nothing is rais'd but what fell or was laid down for Rising answers to these but that Matter which is supposed to be substituted in the room of our bodies did not fall was not laid down therefore it cannot Rise and consequently there is no Rising again at all This Argument is thus represented by a Great Man The Identity of the body rais'd from death is so necessary that the very name of the Resurrection doth include or suppose it so that when I say there shall be a Resurrection of the dead I must intend thus much that the bodies of Men which lived and are dead shall revive and rise again For at the death of man nothing falleth but his Body the spirit goeth upward and no other body falleth but his own and therefore the body and no other but that body must rise again to make a Resurrection So that it follows hence that those who disbelieve the Resurrection of the same body in effect deny the Article of the Resurrection of the body for the same body must rise or none at all This is evident from 2 Cor. 5. 10. We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body The same individual body that died must revive that the same bodies wherein sin was committed may be punished for sinning And who can resist the force of those plain words Rev. 20. 13. which are spoken of the general Resurrection at the last day The sea shall give up the dead that are in it and death and the grave deliver up the dead which are in them What means this giving and delivering up the dead in those places unless the very same bodies that fell are to rise For bodies might be made and shaped out of matter in any other Places if the dead were not to appear at the day of Judgment in their own bodies in the very bodies they laid down in the grave or in the sea or any other Place It is true they shall not be the same as to their condition and quality for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal immortality but their identity shall be preserv'd in respect of their nature and substance these being the same that they were at their fall This doctrine saith that Excellent Writer before named is most agreeable to the language of the Scriptures to the Principles of Religion to the constant Profession of the Church And being so it is no wonder that it is disrelish'd by the Persons I am speaking of who are wont to disregard the Sacred Writings to subvert the Principles of Christianity and to slight the suffrage of the Universal Church In all which they manifest an Irreligious temper and more especially in disbelieving and opposing this Explication of the Article of the Creed they have shew'd an Atheistical Spirit which always disgusts that Truth which flows from the Scriptures and is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit in them for herein they let us see that they are backward to give credit to the Supreme Truth God himself And besides there is a farther Tang of Impiety in this Opinion of theirs because it bereaves God of the Glory of his Infinite Power in reuniting the same bodies to the same souls at the last day it eclipses the honour of his Mercy in rewarding believers in the same flesh wherein they serv'd and worship'd him in this life it obscures his Justice in punishing sinners in those very fleshly Vehicles which they had here on earth and wherein they did so much mischief in the world And lastly it being such a Diminishment of the doctrine of the Resurrection it is to be fear'd it will have too great an influence on the lives and conversations of men They being dissetled as to the full belief of this they will waver in their Faith of the Future State they will be regardless of that Mighty Concern and they will be backward to fit themselves for it Thus the Racovian doctrine is an impediment to Religion and a nourisher of Vice and Ungodliness CHAP. V. Their false apprehensions concerning the Last Judgment are detected They are not consentaneous to the design of that Great Transaction They are contrary to that Description which is given of it in Scripture They are a gratification to Atheists It is their belief and profession that the Ungodly after the Resurrection shall not suffer Torment but shall be Annihilated This is disproved from Luk. 10. 14. Mat. 18. 8. Mark 9. 44. 2 Cor. 5. 10. An Objection answered The Perniciousness of this doctrine and its tendendency to Atheism on several accounts Iâ—… is no wonder that Socinianism for the sake of this doctrine is plausible Nevertheless the doctrine is irrational and groundless and exploded by some of the Wisest Pagans THIS will be further discover'd in their notion concerning the Last Judgment which say they consists not in any Trial or Judging of the World in any calling them to Account but only in assigning them their different lots and conditions To be judg'd saith Slichtingius is to be rewarded or punish'd Volkelius makes no distinction between the Judging and Punishing of the wicked The Judg knows who are to be saved and who to be damn'd and therefore need not use any Formal Citation or lay open mens lives But those who talk thus should remember that human actions are to be exposed at that day not because God hath not a perfect knowledg of them but because it is his Pleasure that Men should be acquainted with them that the Good Actions of the righteous may be applauded and that the Evil ones of the unrighteous may be condemned in the face of the whole World That this is the will of God we learn from the Sacred Writ and where can it be learnt but there Therefore for these men to Argue and reason the matter notwithstanding the express will and appointment of God is a sign of a very perverse and irreligious frame of mind Is not the Transaction of the Last day represented to us as a Formal Judiciary Process Doth not the Scripture speak of the Judg Acts 10. 42. 2 Tim. 4. 8. Heb. 12. 23. Jam. 5. 9. of the Judgment-seat Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. or the Throne or Tribunal for Judgment Rev. 20. 11 and yet will there be no Judging Is it not said with particular respect to that day that God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts 1 Cor. 4. 5. Is it not said he will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Eccl. 12. 14. And do we question then whether there will be this Judicial Action which we properly call Judging or Trying Iâ—… there shall be this Manifestation of the Hearts and Actions of Men can we imagine that rewarding and punishing at that day are the very same with Judging Further
there are above fourty Clear places of Scripture that express the Plurality of Persons in the Deity and yet they refuse to attend to them Which shews that their eyes are blinded and that they wilfully give themseves up to Mistakes The Ancient Fathers and Writers of the Church who may well be supposed to have some knowledg and insight into this Catholick Doctrine unanimously assert the Distinction of Persons or Subsistencies in the Godhead Which is freely acknowledg'd by their Great Master who expresly tells us that the Fathers both before and after the Nicene Council asserted the same doctrine that we do And this hath been the constant profession of the Orthodox Churches of Christ in all ages But notwithstanding this there have been some since unmindful of what their Master had acknowledg'd that have endeavour'd to make the Writings of those Ancients speak for them therein both contradicting Socinus and the Truth it self Nay even among the late Tracts published by the Socinians there is a formal Collection of the Testimonies of Greek and Latin Fathers against the Doctrine of the Trinity So contradictory are these men to one another There is no need of quoting any Particular Authors under this Head for they all appear in a full body against the doctrine of the Trinity Here the whole Posse of the Racovians shew themselves unanimously and without exception declaring that there is but One Person viz. the Father in the Deity and that the Son and Holy Ghost are not God As for the Blessed Son of God who is the Word of the Father begotten from everlasting by him they affirm him to be no other than a Man dignified with the title of God And as for the Holy Ghost who is co-essential with the Father some of them who adhere to Bidle hold he is an Angel or Messenger of God and consequently a Person but the rest of them deny his Personality and averre him to be only the Power or Influence of God and so is only a Quality or Operation as if the Apostles were commanded to baptize all Nations in the name of an Operation and at the same time were enjoyn'd to baptize in the name of Two Persons This is very harsh yea it is very inconsistent and absurd However these Gentlemen are resolv'd to adhere to it and they bid open defiance to the Contrary Doctrine One of the New Racovians tells us that the doctrine of the Trinity hath been partly the direct and necessary Cause and partly the unhappy occasion of diverse Scandalous and Hurtful Errors and Heresies And in an other place he declares that this doctrine is as little consistent with Piety towards God as it is with Reason But this is very mild and gentle in respect of what some other Unitarians belch forth Servetus when he speaks of the Eternal Generation of the Son of God ridicules it in such blasphemous terms as are not to be mention'd and he often calls the Trinity the Three-headed Cerberus Others of them stile it a Monstrous Idol a Fiction of Antichrist an Infernal Imposture Nay our very Modern Socinians our English Unitarians discover a very Prophane Spirit when they speak of this Sublime Point The language of the Church say they concerning the Trinity is BARBAROUS the faith of it is Monstrous And how elegantly do they express themselves when they tell us that the doctrine of the Trinity is a dry and empty notion a bone without marrow or meat What can be more prophane than their stiling the Three Divine Persons a Trinity of Cyphers a Club or Cabal of Gods a Council or Committee of Gods where sometimes one is President and sometimes another is in the Chair and in another place a Castle in the air Let any one peruse their late Prints and observe the freedom of their Stile and he will find it light and frothy as one of their late Converts expresses it he will find them irreverently deriding this Profound Mystery in such terms as I forbear to rehearse because they are most unworthy of Christian and Pious Ears he will find that there was reason to tax them with Irreligion and Prophaneness and that I did not reproach them when I laid these to their Charge But more especially as to the imputation of Atheism which is yet a more Heinous Crime I request the Reader to consider and weigh 1 John 2. 23. Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father Take it thus with the preceding verse which will lead us to the true sense of it Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son As much as to say if there ever was a Person that might be truly call'd a Liar if ever any one deserved that name then certainly he that gainsays so plain a Truth as this that Jesus is the Messias is an egregious Liar and Falsifier and merits to be call'd so Yea to such a one belongs not only the Title of a Liar but of Antichrist because he is a direct Opposer of Christ as he is the Son of God the Father and therein he denies both the Father and the Son For it follows Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father i. e. he denieth the Father as well as the Son for not having the Father is the same with denying him as is most evident from the preceding clause where it is call'd the denying of the Father Now I suppose the Socinians will grant that the denying of the Father is Atheism wherefore they must also acknowledg that the denying of the Son is Atheism because in this is included according to these words of St. John the denying of the Father This is a Text which it may be they never thought of i. e. of the force and influence of it therefore I intreat them to ponder it now and therein to see a Character of themselves There were in St. John's days some of their Perswasion some that opposed the doctrine of the Trinity and especially the Deity of the Second Person they labour'd to perswade the People as their Successors do in our days that the Father only was God and that the Son was excluded wholly from the Divinity Against these this Apostle writes and lets them know that the Son as well as the Father is God and that he who hath the confidence to deny the Deity of the former doth also deny the Deity of the latter For such is the nature of the Godhead that one of these cannot be Alone The Father is not without the Son neither can be as this latter cannot be without the other They are so mutually joyn'd together that they cannot be separated This Coherence is inviolable and therefore he that denies the Eternal Son of God denies the Father he that holds Christ is not the Son of God by Eternal Generation in effect disowns the Godhead of the Father
as this if there be an utter Extinction of the wicked at the last day If their very persons perish they are uncapable of any Punishment and if that be true it can't be said it shall be more tolerable for one than another which yet is the determination of our Saviour himself Again is it reasonable to believe that the Reprobate shall perish and be extinct when the Holy Scriptures assure us that they shall be cast into everlasting fire Mat. 18. 8. which is call'd Hell-fire in the next verse and when we are ascertain'd they shall at the last day depart into everlasting fire Mat. 25. 41. which in the last verse of that chapter is call'd everlasting punishment Is it the meaning of this Direful Doom that they shall cease to be and sink into Nothing Is it the punishment of the Cursed at that day that they shall be void of all sense of pain and misery i. e. that they shall be uncapable of any Punishment yes this is the interpretation which the Socinians put upon the words Particularly Smalcius and Crellius urge this notion of Everlasting Fire and make it to be of the same signification with Eternal Perdition Destruction or Annihilation But how absurdly is this done when this Everlasting Fire to confirm us in the belief of the Endless Perpetuity of it is in other places of the Gospel term'd Unquenchable fire as in Mat. 3. 12. and in five verses which is exceeding remarkable in Mark 9. it is call'd the fire that is not quenched and that never shall be quenched I argue then thus That Fire which is unquenchable which shall never be extinguish'd is of Endless duration but Hell-fire is such therefore it is of endless duration It is impossible to withstand the force of this Argument I do not say it is impossible for a Whiffling Disputer one that delights in Cavelling to raise an Objection against it for what Truth is there though never so Great which the Wit and Sophistry of wrangling heads cannot suggest something against But this I say it is impossible that any one who is serious and in good earnest and hath a reverence for the Holy Scriptures should not acknowledg that the Eternity of the Infernal Torments is fully declared and confirmed by this foresaid expression of Unquenchable Fin. And we are to reckon all the forementioned Texts as so many different and distinct Proofs of the eternal duration of that Punishment which the wicked shall undergo And this is call'd not only fire that is not and shall not be quench'd but the Worm that dies not Mark 9. 44 46. which cannot with any shew of sense or reason be synonymous with Annihilation Shall these men then be call'd Rational tho I know none call them so but themselves and their Admirers who assert the contrary Do they not shew themselves Masters of Great Reason when they tell us that the Worm which dies not is that which utterly ceases to be when they hold that not to be at all is being in everlasting fire or punishment Those that can assent to these Propositions are Reasonable Men indeed Yes in their own esteem but not otherwise Whence perhaps it was that Volkelius who in other matters sticks close to the Racovians by reason of the gross Inconsistency of this Opinion was offended at it as appears from Socinus's Sixth Epistle to him and we do not find in his Writings as is noted by Bishop Pearson that he ever assented to it I might alledg 2 Cor. 5. 10 a place which not only shews that the same body rises for which I made mention of it before but also that the wicked shall be punish'd afterwards in their bodies for the receiving the things in their bodies the word done being not in the Original nor need it be in the Translation is their being dealt with in way of Punishment or Reward as to their bodies which cannot be unless they subsist both in body and soul to endure that Punishment or to enjoy that Reward This I conceive is very clear and it is impossible to reconcile it with their being reduced to Nothing with their perishing for ever But it is Objected that in the Scripture it is often said of the Wicked that they shall be destroyed they shall perish they shall die which is as much as to say they shall be Annihilated they shall be deprived of their Essence I Answer briefly they mistake the meaning of those expressions for it is plain and manifest from what hath been premised that these terms destruction perdition death denote not the Privation of Existence but of the former state and condition which they were in and their Changing it for one that is eternally Miserable To an unprejudiced and discerning eye and that attends to the Stile of Scripture it is evident that these expressions signifie the utter Separation of the damned from God and the undergoing of his Wrath to eternity and consequently they imply Pain and Torment yea the never-ceasing infliction of them unto endless ages This is that which is meant by the second death threatned to the Wicked Rev. 20. 14 15. 21. 8. for in those places we find that the lake of Fire and the second death are synonymous which shews that the death of the Damned is no other than their Everlasting Punishment their being tormented in the flames of the everlasting fire before mentioned But notwithstanding this the Socinians persist in their Opinion and flatly deny the Perpetuity of Hell-Torments Which is that which the Atheist would have that which he constantly professes as his belief that after death the Soul perishes or if it chances to hold out in its Subsistence some time yet at last it will vanish into a Non-entity There cannot be a more Pernicious Doctrine than this for first it diminishes the Guilt of Sin as if it did not deserve Eternal Torments as if these were above the demerits of the Greatest Sins and Enormities for so the Racovian Writers speak Again this gives Men occasion to deny the Wisdom and Justice of God which is a considerable Step to Atheism To what end and purpose do Reprobates rise again and are brought to Judgment if there shall immediately follow an utter Extinction of them Doth the Great Ruler of the world shew himself Just if they be neither punish'd in this life as often it happens nor in another Shall not the Judg of all the World do right And can he do so if they that have done all the Mischief imaginable to others shall feel none themselves here or hereafter Moreover this encourages men in the commission of Sin for they chear themselves with this that they shall presently have an end of their Misery there shall be a speedy release from their Pains their Torments if there be any shall quickly have an end for they are told by Socinus's disciples that Everlasting Fire wilâ—… soon be extinguish'd that the Worm which never dies is Mortal This
that they lately presented the world with a Paper entituled The Trinitarian Scheme of Religion and now I hope they will not be offended I am sure they ought not when I publish the Anti-Trinitarian Scheme of Religion if I may so call it or rather to speak plainly and impartially of their Irreligious Opinions and Placits They had no Credible Authors to vouch their Scheme but fill'd it up with what they thought fit But I have taken another course and have all along annex'd the Particular Authors whose Assertions I mention and I have set down the particular places in their Writings I have been very exact and faithful in rehearsing their words that I might neither wrong them nor the Truth And in order to this I have perused the Authors themselves and have taken nothing on trust Nor have I gather'd their Opinions from some few or dubious expressions in their Writings or from some Scraps and Sentences but from the plain Tenour and Scope of what they write So that the Reader may absolutely depend upon what I offer to him concerning their Sentiments All the Socinian Writings till some few of late being in Latin the Learned can consult the places which I have cited when they please and bear witness to my faithfulness in alledging them But I knew it would be of no use to the mere English Reader to transcribe the quotations in that Language wherefore I chose rather to give him them in his own Tongue And besides it is to be supposed that the Learned are not unacquainted with these things but because Others who are the greatest numbers are in great measure ignorant of them I thought it requisite to publish them to the world that it may be known what are the Wild and extravagant Notions which are wafted over to us from Racovia If I had not read their Books I might peradventure have entertain'd a more favourable opinion of them than I now have saith the Excellent Bishop before mention'd And so without doubt many others would have entertain'd a tolerable opinion of these Gentlemen if they had not perused their Writings and found what a numerous train of Unsound Propositions are there upheld and if they had not observ'd that pernicious tendency and drift of them People hear Socinianism much talk'd of of late and one or two of the most Vulgar Points of it are partly known to them and they are sollicited perhaps to give their assent to them But if they had a discovery of all the rest of their Opinions it is probable they would be moved by them to disapprove of those others Most men may think perhaps that the Socinians fail only in their disbelief of the Trinity and particularly their disowning the Deity of the Son of God but that as to other Principles of Christianity they believe and profess the same Divine Truths which are embraced by the generality of Christians For as in the late Reign Popery was misrepresented all its Doctrines were dress'd up in a very specious and plausible garb by the Bishops of Meaux and Condom and other dexterous Penmen in so much that it did not seem to be what it was said to be before for they knew that Popery truly represented would never go down with us therefore when the Roman Catholicks had hopes of gaining this Nation once again to their Church it was thought requisite to set their Religion before us in a wrong posture so hath it fared lately with Socinianism the English Racovians have given us such a Character of it that it appears to be quite different from what it was yea and what it really is they have given it such a gloss and varnish that many are thence perswaded to have a good opinion of it for they were sensible that if it were set forth and known in its true nature few Wise and Considerate persons would imbrace it therefore they found it necessary to give us a False Account of it to render it if possible plausible and acceptable But if we narrowly look into it we shall find it to be another thing than it is pretended to be we shall see that it is a Dreadful Compound of Errors and Heterodoxies a Detestable Farce of Exploded Heresies a Horrid Perverting of the Christian Faith and the Nurse of Irreligion and Prophaness To be plainer yet he that hath any close thoughts and remarks of things at this day must needs be sensible that the great Indifferency and Scepticism which reign among us have open'd a door to Socinianism which is a sure Project for Deism and this for Atheism For it is apparent that the Atheists of our times politickly make use of this Engine to compass their designs that is to banish the Deity and Religion out of the world and to introduce universal Licentiousness Immorality and Debauchery I appeal to any Thoughtful Serious and Observing Man whether this be not a true and right View of our present affairs with relation to the matter in hand I apprehended therefore it would be good service to my Countreymen to represent this Monster to them in its true and genuine Colours in its native and proper features which will certainly acquaint them with its Deformity and as the effect of that render it Loathsome and Abominable as it ought to be to all that are concerned for Religion This is the design of the following Discourse and the Holy and Blessed Trinity whose Cause I defend knoweth that herein I intend not the aspersing of any sort of men I aim not at the exposing of or reflecting upon any Party but my whole business is to assert and vindicate the Truth which hath been owned by the Catholick Church in all ages of Christianity and to obviate the growing Evil and Mischief of Socinianism In undertaking of this I will suggest nothing out of heat and passion I will labour to refute not to reproach our Adversaries I will endeavour to approve my self an Advocate for Truth without being an Enemy to Civility and Candour But yet I shall by the Divine Aid which most heartily I implore and beg the Reader to joyn his earnest Devotions with mine use that Freedom and Plainness which become the Truth and an Unprejudic'd Asserter of it My faults in my former book it seems were Wit and Eloquence if he who wrote the Vindication of the late Treatise concerning the Reasonableness of Christianity be a Judg of either Now I hope I have mended these faults or chang'd them for two others viz. Argument and Down-right Language which yet will be as much disliked by that Gentleman and his Partisans However I will venture it and perhaps this Free and Open dealing may have some good effect even upon the minds of our Adversaries at least on some of those that are in part tinctur'd with their Opinions especially when they shall see that it is not my intention to represent the Disciples of Socinus worse than they are which as to some things can hardly be
I say muâ—… needs animate men in their sinful and vitious enterprizes for they will not be backward to make such Conclusions as these we may venture to live as we list seeing there will be no Penalty inflicted upon us that will last long seeing the Punishment of our sins will soon have a period Indeed such an Inference from the Doctrine is genuine and no other could be expected to be made by these persons Wherefore as long as the Premises are entertain'd we must look for no other Deductions It is true it hath happen'd sometimes that their own Principles and Maxims have not had an immediate influence upon them in their Acting they do not follow the natural conduct of them But this is certain the nature of their principles promotes a vicious life these are in themselves apt to excite men to all sin and wickedness As on the contrary the belief of the Endless Punishment which is denounced against Impenitent Sinners quickens men in their Repentance is an Effectual Motive to them to forsake their Sins is a Powerful Incitement to the performance of all Christian Offices and whatever is pleasing unto God Take away this and what a Damp is there to Vertue and Religion Shall the worst and vilest men live here in splendor and in a fruition of all things according to their hearts desire and shall they afterwards meet with no Penalty for all their cursed actions Must they only be deprived of their beings and at the same time of the sense of all that is painful or hurtful In short shall they neither be punish'd here nor hereafter Or is this all their Punishment not to suffer any Then Hell is but a Fable as some of the Poets represented it then Damnation is but a Fiction And who will not add that this is the high Road to Atheism These are the things that make Socinianism so plausible at this day this makes all men of Atheistical Principles and Debauch'd Lives cry it up for it quenches the flames of Hell-Fire which men have been so much affrighted with Hence we may guess that Racovianism will be a Fashionable Doctrine if there be no Check put to it It is no wonder that so many persons favour it that those who defend it are Applauded The reason of this is plain They present them with such a Scheme of Religion for it is likely they 'll call it so as is grateful to their Vicious Inclinations and assures them of Impunity after all the most heinous and enormous actions of their lives These men truly are to be pitied for they can discourse and argue very well if they please some of them have a good Talent that way only they abuse it They are great Admirers of Reason and yet they are so far misled as to imbibe such an irrational and groundless notion as this that not only the bodies but the souls of all the Wicked shall perish and be annihilated Some of the Wise Pagans express'd their belief of the Immortal State even of the Worst Men but these Rationalists absolutely renounce it and thereby shew themselves worse than Pagans and which is worst of all miserably plunge themselves and others into that lake of everlasting fire which they scoff at CHAP. VI. These men have dangerous assertions concerning Christianity as 1. That there is but One Single Article of Christian Faith necessarily requisite to be believed viz. that Jesus is the Messias Some Reflections on the Writer that lately maintain'd this Opinion Remarks upon those that applaud his sentiments His unhappy enterprize briefly described and condemned He and his friends by their Publick Silence confess their Inability to return an Answer But yet they are heard to rage and thereby discover an impotent Passion which argues Guilt 2. They hold that all doctrines in Christianity are to be subject to the strictest Test of Humane Reason This shew'd to be the Sense of the very English Socinians How the Rule of Reason is to be applied What the Foreign and English Unitarians assert at one time they deny at another Thereby they give proof of their Changeableness At the same time they betray their Cause and against their wills befriend the Truth 3. They hold that there are no Mysteries in Christianity The late Asserter of this Opinion reflected on It is against Reason and Scripture Some Exceptions answered Christianity 〈◊〉 self is endangered by this doctrine FIfthly their notions concerning Chrâ—…anity it self are very unsafe and dangerous I will take notice here of three of them The first is an Assertion lately vented or rather lately furbush'd up and in some formality presented to the world by one that is a Well-willer to the Racovian way I mean Mr. Lock for now it is the Catholick belief and vogue of his very Friends and Favourers that he is the Author of the late Treatise concerning the Reasonableness of Christianity And seeing his own Friends and Admirers call it by his name I hope it is no offence in me to do so The Summ of it is this that in all the books of the NEW TESTAMENT there is but One Single Article of Christian Faith necessarily requisite to be believed and assented to by us and this Article is no other than this that JESUS IS THE MESSIAS I have elsewhere proved this to be a Socinian doctrine and it is well known that a Professed Unitarian of a considerable standing in the world hath publickly asserted this Proposition in terminis and hath labour'd to defend it and dedicates his undertakings to Mr. Lock They both confidently aver that the sole believing of this constitutes a Christian and a Member of Christ and there is no necessity in order to salvation that any thing more should be the object of our belief This is the doctrine which they industriously maintain but how Unreasonable and Groundless it is I have made evident in another place to which I refer the Reader where I have shew'd that this is one way to extirpate the Christian Religion out of the world and to introduce Infidelity Only at present I insert it here to make up the Socinian Farce It was not proper to leave it out of the Rhapsody of Heretical Opinions which those men are Professors of Having spoken so largly of it already I will now only make two or three Reflections on it and its Author and so dismiss it It may be observ'd that he began first to deny the Natural Notions and Principles that Mens Minds furnish them with and this was an Introduction to his late enterprize He by no means allows of Connate Idea's those Treasuries of all Natural Knowledg It is remarkable that he that is so much against the Scholastick Way and Systems yet maintains the Old Maxim of the Schools that the Understanding is a mere Blank with nothing written in it Where it might be noted further that herein he exactly agrees with Socinus whose words I quoted before Though these Natural Impressions in all
they shall not be Tried or Judged Only they shall be Punished and their Punishment is this To utterly eease and perish for ever the Unquenchable Fire is nothing but Annihilation I believe as to Christianity it self that every thing in it is to be submitted to the dictates of Humane Reason and what cannot be explain'd and made out by this is no part of the Christian Religion and consequently that there are no doctrines appertaining to it which are Mysterious and Superiour to our Reason I believe as to Divine Worship that it may be given to another besides God that a Creature may if God thinks fit be the object of Adoration and consequently Christ who is but a Creature may be worship'd with Divine Worship even the same that is paid to God the Father I believe that Prayer as eminent an act of Worship as it is was not required in the Old Testament for God's people had no need of Praying then they were able to do all that was commanded them in their Religion without the Divine Assistance and therefore the Invoking of God became not a Duty till Christ's time I believe the Lord's day commonly so call'd is a Ceremonious Observance and abolish'd by the Gospel which takes away all Choice of Days I believe that there is no Spiritual Blessing convey'd or conferr'd in the use of the Sacraments and particularly that Baptism is an useless Rite which the Christian Church under the Gospel hath nothing to do with but more especially the Baptizing of Children is insignificant vain and childish and hath neither Precept nor Example to commend it to us I believe there is no Distinct Function or Office of Ministers in the Christian Church and that the Lord's Supper it self may be administred by any private Christian or Brother As to Moral Points I believe that Officious Lies are lawful that the Motions of Concupiscence are not Vitious that idle or obscene words gluttony drunkenness riot luxury and all impure desires and lusts were not forbidden till Christ's time and consequently were no Sins I believe concerning Magistrates that they have no power of Life and Death it is not lawful for them now under the Gospel to inflict Capital Punishments on any Offenders or Malefactors no not Murderers and Cut-throats Concerning some other Articles I believe as the Church believes I mean the Church of Rome for we symbolize with them in several points of doctrine Lastly after all I believe that though the foresaid Articles are necessary to make a man a Socinian yet the belief of only One is enough to make a Man a Christian and that One Article is that Jesus is the Messias in which it is not included whether he be God or Man whether he satisfied the Divine Justice for our sins and by vertue of his Death purchas'd Life for us But when I say I believe Jesus is the Messiah I mean only this that such a Man of Nazareth was Anointed Ordain'd and Sent of God to be a Saviour and that this is He who was foretold and promis'd to be sent by God This is all I believe and there is no Necessity of believing any thing more This is the Socinian Creed and I have faithfully drawn it up out of their own Admired and Applauded Writers I know it will be said here that some besides professed Socinians hold some of these things To which I answer I made it not my present business to observe what Others say but to represent what that body of men who are known by the name of Socinians profess and own Again it is not one of these Opinions alone excepting that concerning the Blessed Trinity which can give the denomination of Socinian it is the Complication of them that must do it Therefore Iinsist not on any one Single Opinion of lesser importance Those that bear upon them the General and Complex Characters which I have layd down in the preceding Discourse are the Persons that I design'd In short I write not and never will by God's assistance to humour and gratifie any Party of Men but to assert and vindicate the Truth which is pleasing to all Good Men. And therefore if any sort of persons shall censure my freedom I shall have recourse to my own Innocence and Integrity that is my hearty designs and indeavours to advance that Cause which I verily believe hath Truth on its side because it hath the Scriptures on its side If they shall say and what will they not say that the English Socinians give not their suffrage to all these Particulars which I have produced and named and therefore my Charge against the Foreigners doth not reach them I desire these following things may be considered and then this Evasion will be found to be very weak and useless and nothing to their purpose and it will appear that this Scheme of Socinianism belongs to them as well as to the rest First we are not sure that some of those who go under the name of English Socinians are not Foreigners Is not Crellius's Stock somewhere harbour'd among them Have there not been seen strange Outlandish Books at the Press of late May we not suspect some Transylvanians and Polanders employ'd in the work lately Are we not sure that there are some Irish as well as English ingaged in the service Why then are we nice in distinguishing when they are not differenc'd as to their work and design Secondly as for our very English and Native Socinians they borrow'd their Opinions from those Foreigners they fetch'd them from those Writers and they maintain them by the same Arguments that they did They use the very same Texts and urge them after the same manner they follow them step by step vouch their Reasonings applaud their Discoursings only they dress up their notions in an English garb and give them a more Modish Turn than they had before That 's all the difference between those Authors and these of late in England Thirdly though some of the Moderns are so politick as to be silent about some of the Points that I have mention'd yet we have no reason to gather thence that they are not inclin'd to imbrace them It is a remarkable hint of a very Observing Person There is reason to suspect saith he that the Socinians have some other odd Tenents which they think fit rather to conceal than to deny For we must consider this that they would first gain their Main Point the overthrow of the Trinity and all the Maxims that relate to that This is the Leading Card with them and therefore they chiefly insist on this intending we may suppose to urge the rest afterwards For it would be too much to undertake at one time to defend all the other doctrines And besides it would be too odious to reject so many receiv'd Propositions at once Therefore they go not this way to work lest they should be universally cried down It is their cunning to proceed gradually and to undermine Christianity
out of their favour They laugh at the Orthodox as they call them for thundring it from their Pulpits that matters of Faith are above Reason So the Letter to the Clergy of both Universities chap. 10. And those that will not reject the Trinity and other doctrines exploded by the Socinians are Priest-ridden Letter of Resolution p. 19. They adhere to other Enthusiastick Spirits as to their mistaken conceits concerning Magistracy and the Secular Sword They perfectly accord with the Quakers in their opinions about the Trinity Christ's Satisfaction Original Corruption concerning the Ministerial Function and Mission concerning Infant-Baptism the Observation of the Christian Sabbath going to War c. So that any considerate man may observe that Quakerism is the spawn of Socinianism Nay they seem to have given rise to the wild Sect of Muggletonians who from them have learnt to hold but One Person in the Godhead viz. God the Father and to call the Trinity or a God of Three Persons as they speak a Monster as our Gentlemen are pleas'd also to express themselves They have been taught from them to renounce the Power of the Christian Magistrate and the Office of a Christian Minister they are instructed by them in their Tenents concerning the Spirits or Souls of men viz. that they can't act without the body and that therefore they are extinct as soon as they are separated from it They are the very words of this late Party and they are taken from the Racovians An other detachment is that the Bodies of the deceased wherein they lived and died shall not rise again shall not appear any more This is their language whence it is evident that Reeve and Muggleton suck'd their Principle from Faustus Socinus and his Adherents And thus you see that as the Socinians borrow from several Sects so they set up others they receive and distribute Poison and thereby doubly endanger mankind Lastly it is apparent that they borrow from Deists and Atheists and thereby yet further bring mischief upon the world And from the whole it is evident that these persons are corrupted not only in some matters of lesser moment but in those that are of the highest concern not only in merely Speculative doctrines but such as immediately relate to Practise not only in some Principles that respect the Circumstances of Christianity but in those that are Substantial and Fundamental those that are of the very Essence of the Christian Faith Let this be seriously thought of that we may have a true apprehension of the mischief of Socinianism Secondly Observe the strange boldness as well as falshood of these men They are often in their Writings insinuating into their Readers that they build all their Assertions on the Scriptures and thence they require their assent to what they deliver But from the several Particulars which I have insisted upon it is clear that they have no ground to require or claim it upon that account for I have manifestly discover'd the opposition of their Tenents to the plain dictates of the Holy Spirit in the Bible There they are condemned as spurious and adulterate Notions there they are rejected as Pernicious and Poisonous doctrines And yet they have the confidence to ground these on the authority of the Inspired Writings the Sacred Oracles of Truth yea One of them tells the world that he was brought to these Perswasions by reading the Scripture that hereby they may the more effectually impose upon the minds of men who they think will be ready to attend to that which they pretend is bottom'd on the Word of God Thirdly These things which have been suggested may be serviceable to give us a Right Idea of the persons I have been dealing with Surely those who have thus mangled and abused Religion cannot be thought to have a Good Intention in the work which they are about at this day yea they must be thought to have a very Bad one We may argue thus It is no wonder that they that pervert and deprave so many doctrines of Religion do more especially enervate the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity If it were only on the account of all their other wild notions we might have reason to suspect yea to condemn their blasphemous Opinion concerning our Lord Jesus Christ viz. their flat denial of his Godhead and of his Satisfaction c. It is not to be marvel'd at that they proceed thus far having done so much besides having in other Points of Christianity shew'd what a faculty they have of perverting and distorting the Truths of the Gospel What I have said therefore will be useful to enlighten the Reader that he may understand what manner of persons these are that to speak plainly he may be convinced that they are no Christians Whatever pretences they make to that Title it is impossible they should with reason lay claim to it for they neither are baptised into the Christian Faith nor do they make Profession of it as you have heard but on the contrary they subvert Christianity it self and deny the Divine Author of it How then can these men challenge the name of Christians Nay I could observe that they industriously comply with Jews and Turks in opposition to and defiance of all Sober Christians To gratifie the former they think fit to renounce the avowed Principles of the latter Herein they follow their Old Friend Servetus who had convers'd a long time with Jews and Mahometans and had espoused many of their Opinions and was a great Admirer of them Especially he declar'd his approbation of the Alcoran and thought it reconcileable with the New Testament if the doctrine of the Trinity were laid aside It is often mention'd by Socinus and other Racovian Writers that this doctrine and that of the Incarnation hinders Jews and Turks from embracing the Christian Religion And even the late Socinian Penmen in their New Tractates talk much of this that the doctrine of the Trinity puts a stop to the conversion of Jews Mahometans and Heathens and thereupon they are very earnest with their Readers to abandon this Great Point of Christianity in mere complacency with those Infidels And more particularly it is observable how favourably they speak of Mahometism or Turcism they profess themselves forward to believe that Mahomet had no other design in pretending himself to be a Prophet but to restore the belief of the Unity of God which at that time was extirpated among the Eastern Christians by the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation Mahomet meant not his Religion should be esteemed a New Religion but only the Restitution of the true Intent of the Christian Religion Therefore the Mahometan Learned men call themselves the True Disciples of the Messias They further in the same place insinuate their approbation of the Mahometan Religion above that of Christianity they magnifie the Alcoran and the more plausible Sect of Mahomet as the Saracens call'd it and at the same time they represent the
Scriptures is a considerable Branch not to say Root But this is but mean and inconsiderable in respect of what they further hold and maintain For they not only find fault with some passages here and there but they question the Authority of whole Books and even vilifie the Old Testament it self What think you of those words of the Ring-leader of the Party The Precepts of the Old Testament are for the most part such that it is hard to believe that they proceed from God they are either so Light or Vain or Superstitious or even Foolish and Ridiculous and in sum they seem not to be worthy of God Is this the Language of one that hath a due respect and reverence for the Scriptures And in an other place you will find him particularly disparaging the Book of the Proverbs of Solomon And one of his Friends declares that when Solomon in his Proverbs speaks any thing concerning Manners if it be not expresly spoken that is either commanded or forbid by Moses in the Law is no more obligatory than the wise advice and doctrine of any other man What is this but bringing down this Inspit'd Author to the same level with Plato and Seneca or any other honest Moralist But would you know what is the true reason of their slighting and undervaluing this Royal Penman who dictated all by an Infallible Spirit It is this without doubt because there is in that Book so Remarkable a Confirmation of the doctrine of Christ's Divinity chap. 8. v. 22. to 32. where any unprejudic'd man cannot but see that by Wisdom is meant the Son of God Christ Jesus whose Eternal Being and Godhead are there in plain terms express'd I might observe how an other Celebrated Racovian disparages those Writings of Solomon which bear the Title of Ecclesiastes but I shall have occasion to mention this more particularly afterwards Then for the New Testament we are rightly told by an Excellent Pen that our Unitarians undermine the Authority of these Books and so introduce Deism amongst us There are some of these Writings either slily carp'd at or more positively call'd in question by them The Subtilty of Enjedinus an Overseer of the Socinian Churches in Transilvania is to be taken notice of in his Explication of the Epistle to the Hebrews who though he saith he hath an esteem for this Book and will not detract from the Authority of it yet thus speaks It is to be known that this Epistle is very much suspected among the most nor hath it obtain'd the same repute and dignity with the other Writings of the New Testament And then he assigns his Reasons why he questions the Authority of this Epistle one whereof is this The things which this Author writes concerning the Tabernacle chap. 9. v. 1. may be confuted out of the Old Testament An other is that he seems to use foolish Arguings and to assert some things which are manifestly false And lastly this Epistle seems to favour certain Heretical and Erroneous Opinions All this and much more he rehearses in contempt of the Divine Authority of this Epistle and saith not one syllable to shew his dislike of it or to let the World see how these Cavils may be confuted The true reason is because this part of St. Pauls Writings is such an Eminent and Illustrious Attestation of the Divinity of our Saviour and of his making Satisfaction unto God the Father by the offering of himself a Sacrifice upon the Cross for us Again the Writings of St. John the Evangelist and Apostle have been struck out of the Canon of Scripture by these men It is the frank acknowledgment of our New English Unitarians as may be seen in one of their late Prints that the Antient Unitarians generally disregarded the Gospel and Epistles which are ascribed to this Author and held that they were writ by Cerinthus an Heretick in those days But this must be said they pitch'd upon a very unlikely man to be the Author of those Writings for this Cerinthus as Irenaeus Eusebius and others of the most Credible Writers of the Church inform us was the Chief Man in those days that opposed the Divinity of Christ and held him to be a Mere Man whereupon St. John drew his Pen against him Can we think then that the Gospel of St. John was writ against Cerinthus and yet that Cerinthus writ it Besides it is easily proved that both the Gospel and the First Epistle which bear this Apostle's name were universally held to be Canonical Scripture and written by him as Eusebius testifies nay a professed Unitarian Writer firmly vouches this Wherefore it is probable that the only reason why any of the Old Unitarians disallow'd of St. John's Writings was because there are such passages as these in them In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father I and my Father are one He that hath seen me hath seen the Father I am in the Father and the Father in me Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one In brief because these Writings assert the Holy Trinity and more especially the Divinity of Christ thence they are resolved to defame the authority of them thence our very Modern Unitarians publickly declare that St. John makes use of certain terms and phrases as life light fullness only begotten c. by chance and by other crafty insinuations they would diminish the esteem of those Writings Nay they endeavour to blast the Credit of All the Canonical Books by telling us that some have been modelling the Common Bibles far above twelve hundred years So saith the Author of the Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity and he speaks in the name of all the rest Thus they would make the World believe that the Whole Sacred Volume is corrupted and thereby our Religion and Faith are rendred Uncertain and Dubious which is the thing aimed at Moreover their vilifying and abusing of the Holy Scripture are seen in their Wild Interpretations of it merely to evade plain Texts which are against them and to establish their own fond Principles I deny not that some of them have very laudable descants on several passages of the Bible Faustus Socinus hath excellent Discourses and Commentaries on sundry Texts he treats excellently of the Authority of the Scriptures and very admirably and judiciously of the Truth of Christianity But at other times he generally dodges and higgles and uses quirks and subterfuges to support his Cause So true is that of our Learned Stilling
fleet F. Socinus seeing the bent of the Scripture so much against him sets himself to the finding out ways to avoid the force of them It is granted likewise that some of Socinus's followers are very useful in their Expositions of the New Testament They settle the sense and scope of the words and furnish the Reader with several Criticisms of good use He that denies this is to be suspected of causeless Prejudice and ill-will against them But then it must be said that they too often pervert the native sense of the words and force the Texts to speak what they please and generally the Arguments they offer are weak and unmanly groundless and precarious but they have a way of shoving them on with some craft and subtilty They are all very dexterous at this but Enjedinus Crellius and Slichtingius's Comments on Texts are of this sort especially It would create wonder sometimes to see their Elaborate Sophistry in finding out Trajections and Transpositions in several places in altering the genuine and obvious sense of Texts in their subtile ways of perverting and wresting of some clear passages of the Bible It must be said they have exercised the height of their Wit and Parts in this performance But as it was said of old of the Dice-player the better he was at the Game the worse he was so here it is most true the more these men excel in this way of Cheating and Imposing upon mankind the more is their Badness discover'd and the greater is their Crime And our Domestick Socinians agree with the Foreigners in this for they use the same little Arts and Tricks to deprave the sense of Holy Writ and to render it serviceable for their turn If I should instance only in their strange and unaccountable interpreting of the first verses of the first Chapter of St. John's Gospel that would be sufficient to let us see what a marvelous talent they have of misinterpreting and wresting the Holy Book In the beginning say they is as much as in the beginning of the Gospel or the Gospel-state though there is not the least colour for any such Gloss from the whole Context and though all Expositors both Antient and Modern have understood it otherwise The Word was with God i. e. when Christ ascended into Heaven viz. some time before his Publick Ministry though there is no foundation for any such surmise as I shall immediately shew And the Word was God or a God for so these nice Criticks will have us read it though it is well known to the Learned that the omission of the Article is not argumentative i. e. he was appointed to be a kind of God or God's Representative as Magistrates are call'd Gods All things were made by him i. e. all things were not made by him but only reform'd and renew'd The world was made by him i. e. it was new modell'd or the Spiritual World the World of the Messias was made by him From these and such like Conceits which their Writings abound with you may discern the Air and Genius of these Men you cannot but take notice that they love to play upon words and phrases they delight in coining sophistical Evasions they study artifice and shifts By which they shew themselves to be no Spurious offspring but the true Sons of Arius who as the Ecclesiastical Historian acquaints us was not unskill'd in Logical Querks And an other of the Antients observes that the Arian Cause was managed by Old Subtile Disputants such as had been bred up to Controversies and knew how to make the best of their Ill Arguments and to Dissemble when they thought there was occasion for it Our late Revivers of the Cause are furnish'd with the same Skill and use it as advantageously They will pretend to own Christ's Divinity they will say Christ is God and True God and yet if you come to the trial they wholly renounce it and tell you Christ is only God's Minister his Messenger his Embassador This is all you can get from an other of their Writers Only the Father saith he is true God and the Lord Christ is his Prophet his Embassador his Messenger so that Christ is no more than what the Turks confess Mahomet to be Though our Blessed Saviour be so often stiled God and Lord in the New Testament yet the Antitrinitarians would needs persuade us that the meaning of it is no other than this that he was a Great and Eminent Man whence it follows that they hold Christ to be Lord and God in the same sense that the Papists talk of their Lord God the Pope So they will tell you that the Death of Christ is an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of mankind and yet whatever they pretend they really own no such thing as the Reverend Bishop Stillingfleet rightly remarks and irrefragably proves beyond all Exceptions in his Admirable Treatise against Crellius And in several other Instances it might be shew'd that they intolerably abuse and deceive the world In brief never was Prejudice more rampant never were Fallacies so often placed in the room of Arguments never was Reason so grosly abused never was Logick so ill employ'd never were Grammer and Criticism so scandalously thrown away as in the Writings of these men and all is done to distort the Word of God to elude the meaning of the Holy Ghost to plead against the Lord of Life and Glory and against the only way and means of their Salvation Here under this First Head viz. their Abusing of Scripture I will take notice of One Particular Instance of it which to the Common Reader perhaps may be a Rarity They thinking it necessary that Christ being but a mere Man for they hold him to be no other should be extraordinarily instructed by God as to his Office of the Messias and therefore it would be requisite that he should like St. Paul be taken up into the third Heaven and there be taught particularly how to discharge his Office and how to teach men upon Earth Accordingly they were to find out some Texts of Scripture which might be strained to support this Fiction viz. That Christ went up into Heaven in the time of the forty days Fast or some time before he began to Preach that he might receive Instructions from God concerning the Gospel-dispensation and concerning the things that he was to deliver upon earth To this purpose they pitch upon John 3. 13. No man hath ascended up into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man who is in Heaven and they would persuade us that these words are spoken concerning that Ascension which they fancy But this meaning cannot be fastned upon them because we are here plainly inform'd that Christ came down from Heaven first and then afterwards ascended thither whereas it is their assertion that he first ascended and then came down thence It is impossible therefore to stretch these words so as to
Sacred Scripture hath recorded It is to be wondred at that notwithstanding this these men should be so blind it is strange and unaccountable that they take no notice of their being baffled by the Fulfilling of those Predictions Likewise who sees not that the Providence of God extends it self to this sort of future actions and occurrences for he manages these for great and excellent ends in the world But how can he do this if he hath no knwledg of them Can his Care and Providence be exercised about them and yet he be wholly Ignorant of them Thus it is evident that at the same time that these men deny the Divine Prescience they do also take away Providence for it is impossible that God should dispose order and take care of those actions and events which he knows nothing of Which shews how absurd and ridiculous that passage in Socinus is viz. that this Prescience which we assert to be in God doth in some part take away and obscure that continual Care which he takes of humane affairs and renders him in a manner Idle One would not imagine that such an Inconsistent Thought should come into a mans head and much less that it should be propagated as we see in Vorstius and others If they had not a strong propension to diminish and disparage the Divine Nature and to foster Atheism certainly they could not thus discourse certainly they could not maintain that God is ignorant of what any Man will say think or do the next moment and that he hath no notice at all of such Future Occurrences as depend on the free will of man till they actually come to pass i. e. when every intelligent creature hath a knowledg of them There is yet another Attribute of God concerning which they have a very unbecoming notion and such as is inconsistent with the Perfection of the Divine Nature God's Eternity is represented by them to have in it a Succession of Duration as there is in Time They are the very words of * Socinus and Crellius And the English Socinians shew themselves to be of this mind placing the nature of Eternity in a Continual Succession And as for the contrary notion it is laught at by some of them as a Whimsical Paradox But certainly this is no other than confounding of Finite and Infinite and making Time and Eternity the same Where there is a Succession there was a Beginning or First Moment which plainly demonstrates that there is no Succession in God's duration because all things are Together and at Once those things which are past present and to come are always coexistent and present with him One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day Psal. 90. 4. Which denotes that there are not in God those three differences of Time before mention'd which are in the duration of other things and consequently there are no Parts and no Succession in the Eternal Duration of God This I think no man will deny to be rational that the Permanency of the Existence of God should be differenced from that of Creatures and accordingly that he should not be measured by Time as they are I go upon this ground that we ought to attribute the most Excellent things to God and on the contrary that we must not ascribe any thing to him that hath the least Shew of Imperfection and will diminish his Divine Nature This is a safe and sound bottom and on this I build my Assertion viz. that a Temporal and Successive duration ought not to be attributed to God If the persons I am now dealing with had attended to this Rule had built on this basis they would not have pronounced such strange things as they do concerning the Deity they would have had more reverent conceptions of him they would not have vented such undue Opinions and Surmises concerning the Divine Nature But they having taken up these Perswasions endeavour to defend them and it hath happen'd that some persons of good Parts have undertaken the Cause and have rendred it very plausible to such as have not an eye to the Infinite and Superlative Excellency of God the Supreme Being I grant that there are some Learned Meâ—… that are no Socinians who seem to allow 〈◊〉 a Successive Duration in him but if we duly weigh what they say we shall find thaâ—… they chiefly set themselves against the nice speculations of the Schoolmen concerning Succession but they apply noâ—… this way of Duration in a proper and strict manner unto God They owâ—… some kind of resemblance of it in Eternity but there is no such thing formally and really The reason is because Succession implies in it Parts Divisibility Motion and Change but an Eternal Undivideâ—… Being is not capable of these and by consequence not of such a Duration Wherefore it follows that the Eternity of God is in a manner denied by the Socinians 〈◊〉 leave it to the Reader to apply the Censure CHAP. III. The Socinians renounce the doctrine of the Trinity though it be attested by the Scriptures and Fathers They prophanely ridicule it They are demonstrated to be Atheists from St. John's Words Epist. 1. ch 2. v. 23. The Argument thence is reduced into an unanswerable Syllogism The doctrine of the Trinity intended to be particularly treated of hereafter by the Author Christ's own words evince his Divinity The Socinians denying him to be God consequently deny his Satisfaction That Text Rom. 3. 25. is urged against them Whence are inferr'd the Unreasonableness and Impiousness of their Cavils Christ's Satisfaction proved from Isai. 53. 5. c. From those Texts which speak of Reconciliation made by him From other places which mention his Suffering and Dying for us his being a Propitiation an Atonement a Sacrifice his Redeeming us Both the former and present Socinians agree in reviling deriding and blaspheming the Merits and Satisfaction of our Saviour THUS far we have seen how defective they are in their Notions concerning God as he is considerd in respect of his Attributes We will in the next place observe how faulty they are in their Conceptions concerning Him as he is to be considered in regard of the Persons contain'd in his Godhead The Holy Scriptures especially of the New Testament bear witness that though there is but One Living and True God yet in Unity of this Godhead there is a Trinity of Persons of one substance majesty power and glory viz. the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that these are the very Eternal God There is abundant proof of this from a vast number of Plain and Obvious Texts and yet the Disciples of Socinus stubbornly disown this Clear Truth They have but a Text or two on which they pretend to build their belief of Christ's Ascending into heaven before he preach'd the Gospel and yet these though distorted and misapplied they think a sufficient basis for that Conceit of theirs but behold