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
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
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
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
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
thing we go about we are to call upon God for his help and the gracious influence of his Holy Spirit being sure that without it we can do no good and we be sufficiently taught in Scripture to trust to no strength or abilities of our own and when in the World we meet with Men of Principles contrary to these we find it not strange for we know that there must be also Heresies among us or those called Christians that they which are approved may be made manifest among us Wherefore as long as we have about these Matters such a Foundation as Paul the great Preacher of Free Grace hath laid we need not to care for all Exceptions or Cavils of Men or Devils These are such Truths as we hope through Grace never to be ashamed or afraid to own unto the end even to lay down our Lives as he did his for so Glorious a Cause The Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Grace are so linked together that no Man strikes at one but the other feels it tho' may be in a different degree they have a common Enemy so he who is against one is against both which I positively affirm of Socinians Grace and Truth saith the Evangelist came by Jesus Christ who coming into the World brought Grace along with him for he is the Spring of it which he manifested in framing and redeeming of his Church the Foundation whereof and of our Christian Religion lies in this great and fundamental Truth whereof Peter made a Confession how Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God upon the verity whereof there our Saviour declared that his Church should be built and at the same time signified that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it For this is the House built upon a Rock which tho' the Rain descendeth and the Floods come and the Wind blows yet it falls not for it is founded upon a Rock In that Promise of his the Lord Jesus declares two things First The Gates that is the Power of Devils in Hell would afterwards make some attempt against that fundamental Truth of his being the Son of the living God As indeed it hath from time to time raised its strongest Batteries against it as not long after his Ascension even in the life time of his beloved Disciple and after his death the Assaults began by Simon the Sorcerer Ebion Cerinthus Menander and afterwards by other Hellish Instruments But in Arius's time great strugglings happened with so prodigious a success that all the World was said to be Arian hence came the Saying All the World against Athanasius and Athanasius against all the World so afterwards for the same Cause against our Saviour's Divinity several fought under the Banners of Hell as now tho' more cunningly Socinians do having taken up the Cudgels and as those Blasphemous Opinions were exploded out of the World so shall be in God's due time those which are raging for the present notwithstanding all the Craftiness Malice and Power of Hell and all Antichrists of Devils and Men This my so positively speaking is grounded upon Christ's Promise how the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the truth of his being the Son of the living God which his Church is built upon and this is the Second thing not only deduced from but plainly contained in those words of the Lord Jesus whose Person is a fit Object of Adoration as his Grace is of Admiration These Truths one may abundantly be satisfied with out of Scripture which I much have made use of because some places prove a Truth directly others collaterally and others are brought in to illustrate and give a light to the thing so that Scripture is of several uses nothing therein without some use 't is of it as of the Rivers in the Garden of Eden they all did not run one and the same way But now to conclude I in the first place put you in mind to Answer my Book and then take this Occasion which you give me in case ye knew it not before to acquaint you how upon those Matters I have written a Book hitherto Unanswered if you have such an aversion for them as you express do but give us in Print your Thoughts about it 't is a fair Field I offer you but be not afraid for 't is not Smithfield but if ye can defend that Cause no better than the Socinian about the Holy Trinity and Person of the Lord Jesus then it will be in you but Time and Labour lost in vain And if you go about it be more Serious in a Business of so high a nature and less Virulent and Malicious For shame leave off Jesting with Holy things and let it be without giving ill Language for therein I yield you know to do 't more than my self and write like Scholars and Gentlemen without breaking the Bonds of Humanity with Arguments as hard as ye please but softer Words and make no more haste than good speed if ye come in that way then by the Grace of God I will fairly Answer you in the like manner and tho' already there is Work enough cut for you I doubt more than ye are well able to compass yet several new Arguments I have to bring in but if in the usual Scolding Reviling way I will leave you to chew your Cud May be your Bantering way of Writing hath succeeded against some but be not mistaken with others it will never do come with good Arguments and then I am for you however come which way you will I declare I shall not in the least care whether you come asunder or both together FINIS BOOKS Printed for J. Hartley THE Blasphemous Socinian Heresie Disproved and Confuted c. With Animadversions on Mr. Toland's Christianity not Mysterious Dedicated to both Houses of Parliament By J. Gailhard Gent. Verdicts of the Learned concerning Virgil and Homer's Heroic Poems Regular and Irregular Thoughts in Poets and Orators Page 18. Page 15. Page 4. Page 3. Gal. 4. 18. Rev. 3. 15. Page 3. Luke 16. 8. pag. 59. 1 Cor. 2. 4 5. Acts 15. Eccles 4. 10. * 1 Cor. 12. 28. and Ephes 4. ii 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. 1 Cor. 12. 30. 2 Pet. 3. 16. Luke 16. 31. Luke 20. 38. 2 Cor. ii 8. 1 Cor. 2. 12 13. Ephes 1. 16 17 18. Colos 1. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Coloss 2. 7. Heb. 13. 9 1 John 4. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 16. Page 8. Page 4. 16 18. 1 Cor. 7. 7. Acts 17. 2. Acts 28. 23. 1 Cor. 15. 34. Acts 1â— 24 28. Chap. 17. 11. Luke 24. 44. Ver. 45. Isa 8. 20. Matt. 7 5. Pag. 6 7. Job 13. 4. Psal 74. 22. John 20. 31. pag. 6 8 pag. 11. Acts 2â— 3. Matth. 16. 17. John 14. 16 17. Chap. 16. 13 14. 2 Tim. 1. 7. Psal 119. 169. pag. 8. 2 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John 1 2. 1 Cor. 2. 15. 1 Tim. 3 16. Gal. 4. 4. Rom. 8. 32. p. 12 13. John 10. 33 36. John 14. 10. Chap. 11. 4. Isa 42. 8. Luke 2. 49. 50. Coloss 2. 9. Prov. 28. 26. Chap. 23. 4. p. 9 10. In 1565. and 1660. pag. 39. p. 6. 13. Page 14 2 Tim. 2. 25. pag 30. John 16 2 3. Joh. 8. 19. 1 John 2. 23. Matt. 3. 17. and 17. 5. Joh. 12. 28 Joh. 5. 37. Joh. 8. 43. Acts 3. 22 23. 2 Pet. 1. 16 17 18. John 10. 3 4 5. 2 Cor. 11. 13 14. page 17. pag. 19. pag. 18. Matt. 1â— 31. Luke 22. 65. Acts 13. 33 45. 1 Tim. 1. 13. Acts 26. 11. Ephes 2. 12. Coloss 2. 9. pag. 19. Psal 53. 1. pag. 22. Heb. 12. 16. pag. 25. Rom. 12. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 15. Coloss 1. 24. Ephes 5. 23 32. Psal 111. 9. Ephes 5. 4. pag. 20. Matt. 11. 27. Rom. 1. 21 c. John 8. 55. Chap. 14. 7. 2 Cor. 4. 6. pag. 21. pag. 18. 1 Pet. 4. 18. p. 22 33. p. 33. â—9 Rev. 2. 9. 3. 9. p. 7. p. 22. pag. 33. Lev. 5. 1. Deut. 19. 21. Lev. 24. 16 23. p. 25. p. 27. p. 18. p. 4. p. 27. p. 28. p. 29. p. 30. p. 30. Num. 16. 7. p. 31. p. 28. p. 33. p. 40. Rom. 2. 1. Coloss 4. 6. 1 Pet. 3. 15. pag. 42 43. Acts 19. 19. p. 31. Gen. 16. 12. Josh 7. 2 Sam. 21. 1. Joel 2. 25. Rom. 1. 32. Monday May 17. p. 36. p. 37. p. 14. p. 37. p. 38. p. 26 29. Acts 26. 11. p. 28. p. 35. p. 33. p. 41. p. 18. Phil. 4. 5. Luke 18. 11 12 13. Prov. 3. 5. John 1. 17. Matt. 16. 18. Chap. 7. 24 25. A Plea for Free Grace against Free-will * p. 9 20 33.