only the contingent effect thereof Reconciliation with God arising from true justification without which man must necessarily even unto all eternity have remained under and at all times bin lyable to the wrath of God is that whereby God for the Satisfaction of Christ pardoning all his sins doth freely admit and receive him into favour Or else more plainly d Emphasis vocis reconciliationem dissidentium per emptâ mutuâ dissentione importat It is a setting at one those who by reason of some discord between or hatred toward one another were exceedingly divided and separated one from the other This and the word Atonement which the Dialogue doth so often make use of are meer Synonima's no more but two several expressions of one and the same thing yet admitting of not different but divers denominations For being referred to wrath it is called a pacification or an appeasing either with a gift prepared as Jacob did his brother Esau e Gen. 32.20 or by compensation made for some wrong or injury done as David did the Gibeonites f 2 Sam. 21.3 and having reference to sin it signifies to expiate or purge with Sacrifice whence the day of Atonement is called g Lev. 16.30 a day of expiation and sometimes it is used for pardon and remission of sins as h Psal 78.38 he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity in which sense the Dialogue takes it and spends it self in the most part of that which remains to make his Reader believe it namely that this very atonement or reconciliation is our very righteousness and justification But this cannot be for this likewise were to confound the effect with the cause as before in remission of sins Atonement or Reconciliation being but the necessary effect or consequent of a sinners justification before God Thus you see being driven to their shifts they fly from one thing to another and are at no certainty among themselves into what a labyrinth then would they bring their perplexed Readers In this work of reconciliation or atonement Christ is to be considered after a two-fold manner or under a double notion either in respect of his essential Deity and Divinity or in respect of his Mediatorial office and Priestly performance in respect of his essential Deity common to himself with the Father and the Holy Ghost he by the same right whereby the Father and the Holy Ghost was exceedingly offended with and highly provoked to indignation against us by reason of our sins in respect of his Mediatorial officâ— by the common consent and councel of the whole Trinity receding from his most just right took upon him our flesh that he might fully perform the part of a mercifull Mediatour between God and man In the transaction of this great husiness of mediation reconciliation or atonement for they are one in effect though they differ in terms there are six distinct things to be performed by Christ The first is Discretion oâ— Dijudication of the cause he takes notice of the state and condition of his Church and chosen Secondly he doth report the will of his Father the covenant and agreement with God unto them Thirdly he makes intercession to God for them Fourthly he fully satisfies the wrath and Justice of God provoked against them and freely delivers them from the eternal punishment which they had justly deserved should be inflicted on them Fiftly he mercifully applies that satisfaction to them And finally he everlastingly conserves them in this state of reconciliation into which he hath brought them And thus we dispose of these things thus wonderfully and mercifully performed by him Discretion and Relation pertain properly to the Prophetical office of Christ Intercession and Satisfaction to his Priest-hood Application and Conservation to his Regal office and that Kingly power which he exerciseth in and over his beloved ones So that whole Christ God-man in both natures in all his offices is employed in and for the effecting this high and glorious work of the Fathers mercifull atonement and reconciliation which is no small comfort being brought home and seasonably applied to the heart of a Christian Thus have we set down the true nature of Atonement or Reconciliation with God But as for the Dialogues Atonement it is nothing else but a vain idle imaginary and illusory thing a meer fiction which he having fancied and framed out to himself would fain obtrude upon others without the least colour of testimony from the Word of God For that which the Scripture presents unto us under the name and notioâ— of the word Atonement is an effect of our righteousness and not a part much lesse the whole as he would have it concerning which ne speaks much as being perhaps delighted in and affected with his own expressions but proves nothing of what is expected from him many times crossing and confounding himself much more his unwary and over-confident Reader To conclude then for I hope by this time the good and intelligent Reader doth plainly discover what the drift and purpose of the Dialogue is together with the rest of the Socinian faction namely to raze if they could the very foundation of our Religion which we have built upon the Rock that so we might erect a new structure on the sand but they shall not prevail yet let every one of us take heed that we build not thereon For other foundation can no man lay and expect comfort in or continuance of the building then that is laid the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone These under specious pretences and new coyned phrases endeavour to betray us that they may have whereby as they think to glory over us We know that offences to and oppositions against the Truth especially in these latter times must needs come that those which are firm and constant may be made manifest But wo unto them by whom such offences and oppositions do come From henc it comes to passe that such thâ—ngs as were never handled by the Scriptures are now hand over head urged and maintained from the Scriptures and such questions as were never dreamed of among the Apostles are stoutly yet strangely defended by the Apostles By these means our Pulpits ring our Presses groane and our eares are filled with the confused noise thereof such loud lies such lawlesse arguments such naked collections such backward conclusions such an Ocean of tempestuous sequels such a legend of unsound and unseasoned Non-sequitur's such upstart heresyes and such high strain'd blasphemies that the common Adversary scorneth at our follies and all the Devils in Hell as it were keeping holy-day do rejoyce at our forwardness to run and destroy not only the bodies but even the souls too one of another bringing hereby our selves into derision abroad an the Scriptures themselves into suspition at home Thus are many too many God knows poor single hearted men misled although by a contrary course yet to the same gulf running their Barques upon the sands and shallows of deceit yet deeply dissembled even where they least suspected them and thought themselves most free from them For indeed who would look for so foul errour and heresy to proceed from so great and fair pretenders to Truth Or
looked to be obeyed not disputed and freely assented to not preposterously controverst He seems to me to be Master of little or no reason at all who would have Reason a competent judge of those things which are above and beyond reason and all finite apprehension whatsoever For his good conversation it deserves commendation if it were real I would be loath to be what ever the World and some ill byassed men think of me an Advocate for debauchery I here openly protest against it in the sight of God and man yet to speak my mind freely I believe the Devil that hath many wayes to catch men hath in'd a greater harvest by the means of such austerity and seeming purity I judge no man then ever he did by those that are too much addicted to company To decline offences to be careful and conscionable in our several actions is a perfection which every man ought to labour for and to attain unto which we may well do without a sullen segregation of our selves from all society or at least from all society that are not of our opinion The Donatists were pure in their lives but desperate in their Doctrines What Saints did the Anabaptists seem at their first rise and Original to be Insomuch that Luther himself wrote to the Duke of Saxonie in their behalf desiring him not to be too severe to those innocent and harmelesse persons yet afterwards when they had gotten the staff into their own hands what Monsters they discovered themselves to be what horrible outrages were acted what horrid impieties perpetrated by them poor Germany can yet remember and declare to her long lasting sorrow and their everlasting infamy An affected austerity a supercilious gravity a starch't deportment insteed of reverence which is looked for beget scorne and contempt If there be any priviledges they are surely granted to the Children of the Kingdome to which many without warrant intitle themselves If mirth and recreations be lawful surely such as desire to keep faith and a good conscience may lawfully use them Let us not then judge one another but every one of us labour to build up one another in our most holy faith that God may have the glory his Church the peace his Servants the comfort that is to be desired Well having considered this Laelius in his life and Doctrine we now come to his end having attained to the middle of his age being about seven and thirty years old and at that very time when being moved by the importunity of his friends he had determined yea had already begun to bring to light and publish to the World some fruâ—t of his laborious and industrious studies in Divinity he was cut off by the sudain stroak of death insomuch that all his endeavour which was wholly bent if possible to the ruin of Orthodox Doctrine and their great expectation for the present dyed with him and came to nothing How did death cousen both the living and dead This intended now out of hand to publish Those to enjoy the result of many years hard and painful studies yet both are prevented by one sudain and unexpected blow We are here even in our best condition but as a flower that lasts some dayes we last some years at a certain period both fade It should be our care to be alwayes well doing and then let death come when where and how it will We may then with comfort sing that Swan-like song of good old Simeon Nunc dimittis c. Lord now leâ— thy Servant depart in peace Mattheus Gribaldus Iurisconsultus Patavinus Jam Patavinus adest Gribaldus jure peritus At verae legis cognitione caret MAttheus Gribaldus to whom that runagate Galentinus Gentilis flying out of Geneva first betook himself was a Lawyer of Patavia as able in his profession as any in that School one that lived well and in good repute tâ—ll he was drawn away by the sly and subtil perswasion of Laelius Socinus that broker for the Devil who cunningly wrought the downfal of this man and many others He was familiarly present with Francis Spira in that desperate conflict which he had by reason of his Apostacy and abâ—egation of the faith contrary to his conscience and his former proâ—ession of the truth He also wrote the History of the same the whole matter whereof in his preface he terms and that very truly a great wonderfull example of Divine Justice upon the man to the terrour and astonishment of all beholders For he together with Paulus Vergerius Bishop â—f Justinopolitanus who unlesse he had seen Spira in that Agonie had never come over to Basil to us as himself was wont often to say did very often visite Spira and give him what comfort he could at that time in a better condâ—tion then himself who having forsaken the faith and abandoned his profession he betook himself secretly to his village in the Country where he lay close and obscure for a time at length he joyned himself a companion to these Italian hereticks who took him off cleerly from the foundations of his Religion So that by degrees for nemo repente fit turpissimus he became as Arch an heretick as any in the company No enemy like to bad company it destroyes both our bodies and souls it gives us immedicabile vulnus such a wound as will admit of no cure How many have lived ignominiously and dyed miserably who have used their last breath only to complain of this as the witch that hath enchanted them to the commiting of those evills which now they must smart for and that for ever Many a man had bin good which is not had he not fallen into ill company This this wrought such an unhappy change in Gribaldus that the sad example of Spira which before had made some impression in him was now quite gone and that terrour which it had wrought was removed Quantum mutatus ab illo what can we think of him when as Beza writing concerning him saith that he had denyed with open and apparent perjurie that Religion which in his conscience he thought to contain the very truth This made Calvin refuse to take or give a hand when he met him unlesse they first might know each others minds and what agreement was between them in the prime Article of the Christian faith that is the sacred Trinity and the Deity of Jesus Christ But the difference proved so wide that Calvin and he were never at amity many times at enmity during his abode at Geneva After this we find that he returned to his profession of the Law but never to the profession of the truth And therefore t is not for nothing that this saying came in use to convince an heretick is next to a miracle that is so to convince him as to bring him to acknowledge his errours to be sorry for them and utterly to relinquish and forsake them By the favour of Vergerius who either knew not or winked at his errours and heresies
cursed of God Now what is it to be cursed of God but to have the punishment of the curse inflicted on him both in body and soul It is no marvell that the grand Enemy of our Salvation doth set men and they their wits on work to oppose this wholsome Doctrine namely the truth of Christs suffering the wrath of God for the Elect considering the great benefit which issues from and the good use may be made of the same As first by faith beholding Christ in his Spiritual conflict with the wrath of God and seeing him sorrowing sweating praying fainting crying out unto and upon his Father * Jesus in inferrarum gurgitem submersus ejulat Bez. in Mat. as one utterly forsaken by him no whit sparing or one jot regarding him standing in the room of sinners and by reason of our iniquities suffering such things should make us loath and abhorre our sins which caused God to be so displeased with his own Son by reason of the guilt thereof which lay upon him and to think thus sadly with our selves Oh how shall we if we go on now and lye down hereafter in our sins and transgressions be able in the great day to appear before him How shall we endure his fury which made the Son of God so groane and cry Surely we can expect no other no better then with Esau to be sent away empty though with tears we seek the blessing We will therefore resolve thus seriously with our selves reasonably to break off our sins by repentance and our iniquities by turning to our God from whom so long we have turned away to serve our own turns in and upon the vanities of this life which by no means the Devil can endure to hear Secondly it begets an exceeding contentment and comfort in us when the hand of God by sickness with other bodily diseases and distempers do lye hard and heavy upon us thâ—n to think with our selves why what are these to those miseries that anguish those horrours of conscience those eternal and unutterable torments which my sins have deserved or my Saviour suffered As a poor Prisoner laid up for some capital crime by reason of which according to his desert and the equity of the Law he can expect nothing but death and that with the severest execution but being beyond hope pardoned his life and only adjudged to the penalty of some few stripes doth rejoyce in the midst of these his petty sufferings considering what he should have undergone So we though we be in misery here yet being by the mercy of God and the sufferings of Jesus Christ delivered from those eternâ—l torments which were due unto us by reason of our sins do rejoyce in the midst hereof with joy unspeakable and full of glory which the Devil cannot endure to see and therefore stirs up his instruments with all the slights and tricks that may be to weaken the ground thereof And truly these of all other the most dangerous for under the pretence of exalting Christ they most of all debase him making him more infirm then other men which have suffered as great if not greater bodily torments and yet never expressed so much fear grief and sorrow under them or else with shame to them be it spoken to counterfeit what he suffered not so while they inconsiderately endeavour to defend his glory they most of all darken and obscure it by calling in question the truth of his sufferings and consequently the certainty of our Redemption leaving us under the insupportable weight of Gods wrath which if he hath not none other either man or Angel is able to satisfie for us yet here 's our comfort Truth is strong yea so strong that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it Secondly Concerning Gods imputation of sin to Christ. WE complained in the beginning of the Dialogues want of order but know not how to help our selves for we resolve in his own way and method to give him that answer and the Reader that satisfaction which we intend And for our more orderly proceeding herein we shall propose and prove these three things First that sin was imputed to Christ Secondly that it was imputed to him by God himself Thirdly that it was imputed by way of satisfaction to Divine Justice For our entrance into the first we shall enquire what imputation is and what is meant thereby that so it may be the better understood of what and what we do affirm The words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not to be taken physicè according to the native and natural signification thereof as if any sinful quality were infused into Christ but relative as he is considered in relation to us Nor is it a naked and bare relation that must make or bear out such an imputation Christ therefore is termed and that truly to our Head Husband Saviour Redeemer Surety Voluntarily interposing between God and us undertaking our debt and so becoming lyable to the satisfaction thereof Imputation then z Imputatio est rei unius pro altero acceptatio Bradshaw de Justificat is the taking of one for another nor is there any mistake at all in so doing a righteous person is made a sinner that is justly esteemed and accounted a sinner In this sense the Apostle Paul offers himself to Philemon Verse the 8. of that Epistle desiring that that wrong which Onesimus had done unto him and his debt might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be imputed to him that is put upon his account and esteemed as though they vvere his ovvn committed and contracted by him And thus is the vvord to be taken here one standing in the room and place of others and so in their steed accounted guilty He vvas made sin saith the Apostle a 2 Cor. 5.21 not in respect of act but transaction conveyance c. It is no trouble at all to us that the Dialogue doth so often term it the common doctrine of Imputation St. Paul calls faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Tit. 1.4 common faith and St. Jude Verse 2. our Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common salvation Now a good thing c Bonum quò communius eo melius the more common the more commodious I would to God it it were yet more common and then let the Dialogue scoffe his belly-full But because he knows not what kind of Doctrine it is nor can his Master Socinus teach him therefore he would fain perswade us there is no such thing shall a blind man perswade us there is no Sun because he cannot see it shine Yea he tells us because he knows it not that therefore it may well be suspected to be but a device of Satan to darken the truth of the most needfull Doctrine of a sinners justification bona verba but we intend not to be deluded by them For we can see light in Goshen though he and the rest of his party can see none in Aegypt Doth
which we are to speak for which purpose neither Cicero Terence Caesar nor any of those who were the first and purest Authours of the Latine tongue were ever acquainted with this word Justificare which is now in use among us and with which at this time we have to do We must therefore seek farther and look higher if we mean to be truly certified hereof and fully satisfied herein Omitting then all others we will only pitch upon two places the one in the Old the other in the New-Testament as the aptest in my judgment of all other for this purpose The one that of the Wiseman e Prov. 17.15 He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord Here is the Word it self and its opposite the Word it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying * Absolvere to absolve or free the opposite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importing * Improbificare si ita liceret loqui i. e. condemnare ad supplicum tradere to condemne or to deliver over to just and condigne punishment They are both Judicial terms exercised or used in judgment holden on such weighty matters as touch the life or death of the person concerned or engaged The other answerable hereunto is that of St. Paul Rom. 8.33 where he propounds the question Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect and rather then we shall go away without an answer he himself as best able for to do it will furnish us Surely none None indeed can justly do it to which he adds a reason to the purpose For it is God that justifieth The Apostle in this place makes a bold challenge in the behalf of all the Elect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who can accuse them or call them into question or is there any thing that can be laid against them And yet we see they do not want accusers the Devil is ready at hand to do it the Law of Moses will do it yea rather then fail their own consciences will do it But what says the Apostle al this is to no purpose For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that justifies that is frees them from all these accusers and their accusations too yea absolves them from the guilt of sin not imputing it to them but imputing the righteousness which is by faith For the Apostle opposeth justification to condemnation here as Solomon also did before Even here also are two actions of judgment set before us The one charging a man with guilt or crime of which being justly convicted doth pronounce the sentence of the Law against him The other opposite to both these absolving and acquitting him from guilt and punishment doth declare and publish him to be just and righteous This is a matter of high concernment and to speak the very truth there cannot but be a great deal of difficulty in defining things of this nature We will not therefore trust to our selves or any abilities in us as thinking it sufficient to trade with our own stock in a business of so much consequence but will rather as the man of Macedonia call for help and see where or how we may best supply our selves And behold here is one at hand that is both able and willing to furnish us of whom we will make use at present for I suppose we cannot mend our selves look where we will with such a definition of Justification as may be justified in all the parts thereof which is this it is saith he an act of God whereby he acquitteth every penitent and believing sinner not imputing to him his sins but imputing to him the perfect satisfaction and righteousness of Christ There is not any part of this definition but is Scripture proof as we shall see God willing by degrees hereafter In the mean time having seen what is meant by the word Justification as also the nature and definition thereof we passe on to the next thing proposed by us namely the causes which as in all other things so in this are four to wit the Efficient Material Formal and Final The Efficient causes of a sinners Justification are of two sorts either principal or instrumental the principall is God both essentially the whole Trinity g Isa 43.25 Rom. 3.26 I even I am he that blot out thy transgressions and also personally The Father h Rom. 8.33 That He namely God the Father might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus The Son also testifieth this of himself i Matt. 9.6 saying the Son of man hath power to forgive sins and so to justifie these that were ungodly The Holy Ghost performeth this too k 1 Cor. 6.11 And such wretches by reason of iniquity were some of you even guilty of the same impieties but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of our â—ord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God For seeing this work is of that kind which by the Schools is termed ad extra an outward action of God it is common to all the three Persons And yet it is distinct too in regard of the order and manner of working as also the terms and limits of operation whence the Act of justifying is antonomastically ascribed to the Father the merit thereof to the Son and the application of this merit to the Holy Ghost So that God the Father justifieth as the primary cause and as being the Authour thereof God the Son as the meritorious cause and God the Holy Ghost as the cause applicatory and brought home to the justified persons conscience in the comfortable assurance thereof So that the whole amounts to thus much God the Father through the Son doth justifie us by the Holy Ghost The Father I say as the principal cause and that in two respects 1. In that he gave his only begotten Son for us and set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud that all that believe in him should be justified as the Apostle witnesseth m Rom. 3.25 2. In that he absolveth those that so believe and pronounceth them just in Christ The Son as the Mediator and meritorious cause and that also in two respects 1. As he his our Surety who paid our debt our Redeemer who laid down the price of our redemption for us n Isa 53.11 affording unto us both the matter and the merit of our justification 2. As he is our Intercessor and Advocate to plead for us that his merits may be imputed to us For though the sufferings of Chrâ—st be a precious salve to cure our Souls yet we cannot look for healing by them unlesse they be applyed and though his righteousness be a wedding garment sufficient in it self to cover all our Spiritual nakedness yet will it not clothe us unlesse it be put on Therefore in the third place the Holy Ghost is said to justifie us because
and by such as know the signification of words they are taken for one and the same thing and the one translated by the other but yet we may conceive them to differ thus Wherein they differ Heresy hath relation to Doctrine Sect to men or a Company of men separating themselves from others and observing one and the same customes practised and following the same opinion professed among themselves So then they are hereticks who under the name and profession of Christian Religion do wilfully hold some opinions contrary to the Christian verity and the chief heads and foundations thereof Infidels they fight against the truth But it is not under the banner of a Christian profession and therefore not so dangerous Hereticks fight under her banner and yet against her they wound truth in her own coate Those are without Turks Jews and Gentiles the Lord in due time bring them in the other are within too many in conscience the Lord in his good time drive them out against both these must Christians defend their Religion and quit themselves like men against those that they openly cut it not off against these that they secretly root it not up These are many indeed No heresy more dangerous and desperate then Socinianism but none more dangerous and deâ—perate as being farther gone from Christianism and neerer to Gentilism then this Sect of the Socinians whose Spseudo-Divinity ariseth from no other fountaine then the abuse of the principles of reason the corrupting of the words and sense of the Scriptures and the pretence of Divine revelation So that they first determine by the rule and judgment of their own reason what is and what is not to be belâ—eved and then they wrest and wring the Scriptures to make them if possible speak to their purpose if any of these fail then they fly to their last refuge they have a revelatâ—on for it and therefore it must needs be so and cannot be otherwise which being taken â—or granted what old heresies may not be revived what new ones invented and published for Doctrines of the Gospel needfull and necessary for all men to observe and by all means be obedient to But this must not be granted For if our dim understanding should search into those sacred mysteries which the Word of God doth publish to us we should certainly lose our selves in their turnings and windings there being in every one of them somethâ—ng to believe above that reason which leads us to the search Reason commands and shews the causes why Religion bids and shews not wherefore Reason gives us the Anatomy of things and illustrates to us with a great deal of plainness all the wayes that shee takes and all the business that shee undergoes but her line is too short to reach the depths of Religion Reason commands and shews the causes thereof Religion bids do a thing without any enquiry either why or wherefore and therefore procures and that justly the greater reverence For what we know not we reverently admire what we do know in in some sort subject to the triumphs of the soul because shee hath made a discovery of it besides this not knowing makes us not able to judge and so for the present have lost the use of reason and so are forced to cry out with St. Paul as in an Holy Extasie O altitudo profunditas should Reason be our purveyor in matters of Religion we might quickly find we had a fat Reason but I am sure we should have but a lean Religion Besides I should more then suspect his knavery that should set the Scripture on the tenters to make it any wider then the genuine sense will admit or should suborne it to attest any desperate opinions or heretical blasphemies which it utterly abhors As for their pretended revelations they are not to be regarded Revelation meer pretences for if they get it not by Hook they shall never have it by Crook if neither Reason can perswade it nor Religion laid down in the Scriptures prove it or allow it pretended Revelation shall never obtain it at our hands to believe their opinions so far as to be guided and ordered by them unlesse we shall by Gods permission be so much deprived of our understanding as that we shall not be able to descern between the right hand and the left in matters of Religion Nor is there a plainer presage of ruin and destruction then when God so taketh away the understanding that refusing the true sense of the Scriptures and the good councel that by them is given men betake themselves to their own inventions and imaginations or follow the brainlesse advice of others and thereby led aside after seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils When men are once at this point we may say that God is rearing of a scaffold whereon to take some exemplary punishment of them If the strict Justice of Almighty God Doth sometimes draw the wicked to the rod It first bereaves them of their understanding Then blindeth them that furious they may run then By steep down wayes devoied of stay or standing Unto that death which their lew'd courses won them This appeareth plain by these men whose head long courses in their heretical wayes brought them to finish their course with ignominie and reproach For the manifestation of the just judgment of God upon such as forsake the known truth and make it their whole employment to seduce others from the same We will not trouble our selves with any of those famous or rather infamous hereticks of former ages we have monsters enough neerer hand and of our own times to deal with nor shall we encounter with all of them but only such as have bin the chief Ring-leaders of and grand Factors for this heresy of Socinianism with which we have had to do in the former tract In which discovery we shall observe the names manners places where and means by which they have dispersed and spread abroad their desperate and damnable opinions together with a short description of the lives and a sad yet tâ—ue relation of the deaths of many yea the most of them that the Reader may know what and what manner of persons they were by whom this cursed heresy was first invented after propagated and promoted that so he may be the lesse moved by or affected with those sly and subtill Doctrines which they thrust upon the consciences of their disciples as absolutely necessary on all hands and in all points to be believed to salvation the contrary whereunto being very prejudiciall and ready at all times to bring unto eternal damnation Petrus Abailardus Parisiens Professor En Abilardus ego sum primus in ordine turmae Dogmatis inferni Dux Origo fui IN the year of Christs incarnation 1540. 1540. in France was famous Petrus Abailardus Professor at Paris a Philosopher and Divine of great name of whom Bernard in he cxc Epistle writeth thus We have here in France a new Divine
beastly soever it be Servetus being now a Divine in repute but a Devil in practise raketh up and reviveth many wicked and desperate opinions among the rest that damnable heresie against the blessed Trinity in which he was so deeply rooted that he left no stone unturned whither by preaching or writing to overthrow the Article of the Christian faith concerning the same invading it with many execrable blasphemies thereby endeavouring to corrupt the faith of others and divert them from the the truth The fire of dissention which had some time now laine raked up in the embers of oblivion began to break out again and to flame about the eares of the Churches in those parts which for the present was somewhat smothered but could never be wholly quenched unto this day For this Factor for Hell being taken had deserved punishment inflicted on him being publickly burnt at Geneva to the example of all those that were seduced by him But this fact was heynously token of those that were his friends and adversaries to Calvin who to work him a spIght did publish it abroad for truth that that slaughter as they called it was long before plotted and contrived by him and at last cruelty effected by his only means when as indeed the Councel of Geneva did nothing in the busines without the judgment and approbation of the Senates of Bernen Zuring Basil and Schaffuse the advise also of many Cities and Churches of Christ being required and received How ever these friends of his and adversaries of the truth have censured the fact and opened their mouths wide to condemne it yet other un-by assed men of as great ability and more integrity then they have highly approved of it Melancthon in his Epâ—stle to Bullenger writeth thus concerning it I have read saith he your answers to the blasphemies of Servetus and I Commonly your piety and judgment Also I suppose the Senate of Geneva hath done wâ—ll and performed a noble act in taking away that obstinate wretch who was resolved never to cease blaspheming so long as he had here a being But I wonder that any should accuse them of severity in inflicting just vengeance on a person guilty of so much impiety Also famous Rivet Alexander More Jacob Trigland with divers others do commend the zeale of that Senate in this very matter Yet farther to cleer Calvin from this false imputation that it was not his malice but Servetus just desert that brought him to that shameful and painful end may evidently appear by that great endeavour which he used to reduce this blasphemous monster to a better mind but when he saw it would not do nor any gentle and fair perswasions prevaile with him he sought to mitigate the rigour as he then thought of that Sentence which was past upon him And sure there was something more then ordinary in it that he who was alwayes severe towards other offenders of a far lower form should be so courteous and gentle towards such a monster of mankind so blasphemous an heretick and such a disturber of the peace both of Church and Common-weal as he declared himself to be He wrote some books but so stuft with impiety and detestable blasphemy that they are not without danger and horrour to be received and read among us Beza writing to Andrew Dudithius of whom we shall speak hereafter doth thus expostulate with him Who hath bewitched thee my dear Brother that thou shouldest take so desperate a course and be led away by such damnable opinions what hath Servetus that Arch-heretick done it Who maketh the very substance of God to be mutable and teacheth that he is part of all things who denies the eternity of the Son of God and taketh away the Hypostatical Union of the two natures in him who gain saies the substance and Divinity of the blessed Spirit of God who often terms obstupui steteranque comae c. I tremble to rehearse it the Father Son and Holy Ghost the three-headed Cerberus of Hell who affirmeth the Soul to be mortal calling Moses a ridiculous Imposter the Ancient Church of the Jews an heard of Swine maintaining Cata-baptisme denying redemption by Christ and thirty years and more hath never ceased to blaspheme the living God What wilt thou be ruled and over-ruled bâ— such an one as he Can any Christian say yet some there are that do affirm that he was burnt for Religion aâ—d not raâ—her for his horrible impiety and execrable blasphemy By the good opinion which they had of this man his piety and holiness they would fain make a Martyr of him but it will be but a stinking one when all his done Well neither better nor worse burnt he is but indeed too late who if it had bin the good pleasure of God I would had never bâ—n borne to poyson the Church and seduce so many poor Souls from the truth with his pestoferous and damnable Doctrines Calvin then whom no man was more diligent in the perusal of his blasphemous writings which he published and commended to his seduced Disciples in the confutation hereof doth testifie that in more thâ—n an 100 several places he impiously calls the Holy and ever blessed Trinity the three headed Cerberus a Diabolical phansie the monstrous Geryon of whom the Poets of old had strang fictions and by some strang mysterie of Philosâ—â—hy they feigned to have three bodies Good God! what pains did this man take to out-doe all the hereticks that went before him and to un-doe both himself and all those who by his strang delusious should follow after him or be led by him But what shall we say negamus potius horâ—emus vocem Errours that are so insolent are to be exploded not diâ—puted to be spit at rather then conâ—râ—u'd Confutatâ—on bears no rule no sway here it is Authority that must do it And therefore the State did well to rid the Church of such a violent enemy to the truth of her profession Melanchion wrote an excellent and pithy admonition to the States of Venice wherein he adviseth them to take special heed and beware of the blaspâ—mous errours and heresies of Servetus which to omit those which he had drawn out of the works of others are briefly these 1. He denied and opposed the eternity of the Son of God affirming that he might be the Son of the eternal God but not the eternal Son of God 2. He denied the power of Original sin that we are not lyable to it nor to be punished for it with divers others of the same kind Thus this wretched Man having consulted with Jews Turks with all manner of Hereticks his Predecessours was taken with their heresies and justly punished for them Valentinus Gentilis Campanus Csentinus Gentili falso nulli impietate secundo Supplicie capitis digna ruina fuit THE Church of God having by those excellent instruments of Gods glory the Senators of Geneva rid her hands of blasphemous Servetus could not rid her self of those blasphemies which were
he came to make Prosâ—lires he returned again to Gribaldus his place Where he had not long remained securely enough as he thought he was taken and cast into prison by the Governour of Guyen being advertised of the Doctrine and disposition of the man but after a few daies indurance he is freely dismist having given his faith to live peaceably and quietly so long as he stayed in their jurisdiction But he leaving them and their power to themselves and those that should have occasion to use it returned to Lyons where he was for his pestilential Doctrine which he had preached therein apprehended by the Viceroy of the City and was about fifty dayes in prison from whence he had not bin released had he not closely and cuttingly tampered with the Pontificians there to whom he promised that he would immediately enter into the lists against Calvin and would confute that Doctrine which was maintaâ—ned by him which they verily believed and so by reason of the inveterate hatred they had to Calvin without any farther scanning of the matter were easily perswaded to set the man at liberty From thence he event into Poland after he had filled Italy and France with the poysonous contagion of his damnable Doctrines whether he was sent for by Blandrata and Alciatus who had there received him before that by their joynt labours and Devilâ—sh endeavours they might trouble and infest the Churches of Poland being as yet but in their infancy with those detestable heresies whâ—ch they were now ready to publish abroad a fresh under the shadow of new truths or new lights lately discovered to them and they good men being loath the World should sit any longer in ignorance and darknes were willing to discover and impart unto others He abode here two whole years and upwards where he did having time enough to do much mischief and without question they had not removed their camp so soon had they not fallen out among themselves Blandrata turning perfect Arian of whose opinions they were ashamed and whose name they abhorred yet secretly cherished his Doctrines and embraced his heresies Alciatus becomming a Mahometan they were all by the Kings speeial proclamation commanded forthwith under the penalty of their heads to depart his Torritories whence they were forced to trudge with bagge and bagage Gentilis stricks over to Moravia where he consorted with the assembly of the Anabaptists as one who sided with them in their dirty opinion and with whom for some time he drove a great trade and might no question have longer resided with them but that there was some secret work of the Almighties hand in it From Moravia then he passed to Austria and last of all to Sabaudia And here is to be observed that which before was secret namely the just judgment of God inflicted on these heretiks For although they go from place to place and passe from Region to Region yet vengeance all the while Doggs them at the heels Ultio peccatum sequitur and are at length by a certain secret instinct brought back again to that very place where incensed justice which sleepeth not hath already prepared deserved judgment to wait for them Thus it fared with this Gentilis who having ranged thorrow whole Countries and serveral Regions doth at length hasten to that very place where some years past for his heresy and blasphemy under the power of the Common-wealth of Bernen he was cast into prison by the Governour of Gayen who now would make sure work and not suffer himself to be deluded by another escape the second time as he was before he was therefore with a sufficient guard conveighed thence to the councel of Bernen and many times by the Senate and Judges publickly examined concerning those abhominable Doctrines which he had there delivered which with all the arguments could be produced by him he endeavoured to maintain but how weakly he came off and with what disadvantage you may perceive by the sequel being also demanded by the Judges what was become of his two companions in mischief Blandrata and Alciatus answered that one was fallen away to Arianisme the other to Mahomitanisme Lastly being convicted of many notorious heresies blasphemies perjuries and seditious tumults and commotions he was condemned to loose his head that head which had plotted the ruine of many others must now stoop to the strock of Justice and so the sentence of condemnation pronounced by the Councel being put in execution he puts a period to his life and his blasphemies both together but yet witthout the least shew or visible appearance of any remorse for his sin or repentance for so foul a fact But it was just with God to deny it to him now who had so deeply dissembled with it in the counterfeiting of it before It is ill mocking either God or men Specie virtutis umbra with a shadow insteed of substance God will one day cry quit vvith such an one to his greater shame and more publick confusion Laelius Socinus Italus Sinensis Articulos fidei divini Oracula verbi Laelius humana volt ratione regi AS Affrica is ever producing some new monster So Italy is ever bringing forth and bringing up some strang heresy hence sprung Socinus both Laelius and Faustus Italians of Sienna of a family famous for their experience in the Law and as infamous for hereticks which have perverted the truth of the Gospel Marianus Socinus had two Sons Alexander and Laelius this the Uncle that the Father of Faustus Socinus whose story followes after This Laelius was a great favourer of the admired Doctrines of Servetus and took his death very heavily he was a man meerly made up of contradictions and one wvho wholly bent his studies to foment and advance those controverses in Religion which were then in question like the Salamder taking a delight to live in the fire of contention and for that purpose started such questions and held such disputes as brought great trouble and disquiet among the Professours of the truth yet all this so closely and covertly that he was not suspected to be so soul an heretick living as he was found to be when he was dead For he secretly laid the first foundations of that work whereon afterwards his Nephew Faustus reared up his glorious or rather inglorious structure Yet as it appears by an Epistle of Calvins written to him he was then somewhat high flown endeavouring to bring all the mysteries of Religion and the Articles of our faith within the graspe of natural reason whereas in secrets without bottome and such are they of which we are speaking except faith hold us up like Children we swim without bladders and must either dabble to the shore or sinke Reason hath not so much as an hand to lend us Can this Reason of theirs which they would put upon so high an enterprise comprehend matters of lesse consequence then I shall believe them in the greater Can they by the strength of their
to fire agaiâ—st the truth But Qâ—is militis usus no need of Souldiers here I shall ever suspect that Religion which needs the hands of Souldiers to support it and is cemented with bloud In the building of the Temple at Jerusalem no Axe no hammer nor any tooâ— of iron while it was in building was heard in it and why swords nâ—w Did this Souldier think to make his Religion the more passable by cutting a way for it with his Sword or to worst the truth with his weapon The Sword may force Nature and destroy the Body bâ—t cannoâ— work upon the mind so as o perswaâ—e it to believe that good which is ill begun It suits well w th Turks and Pagans and may do as well for ought we see with the â—ocinians Yet hear what Lucan â—aith concerning such certainly either they must be very bad or elâ—e he was much out of chaâ—iâ—y with them Nulla sides Pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur Venalesque manus ibi fas ubi maxima merâ—es Nor faith nor conscience common Souldiers carry Best pay beâ—â— cause their hands are Mercenary And such an one neither better nor worse was this Alicatus while he followed the camp but forsaking that kind of life he did associate himself with these professed enemies of the truth whereby he wrought much mischief among the Professours of the same He was a special means of calling over Valentinus Gentilis into Poland to trouble and molest the Churches there with their execrable and abominable Doctrines contrary to the truth conteined in the Scriptures and delivered to us by the Prophets and Apostles and therefore hath justly merited that curse which afterwards he was an inheritour of and is denounced by St. Paul whosoever teacheth any other Gospel then what ye haâ—e received let him be accursed Calvin makes mention of him in an Epistle which he wrote concerning Blandrata but t is for no good you may be sure For he reported of us that we worshipped three Devils did we ever think that impudency or madness would have attained to such an height of blasphemy as to belch forth such horrid expressions because we worship one God in three persons yea saith he they aâ—e worse then all the Idolls of the Church of Râ—me O horrible impiety O damnable blasphemy Sure the gallows must needs groan for such a wicked wretch as this But Laesa patientia fit furor Delayed vengeance is severe in the execution And God takes a course with him whereby he exceedingly maniâ—ests his indignation towards him gives hâ—m up to hardness of heart and searedness oâ— conscience the greatest judgment on this side â—ell So that being led away with strong delusions he did believe one oâ— the grossest lies in the World namely th t the Turkish Alcaron was thâ—â— very that only rule which God had laid before us according to which he would be worshipped and served by us And therefore turned Turk was circumcised thereby denying the Lord that bought him and so brought upon himself swift destruction For having lived for some time among them and after their manner he dyed most wretchedly and desperately his very name being more vile and stinking in the nostrils of God al good men then his corrupt and rotten carcasse We may here see the issue of a mans deserting his calling be the intent never so good it will little availe us for it is the Cannon of the Apostle let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called It is no thinking that the wise and Holy God will be pleased with a well meant confusion for t is not our abilities be they never so great but our vocation that must bear us out in our undertaking Faustus Socinus Laelij nepos Fauste Redemptoris vadimonia diraque mortis Tormina peccantes absolüisse negas THat mischief which was intended by Laelius Socinus the Uncle to be brought upon the Churches of God being the result of many years study but was prevented by a sudden and unexpected death was fully accomplished by Faustus Socinus his Nephew as a man cut out of purpose for such a desperate design and that to the wonder and astonishment of divers and by the secret working of God according to that prediction of his Uncle concerning him He having recited an expresse of Laelius death hastens with al the speed that might be principally to Tigurum to sequester the movable Library of his Uncle Laelius which he had left behind him But being possessed with a panick fear lest the Tigurians should deal with Laelius as the Basilians had dealt with that arch Heretick David George as he himself confesseth in a letter to Dudithius he privately dispatched that business and so departed Faustus or rather infaustus Socinus being now according to his hearts desire made Master of his Uncles Library did afterwards become his Scholler and a true heyr of his opinions which he improved to the purpose He was at this time a yong man of three and twenty years of age and books though exceedingly coveted by him were as yet of little use or benefit to him for returning to Italy he spent twelve whole years as a Courtier under Francis the great Duke of Hetruria Being now five and thirty years old and it seems growing weary of his attendance at Court he leaves Italy and betakes himself to Germany and in Basil makes his abode where he spent three years not in hearing the Doctors not in frequenting the Schools not in consulting Authours and other authentick Writers which were sound and Orthodox but in diligent searching of his Uncles books having wholly addicted himself to the study thereof and fully given himself up to be guided and governed by them as Oracles which could not be mistaken And now disdaining the name of a disciple he took upon him to be a Doctor in Divinity whence it came to passe that he which never learned becomes now a teacher and takes upon him to be a great Master in Israel supposing no lesse then one whole Province committed to him to be instructed doth vainly arrogate it to himself But what good could be expected from this light courtly and immature kind of studies the master-ship of which he grasped and encompassed only by poring into the writings and opinions of one only man who seeth not Now Faustus begins to look big and to adventure abroad trading with his Uncles stock He forthwith began a book de Christo Servatore of Christ our Saviour disputing in it against James Covet Minister of Paris who going to Franckford by chance met together in the same Inn Wherein he shews more of hâ—s wit then of his honesty and yet not much of either stoutly denying the satisfaction of Christ nor is this all though this be very much but as the title of the book declares he opposeth many other things which by the professors of the truth and partly by others also who do not wholly assent with us in other matters
way of digression a little for satisfaction to others and confutation of this audacious Arian who dares thus undervalue the Lord of Glory might we have leave to strip one heretick to clothe another put on this what Tertullian did on Marcion we should quickly and quietly discover the truth Quid dimidiâ—s mendacio ChristuÌ„ Why doest thou thus peece-meal a Deity and half God as it werâ— the Son of the Almighâ—y Totus veritas he is the Spirit of truth and Oracle oâ— his Father the brightness of his glory in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge by whom God made the World So the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. stiles Christ the power and wisdome of God If the Son of God be the power and wisdome of God and that God was never without power and wisdome how can wee scant the Son of a co-eternity with the Father For either we must grant that there was alwayes a Son or that God had somtimes no wisdome which this Socinian in the height of his madness will be loath to affirm Ego pater unum sumus saith Christ Joh. 10. I and the Father are one uâ—um to shew he was the same thing in respect of essence and to manifest a consent both in power and eternity I often find that those of the shallowest capacities are ever most prone to dive into the deepest mysteries but I know not the reason unlesse to verifie the Proverb There 's none so bold as blind Bayard In sacred matters the most nimble Criticisms are as obnoxious to desperateness as danger to be curious here is to be quaintly mad and thus to thrust as these poor sneaks presume into the bed Chamber of the Almighty is a frantick sawciness who can unlock those coffers of omnipotency but he that breaks in peeces the gates of brass and cuts in sunder the bars of Iron Who those Cabinets of abstrufâ—r knowledge but he that gives thee the treasure of darkness and hidden riches of secret places How can our low built apprehensiâ—ns but flagg in the expression of those hidden mysteries which have transported Prophets and Apostles with wonderful admiration yet some wil venture to untwist them though to their own wrong and the confusion both of themâ—elves and others So this Davidis never dispuâ—ing but about such questions as were â—ar better to be let alâ—ne then to trouble and stagger many thousands by the starting of them He disputed much concerning this matter with Socinus who had alwayes a party of that company with whom he was ready to counter-porse him and those that stood on his side of whom was Simoâ— Budnaeus Christianus Francken and divers others There is extant an Epistle of Socinus to him wherein he answers him to those arguments by which he endeavoured to prove from that place of John 20.28 where Thomas cryes out my Lord and my God that Christ was not there called God but he had better have taken a Wolf by the ears Besides a fragment of a more smooth and placide stile being an answer to the writing of Franciscus Davidis concerning praying to or calling upon Christ in our needs and necessities remaineth among the works of Socinus where also are some of his nice and needlesse questions with the others answers thereunto He published divers Theses by which may be easily discovered what a dangerous and desperate heretick he was we find them in order thus 1. That invocation being a part of Divine worship is not any where found in Scripture to be attributed unto Christ 2. That if Christ at any time confer Grace and Peace it is so to be understood as that he shews the way and means to attain them and not that he truly and effectually confers them on us 3. That if we read in Scripture of any power ascribed unto Christ it is no otherwise to be understood then of that power which he shall assume hereafter when he shall be constituted Judge both of the quick and dead and is not to be interpreted of or applyed to any present power which he exerciseth or doth execute 4. That Christ when he was on earth was careful of his Church but being departed hence he hath committed and commended that care to the Father who shall exercise the same till the appointed time 5. That wheresoever we find any thing in Scripture concerning the Goverment of Christ and the care which he taketh of the Church it is either to be referred to the power of the ministry or is to relat to the time to come 6. That it is contrary to the truth of the Holy Scriptures that Christ can hear our prayers and knows our works 7. That when the word Saviour is appropriated to Christ it signifies that he shews us the way which leadeth to salvation and doth truly and carefully instruct us therein 8. That if we worship God in Christ we may as well worship the Sun the Moon and the Stars and so all Idolaters are hereby excused who pretend they worship God in their images 9. That that is a truth which is in the Turkish Alcaron concerning Christ that he is not able to help and succour those who bestow Divine worship on him with such others Horresco referens What a strange Gospel is here What monstrous positions are these What Devil could more bâ—aspheme the Lord of life and glory God blessed for ever Amen then this wretched caitiff hath done Whoâ—e ears do not tingle and whose hayr not stand an end to heâ—r these horrid and execrable blasphemies But opinion once seeded in errour shoots out into heresies and after some growth of time into blasphemy So that men once entred are still going on a malo ad pejuâ— â—rom bad to worâ—e till sudden destruction seize upon them and stop their course These hell-hatcht Doctrines were opposed by Socinus himself but he that hath but half an eye may discerne that he had a mind to let the matter coole in his hands For there is neither that solidity nor integrity manifested in it which was fitting and requisite for so great and weighâ—y a business And indeed how could iâ— be otherwise Could any imagine that he could with a good stomack confute thoâ—e opinions â—n another wâ—ich he was known to justify in himselfe For though they seemed to be different in some yet were they linked last tâ—gether in many of the same opinions eâ—pecially concerning the person of Christ which did much weaken if not quite overthrow the true and proper ground of giving Divine adoration to him If Christ be inferiour to his Father as â—ocinus â—eld It is ranck idolatry to give him the same worship which we give to the Father as Davidis held I cannot better compare them then to Sampsons foxes whose heads may be different but I am sure their tailes meet and with those firebrands which are between them do set the whole Church of God in an open combustion Is this the way think you to convert the Jews to
Christianisme Is it not rather a surer course to harden them in their old and unprofitable Religion and to pervert such as professe the Christian Religion to Judaisme and to bring all to confusion yet for all this our Socinian is in his pomp and flourisheth like a green bay tree but look for him anon and his place shall not be found For like the proud man in the Psalmes he stands in slippery places and with him is suddenly destroyed perished and brought to an unexpected and fearful end The sore-mentioned positions being questioned and examined the matter debated and the obstinacy of this wicked wretch observed he was by the most Illustrious Renowned Prince of Transylvania Christophorus Bathoraeus cast into prison where by the just judgment of God he who was mad for so many years before published maintained and defended against even all reason and Religion such heady and hayr-braind positions fell into a phrenzy and there and there nâ— miserably finished the course of this mortal life Anno 1580. Raemundus reporteth of him that being in prison distracted of his wits the Devils in horrid and dreadful shapes appeared to him at the sight of which be cryed out to some that were there loe saith he these are they which wait upon me as companions of my journey If God will not suffer his own Children sinning against him to go unpunished was it likely that such a desperate blasphemous wretch as this should escape Gods judgments are for the most part slow but they are sure and his hand when it strikes will give a blow to the purpose He was a man altogether unlearned obstinate foolish and besotted by the Devil in his impious and blasphemous opinions so that he neither cared for God nor man nor himself but wholly bent his purpose and made it his utmost endeavour to overthrow and exterminate all true and sincere Religion and to set up in the room thereof that which he vainly called his own which was either none at all or a Devilish one as may be gathered out of his positions of which while he lived he so much boasted that among many that had any understanding he was and that justly made ridiculous But there are some that will down with any thing be it never so grosse heynous or diabolical Otherwise it could not be expected that his damnable positions should have passed for new and undoubted Truths Franciscus Stancarus Mantuanus Mantua te genuit sed tu Stancare venenum Ex Orco petitum Spargis ubique tuum WE had to do even now with a downright mad-man and if we look well about us we would think every head frantick with a strange opinion and tâ—at some wild-fancy doth possesse all we meet with For behold here is another this Frano scus Stancarus a Mantuan cannot be quiet if the Churches of God newly setled in Polonia enjoy any peace and tranquâ—llity but must needs busy himself to supplant them i. possible even in theâ—r first planting by an upstart opinion of his own namely that Christ was our Mediatour only in or according to his humane nature and not as the reformed Churches do hold and professe according â—o both his humane and Divine hypostatically united in one person Which he urged upon this ground but God knows 't is but sand that if Christ were a Mediatour according to his Divine nature then he should be lesse then the Father which seemed to him to be meer Arianisme and therefore he durst not hold otherwise Thus poor man being ignorant of the truth he drove out one Devil by or with another the Devil of Arianisme with the Devil of Socinianisme and the latter may prove the worser This opinion Blandrata liked well and did both defend it and confirm it But reverend Calvin took great paâ—ns to stifle it if it could have bin as very obnoxious to the truth by sending over a timely admonition to the Churches wherein also he advised them as well how they might prevent and turn off the cavillations of Stancarus as also how they should avoid another errour into which they might run themselves namely to imagine a three-fold essence in God by being distinguished into three persons which was taken kindly by the Churches and for a time did some good among them But the folly of Stancarus rested not here but besides this corrupt opinion of his he laboured to confound the Doctrine of the Trinity imagining or framing out to himself which he would presse upon the belief of others that there is one God in a confused Trinity among whom the man Christ performeth the office of a Mediatour He traduced all persons and Churches which were not of his judgment as Arian as appears by the letters of the Ministers of Polonia written from the Pincovian Synode to the Divines at Strasburge to which they added an Orthodox confession of the faith fully cleering the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ against the Arians as they were then called subscribed among others by Georgius Paulus superintendent of the Churches in the Diocesse of Cracovia and Francis Lismanninus whom this very heresy not long after diverted from the truth Stancarus did many times offer a disputation before the Synode and was very importunate to have the grant thereof refusing none that would undertake to oppose him such was his delight in and confidence of his own abilities But the Synode wisely refused it not thinking it fit to call in question by publick disputation the common received faith of the Church to please the fancy or satisfie the humour of one turbulent and arrogant person I would al men that professe the truth would take the same course and we should quickly see errour and heresy dye of the sullen because none will trouble themselves to meddle with or take notice of them that make it their business to broach the same This Synode took rather another course with him censured him for an heretick condemned his books and committed them to the fire there to be consumed as they justly deserved He wrote something but very vainly as our Socinians use to do of the Doctrine of Justification That you may see what an arrogant Spirit he had and how highly he thought of himself as all hereticks do hear the proud vaunt he makes in his wonted manner One Doctor saith he brought up in my school is of more account or worth then an hundred Luthers then two hundred Melanchtons three hundred Bullingers four hundred Peter Martyrs and five hundred Calvins all which quoth he if any one would take the pains to beat in a mortar there could scarce begotten one ounce of Divinity from them all But that stone which slander casts at another ever in the end lights on herself and wounds herself insteed of another So Stancarus overvaluing himself and his Disciples was justly undervalued by the Professors of the Truth and lived and dyed without that reputation which he expected yea went out like the snuffe of
errours are the snares which the Devil layes by his instruments to catch living souls How much Beza made of this Dudithius with what a Christian affection he loved him how solicitous he was to draw him from errour and to perswade him to and confirm him in the truth against those doubtings and distractions by which he was much molested between the profession of the Papists on the one side and the Socinian on the other doth appear by a large and elegant letter written to him and is to be found among the letters of Beza Zanchie also wrote to Dudithius a letter concerning the true Church being the same argument about which he had written to Beza and Wolphius a little before proposing this question to them How comes it to passe that in your Church if it be the true Church there be so many dissentions and divisions among you and that in and about the chief articles of religion This is one stone of stumbling which the Devil hath cast in the way to the profession of the truth by which he hath hindred many from walking in it or giving any credit to it But to this that good man Zanchy gives a full and a solid answer First that there are not so many nor so great contentions among us who professe the true faith as the Devil and his complices would make the World believe thereby to bring the truth into suspicion And then that those which are among us are no argument of doubting of the truth of the Church but rather of approving it For the continued and common condition of the Church of God here is militant and subject to infirmity only in Heaven it is already in part and shall be hereafter wholly triumphant Christ himself gives the Church a caution hereof Matt. 7.15 Beware of false Prophets which come to you Not to Turks not to Infidels and yet to these but not to these only but to you also to you principally and especially who have the Gospel and to whom God affords the means of Salvation The Devil is let loose for a season Rev. 20. For a season to try the faith and patience of the Church And but for a season to fortifie the courage of the Church Had it not bin that Satan hath bin busy in the obtruding of errour the Church of God had not bin so busy in searching out the truth Therefore the Church is on the getting hand hereby Had not those Arians and Sabellians at the first vexed the Church of God with their heresies which are but branches and lims of this of Socinianism the deep mysteries of the sacred Trinity had not bin so accurately cleered so strongly fortifyed to the faith and belief of men as by the Ancient Doctors then it was and this day it is among us Heresie makes men sharpen their wits the better to confute it That Absynthium that smarts the eye cleers it and we thank that pain that gives us sight Dudithius then had no reason to douht of but rather to joyne issue with that as the true Church who by the contentions that were among them got the more knowledge of and laid the faster hold upon the truth of the Gospel But he was not so happy He wrote divers Orations and political admonitions In the Bodlejan library at Oxford are to be seen divers works of his as the signification of Comets divers and they very pithy speeches which he made in the councel of Trent An Apologie to Maximilian the II. An Epistle concerning the inflicting of capital punishment upon hereticks The life of Cardinal Pool was drawn out by his artificial hand and flourished by his pen. There are divers letters also of Socinus to him by which at first he solicited and and as is to be believed gained him to his party Raemundus reporteth of him that being invited by a certain friend of his to dinner who earnestly requested his company at that time in good health free from all sense or the least suspicion of sickness much lesse of death gave the Messenger this answer his friend must have him excused for that he was at that very time to go another way and had some other business of greater consequence to do Namely to pay the last debt which he owed to nature which accordingly at that very time he did and so departed Truly this man was much to be pitied who having forsaken a bad yet chose no better a religion then which a worse could not be raked out of Hell giving himself over to the Socinian faction in whose destructive opinions as he lived So he dyed without comfort That old saying may stand us in some steed if we list to make use of it Optimum est alinâ frui insaniâ to take heed by other mens harms is experience bought at a very cheap rate and whom they teach not may want not grief but pity Franciscus Puccius Florentinus Ecclesiae Christi membrum se Puccius instat Scilicet egregâ—um Relligionis inops IF our souls were as sensible of sin as our bodies are of pain we would be mâ—re careful of our selves for â—ear of a relapse We would not willingly fall again into the same sicknesses under which we have a long time groaned and â—rom which we are for the present delivered and yet we take no care of falling into the same sins or runing into the same wayes of errour out of which God by his mercy hath luckt us like brands out of the fire when we were ready to be consumed This was verely the fault of Francis Puccius a Florentine of the noble and renowned family of the Puccij of Florence who so journing at Lyons being there about some necessary affair when as disputations about religion waxed hot and matters of moment were freely debated therein was convinced in his conscience of the vanity of the Popish religion in which he was at that time very Zealous after some debatement thereof with himself and some conference concerning it with others he utterly renounced it as tendâ—ng to the destruction both of body and soul Hereupon he came into England and first to Oxford where for some time he studied Divinity after that to London and so over to Bâ—sil where he had that disputation with Socinus which was formerly mentioned by us But where or from whom he got those whimsies and fancies of dotage with which he was possessed those wild and mad opinions which he broached and by which the Churches were very much troubled we cannot learn nor do we greatly care to know For besides those opinions which he held in common with the Socinians he maintained a certain kind of natural faith by which we mâ—ght attain to salvation as also universal redemption and other stuffe ejusdem fâ—rmae of the same batch By reason of which he was constrained to leave Basil from whence he took his course directly for England and so up to London where he began to publish his paradoxical opinions and that with such
enjoyned to perform Such execrable blasphemies are therein contained which without inevitable danger of contagion may not be suffered to passe among Christians being no small disparagement to their holy profession and an high measure of despight done to the Spirit of Grace Which things being so we are in hope your Honors will wisely and speedily take a course that these men which have brought in and dispersed abroad these cursed writings and books may not long abide with you or remain within your coasts and also that the writings and books themselves may not come into the hands of any to whom they may be a snare either through simplicity or curiosity Renowned Lords we beseech God that he would bestow upon you more and more the Spirit of truth and wisedome and would be present with you from Heaven in all your affairs and especially in this great and weighty cause which pertains so much to establishing of the truth of God and the common salvation of his people that those things which are pious holy and just may be seasonably provided for by you and perfected in the Lord That those things also which have any tincture of errour or heresy may be wholly extirpated by you Dated at Leyden the 12. of August 1598. An extract of the Resolution of the Lords States General of the United Princes March and September 1598. taken out of the Registry THE States General of the United Provinces being informed that there are certain books found with and in the possession of two Persons here present at the Hague which came lately from the Kingdome of Polonia into these united Provinces the one named Christopher Ostorrodus the other Andraeas Voidovius which books being examined in Leyden by the faculty of Divines there are divers things therein found to agree with the Doctrine or religion of the Turks denying the Divinity both of the Son of God and of the Holy Ghost And that the foresaid persons openly professing the same Doctrine came purposely into these Provinces that they might publish the same herein and so disturb the present State and quiet of the Church hereby We therefore beâ—ng willing to prevent â—n time the ensuing mischief hereof for the maintaining of the honour of God together with the profit and commodity of the United Provinces which like Democritus Twins do laugh and cry lâ—ve and dye together have decreed that the foresaid books in the presence of the foresaid persons shall openly be burnt to morrow before noon opposite to our Chamber of General meeting Aâ—ter that the aforesaid two persons shall be charged and straitly commanded as by these presenâ—s they are charged and commanded that within the space of ten dayes next to come they shall depart out of these united Provinces under the penalty of such punishment as shall be inflicted on them according to discretion if afterwards they be found or taken herein All which we thought fit to ordain for the peace and quiet of the Church of Christ and for the benefit and commodity of the united Provinces Conceiving it also very necessary for the better and more due accomplishing hereof that all the Provinces should be admonished of thâ—s and a Copy of this Attestation be conveyed to them which is above written and subscribed by the faculty of Divines at Leyden concerning the foresaid books that the foresaid persons be not suffered to tarry or abide longer in these Provinces then the time limitted for them and that their abominable Doctrine may be expelled hence also Mar. 1599. What better course could have been taken for the dispatch of these Brethren in evill with all their trumpery with them out of these parts But what are good and wholesome Laws without execution even like a body without a soul for as a body without a soul doth quickly perish and come to nothing So the best Laws that can be made without due execution do dye in the very letter For notwithstanding this decree made and published with so much strictness and good intention on the States part there was some connivence in the matter by which these persons thus proscribed were yet retained and secured If it be true which John Uytenbogardus saith who wrote the story they remained still in Friesland and there privily drew up an Apologie to the decree of the States General which they printed and published both in the Latine and high Dutch tongues I cannot but wonder at the mad folly or foolish madness of those that professe either reason or religion that they should be so far transported with the novell Doctrines of theâ—e half Lunatick Teachers that they should keep them and secure them within their own bosoms who watch all opportunities to destroy them Yet a new fashion does not more take a proud Lady nor a new Tavern a drunkard nor a new drug an Emperick then a new opinion does those that are affected to heresy be it never so divelish and blasphemous And I beleeve they made a great I cannot say a good reurn of them For I have heard of above thirty Sects and sorts of Religion in one Town in those parts so that come will you be of our Church was a solicitation as frequent as the ordinary salutation one to another of good morrow or good even To be wâ—lling to be seduced hath given occasion to divers to attempt it which otherwise had never been attempted so did these Hereticks play with and play upon those that gave them entertainment This Ostorrodus was a notable factour for the Devil deceiving many with his cousening trash For besides that disputation against Tradelius which he had concerning the Deity of Christ which was the mark they all shot at the Deity also of the blessed Spirit to deny which I take to be an high degree of the sin against the holy Ghost the expiation of our sins the imputatioâ— of sin to Christ the satisfaction he made to Divine Justice paying the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our redemption that it stood not with the freeness of Gods mercy in pardoning sin to require satisfaction for it by which and many other damnable opinions destructive to the very essence of Religion he drew many away after him to the liking and embracing of his Socinian tenets He wrote also certain institutions of the cheif Articles and principal points of Christian he would he should have said Socinian Religion which have perverted divers yet are learnedly opposed and confuted by Iacobus ad Portum that excellent instrument of Gods glory and painful labourer in his vineyard Jacobus Palaeologus Graius Si quaeras cur iste Pal'ologus igne crematur In promptu causa est haeresiarcha fuit TO be loose in the main joynts of Religion is very bad and gives the Devil and his instruments great advantage against us we may see the truth of this in the example here set before us Jacob Palaeologus of the ancient and Jmperial family of the Graecian Palaeologi came from his own country to Rome