is fit I should say something to the last but as shortly as I can In order to it I shall resolve all into one Argument as before I did about Jesus Christ The Syllogism is this He is True and Eternal God whom Scripture gives to the Names Attributes Works and Worship of God but all these Scripture attributeth to the Holy Ghost therefore the Holy Ghost is True Eternal God To begin with the first I say the Names of the True God are simply and absolutely given to the Holy Ghost * 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not saith Paul that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you The latter part explaineth the first the dwelling of God alone doth make and constitute the Temple of God and those very same whom he calleth the Temple of God he calleth the Temple or Dwelling of the Holy Ghost We have another when Paul said to Ananias * Acts 5.3 4. Why hath Satan filled thy Heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and in the next Verse Thou hast not lied to Men but unto God Whom he before called the Holy Ghost he now called God these last words tend to exaggerate and aggravate the greatness of his Sin The name of Jehovah is also attributed to the Holy Ghost for the Lord said * Numb 12.6 He will make himself known to and speak by Prophets Now if we compare this with what Peter saith * 2 Pet. 1.21 Holy Men or Prophets of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost we shall find that Jehovah who promised to speak by Prophets is the Holy Ghost which moved them to speak The Attributes of the True God do also belong to the Holy Ghost as first Eternity 't is said * Heb. 9.14 Christ thorough the Eternal Spirit offered him so doth Omniscience for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God also Omnipresence he is every where * Psal 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spiri c. That is I can go no where from it and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you so he doth in every Believer for * Rom. 8.9 he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his as for Almightiness all his Works do demonstrate it Also the Works of the True God are attributed to the Holy Ghost as the Creation of the World * Psal 33.6 By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Breath Spirit of his Mouth and * Job 26.13 By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens the Preservation is represented by his ‖ Gen. 1.2 moving upon the face of the Waters or laying upon as a Hen doth to preserve her Chickens But as the proper Attribute of the Holy Ghost is to be Holy and Sanctifier the great Actor in the high Mystery of Regeneration and applying of Salvation the Work whereof is altogether Divine so to clear it we shall come to some Particulars as teaching of the Prophets who by him were moved as already observed out of St. Peter Now 't is said * Heb. 1.1 God spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets then the Spirit that spoke by them is God ‖ 1 Cor. 12. from Verse 4 to 12. The diversities of Gifts are of the same Spirit the difference of Administration of the same Lord and the diversities of Operators of the same God Now this distribution of Gifts whither of Wisdom of Knowledge of Faith working of Miracles of Pongues c. all these worketh that self-same Spirit dividing to every Man severally as he will 't is all his Free Gift and that there may be no mistake about the word Spirit the Apostle in that place V. 3. calls him the Holy Ghost The Government of the Church which is the Work of God is also attributed to the Holy Ghost for * Acts 13.2 the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have called them which Institution of Ministers in the Church made by the Holy Ghost is also mentioned in another place * Chap. 20.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers that Commission is in the Name and by the Power of the Holy Ghost Thus also the Works of the True God are attributed unto the Holy Ghost when he is called * John 15.26 the Spirit of Truth ‖ Rom 8.15 Spirit of Adoption †Chap. 1.4 Spirit of Sanctification or of Holiness and the * Tit. 3.5 Spirit of Regeneration our Blessed Saviour himself owneth that ‖ Matt. 12.28 he cast out Devils by the Spirit of God Thus Honour and Worship due to the only true God is also rendred to the Holy Ghost Thus St. Paul calls * Rom. 9.1 upon him as a Judge of his Conscience and Searcher of his Heart In ‖ Matt. 28.19 Baptism he is called upon as well as the Father and the Son and that which in Scripture is said about * Chap. 12.31 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven and ‖ 1 John 5.16 which we are forbidden to Pray for doth sufficiently convince how the Holy Ghost is to be worshipped with no less Piety Honour and Adoration than are the Father and the Son This short Scheme which upon occasion may be enlarged I at this time have drawn against the Blasphemous Heresies of Socinians that by the Paw the Reader may know the Lyon and so to give People warning of the Danger and Nature of the Poison which strikes at no less than to overthrow the Fundamentals of True Christian Religion Thus if Men having been forewarned stand upon their Guards they may by the Grace of God be able to avoid the Evil and Occasion of it As to the other Points wherein they Err especially about Matters of Grace as that the Causes of Predestination are not in God but in us that he doth not predestinate to Salvation any particular or certain Persons and that Predestination is mutable and may be frustrated These and others I now omit only give this hint to shew how they are broke loose against the Person and Grace of our Blessed Saviour in them we find united and concentered the Damnable Errors of the two great Heresiarks Arrius and Pelagius even against Scripture Reason and Authority the Belief of the True Christian Primitive Church That which now remaineth for me to do is directly to address my self to several sorts of Persons First To the Clergy-men both to the Sound and Unsound part thereof whom God hath set to be Watchmen over Israel his People they cannot be Ignorant of God's Charge to them and how strictly God will require at their Hands the Blood of those that shall Perish thorough their Faults It is the Duty of them all whither Superior or Inferior and ought to be their diligent Care
Serious Advice TO A PRESERVATIVE Against the Blasphemous Heresie OF SOCINIANISM Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect Hatred I count them mine Enemies Psal 139.21 22. By J. G. G. LONDON Printed for Geo. Grafton and are to be Sold by Ric. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1695. Serious Advice to a Preservative against the Blasphemous Heresie of Socinianism NOW more than ever there is cause to say the last Days and Times foretold by the Apostles * 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5. St. Paul and ‖ 1 John 2.18 St. John are come upon us For not only Iniquity in Practise doth abound every where and the Man and Manner of Sin is daily more and more discovered But also Perverseness in Judgment in no less than Heresie and Blasphemy walks bare-faced with those who are so far delivered up to Satan as to deny the Lord of Glory For abominable Socinianism which is a Sink of the Cerinthians Ebionites Sabellians Samosatenians Photinians Arrians Semi-Arrians Anti-Trinitarians Pelagians and of several other Hereticks doth now proudly appear and in Effect defie Christian Religion and attempts to overthrow the Foundation of the Gospel not in one but several parts thereof It is for me a Matter of Wonderful Grief to see the Boldness and Impudence of that Abominable Heresie as it were Triumphantly to come in of one side and the Silence and Sluggishness of those that should oppose it on the other * Jer. 9.1 O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might Weep day and night for the Guilt which is thereby contracted upon the Nation My Purpose is for the present by the Grace of God only to give in my Evidence in the Case and that as briefly and plainly as I can to condescend to the meanest Capacity But if by Providence I be further engaged in the Matter I shall grudge neither Time nor Pains upon so Just so Necessary and so Glorious an Account as to bear Record for the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion Laelius Socinus the Uncle and Faustus Socinus his Nephew both of Siena in Italy soon after the Death of Detestable Servetus did the first conceive and the second bring forth their Damnable Opinions which amongst the rest are these They deny the most Holy and Adorable Trinity Christ's Divinity his being Coeternal in Time if we may use that word with the Father Coessential in Nature and Coequal in Power they will not own he hath given the Father Satisfaction for our Sins but only obtained for us by our Faith and Obedience to satisfie for our selves They say he died for our Good but not in our Place he died for himself not for his Sins but for the Mortality and Infirmity of our Nature which he had assumed he became not our High Priest till after his Ascension into Heaven How Man before his Fall was Naturally Mortal and had no Original Righteousness that in us there is no Original Sin as it imports a Deformity of Nature The Holy Ghost they admit not to be God no more than Christ whose Incarnation they affirm to be against Reason and without Proofs of Scripture With Pelagians they are against Providence and Matters of Grace All these and others abominable Errors which destroy the whole Foundation and Work of our Salvation are to be found in the Books of Socinus Crellius Ostorodius c. How far will Men go when once they are fallen into and engaged in an evil way When God hath left them in the Blindness and Darkness of their Understanding and given them up to the Imaginations and Counsels of their evil Hearts to the Temptations of Satan and to their own Natural Corruption We see it in the case of that Wicked Arrius who within a short time from the Year 323 till 336 drew a great part of the World after him and in the other of that great Impostor Mahomet who agreed with Arrius against the Deity of the Lord Jesus wherein he is followed by Socinians That Man thorough a Judgment of God * 2 Thess 2.11 sending a strong Delusion that Men should believe a Lye by the means of a Foolish Book of a Nonsensical Alcoran of pretended Trances and Raptures when he was in his Fit of the Falling-sickness and of the Cheat of a Pidgeon picking as it had been taught some Grains out of his Ear as if the Angel Gabriel under that shape had then been Suggesting his Religion and Doctrine to him with some Allowance to the Pleasures of the Flesh in this World and Promises of the like in the next by these means and the Trick of his Tomb at Mecca hath drawn a great part of the World after him In order to settle their Impious Principles Socinians go about two things First To overthrow the Ground of our Faith and Religion with their attempting to undermine Holy Scriptures which are the Foundation and Rule of it To bring it about They affirm the Old Testament to be needless for Christians as for the Books of the New they allow not the Authors thereof to have been Inspired by the Spirit of God positively against what is said 2 Tim. 3.16 and therein they would have some places to contradict others grant this and you take away the Infallibility and Truth of Scripture and if it be yielded of one Text why not of many more If so What will become of Christian Religion grounded upon the Gospel For if we must believe St. Paul who * Gal. 1.11 12. Certifies it is not after Man for he neither received it of Man neither was he taught it but by Revelation of Jesus Christ The second thing Socinians do to promote their Blasphemies is To make Natural Reason the Principle of Religion for they give all to Reason as if it was Infallible and could not be imposed upon and nothing to the Authority and Consent of the Church nor of Scripture it self according to this Rule of theirs That no Interpretation of Holy Scripture is to be admitted except it doth agree with Natural Reason and to the Evident Experience of outward Senses Instead of the Traditions which Papists bring in they would have their own Reason without the Influences of the Spirit of God to be the genuine and proper Interpreter of God's Holy Word So take away the Rule and you bring in Disorder and Confusion We know and own how Faith doth not destroy Reason rather it doth Refine and Purifie it so God forbid we should exclude Reason from Religion for 't is Subservient to it Reason indeed hath something of Religion for by the Light of Nature in things of the World and Course of Providence one may be convinced how there is a Being of Beings a first Cause of all and a God whose Power and Wisdom appeareth in the Works and Order of Nature which as * Psal
now he knew every thing * John 21.17 Lord thou knowest all things saith Peter unto him ‖ Ch. 2.24 25. he knew all Men and needed not that any should testifie of Man for he knew what was in Man There was no Dissembling before him * Heb. 4.13 14. for all things are and were naked and open unto the Eyes of him with whom we are to do even Jesus the Son of God who when upon Earth knew ‖ John 6.70 and 13.11 which of the Twelve was a Devil for he knew who should betray him This Record he bears of himself and we know his Record is true * Rev. 2.23 All the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the Reins and Hearts All this is very plain In the Word of God our Saviour is declared to be Almighty for ‖ John 5.19 whatsoever things the Father doth these also doth the Son likewise and †Heb. 1.3 he upholdeth all things by the word of his Power In the fore-quoted place of Rev. 1. he calls himself the Almighty Christ Jesus is also present every where another Attribute of an Infinite Being * Matt. 18.20 Chap. 28.20 Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there I am in the midst of them and Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World But not only all these forenamed Attributes incommunicable to the Creature such is every meer Man are applied unto the Lord Jesus also Divine Works are as the Creation of the World ‖ John 1.3 All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made Which St. Paul confirmeth * Colos 1.16 For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones and Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him We know the Work of Creation is peculiar to God he never imparted it to any Creature for none is capable of it only an Infinite Being and Power can fill up an infinite distance between an ens and non ens a real Being and nothing between these two is an unpassable Gulf for any Creature an Abyss that can be filled up by no Man nor Angel To create is God's incommunicable Work the Name of Creator or Maker of something out of nothing belongs to God alone and seeing the World was created by the Word and that Christ is the Word that was made Flesh it followeth that Christ is God Heb. 1.2 God by his Son made the Worlds So he Rules and Preserves the World as in the fore-quoted place Heb. 1.3 He upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power He saith himself ‖ John 14.11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else believe me for the very Works sake He is one of the Elohim that created the World Gen. 1.1 It is also a Divine Work to raise Men from the Dead this also belongs to Christ for as the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will The words as and so do shew an Equality in the Acts our Saviour raised Jairus his Daughter Lazarus c. nay he raised himself by his own Power * John 10.18 I have Power to lay down my Life and take it up again Can any one but God give Eternal Life But ‖ Chap. 10.20 Christ gives his Sheep Eternal Life Who can forgive Sins but God only The Jews were in the Right according to their Primciples to call it Blasphemy because they believed him to be a meer Man and not God as he was * Mark 2.7 10. Why doth this Man thus speak Blasphemies who can forgive Sins but God only Whereupon immediately our Saviour to shew he was God said That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive Sins c. he proveth it with a Miracle The raising of the Dead and other Miracles done by the Apostles were not in their Names and by their Power as all Christs were * Acts 3.6 but in the Name and by the Power of Jesus of Nazareth Lastly Divine Worship and Honour is and ought to be rendred to our Saviour by Angels and Men and ‖ Heb. 1.6 let all the Angels of God worship him and * John 5.23 that all Men should Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father that is alike that signifies in the same Nature Manner and Degree but God declares ‖ Isa 42.8 he will not give his Glory to another Wherefore Christ must needs be the same as the Father of the same Nature and not a Titular God as they would make of him So they who deny him truly to be the Son of God in that are worse than the Devils which owned him to be such Matt. 8.29 which Truth hath been sealed with the Blood of Millions of Martyrs And to come to Particulars * John 3.15 16 we must believe in him we must ‖ Matt. 28.19 be Baptised in his Name and * Phil. 2.10 at his Name every Knee should bow If Christ were not God it were Idolatry to worship him yet our Blessed Saviour who was no Friend to Idolatry would not have suffered the Man in the Gospel to have worshipped him but far from forbidding he encouraged him to it and under what Notion as Son of God for he asked him ‖ John 9.35 36 37 38. Doest thou believe on the Son of God The Man answered Who is he Lord Christ replied Thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee Can we desire a plainer Declaration that Christ is the Son of God and ought to be worshipped and if he were not the true Son of God of the same Nature it had been Idolatry and Blasphemy in Thomas to call him * John 20.28 My Lord and my God God foreseeing the Devil would raise his strongest Batteries against his Son who came to destroy the Works of the Devil which therefore would have cut him off in his very Cradle and stirred up the whole Malice of Earth and Hell and to Discredit his Doctrine that Father of Lies found Instruments that defamed his Person and said he was a Samaritan a Friend to Publicans and Sinners that had a Devil and did cast out Devils by Belzebub he was the Carpenter's Son such a Fellow as they knew not from whence he was a Seducer Deceiver and Impostor I say God fore-knowing all this provided sufficient Remedies and by his Holy Spirit in his Word gave such clear and full Evidences as none but those in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds could doubt of or call to question this Truth of the Gospel * John 3.16 Chap. 1.18 That God sent his own Son into the World Moreover His only begotten Son which is in the Bosom
19. David saith and ‖ Rom. 10.18 Paul after him takes notice of day unto day uttereth Speech and night unto night sheweth Knowledge But our Religion and Faith in Christ is not a Doctrine of Nature or else Salvation thorough his Name had been known to every Man but Experience convinces us of the contrary And St. Paul doth positively and plainly declare upon the Matter in the case of those who wanted no Natural Reason when by the Rules thereof they would measure true Religion * Rom. 1.21 22 Became vain in their Imagination and their foolish Heart was darkened Professing themselves to be Wise they became Fools All and the best Natural Reason in the World nay the greatest Gifts of Nature in Knowledge Wisdom Parts whither innate or acquired by the Philosopher Orator c. come very short of Faith which in us is the Soul of our Religion for * 1 Cor. 2.14 The Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him neither can he know them for they are Spiritually discerned So that with St. Paul we may upon this account ask * 1 Cor. 1.20 Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World Where is the Rational Man Hath not God made Foolish the Wisdom of this World The Reason that is meerly Natural he hath infatuated and to shew that Reason alone cannot bring us to true Religion that is to the Gospel it is called a Mystery * Eph. 3.4 the Mystery of Christ and ‖ 1 Tim. 3.9 the Mystery of the Faith and a great one too * 1 Tim. 3.16 for without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the Flesh then Christ is God for none but he was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up in Glory all these are appliable to Christ and to none but him to God made Flesh The Knowledge of this is so far above Reason that to make it known 't was necessary it should be revealed * Eph. 3.3 How that by Revelation he God made known to me the Mystery yea such a Mystery as Natural Reason could not attain unto for 't is * Col. 1.26 the Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and from Generations Surely during these Ages and Generations there were those Men who wanted not good Natural Reason but now is made manifest to his Saints not to every Man for * Matt. 13.11 unto you it is given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given Then it comes not by Natural Reason but 't is a Gift of God Now the Gospel and the Preaching of Jesus Christ is the Doctrine of Christian Religion and this * Rom. 16.25 According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began If we want another Apostle's Evidence we have it in St. Peter in the case of the Prophets under the Old Testament who * 1 Pet. 1.10 11 12. enquired and searched diligently of the Grace that should come unto you all which had been in vain but they got it by Revelation unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you no need of Revelation where Natural Reason can attain unto yet without Revelation the Prophets which wanted no Natural Reason could not I go further and say Angels who are clear sighted far above Men * 2 Pet. 2.11 greater in Power and Might and have a greater depth of Reason What of them Which things says the same Apostle in the same place that is the Mysteries of the Gospel the Angels desire to look into not to dive but to look into to see and adore that Incomprehensible Mystery they cannot look into or else they would not desire it for none desires to have that which he hath Angelical Nature cannot fathom those Depths and do we think the shallow Brain of the most Rational Man can Hereupon I think I may follow our Blessed Saviour's way of arguing in the case of the Day of Judgment only he doth from the lesser to the greater and I from the greater to the lesser * Mark 13.32 Of that Day and that Hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels which are in Heaven Thus the Mystery of the Salvation of Mankind knoweth no Angel much less any Man be he never so Rational only as much as God hath been pleased to reveal in the Gospel that Knowledge comes not by Reason or any thing else of Nature but by Grace I think this sufficiently sheweth how deficient Natural Reason is to lead us to True Christian Religion without Revelation which God effected by means of Angels Prophets Apostles and Evangelists and this not with a bare outward Declaration but an inward effectual Working and Revelation of his Holy Spirit But I must not exceed the narrow Bounds I prescribed my self So then in Opposition to Socinians as we believe the Perfection and Infallibility of Holy Scripture we also must own there are in our Holy Religion several things above Reason Indeed Matters of Fact do fall under our Senses but those of Faith go far beyond them Material things such as our Senses hold no Proportion with Spiritual such is Faith highly elevated also beyond Reason Certainly this Generation of Men come under the Curse pronounced by St. Paul * 1 Cor. 16.22 If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha 'T is to Hate and not to Love him as to go about to derogate from his Right and as much as in them lies to deprive him of his Due and dishonour him as he told the Jews * John 8.49 Verse 12 18 24 28 29 40 42. I honour my Father and ye dishonour me Wherein It is set down in several places of the same Chapter as namely they would not believe him to be the Light of the World nor the Witness which he and the Father did bare of him and that he was he that is the Messiah the Christ the Son of God who had told them the Truth he had heard of God whom he there calls often his Father for I proceeded forth and came from God Yet 't is as true as strange that notwithstanding so many clear Proofs of his Divinity in Scripture Socinians deny him to be God without which he had not been qualified to be Mediator between God and us for a Mediator must have the Nature of both Parties nor gotten the Victory over all the Enemies of our Salvation Though to avoid Prolixity I must not insist upon the Proofs of our Lord's Divinity which is the Life of our Faith Hope and Comfort yet something I must now say to it If we had no other
to feed their Flocks with Sound Doctrine and with the Sincere Milk of Truth to prevent the Wolves coming into their Sheep-folds which now are waiting for an Opportunity to enter in and tear * Ezek. 13.5 Let them go up into the Gaps and make up the Hedges for the House of God and use every one all possible endeavours with Watching and Preaching to prevent the Poison's creeping within their several Churches and strive with good Lives and Conversations to procure God's Blessing upon their Labours But in a special way to the Superior Clergy who have a great Hand in the Government of the Church and are dignified with Titles that the greater Power they have the more is and shall be required at their Hands when the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls shall appear I dare not to presume so far of my self as to think I am able to advise much less to prescribe any Methods that must be left to their Christian Prudence and to that Measure which God hath imparted to them of his Spirit However with Submission it will be well to begin at Home and every one see whither all be safe and sound within the Pales of their Jurisdiction and if there appears any signs of Leprosie and Plague without loss of time and in the most proper ways let them Purge Cleanse and Remove it and then use means conducing to keep it out and hinder its coming in Afterwards let them meet and joyn Heads together and be a mutual Help and take such wholsom and vigorous Resolutions as may by the Blessing of God root out and prevent the growing of those dangerous Weeds Let every one not only within his Precincts labour against the Distemper but also altogether strive to drive it out of the Land Let them use their Authority as far as it reacheth in Ecclesiastical things and wherein it falls short they may for help apply to the Civil Power and those amongst them whom God hath endued with sufficient Parts and Learning Let them in God's Name make use of those Weapons to fight against and batter down Error and Heresie to discourage and discountenance it in the Fautors and Professors thereof And speedily they must go about it for fear of coming too late for 't is too true and too publick how the Poison is gotten not only here and there up and down but also into our very Vitals I mean into the Vniversities Let them but be Real and Upright for God and our Saviour's Interest and trust God for a Success But at one time or other * Jer. 48.10 the Curse of God will light upon those that do his Work deceitfully or negligently Wherefore mind ye Christ if ye will have him to mind you be concerned for him and his Glory if you desire him to be concerned for you My next Address is to the Magistrate and Secular Power whither Supreme or Subordinate Legislative or Executive with all humble Respect in the present case to put them in mind of their Duty as they Rule for God who hath placed them in their Stations so at the Last and Terrible Day if not before he will call them to give him an account of their Administration he not only hath called but also preserves them in the Exercise of their Charge and keeps the most Unruly in Awe and Obedience under them As this he doth for them so he expects they shall do other things for him he hath put the * Rom. 13.4 Sword in their Hand which they bear not in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil not only to maintain their own Authority but also and chiefly that of God for all Authority is originatively in him and but derivatively in them for in his Name and by Vertue of his Commission is all Jurisdiction and all Judgment to be executed They are the Keepers of both Tables to punish not only the Transgressors of the second but also those of the first not only Adulterers Thieves and Murtherers but also Profane Impious Idolaters and Blasphemers I do not say presently to Hang Draw and Quarter but let the Guilty be discountenanced and the Obstinate and Contumacious punished Herein let Christian Prudence be their Guide and the Law of the Land not without God's be the Rule whereby they will unnest our Atheistical Impious and Prophane Persons who do shelter themselves under Socinianism I am sure the Devil and all the Powers of Hell can raise no Opinions more Damnable and Blasphemous no more Destructive to the very Foundation of Faith and Salvation than to bring in amongst a Christian Society that which spares not but strikes at Divinity it self which offers to pull out of God's Bosom his only begotten Son who robs that very Son of God of his Nature and of that Glory which he had with the Father from all Eternity and undertakes to Annihilate that Holy and Blessed Spirit of God This indeed is to grieve him that comforteth us in all our Griefs and at once to overthrow the whole Mystery of our Redemption for if Christ be not God he hath not satisfied the Justice of God nor appeased his Wrath And thus our Faith is vain and we are still in our Sins for it was impossible for any Man meerly such to perform that great Work and overcome all our Enemies I say though God had strengthned him never so much for no Man could receive a greater Power than Humane Nature is capable of and God could not of a Man make a God because it implies a Contradiction Humanity being passible was a fit subject to suffer Pains due for Sin and the Curse of the Law but an Infinite Power was necessary to get the Victory over those Torments and over Death I say not only that Humane Nature alone could not perform this but I add That Angelical Nature more noble and perfect would have sunk under the Weight and Burthen of it These Errors we must look upon as Hellish and Prodigious Monsters as indeed they are but withall the Impudence and Shamelesness of those that are therewith infected is a great Aggravation they Glory in their Shame for with a bare and brazen Face they own and publish their Opinions which I could observe to my Grief and Amazement No Modesty in their Behaviour no sign of Piety in their Discourse no Check of Conscience they speak openly write publickly and boldly disperse their Erroneous Books and no Curb no Restraint put upon them they Poison the Souls and no body saith to them What doest thou We have the Ny s the Fer ns the Fr ks c. known for what they be we have here as I am informed one Crel us Nephew to that Infamous Socinian beyond Sea we have here some Fr ch Wretches who before they came over durst not own their Opinions for fear of Fire and Faggot yet here vent them with Liberty who if ever they went back would no