all and others he is pleased to take their Reason from them after they have had it witness Nebuchadnezzar and our Bethlem Now then seeing God is one and his Truth is one and the same yesterday to day and for ever What an unreasonable Reason doth the short Accountant give for his Faith in his 3d. page Where he with seeming Triumph tells us that he therefore believes what God reveals because he hath reason so to do And what if this Gentleman had no Reason must God's Word cease to be Truth because he hath no reason to be believe it And what if he had some Reason but not so much as now he pretends to and what if some have a great deal more than he as I have some Reason to believe there are that have Is it reasonable to say God's Word is true or false right or wrong according to the Measure of Reason that God hath given to every Man If this be not unreasonable Nonsence I know not what is Thus is the Word of Truth fulfill'd He that leaneth to his own Vnderstanding is a Fool That there is Reason to believe what God reveals is certain and to believe what God reveals because he reveals it is to make God's Truth and Power the Reason and Foundation of our Faith but to believe what God reveals only because it is agreeable to our reason is both irrational and absurd For thereby we make our foolish Reason the Rule and Standard of God's Truth and not only so but of the very Being of God himself so that if God doth reveal that the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost is one God and that this one God is the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost this Gentleman will not believe it because his Reason doth not comprehend it So that because he cannot find out the Almighty to Perfection therefore he will not believe him to be what he saith he is Thus when the Light shineth in Darkness and the Darkness comprehendeth it not then the Light must cease to be Light because the Darkness cannot comprehend it These are our Doctors of Reason or rather our Unreasonable Doctors who professing themselves wise are become Fools Rom. 1. 22. If you tell me that you cannot believe except you have Reason so to do because then your Faith would be unreasonable and unreasonable Men and faithless Men are joyned together in Scripture 2 Thes 3. 2. I answer the Unreasonableness of Unbelief lies in this That it makes God a Liar who is Truth it self and that Men following the Dictates of their own Reason cannot comprehend nor will their Wills submit to God's Will Hence it is that Carnal Reason is Enmity against God and whereas you tell us page 6. Colume 2. of your Divine Vnity asserted That the Reason you plead for is not Carnal or Corrupt Reason it being right Reason you plead for Yet it is evident enough that you are wrong notwithstanding all your Pretensions to right Reason for you confine Carnal Reason to the inordinate Appetites of the flesh such as drunkenness and the like which the Reason of the Heathens did see plain enough was very unreasonable Now in this you are not right for the World by Wisdom knew not God 1 Cor 1. 21. Now the World never accounted these Immoralities their Wisdom at least the wise Men of the World never did And I have reason to believe Panl had as good a stock of this Reason you plead for before his Conversion as your self Sir or any of the other six Wise Masters of Reason For as touching the Law he tells you he was blameless and doth not the Law forbid Drunkenness Uncleanness and the like and yet at this time a day he was much about as great an Enemy to Christ and the way of Salvation by him as your self Sir For he verily thought he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus God grant you may be as great a Friend to our Lord Jesus Christ before you dye as Paul was And it is very reasonable indeed Sir that you consider what was the grand Error and Mistake not only of Paul but of the whole Body of the Jews who continued in Unbelief they could not believe that that same Jesus was the Lord of Life For Paul tells you that had they known it they would not have crucified him they could see that he was Man plain enough and a Holy Man too but their Reason would not let them see that he was more than Man except such as God was pleased to reveal his Son unto as in Paul But my Author in his Divine Vnity asserted tells us in page 5. Colume 2. that these Lights which he had before mentioned namely Sense Reason and Revelation must not contradict each other and saith Our Sense is given as a ground to work upon and our Reason as a means to assist and compleat the Knowledge we receive by Sensation and Revelation can't be receiv'd but by Means of these two former 'Till now No nor yet neither do I understand that Sense is a Foundation for Faith nor that Divine Revelation is confin'd to our Reason nay the contrary is Evident and to say or think that it is so is to make God like our selves but such Fools God himself will reprove Psal 50. 21. Nor is our Reason till truly rectified by the Spirit of God a means to receive the revealed Will of God nay it is the main thing that opposeth the great Mystery of God's revealed Will in the Gospel For the Carnal Mind is Enmity against God and cannot be Subject to the Law nor reveal'd Will of God and that not only the Reason of the Drunkard as before mentioned but that which Men call true Reason though it be far enough from being so Nay our Author goes on in the greatness of his Reason or rather in the madness of his Folly and saith We cannot without the greatest Folly suppose a thing can be reveal'd to us contrary to our Sense or Reason and thinks he hath sufficiently prov'd it by saying God cannot tell us White is black or that two and one is not three or that a Debt that is freely forgiven is fully paid Now in this you are not Wise for I will show you that God is greater than Man Job 33. 12. and there is nothing more true and certain than this truth that the God of truth cannot Lye and there is nothing more true and self Evident than that God calls that White which the Wise Men of this World call Black opposing their Reason against the revealed Will of God still setting themselves against God so that what God reveals to be Good proud foolish Man will call Evil. Ay Sir and as great Doctors of Reason as your self or else how come the Wise Men and Scribes to have a hand in our Lords Death and to think they did God good Service when they kill'd his Disciples Doubtless their Reason such as it was and
the one cannot be enlarg'd nor the other enlightned are there not ten thousand things which your reason doth not understand which are certain Truths for all that and is not God able to enlarge your Capacity and your Understanding and make that appear to be truly reasonable which now by reason of your Ignorance you can see no reason for except you will say that you have attain'd to the highest pitch of Reason and Understanding that God can give you and consequently that you are infallible in all matters of Faith and in the very Nature and Being of God And if so you would do well to turn out that doating Fool at Rome and place a wiser in the Chair and lay aside the Scriptures and Simon Magus like set up for some great one in the World I still see reason to guide my Reason by the Scriptures and therefore I believe when I see a Man wise in his own Conceit I may have more hope of a Fool than of him Now though I have reason to believe that our short Accountant and our nameless Author are Brethren in this unreasonable Work of denying that Jesus Christ is the living and true God as much as Simon and Levy were in their unreasonable Zeal Yet if my Reason fail not I think they contradict each other For our nameless Author tells us pag. 5. colume 1. that Reason is a Power or Faculty of encreasing our Knowledge by Industry whereby if we rightly proceed we may come to an absolute certainty in many things So then Reason is capable of being encreas'd and growing by Industry Hence it follows that small measures of Reason can give a Man but small Certainty in many things if in any thing how contrary is this to my Accountants third Reason whose Capacity is not to be enlarg'd nor can any thing be true that is contrary to his present Understanding but when Reason is thus improv'd my Author himself tells me and I have Reason to believe him that it is but a certainty in many things so that some things are still exempted from a certain Knowledge of by Reason according to my Doctor of Reason his own Argument And if any thing be exempted surely Reason would inform a Man that the things of God should be some of those things especially those things that concern his very Being and Nature But to return to our short Accountants Third Reason for I would not hide any of his most comely Parts nor diminish any of his strongest Reasons he proceeds in his aforesaid pretended Reason and tells us Though he is bound to believe whatever God saith is True yet it is because I have Reason so to do But saith he I cannot believe the thing God saith till I know what he saith You are very right Mr. Doctor the Devil will tell the truth sometimes but he adds nor well believe pray Mark nor well believe God saith so and so till by Reason I am assured it is true Reason can never assent to that which appears unreasonable nor can I otherwise than by Reason assure my self that the Scripture is a Divine Revelation These are his very words for as I said before I will not hide his strong Reasons The first part of this Third Reason I have Answered already but he cannot well believe God saith so and so till by Reason he is perswaded it is true If Abraham had had such a Conceit of his Reason he might have Lived and Dyed in Unbelief for ought I know to the Contrary For what Reason had he to believe he should have a Son when his own Body was as good as Dead and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of Women but the revealed Word of God and he did not say this is according to my Reason therefore I will believe what God saith no he Argued quite otherwise and said though I see no Reason for this but a great deal against it as much as ever our Accountant can pretend to be Master of Yet because it is told me by that God that cannot Lye and Almighty power being ingaged to perform it therefore I do believe it and therefore it is said Rom. 4. 18. he believed against hope and therefore against reason but he would have had hope if he had had Reason for Hope will follow Reason and it would be an unreasonable peice of Nonsence and a contradiction for a Man to say I have Reason to believe I shall have such a thing but I have no hopes of it Rom. 4. 18. Yet our Accountant will needs set up for a Master of Reason though he knows not what he speaks nor where of he doth affirm Besides in this my Accountant gives no more Honour and Glory to God by believing then he or any Man else may give to the Devil For when the Father of Lyes speaks truth and that you know he will do sometimes then you may believe him if by Reason you are assur'd it is true but God is to be Believed on the Authority of his own Word It is no wonder that Men discover themselves to be Fools when no less Folly will satisfie them then to kick against him in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge Colos 2. 3. But I pass to my Accountants Fourth Reason in the aforesaid Third Page By Revelation saith he we are taught and it is no way contrary to Reason that this one God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is this one God Joh. 17. 1. Very true and how forcible are right Words but what doth your Arguing either prove or reprove from this We are Taught by the Scriptures of truth that Jesus Christ is the True God and Eternal Life and that the true God is Jesus Christ 1 Ep. John 5. 20. and John 17. 1. Titus 2. 13. Now whether this be contrary to my Accountants Reason or no it is nevertheless true for all that but I see no Reason to deny the Father to be God for all this and if I should yet my Reason and the Inference would be as Justifiable as his in denying the Son to be God His Fifth Reason you have in his aforesaid Third Page for you must know they being small will lye in a little room Whenever God the Father and Christ his Son are spoken of in Scripture they are spoken of as two distinct Persons and Beings as Joh. 7. 16. It 's certain they are so as the Scripture declares them to be yet the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost are but one God for all that And he adds Though they are said to be One in some Sense yet never but in such a Sense as God and others may be said to be One viz. in Love Agreement and Will One would wonder that a Man pretending to Reason and Religion should not be ashamed to tell the World such an unreasonable untruth as this what is Christ and God the
but the Spirit of God and he to whom he reveals him Why then it must pass through the strict Inquisition of the Doctor of Reasons Queries as First How can these things be Secondly How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat Joh. 6. 52. These are hard sayings who can hear them ver 60. Or Thirdly Thou art not yet fifty Years old and hast thou seen our Father Abraham And if our Lord stand to it and assert his Divine Nature by saying before Abraham was I am they will will be ready to Stone him for a Blasphemer because they knew his Mother and his supposed Father according to the Flesh therefore he cannot speak the Truth it will not pass with Doctor Reason Therefore Gods Truth must be condemned for Folly and Nonsense But woe unto those Men that will call evil good or good evil or truth error or error truth when God riseth up to contend with those Men he will make them know he is not such a one as themselves But our Accountant after all his Pains to build a Babel's Tower undermines it all at once in the winding up of his Reasons For he saith in his Tenth Reason and his last but one That the ascribing the Divine Natures incommunicable Perfections and worship to one and another or a third Person or self necessarily infers a Plurality of Gods and is a breach of the First Commandment hath many evil tendencies and is the Ground of all the Idolatry Antichristianism and Paganism This is a high kick indeed for here our Accountant charges the Angels with Folly and not only so but all the blessed Company in Heaven Nay that is not all but rather then not do his own business effectually he will enter into Judgment with God himself Well however B. R. S. or any under his care may slight him or his Book as thinking neither worth Answering yet I must needs say he is a stout bold Fellow for he dares to charge God himself with contradiction and with being accessary to the Breach of his own first Command For according to our Accountants Reason he suffers the Worship and Worshippers in Heaven to infer a Plurality of Gods and to lay a Foundation for all Idolatry Antichristianism and Paganism For in Revelations 5. we have an Account of the Worship of Heaven and in the 11 12 13. Verses we have an Account of the Angels and the Beasts and Elders giving Blessing Honour Glory and Power to him that sitteth upon the Throne and untothe Lamb for ever and ever ver 14. and the 4 beasts say Amen to all this and the 24 Elders fall down and Worship him that liveth for ever and ever Here is Divine honour and Worship Given to him that sitteth on the Throne and the same in the same breath given unto another to use my Authors own Words Even to the Lamb for ever and ever And yet God doth not charge them with Idolatry nor making to themselves another God No this is the Worship of Heaven and must continue so for ever and ever Sure if our Accountant had any good hope of Worshipping with this blessed Company in Heaven he would endeavour to imitate them while here on Earth A Man had need have a good Stock of Patience as also of Faith and every Grace of the Holy Spirit to live in a continual dependancy on him that gives Wisdom to such simple Ones as he pleaseth and understanding to as many of them as have no knowledge as seemeth good to Soveraign pleasure as also humbly to remember that the Ostrich hideth her Eggs in the Sand and forgetteth that the Wild Beast may crush them because God hath deprived her of Wisdom Or else a Man indu'd but with an Ordinary measure of Reason and not Balast'd with the aforesaid Graces of Gods Holy Spirit could not forbear the resenting this unreasonable assertion so as to give my Accountant a Character much below that of Master of Reason But I may not give ill Language having not so Learned Christ Neither is it fit for a Man of a mean capacity to say to such a Learned Gentleman thou art a blockhead nor shall I say any thing of the Impudency that there is in bringing in an Impeachment and Charge of the highest Treason and Idolatry that Can be against the whole Court of Heaven the Blessed Him that sitteth upon the Throne and the Lamb who is worthy of all blessing Honour Power and Glory not being exempted This is such a peice of Fool hardiness as none but those that dare Run upon the thick bosses of Gods Buckler can be guilty of I hope our Accountant will not discover so much Folly as to attempt to excuse himself of an error in this by Quoting 1 Chron. 29. 20. Where it is said All the Congregation blessed the Lord God of their Fathers and bowing their heads Worshipped the Lord and the King That being but an External or Civil Worship which the People paid to the King or that is due from Inferiours to Superiours And our Accountant himself tells me he could not bear the ascribing the same Glory to Christ in Prayer which is due to the Father whereby he publickly enters his dissent and protest against the Worship and Worshippers and Worshipped also in Heaven For the Truth is what ever Worship Kings and such may receive from their Subjects in this World yet there never was nor shall be any King Lord or Potentate that shall receive Honour Glory Blessing and Praise from all the Worshippers both Angels and Men that are in Heaven for ever and ever but he who is the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Jesus Christ who is the true God and Eternal Life 1 Joh. 5. 20. It is strange that there should not be one Doctor of Reason among all this Blessed Company to imitate Athaliah in crying out Treason Treason Idolatry Idolatry contradiction Nonsence because the right Heir is Crowned and receives the Glory of the Kingdom But upon Second thoughts it will not appear so strange as true for God hath not chosen many wise Men of this world and those few that are chosen from among them must first become Fools that they may be truly Wise For God hath chosen the Foolish things of this World to confound the wise 1 Cor. 20 27 to the end Thus we see the Scriptures made good The wisdom of this World is Foolishness with God For it is Written he taketh the Wise in their own Craftiness 1 Cor. 3. 18. There is yet another thing which our Accountant will needs call his Eleventh Reason or Stone in this Babel Building and his last But whether it may be called his Top Stone or Bottom no matter for that such as it is take it word for word Page 5th that it is saith he Great folly and boldness to affirm any thing Concerning God which is unreasonable or absurd yea which we do not understand to be true Surely what ever mistakes
the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift Destruction Will you add so much Pride to your Folly as to say concerning your self as our Lord did that because I was in the Decree of God and prophesied of therefore 1600 Years before born I am Besides I Am is a peculiar Title to God signifying his Self-existence and Self-sufficiency which no created Being can take to himself without Blasphemy Well but after all the Considerator is resolved to be a good Champion for a bad Cause who will loose his Ground Inch by Inch And therefore he saith in his 57th page first colume That notwithstanding all this we must be Socinians or Arrians for Christians we may not be No by no means if the Considerator can but jump into the infallible Chair and prescribe a Religion for us Thus it is and thus it will be as the truly Rational and Learned as well as Pious Doctor Owen hath observed Truth will not please the Devil will subscribe to any Creed but that which God gives of himself in his Word But good Sir why must we be Arrians Why because Christ though he did exist before the World was made yet he was but a Creature for all that but the first that ever God made But neither will this shift enable you to overthrow the Christian Religion nor shall you thereby rob the Author of it of his Divine Nature who is the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us Titus 2. 13 14. For hereby you do but tread in your old Steps by resisting and contradicting the Holy Ghost as your Predecessors did in Acts 7. 51. For in Revelation 1. the 8th and 11th Verses our Lord saith he is the First and the Last And to put the Matter out of Doubt that it is Jesus Christ there speaks the 12th Verse to the End of the Chapter makes it evident he being in the Likeness of the Son of Man And in the 17th Verse he saith again I am the first and the last And in the 18th I am he that was dead and am alive All which shews that this was Jesus Christ and that this Jesus Christ is Godman for he being the first God the Father was not before him then he could not be first and he being the last End of all things all things must end and terminate in his Glory For God's Glory is the highest and chiefest Good and therefore must be the ultimate and last End of all things and that this was no other than Jesus Christ is evident in that he saith I am he that liveth and was dead Surely God cannot dye therefore this must be that mighty Child that was given to us who also was the everlasting Father spoken of in Isa 44 6. and Isa 9. 6. Godman God with us in our Nature And therefore he may well be called wonderful because he is Godman in one Person God he must be else he could not be the first nor last neither for God only is the last End as well as the first Cause of all things Man he must be else he could not dye and God he must be else he could not have power to raise himself again as he tells you he had John 10. 18. No man taketh it from me saith he but I lay it down of my self and I have power to take it up again And this compared with the next Verse together with Acts 20. 24. proves the Father and him to be one as he saith of himself in ver 30. of this 10th Chapter I and my Father are one Besides in the first Chapter of Gonesis it is said In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth Why then will you impose Arrianism upon us and contradict the Spirit of God by telling us that God created before the Beginning or before he created the Heavens and the Earth The Considerator therefore shall never impose his School-Divinity upon me of one Senior and two Junior Gods for unto me and unto us Christians there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 1 Cor. 8. 6. And indeed here lies these Gentlemens Mistake they find the Scriptures in many places speak of Jesus Christ as Man Therefore say they he cannot be God as my Accountant pag. 4. but as hath been observed we do not say that Man is God or that the Humane Nature is the Divine or that those two Natures are confounded but we believe according to the Scriptures of Truth that God took upon him our Nature Heb. 2. 16. and united that Holy Thing that by the over-shaddowing of the Holy Ghost was conceived and born of the Virgin So that it did not subsist nor was it a distinct being of it self but was united into a personal Union with God the Son and thus he continues to be two Natures in one Person for ever If you ask me how these things can be I answer such Knowledge is as much too wonderful for the Angels for ought I know as to know how God was and therefore neither you nor I must pretend to it It is enough these are the true Sayings of God and therefore it is to the Peril of those that will not believe it If you say it is impossible I answer with Men it may appear so and really be so but with God all things are possible If you say it is Nonsence and Contradiction I Answer it is the highest impiety and greatest impudence that a Man professing to believe there is a God can be guilty of to say that any thing that God reveals concerning himself or us is impossible or contradictory to it self And therefore after all the Considerators glorying of his own and the rest of his Brethrens Honour and Dignity as being Freemen of the Common-wealth of Wit and Learning Page 44. both Collums And after he hath spoken very Contumeliously of the Dignities of the Church and given himself a good Word as a Person fit for Preferment If the Honours and Profits of the Church were bestowed as they were at first designed upon Persons of Wit Learning and Merrit no doubt but he might come in for an Arch-Bishop And yet in all this glorying I do not find him mention one thing that Paul a Minister of Jesus Christ made any reckoning of his Study and glorying being to know Jesus Christ and him Crucified No the Considerator doth not speak one Word of this in all his own Letter of Recommendation though both Colums Pag. 44. be taken up about it yet there is not one word of Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ spoken of as being of any Concernment in a Minister of Jesus Christ And therefore seeing he hath such a conceit of his own Merits without those accounted unnecessary things I would advise him to step Over to Rome for if he make good Friends those things are not much
gull the simple and unwary Reader There can be no Personal Vnion between God and a Creature he saith and pray why so why because the being of God doth not require the being of a Creature to his being or any thing but himself to make up his Person or Self This is a sort of Logick that the Gentleman may think may down well enough with Mechanicks and such like ordinary Fellows But it is strange the Doctors of Reason should send such stuff as this is abroad for sound Reason but I forget my Accountant and his Brother the Nameless Author are Doctors of Reason and perhaps they think they have ingrost all Reason into their own Hands and if so we must take what they will let us have and at their own price too or else one would think they could not be so vain and Foolish as to tell us there can be no Personal Union between God and a Creature Surely Almighty Power is able to take a Creature into Personal Union with himself and as for that Nonsensical pretended Reason that the being of God does not require the being of a Creature to his being What Sense or Reason is there in it If it had been necessary to his being it must have been Eternal as God himself is and then it could not be a Creature for no Creature is Eternal and then all the Condescention Grace and Love that the Scripture speaks of in Gods taking our Nature upon him must vanish away into Idle Tales or be led Captive at the Heels of our Accountants foolish Reason Pray try a little how this Argument will look in other Cases the being of God doth not require the being of any Creatures to make up his being happiness and blessedness therefore he cannot or will not descend to the Work of Creation and when they are all made they cannot all of them add one Tittle to his Essential Glory Therefore they were not made for nor are to his Glory now made Where is the wise Man where is the Scribe 1 Cor. 1 19 20. God will destroy the wisdom of the Wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent according to that old threatning against the Wise Men of this World Isa 29. 14. That wisdom should perish from the wise and the understanding of prudent Men shall be hid But I pass on to his Eighth Reason where I find our Accountant having past all bounds of â—ight Reason will needs break thorow all bounds of Truth and Modesty too and therefore tells us Whatever is said of Christ in Scripture is said of him as Man But he presently adds to cover this Story That the shift so many use of Christ speaking so and so as God and so and so as Man is unscriptural and Foolish and sounds no better then this that Peter as Peter denyed his Master but Peter as John did not deny his Master We look upon it as a prudential peice of Justice to suspect Common Lyars when they speak Truth and therefore I hope our Accountant will not think it any dishonour to him If I do by him as the Noble Bereans did by Paul search the Scriptures before I receive this assertion for Truth or sound Reason But upon a Second view of this Eighth Reason I find there is not one Scripture mentioned and therefore I may very honestly retort his assertion back upon him again and tell him this assertion is very Foolish and unscriptural But if I can give no other Answer than this I know my Accountant will out Reckon me by abundance for he is a Man of Reason and perhaps may be as ready to say to me concerning Reason as Zedekiah did to Micaiah concerning the Spirit and ask which way went Reason from him to me 2 Chron. 18. 23. But what faith the Scriptures in this Case for by them my Author thinks to dishonour our Lord Jesus Christ with no less then Robbing him of his Divine Nature Isaiah 9. 9. For unto us a Child is Born There his Humanity is spoken of but read out the verse and see if your Reason hath not robb'd you of all good Manners and Modesty You will not dare to give the Lye to the Spirit of God and there he is called the wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father The Prince of Peace see ikewise Rev. 1. 17 18. Now Sir will you have the impudence to give the Spirit of God the Lye in these two Scriptures or will you suffer your Reason to possess you with so much Madness and Folly as to charge the Spirit of God with Folly and say he speaks Nonsence chuse you whither But Our Accountant goes on and I am willing to follow him being willing to find out the reason of a thing and he tells us which he calls his Ninth Reason Page 4th That tho' Christ be truly said to be the Son of God yet he is never in Scripture caelled God the Son Now would I give you a Scripture to prove that he is called God the Son but you have told me already such Scriptures are dark but I cannot help that they are Scriptures notwithstanding and the darkness you speak of lyes in the weakness of your understanding and the Folly of your pretended Reason Besides the Scriptures were Written for this very purpose to give Wisdom to the simple but those that are Wise in their own conceit may be sent away as they came For you know God himself tells us that he sends the rich empty away Pray Sir Read Heb. 1. 8. but unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for Ever c. I think this is not so dark a saying but you may understand him to be called God the Son in those Words and admitting it were dark or hard as those said who told our Lord his sayings were hard when he spoke of giving them his Flesh to eat And no doubt but they were as much above their understandings and as contrary to their Reason as the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is above or against yours yet were they the Words of Truth it self for all that And Solomon tells us Prov. 1. 5 6. A wise Man will hear and increase Learning And for this Reason among others to understand the Words of the Wise and their dark sayings But our Accountant and his Brother the Nameless Author are Wise Men whether it be in their own eyes or others no matter for that Their Reason is the Touch-stone of Gods Truth and therefore whatever God reveals must First come and make its acknowledgments to Mr. Licenser General our Authors Reason and if it pass Muster in his Foolish Noddle it may go for Truth but if not as what reasonable Man can think that the Mysteries of God should be comprehended by the Foolish corrupted unreasonable though pretended Reason of Man Especially seeing the Carnal Mind is Enmity against God and the Scripture yea Reason it self may inform us that none knows the things of God
Reason only their great Learning hath so stuft their Heads and Memories that they have almost forgot what sound Reason is as hath been already seen in examining the Stuff they call Reason It is to be lamented that one good Gift of God should fall upon such bad Ground as to drive out another but so it is what else is the meaning of that Word Let not the Wise Man glory in his Wisdom nor the Rich Man glory in his Riches c. But to shew that as the glorying in these things robs the Giver of his Due so it makes the Receiver become a poor weak Fool Jer. 9. 23. And indeed it is very unreasonable to think it can be otherwise for if every good and perfect Gift comes down from the Father of Lights and is dispensed to us through the Son by the Holy Spirit what can those Gentlemen do otherwise but discover themselves to be as they are who shall deny our Lord Jesus Christ to be as he is over all God blessed for evermore and thereby deny to live by Faith upon him and as much as in them lies cut themselves off from him in whom dwelleth the Fulness of the Godhead Col. 2. 9. But if Reason fail these Gentlemen say they will remove the Cause to the Scriptures of Truth most gladly therefore with them to the Scriptures I will go and guide and subject my Reason thereunto And indeed it is impossible for us to have a true Knowledge of God without the Revelation that he gives of himself by his Word and Spirit And here I cannot but take Notice of the foolish as well as slanderous Report that my nameless Author in his Divine Vnity asserted pag. 6. Col. 2. as well as the Considerator in his 19th and 20th pages of his Answer to the Bishop of Sarum gives to the Christian Divines saying That were it not for Church Awes and for fear of losing their Stipends they would deny the Doctrine of the Trinity themselves I thank God I lye under no Temptation of being byass'd by the Churches Smiles or Frowns I being no Clergy-Man nor the Son of a Clergy-Man and therefore my Judgment cannot be bribed with the hope os getting or fear of losing any Benefice But God having given me an Immortal Soul it becomes me and it is but my reasonable Duty as well as Interest to be as much concerned about the Eternal Salvation thereof as any of those whose Business it is being called of God as Aaron to serve at the Altar by preaching the unsearchable Riches of Christ and the great Mysteries of the Gospel and Godliness God manifested in the flesh Eph. 3. 8. 1 Tim. 3. 16. And here I must take leave to tell our Doctors of Reason that if the Scriptures tell me that Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life as I find it doth 1 John 5. 20. Tit. 2. 13. I must therefore believe this Truth because I find it Testified in the Scriptures of Truth although thereby I should practically give those Gentlemen â—he Lye who say he is but a Man and although to prove their Sayings they tell me their great Reason and Learning hath taught them so to say and believe therefore to do them right I do freely acknowledge that they have a just right to lay claim to the Title that the Apostle gives to those simple Gentlemen spoken of in the 2 Tim. 3. 7. Who were ever learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And yet it is evident that these were no small Fools in their own Conceit for in the next Verse the Apostle compares them to Jannes and Jambres whose Ignorance and Folly was over-laid with such a stock of Impudence that they had Confidence enough to resist Moses though he was one of the greatest Men that ever lived upon the Earth And there were such pretended Wits in the Apostles days Men of corrupt Minds resisting the Truth concerning the Faith reprobate But their Folly was made manifest as the Unreasonableness of our pretended Men of Reason at this day is But let us see how these Men reconcile Scripture to their Reason or rather pervert it for my Author in his 16th page colume 1. argues that because we are to love God with all our Hearts therefore the Son is not God for then our Love would be divided Which argues strongly that he is God because we are commanded to love and honour him as the Father as hath been proved by Scripture Command and the Example of the Worshippers in Heaven And also is an undeniable Argument that the Father and the Son are one whether my Author will receive it or can understand it or no. The next Scripture that I find Our Author mentions in particular after he had mentioned several to prove God is one which signifies no more to his Cause then if a Man pretending to prove there is no Night in our Climate should tell us when we see the Sun shine we may be sure it is day For all true Christians believe God is one and that the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost is this One God But the Text which he mentions and recites at Large is in his 18th Page 1 Colume Phil. 2. 6. where the Apostle speaking of Christ saith who being in the Form of God thought it not Robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no Reputation and took one him the Form of a Servant My Author saith the reconciling Sense is that is to there Foolish Reason that he thought of no such Robbery as being equal with God It is very strange that the Servant should so much excel the Master when the Devil himself transformed himself into an Angel of Light he did not Quote Scripture so Falsly nor pervert it so palpably as this amounts to when he Brought Scripture to Tempt our Lord to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple as any Christian may see by comparing the 4th of Matthew and 6th with the 91st Psal ver 11. But Let us Consider what the Holy Ghost was pressing on Christians in the Context that we may not Charge him with Contradiction and Nonsence how bold so ever we may be with his Disciples and here we find he speaks of some Person or being that was in the Form of God and therefore the other assertion that he thought it no Robbery to be equal with God was a necessary Consequence of the Former and to take it as my Author doth is but to give the Lye to the Holy Ghost or to Charge him with Contradiction let him choose whether Besides the 7th and 8th verses make it clear that the Apostle was speaking of some Person or Being distinct and infinitely superiour to Humane Nature and therefore speaks of his Condescension in taking on him the Form of a Servant and being found in the Fashion of a Man Whereas were this this He the Apostle speaks of no other but a Man the Apostle
3 4. where he tells the Corinthians that though he is absent in Body yet he as present in Spirit had Judged already as though he were present concerning him that hath so done this Deed And in the next verse tells them what they should do wehen they wre gathered together and my Spirit with the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ Colo. 2 5. to the same purpose but were not Mr. Considerator one of the best or rather the worst at perverting of Scripture and one of the greatest reproachers of sound Reason under the greatest pretentions to it I should not have mentioned these Scriptures as having the least shew of Reason in them to invalidate the Truth of our Lords Promise or that he will not be with his People and that really present with them to the end of the World in all Places and in all Conditions according to that gracious Promise in Isa 43. 2. When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee and the waters shall not overflow thee If you tell me this Promise in Isaiah must be understood of God the Father I answer if it be so it doth but confirm our Lords Deity the Promise being no more then what he Promiseth his Disciples which clearly proves our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Omnipresent God that fills Heaven and Earth with his presence for what Paul said to the Corinthians and Colossians is no more then what we may all say to one another when we are desirous to have a good Work carried on by the Church or any other Civil Society at which we have a right to be present as Member tho' we are else where detained yet approving the Work we say our Heart is with them our Mind and Spirit is in the Work But will Mr. Considerator say this is all the comfort our Lord promises his Disciples Mat. 28. Truly if so they might say of him as Job said of his Friends miserable comforters have ye been but our Lord cannot deceive any more then he can be deceived and therefore he will come unto his People and will take up his abode with them according to his gracious Promise in Joh. 14. 23. Jesus answered and said if a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Here the Son is to come and be as much present with his Disciples as the Father And in ver 16. of the same Chapter our Lord saith I will pray the Father and he shall send you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever All which with many other Texts of Scripture not only prove the Son to be Omnipresent but also the Unity of the Divine being and the Trinity of that Unity and doth undeniably prove to all sincere unbyast Christians the Divine authority and Truth of that Word in Joh. 5. 7. which Mr. Considerator and the rest of his Tribe do so much Bark at but they shall never be able to Bite it out of Gods Bible as long as the Sun and Moon indure nor can they though in Conjunction with the Gates of Hell be able to Rob the People of God of the comfort and Consolation that they enjoy by Communion with the real though Spiritual and Divine presence of Jesus Christ For when the Atheist and Deist and Mr. Considerator himself have Mock'd and Scoff'd at Communion with God as much as their Elder Brother Ishmael himself did at the Son of the Promise yet know ye there are that know their Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 3. And yet Mr. Considerator to shew what a Doctor in Capernaum and Nicodemus's Divinity he is proves himself as good an Advocate for the abomination of Transubstantion as Belarmine himself or any Cardinal of them all could do Yet is he no Papist but any thing so he can but do some thing against the Truth for in Page 21. Colum 2. and 22. He labours all be can to make the abomination of Transubstantiation to be a small sin if any which he calls a folly or a mistake it is not an impiety he saith but a Philosophical Error Colum 2. Page 21. and hath mis-represented that abomination that he might redicule the Truth For he saith it is not pretended by the Papist that the bread and Wine have received any the least change Where as this is the very thing they have burn'd many a Christian for because they would not believe that the Bread and Wine were changed or Transubstanstiated into the very Body and blood of Christ And as for his Body being present in a Spiritual manner it was the Doctrine of the Lutherans and not of the Papists And in his 20th Page Colum he saith himself the Papists say the words of our Lord import that the Bread of the Sacrament is really and verily made to be the Substance of Christ's body in which he was Crucified But in his Page 21. Colum 2. He tells us they are of another Mind and that they do not pretend that the bread and Wine have received the least change in what is an Object of Sense Why good Sir is not the very Substance of Bread an Object of Sense Perhaps this Gentleman may pretend a License to Contradict himself but the Trinitarians must have a care of saying any thing contrary to the dictates of Mr. Considerators foolish Reason for fear of being Guilty of the unpardonable sin of Contradicton But the Gentleman was labouring to Contradict Christ and to Charge him with Folly and Falshood therefore no wonder if he Contradict himself for our Lord hath promised to be with his People to be really present with them in this World This Mr. Considerator see would prove him to be God the only true God therefore he will Give our Saviour the Lye and say he neither is nor can be Omnipresent Page 11. Colum 2. But our Lord saith Mat. 18. 20. that where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them And that the will be with his People to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. Yet Mr. Considerator is pleased to say the Doctrine of Christ real presence is worse then the abomination of Transubstantiation But that his Fables may pass with some Colour he thinks it meet to colour his Charge with Falshood and tells us of some whom he saith ought not to call themselves the Reformed who believe the real Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament pag. 20. colume 2. But I know none of that Belief except the Papist nor the Considerator neither I believe but the Gentleman's Design was to deny the Real Divine Presence of Christ But that being too great a Truth to be beat out of the Scripture of Truth he contents himself in that place in denying his bodily Presence I have insisted the more on the Omnipresence of Christ because Mr. Considerator in his