a time when the Church was yet in an Age of Innocence or to make use of an Expression of one of the Ancients When she was yet a Virgin in a time when the Saints confirmed their Preaching by Miracles in a time when Truth was ratified by the Seal of Martyrdom in a time when the Voice of the Apostles had but newly ceased from sounding in the Ears of the Members of it What therefore we take from a time so happily circumstanced must needs be of good alloy And may my Soul say I be with those Saints and those Martyrs who taught what they had but newly received from the Mouths of the Apostles themselves Is it possible that a sincere Christian heart should find any relish in the opposite Error which hath the concurring Testimony of the First Centuries against it and which never got into any Credit till after the Primitive Zeal being grown cold and Miracles ceased men began to be left to themselves I confess I have but an ill Opinion of a Doctrine which is supported by no other Foundation There we may find glittering Notions and ingenious Explications of the Scripture which may be apt to take with Minds that affect Novelties But when we consider that the Christian Religion is a Revelation transmitted by the Ministry of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we shall make no Difficulty to take their sense from an Age that we cannot suspect and we shall have very mean thoughts of those Innovators that have confidence enough to say as one of them doth The First Chapter of the Gospel of St. John was never well explain'd till I undertook it My last Reflection is concerning the small concern these Innovators have for the Peace of the Church They would fain have us believe them to be the Disciples of Charity and to hear them talk it should seem that this Virtue is no where to be found but amongst them I will not now enter into an enquiry whether under this plausible appearance they do not design more surely to introduce their Errors and whether after having made them ride Triumphant in the world they would not become instead of the innocent Lambs they seem now to be the most furious Persecutors of the Church To know what Judgment we ought to pass in this case we need only to call to mind the Cruelty of Arius his disciples But l' stop short here and am willing to believe that our Innovators that talk so much of Charity and Concord cherish nothing of this Spirit of Persecution However they must confess that they are none of the best practisers of Charity they know very well that they cannot endeavour the Propagation of their Opinions without troubling the Peace of mens Consciences and without setting Christians together by the Ears There is no need of any deeep consideration to perswade our selves that these are the natural consequences of the endeavours that would be employed to deprive the Christians of a Doctrine they have been possessed of above these Sixteen Centuries Why therefore should the Enemies of this Doctrine set themselves to be the cause of so much disorder There is but one only thing that could Authorise this their pretended Charity viz. If the Doctrine which we Teach and Believe were inconsistent with Salvation I must own that when we see a great multitude of Christians in danger of incurring Damnation we have good reason to say That it is much better to expose them to Temporal Dangers by propounding the Truth to them than to suffer so many Souls to perish by a Criminal Silence What them is it this consideration that animates and pusheth on our Innovators Not in the least they dare not say they are in fear for our Salvation whilst at the same time they set Heaven Gates wide open to all sorts of Hereticks to Mahometans and Heathens They I say who hide themselves in the Society of other Christians and desire nothing so earnestly as to be admitted to their Communion They own us to be in a state of Salvation and declare that we have retained all the Fundamental and Saving Points of Christianity Where is therefore the Charity of these rash Persons in undertaking to shake a Doctrine which cannot be attack'd with any success without filling the Consciences of men with Trouble and without shedding whole torrents of Christian Blood such a design as this cannot be the effect of any thing but Pride In a word Men have a mind to distinguish themselves by the novelty of their Opinions and to raise their own Glory by abasing that of Jesus Christ These who destroy the Temple of God God will destroy I tell you that more than the Temple is here Entreat we our dear Lord Jesus that it may please him to enlighten his Enemies and confirm us more and more in the belief of his Divinity To him even as to the Father and the Holy Ghost be Humour and Glory for ever Amen A Declaration of the Opinion of the French Ministers who are now Refugees in England about some Points of Religion in Opposition to the Socinians WE under written the Refugees French Ministers in England having understood by a Letter which my Lord the Bishop of London who at present is in Holland hath writ to Monsieur le Coq Counsellor in the Parliament of Paris and an Illustrious Confessor of the Truth the strange Reports that have been spread as if we were not sound in the Faith and particularly with relation to the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and Grace and the need there is to dissipate the same and being moreover perswaded that by this Explication of our Belief we shall perform a thing that will serve for the Edification and Consolation of our Brethren and will have its fruit if the Lord please especially in the Land of our Nativity after some Amicable and Brotherly Conferences we have had upon this matter in the presence of Monsieur le Coq we have all of us agreed to declare as we do in the Sincerity of our Hearts I. That we Believe the whole Scripture Divinely Inspir'd so that all Men are obliged to receive every thing therein Revealed with an entire Submission of Faith II. That we receive with Reverence and Submission whatsoever the Scripture teacheth concerning the Nature of God and his Attributes of his Spirituality Infiniteness Incomprehensibility Prescience even of Future Contingencies and of all others the said Scripture attributes to him III. That we Believe also what it delivers concerning the Trinity of Persons in one only Divine Essence and concerning the Incarnation of the Son according as the said Articles are set down in the VI. XIV and XV. of the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of France IV. That we hold also as an Article of our Faith That Jesus Christ by dying on the Cross hath not only left us an Example that we should follow his Footsteps but moreover that his Principal Design therein was
the Divinity of our Lord and all those fogs and dark clouds are dissipated and you will meet throughout the whole New Testament neither contradiction nor Snare nor Blasphemy The Holy Ghost is always firm and unalterable in the execution of his designs he proposeth Jesus as the Object of Human Worship because he is God this solves the Contradictions this turns the pretended Snares into Arguments of Piety this changeth the Blasphemies into just and due applications of the Ancient Prophetical passages Were it not so the Holy Ghost would have taken a quite different method to instruct us it would have been so far from leading us on the brinks of the Precipice it would have kept us at the farthest distance from it in a thousand passages it would have said to us Take heed of taking Jesus Christ to be God But why say they should not the Holy Ghost speak magnificently of that Redeemer to whom we are so vastly obliged and whom Providence hath raised to such an extraordinary degree of Glory For that very reason say I the Holy Ghost ought to speak with more reservedness of the Glory of Christ The greater he is the more danger of his being taken for a God His very greatness makes us stand the more in need of Preservatives The Blessed Virgin is without doubt the most Glorious of all Women What hath the Holy Ghost done to prevent others from adoring her He hath to this end scarcely mentioned her in the Gospel Set but aside the History of the Birth of our Saviour where this glorious Virgin makes a necessary Personage we meet with her no more except it be on some few occasions where commonly she appears with some Circumstance or other proper to check the desire any one might have to worship her In the rest of the Scriptures there is not a word of the Blessed Virgin The Acts of the Apostles except what is said in the Chapter and the Epistles make no mention of her at all The reason of this silence is apparent It was necessary for to draw a Vail as it were over the Blessed Virgin lest the Christians might be tempted to worship her The more glorious she is the more need there is to take care to hide her The case would have been the same with our Divine Redeemer if he had not been God the excess of our Obligations to him and the Glory of his Exaltation oblig'd the Holy Ghost not to speak of him or at least seeing it was not possible to Preach his Doctrine without speaking of his Person to make use of such Expressions as might make it evident that he is not God It was necessary in most express terms and on several occasions to tell men This Jesus whom you worship is not God for all that I say it was of absolute necessity to declare this with the greatest clearness and plainess of Expression imaginable But instead thereof the Holy Ghost proposeth him to us as God without the least Caution or Preservative we believe we have prov'd this to you by most clear and self-evident places of Scripture which tho they were doubtful would for all that be of great force because whosoever acknowledges the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost easily perceives that he would never have deliver'd any thing like it concerning the Godhead of our Saviour if he had not been God indeed The Equivocal Expressions that had a favourable sense and a sense contrary to his Divinity would have been too dangerous in this Case The Wisdom of the Holy Ghost would never have thought fit to have made a Representation so proper to delude us what shall we say then of so many places where without any the least Equivocation we see the Divine Glory of Christ shining forth to us it is not one Text of Scripture fetch'd out of a Corner that we insist upon but there are a thousand such Passages scatter'd up and down the Bible which both in the letter and the sense of them assert the Divinity of our Saviour Neither can any thing be said in this Case but this that the Holy Ghost was willing to deceive us and if he hath deceived us it is an innocent Error and for which we shall not be responsible at the last day Yea the very Enemies of the Godhead of Christ leave Heaven-gate open to those that believe the same It cannot be denied say they but that there may be Salvation for those that worship the Man-god On the one hand it appears that they adore nothing but what is adorable for the very Enemies of Jesus Christ profess to adore him And on the other hand they are sensible that the Doctrine of his Divinity is sufficiently confirmed in Scripture at least to justify the belief of the Orthodox So that upon this account they do not doubt of their Salvation why then should any condemn them If they adore nothing but what is indeed adorable their Error will only be in Speculation If they believe nothing but what the Holy Ghost makes them to believe by his way of speaking concerning Christ conclude we this Reflection The Holy Ghost neither can deceive nor can be deceived it will be our Glory to follow him always for he cannot guide us but in the way of Truth The second Reflection upon the Difficulties that are made about this Mystery we have explained to you There are three sorts of Difficulties raised against this Doctrine of the Eternal Godhead of Jesus Christ Heart-difficulties Wit-difficulties and Scripture-difficulties By Heart-difficulties I understand that repugnance we find in our selves to receive revealed Truths with a ready and teachable frame of Heart this is that Temper the heart of Man hath received from the impressions of Sin whatsoever comes from Heaven is suspected tho indeed there be no other reason to suspect it save only this because it comes from Heaven The Experience of all Ages is but too notorious a proof of this sad Truth The most certain Revelation hath been disputed neither is there any thing so clear in Revelation that hath not been contradicted To prove this I will not expose to your view the profane Persons and Hereticks of the Ages past this scandalous Procession would only serve to afflict you Heaven saith it and this is sufficient for man to contradict it to doubt it to deny it It may be that considering the matter with more attention we shall find that men put themselves in an ill Humour against Revelation because they find in it those Moral Precepts that do not at all comport with the corruption of their heart They criticise the Doctrine that they may have a pretence to shake off the Yoke of its commands they controle the Precept to justify their Libertinism I make no question at all but that a part of those Clouds some Men meet with in the Mystery of the Divinity of Christ do proceed from the Vapours of a corrupt Heart They question the Glory of that God whom they have no
of any service against the Divinity of Christ It is clear that these Words contain an opposition the opposite to true is false If the Father be called the only true God in opposition to the Son we easily see what follows It is true that there is an opposition in this place not between the Father and the Son but between the Father and whatsoever is falsly called God in the World And in this sense as it is said of the Father That he is the only true God we may also say of the Son that he is the only true God and so of the Holy Ghost because the Divine Nature which is indivisibly possess'd by these three Persons is indeed the only true God What remains now that can give us the least trouble what can be reasonably alledged against the Divinity of our Lord shall we object that he himself sometimes speaks of it with great reservedness It is very true that our Saviour with a great deal of caution and reservedness declared those Truths that were capable of setting the Jews against him The calling of the Gentiles may be one Instance for all Sometimes he wraps this Doctrine under the Vail of Parables sometimes he makes an Allusion to Histories wherein it seems that Grace was not shut up in the compass of one only People Truth can have no entrance into Souls full of darkness which as the Light of the Day comes after the Night is gone What would this Truth of the Calling of the Gentiles have produc'd if our Lord had preach'd it without any caution It would not have been believed and our Lord would have been put to death before his work had been done I speak as a Man We may say the same thing of our Saviour's Godhead which being such that the Jews could not bear the glory of it he discovers it by little and little to them he tries their hearts after that he had found by the manner of their reception of these Words I and my Father are one that it was not seasonable yet to declare this Doctrine he stops there and leads out the Thoughts of his Auditors to the Magistrates whom the Scripture calls Gods If we mind it our Lord doth not fully justifie thereby what he had said in these words I and my Father are one For never did any of the Magistrates speak at this rate what is more they never made themselves Gods nor equal with God The Scripture indeed calls them Gods but they never said they were equal with God Christ made himself God and for the justification of himself is contented to alledge the Example of the Magistrates The Case is plain our Saviour intends not to retract what he had said his Design only is to moderate the fury of the Jews Neither indeed were they fully satisfied with it they endeavour to lay hold on him but he escaped out of their hands Do we find him in this place saying That he is not God Not in the least he never said any thing that came near it Whereas indeed he ought to have said it positively and often to make his Doctrine of more efficacy to the Jews He very well knew that nothing was so offensive to them as Blasphemy and that he quite lost himself in their esteem by making himself God And yet for all this he always returns to it and frequently offers them the same occasion of offence Pray what may be the meaning of this has he no desire that his Doctrine should be received no body dare say so Why is it then that he so often toucheth the same Mystery It is plain as the Meridian Sun that nothing but the force of Truth engageth him to make himself equal with his heavenly Father He is not willing always to speak openly by a too free and open declaration of himself for in this case he would either have convinced all his Auditors or not If we suppose the first they would never have put him to death which would have been equally contrary to the Prophecies of old and to the Happiness of Mankind which stood in need of his Death If the latter they would have put him to death too soon he did need three or four years time wherein to accomplish his Work These Considerations oblige him to speak sparingly of and in part to conceal the glory of his Divinity On some occasions we find that he wholly restrains himself as in the 10th Chapter of St. John in others again he utters himself with great liberty as in the 5th Chapter of the same Gospel When there is nothing more for him to do but to die he frankly declares himself to be the Son of God I think we may say that he was the first Martyr for his own Divinity for it is upon this Declaration of his that the Jews unanimously cried out He is guilty of Death According to their Judgment he had uttered a horrid Blasphemy and by the Law deserved that Sentence should be pronounced against him How does he justifie himself of this Charge Doth he alledge that of the Magistrates or the Angels on this occasion doth he say That hel 's the Son of God because he was conceived by the Holy Ghost or because he had received the power of doing Miracles and of declaring the Truth Thus understood there was no Blasphemy in the Case and he ought if he had not been God to have set the Jews right by justifying himself in this manner But on the contrary he maintains to the last moments of his Life himself to be the Son of God in a sense which the Jews judged Blasphemy that is to say The Eternal Son of God for otherwise taken it could not be Blasphemy I shall only propound the two other Reflections tho indeed they be no less important than the former My Third Reflection is That the Doctrine I have here asserted and proved is the Doctrine of the Primitive Church This is so incontestably true that Socinus himself owns That from the first beginning of the Church Socin Epist 3. ad Radec Ab ipso ferme nascentis Ecclesiae initio tot Viros non minus Pietate quam Doctrinâ clarissimâ—â— tot Christi Sanctissimos Martyres ad eout nullus sit numerus eum alioqui grovissimum errorem secutoâ— fursse quod Christus sit unus ille Deus qui omnia creavit aut certe exillius substantia propria genitus there have been a great number of Learned Men Saints and Martyrs who believed that Jesus Christ was that God who created all things or that he was begotten of his own Substance This express Acknowledgment from an Adversary whose great interest it was to rid himself of the weight Antiquity would bear against him may very well pass for a strong Argument on an occasion where it doth not seem so proper to enter upon the Historical proof of it It hath already been shewed that the Primitive Church did believe the Eternal Divinity of our Saviour at