Socinians peaceable Declaration of the Reasons which convince them of the Unity of God and their modest Defence of themselves from the Imputations of being Innovators Enemies of the Lord Jesus near Neighbours to absolute Irreligion and such like barbarous and inhumane Scandals He doth not think the Socinians will shed his Blood or any Man 's else He owns p. 62. that we at least seem to be innocent Lambs nay our Principles and Carriage have wrested also this from him I am willing saith he to believe that they cherish nothing of the Spirit of Persecution What Danger then is there that Torrents of Christian Blood should be shed The Truth is were it not for the Preachers there never had any Blood been shed by occasion of the Questions and Disputes about Religion Matters had been fairly reasoned and we should have thank'd one another for the Light and Information we received from one another were it not that the Preachers by their importune Clamours have always set one Part of the Christian Flock against the other They have been nothing less for the Generality of them than their Office requires even Preachers of mutual Candour Charity Forbearance Love ingenuous Freedom of Mind against the unhappy Biasses of Education Prepossession Interest and other Adversaries to the Discovery of Truth whether Religious or Philosophical It can be nothing he saith but our Pride and a Desire to advance our own Glory by the Novelty of our Opinions that occasions our Dissent from other Christians Nay so wicked are we as well as vain that to exalt our selves we care not how we abuse Jesus Christ whom we confess to be our Redeemer and Saviour But Mr. Lamoth should have been very sure of it before he proclaimed to all People that we honour our selves more than we honour Jesus Christ nay to the Dishonour of Jesus Christ and that our Bottom is nothing but Pride 'T is nothing it should seem with him that we have this Charge given to us in the very first Commandment Thou shalt have no other Gods but me no other whether they be real Persons or only imaginary and fictitious ones 'T is nothing that our Saviour says to the young Man whom he loved Why callest thou me Good there is none good save one that is God Nothing that St. Paul tells all Christians there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Jesus Christ Nothing that an Almighty Father an Almighty Son and an Almighty Spirit different in Number from both can no more be conceived to be one Almighty than a mortal Father a mortal Son and a third Person who also is mortal can be conceived to be but one Mortal not three Mortals If you require Scripture we bring the express Words of our Saviour at John 17. 3. the Father saith he there is the only true God If you demand Reason we demonstrate it with more than mathematical Certainty that three Divine Persons must needs be three Gods because three Divine Persons is nothing else but the Periphrasis or Circumlocution for three Gods even as three humane Persons and three angelical Persons are the Circumlocutions or Periphrases for three Men and three Angels Mr. Lamoth's Answer is that all this and an hundred times more is nothing 'T is true indeed that the Sun cannot shine so brightly as to force it self to be seen for after all 't is but shutting ones Eyes and the Sun shines in vain He urges us with it that we grant that Trinitarians have retained all the Fundamental Articles of Religion Who grants it First they themselves own that if they are mistaken they are Idolaters they are conscious nay they profess and dispute for it that they are guilty of Polytheism if there be no such Persons as they have imagined even an eternal Son of God and an Almighty and Living Spirit different in Number from that Son and from God the Father of all But the Socinians grant it I cannot answer for every particular Writer of the Socinians for my own part I shall never grant that the Unity of God or but one Divine Person is not a Fundamental Article My Reason is this 't is confessed on all sides that both the Covenants the Old as well as the New is between the one true God on the one part and his Servant Man on the other but if so the Covenant is utterly dissolved on our Part if besides this one true God with whom we are in Covenant we set up and equal also with him another Person or Persons whether real or imaginary ones I mean such as knowingly do so and worship accordingly As the Covenant of Allegiance and Protection Allegiance on the Part of
also doeth the Son I say if to these you add the Son can do nothing of himself and again I can of my self do nothing our Saviour's meaning will be clearly this The Son raiseth the Dead giveth Sight to the Blind and doth whatsoever else of that miraculous Nature that the Father himself sometimes doth but 't is with this immense Difference that the Son can do nothing of himself nothing by his own proper Authority or Power but by the Power and Spirit of the Father dwelling in him as in former Prophets It is our Saviour himself and after him the Apostle Peter that make this Explication and give this Account of that miraculous Power of our Saviour by which he did whatsoever things the Father doeth John 14. 10. The Father that dwelleth in me he doeth the Works Matth. 12. 28. I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God Acts 2. 22. Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of God among you by Miracles and Wonders and Signs which God did by him in the midst of you We have seen with what Conscience our Author quotes the Scriptures I am desirous to make trial whether his Judgment be no greater than his Sincerity Those Words of our Saviour which he is so desirous to conceal the Son can do nothing of himself and I of my self can do nothing I beseech you Sir are they the Voice of God or of a Man Will he that is true God and Almighty say I can of my self do nothing it is by the Power and Authority of another by which I do whatsoever I do Come we to his two next Places that Christ will raise Believers at the last Day and that he will change their vile Bodies to be like his glorious Body according to that Power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself I will put a Question to this Gentleman Doth Mr. Lamoth think that the Lord Christ in his present State of Exaltation now raises or will raise the Dead by any other Power but that by which he raised the Dead while he lived upon Earth His Hypothesis will not allow him to say that the Lord Christ hath now any greater or other Power than he had while he was upon Earth It remains therefore that our Lord Christ will raise the Dead at the last Day by the same Power by which he raised divers Persons in his Life-time But I will demonstrate to him that Power was not our Lord 's inherent proper or own Power but given to him by God pro renatâ for the present Occasion and that too at the Instance or Prayer or Suit of our Lord Christ to God We see this very plainly in the case of Lazarus whose vile Body nay whose corrupted Body was by him changed and restored to Life For when Jesus came to the Grave of Lazarus to call him forth to Life again before he says Lazarus come forth he first devoutly owns by whose Power he enterprised this Miracle see his Words John 11. 41. Jesus lift up his Eyes and said Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me And I knew that thou always hearest me but because of the People which stand by I say it that they may believe that thou hast sent me When he had thus spoken he cried with a loud Voice Lazarus come forth I am willing Sir that our Opposers try all their Skill use all their wonted or any new Elusions to wrest this Text out of our Hands Let them tell us whether our Saviour doth not here attribute both his Power and Authority of raising this dead Person to only the Prevalence of his Prayers with God who always saith he heareth me Let them tell us if they dare and if it destroys not their Hypothesis that now however in his State of Exaltation the Lord Christ hath a new Power and that he shall raise the Dead not as while he was upon Earth by an extraordinary Power conferred on him by God who hath sometimes given the same Power to dead and dry Bones 2 Kings 13. 21. but by a Power newly grown up in himself To the Text of St. John concerning the WORD without him was not any thing made that was made I have largely shown in the 5th Chapter of the Answer to Mr. Milbourn that the Evangelist is there speaking of the new Creation or the Gospel-Oeconomy and State of things not of the outward visible or material Creation or World If Mr. Lamoth will satisfy the Reasons alledged in that Answer the Socinians will be indebted to him for ever But he urges us in the last Place with St. Paul's Words Col. 1. 16. For by him were all things created in Heaven and in Earth visible and invisible all things were created by him and for him It must be confess'd that this Allegation hath but one Fault In the Judgment of all the Criticks and Interpreters of Note of our Author 's own Party 't is most falsly translated they read the Text after this manner for by him by the Lord Christ were all things modelled that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible they were all modelled by him and for him The invisible Powers of Heaven even the Angelical Orders and the State of Affairs upon Earth more especially those of the Church have undergone a very great Change have been modelled and as it were new-made by the Lord Christ On Earth he hath abolished Paganism Idolatry and Superstition and introduced in their room the Knowledg of the one true God and a moral Righteousness In Heaven the Angelic Orders are put under his Directions and by him engaged in the Defence of the Church Heb. 1. 14. Mr. Lamoth may see in the fourth Letter of the Brief History of the Vnitarians how many learned Persons Fathers and Moderns of his own Party have thus understood this Text They plainly saw that St. Paul speaks here of the new Creation not of the original making but the modelling or new-making of things and I cannot think it necessary further to answer Monsieur Lamoth upon this Text till he has satisfied the Reasons of the Judicious and Learned of his own Party The last Attribute to evince that the Lord Christ is equal with God is his Mercy Our Author saith Christ's Mercy is sufficient to demonstrate him to be true God His Proof of this is that St. Paul so commonly wishes Grace and Peace to the Churches from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. He saith at p. 43. An Apostle would be better advised than to wish them Grace from any other but only God the Scriptures he saith never tell us of the Grace of Angels or of Men. He advances another Example of his Ignorance or his Forgetfulness when he tells us that 't is said by our Saviour to the Disciples Baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And St. John saith There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father