not the Essence of the Son and Holy Ghost These Essences they said were Caused the one by an Eternal Generation from the Father the other thro an ineffable Procession from the Father by the Son Thus by a deriving distinct Essences from the Essence of the Father they rejected the Autotheiry of the Son and Spirit and with their Causalities brought in such dependencies of the Son and Spirit on the Father as interfered with a being absolutely Infinite in every Perfection and thus in a more Artificial manner they ran the same length with the Arian and Socinian as to the Inequality For that Essence which is not of it self is not cannot be in a strict Proper Sence God for the Essence of God is only from it self uncaused unoriginated an Essence that hath a beginning and is caused cannot be Absolutely Eternal for what is Absolutely Eternal never had a beginning never was caused never receiv'd its Essence from another There is a Great difference between Causing a Distinct Essence and a communicating the same Individual Essence to another for though the causing another necessarily implies that the Caused Essence was from another a communicating it doth not so The Father 's communicating his own Essence unto the Son doth not argue the Son's Essence is from another for 't is still the same it was before it was communicated But the Father's causing an Essence distinct from his own imports Imperfection in the Caused Essence even the want of a truly proper and absolute Eternity and Independence and necessarily infers an Inequalâ—ty of Essence which is the thing the Arians and Samosatenians saw and asserted and the Pinczovians intended who as they observ'd their Disciples prepared to embrace this Error insinuated it This appears from Blandrata's Endeavour in an Epistle which Beza had of his â—pâ—st 81. p. 364 〈◊〉 to perswade Gregorius Pauli a Tritheist to close with the Opinions of Samosatenus and from what Petrus Statorius a Companion of Blandrata when he dwelt at Pinczow from which Place the Tritheists had their Name of Pinczovians with whom Franciscus Lismaninus Martin Crovicius Schomannus Gregorius Pauli â—relius Biblioth Antitrin p. 48. Tricessius and as Sandius observes Ochinus Stancarus Alciatus c had their Habitations did offer in a Synod at Pinczow about the Insufficiency of the Answer which a Synod held in the same place did some time before give unto Remianus Chelmius about what he wrote against the Invocation of the Holy Ghost The Story is thus Remianus Chelmius sent to a Synod held at Pinczow the 12th of November An. 1559 a Letter in which several things were objected against the Invocation of the Holy Ghost Peter Statorius who Biblioth Antitrin p. 48. as Sandius suggests instilled this Opinion into Chelmius doth with Gregorius Pauli and others move that the Doctrine of the Trinity might be diligently examined and tryed by the Holy Scriptures An Answer is sent from this Synod unto Chelmius But Statorius in a Synod held at the same place November the 19th 1561. declared that Chelmius was not satisfied with the Answer sent unto him The Synod therefore obliged him to return a fuller one which he did but in such a manner Epit. Hist Orig. Unit. in Pol. that no one could tell what it was he himself held Stoinius who was Grandson to Statorius represents matters of Fact thus In this Synod Anno 1561 Statorius was directed to write an Answer unto Chelmski which he did but so that it did not appear what he himself believed of it He only said that Blandrata was Represented by Calvin as one who had drank in the Poyson of the Serverian Impiety As for the Opinion which he proposed to the Synod 't was acceptable to all but Question'd by him whether the Relief that the Father was one Vnbegotten and the Son Begotten did not infer a Plurality of Gods But all they they are Statorius his own Words that dwell with Blandrata are suspected for holding some Heresies But if they are Hereticks who according to the Holy Scriptures Believe the Father Son and Holy Ghost I do chearfully saith he acknowledge my self to be of that Number c. Lubieniescius passing by what Regenvolsâ—ius in his History of the Sclavonian Churches saith of Statorius doth out of Budzanius tell us That Statorius succeeding Paulus Orsacius in the Government of the School at Finczow Professed the True Faith affirming that The Invocation of the Holy Ghost is Idolatry That there is not one Text in the Holy Scripture either for the Deity or Invocation or Adoration of the Holy Spirit Lulâ—en Hist l. 2. c. 8. p. 149. or for Faith in him That the Holy Ghost is not the third Person of the Deity nor God but the Power and Gift of God On this occasion there arose several Disputes amongst the Learned at which time Statorius perswaded many to embrace this Opinion notwithstanding which and altho Alexius Rodecius told Statorius to his Face that he Learned this Principle from him yet did he in the Year 1567 openly deny it declaring that the Spirit is God and to be Worshipped as God and whoever taught otherwise was of his Father the Devil for which Reason Budzinius look'd on him as a Proteus forsaken of the Holy Spirit And Orphinovius saith God Entrusted him with Sundry Talents which he did not Imploy in defence of the Truth but the Trinitarians being the stronger Party he did at last turn unto them Thus these Pinczovians vid. Lismaninus Gregorius Pauli Ochinus Statorius Stancarus Alciatus c. their Partizans did not only set up Tritheism with a Design to bring in the Samosatenian Heresie but formed themselves into sundry Shapes and were unwearied in their Attempts first to turn the Three Persons into Three distinct Essences insinuate an Inequality amongst them ascribing to the Father a Preheminence and then bring the Deity of the Holy Spirit into Doubt and make the Lord Christ a subordinate God and thus establish their Socinianism That Learned Doctor therefore who hath confuted this Pinczovian Heresie of Three distinct Essences in the Trinity deserves greatly from the Church of God For by turning his Strength against the Notion of Three distinct Infinite Essences Substances Spirits or Minds he hath taken an Effectual Course to break those Socinian Measures which were most likely to expose the blessed Trinity and prepare the Minds of many to take in their Vnitarianism or rather Bideism And they who have condemned the Assertion of Three distinct Essences or Minds for Heretical have done honourably to their Eternal Praise When the old Socinian Game is Playing over again and some who pretend a Zeal for the Trinity walk in the same Path and plead for Three distinct Essences as the Italian Hereticks heretofore did it is time for the Orthodox to look to themselves They cannot be too cautious in a matter of such Consequence and what Persons soever are industrious in their Endeavours to propagate this Doctrine
THE Growth of Error BEING AN EXERCITATION CONCERNING The Rise and Progress of ARMINIANISM and more especially SOCINIANISM both abroad and now of late in England By a Lover of Truth and Peace Psal 7.14 Behold he travelleth with Iniquity and hath conceived Mischeif and brought forth Falshood LONDON Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhill 1697. THE PREFACE WHEN I first observ'd how suddenly the Socinian Heresie spread it self throughout the Nation I could not satisfie my self without making some Enquiry how it came to pass which I no sooner did but perceiv'd that Pretences either to Reason or Revelation were not indeed the true Cause thereof so much as the Industry Artifice and Deceitful Methods of the Heresiarchists who being themselves struck Blind by the Divine Glory which shines in the Mysteries of our Holy Religion and hardened also through the Innate Aversion that is in us by Nature unto the Self-abusing Truths in the Gospel have made it their Province to pervert such whom they found pliable to how down to the Idol of a Religion of their making Some of their Methods I have detected in the Ensuing Discourse and if God give leave may do more hereafter I have traced out some Foot-steps in the Arminian Party conducing towards the Socinian Cause and am sorry to see how many among the Orthodox by their Heats and Indiscretions have contributed too much toward the Propagation of Errour as well as they that have run to the contrary Extreme in their opposing Socinian and Arminian Notions Whether in Imitation of the Italian Combinators there are any amongst us have joyn'd themselves to the Orthodox with a Design to subvert the Truths they profess to own and introduce the Contrary they pretend a Zeal against I will not say But this will I say that tho' my Charity to Men whose Principles are very different from what I hold who I believe sincere and open in their Enunciations is by many that know me observ'd to be of a Latitude as they think to a Fault yet not being able to abide any of these Hypocritical and Deceitful Trickings in Matters Religious which to my great Sorrow I see now tho' formerly I could not believe I shall for the unburthening my Conscience and for the sake of the Vnwary show that there are sundry Principles advanced by Men of Reputation among the sound in the Faith that do in ther Tendency leade to what these drive who are of the worst Sort that is the English Socinians And that my Impartiality may appear as I have not so will I not forbear to express my just Indignation against those Antinonian Dotages with their Mischievous Effects which have been not only an Inlet to a loose Life but the Occasion of hurrying so many into that wicked Heresie And when I do as I intend this I desire to be found one neither so to affect to be Orthodox as to become censorious towards my Brethren who out of Judgement or Conscience differ from me in any tolerable Opinion nor so afraid to be Heterodox as to decline the Examination or Reception of any Momentous Point that shall be offered me by another whereof I am convinced that it is first True and then also profitable either for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction or Instruction in Righteousness to the Church of God March the 4 th 1697. S. L. ERRATA PAge 16. line 2. after Doctrine read in another Instance P. 17. l. 8. for Personality r. Deity P. 63. l. 11. r. into P. 81. l. 8. for confirming r. confining P. 83. l. 13. r. subrogatum l. 14. r. subrogatur P. 86. l. 1 2. dele or improve l. 13. r. 1691. P. 124. l. 4. dele till P. 166. l. 28 29. r. For to the End they might P. 184. l. 23. r. which P. 195. l. 5. for one r. on P. 207. l. 2. after to add be OF THE GROWTH OF ERROR The Introduction GREAT and Pernicious Errors having been insensibly spread through this Nation an Account of their Rise and Progress and of the various and sundry Methods which have been taken for their Propagation will not I presume be unnecessary but rather a Caution to young Students a prevention of their Fall if not a means to recover others that have been already tainted And that I may be the more clear and distinct in the Account I give I must in the first place mention the Errors my Discourse is of For though there is a great Cognation and Alliance between one Error and another and the most opposite Heresies at last center in the same Point Yet on an easie search we shall find vast Differences between them some greater others less some in one others in a contrary extream But in all a Tendency to Atheism or to use the new and finer word to express the same thing Deism As there are gradual Recesses from Truth the first and least observable Turn from it prepares the way for a greater but whilst near unto Truth the Error is so like it that it cannot be easily discern'd or detected And he who makes the first step towards it doth er'e he is aware slide into a greater and no sooner perceives where he is but thinks himself too far gone to make an honourable Retreat whereby the Error which had it's first rise from Inadvertency is upheld and supported by the Lust or sensual Interest of its Embracers Thus the Amyraldians amongst whom they who are sincere in what they Profess as I doubt not but there are many such cannot see wherein they differ from their Brethren except in the way and method of Explaining and Defending the same Doctrine and therefore assume to themselves the Title of New Methodists firmly adhering to old Truths Now of these how many slide into Arminianism and from thence pass over unto the Tents of â—ocinus Though they set up for Men of a middle way between the extreams of Calvin and the Excesses of Van Harmine yet on the turn from the former they fall in so far with the latter in their Concessions that it 's become impossible for them to make a just Defence of what they hold in opposition to the other Parts of the Arminian System and therefore at last fall in entirely with them and run their length In like manner the Arminians who pretend a middle way between the Orthodox and Socinian are in the twinkling of an Eye fallen under Socinus his Banner confounding Holy Scripture with their odd Glosses and unintelligible Interpretations framing Idea's of the Divine Being so unworthy of it as to provoke some to deny all reveal'd Religion and others to turn Atheists Now 't is the rise and progress of these mischievous Errors embracd and propugnd by the followers of Arminius and Socinus that my Discourse is design'd to be of Errors which above Fifty years ago on their first appearances amongst us so alarm'd the Nation as to put it into a very terrible Convulsion But since that day through
the force of an Arminian Dose or some such like methods we have fallen into an Amazing slumber and no sooner doth any one awake out of it but he is fill'd with wonder to behold the Nation to be so much Socinian and Deist Nor can he easily imagine how it came to be so And that we may obtain some Light about what it is that hath influenced so great a part of Mankind to embrace these Errors I have spent some thoughts about it the Result of which I offer to Consideration CHAP. I. The first Particular instanced in as an Occasion of Error is a Prejudice against Gospel Doctrines because of their Mysteriousness The unreasonableness of this Prejudice discovered THE first thing I shall observe which for the most part runs through all the rest their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief Ground and Reason of their many Mistakes and Errors is the Prejudices they have conceived against the Mysteriousness of our Holy Religion which is founded on a grand Maxim they have fixed as the Rule and Standard by which theyâ—ll try what is Truth and what is Error It 's this Nothing is to be receiv'd into our Religion as true but what we have an Adequate and Comprehensive Idea of When therefore in our Systems they meet with what transcends their understandings they reject it as False Absurd and Ridiculous This was the way of the Remonstrants touching the Doctrine of particular Election Reprobation Irresistible Grace c. And of the Socinians about Christ's satisfaction the Incarnation of the Son of God the Blessed Trinity c. And of the Deist against all reveal'd Religion who by a Late Ingenious Author in the Account he gives of the growth of Deism is brought in saying Many Doctrines are made necessary to Salvation pag. 20 which 't is impossible to believe because they are in their Nature Absurdities I replyed saith the Author That these things were Mysteries and so above our Vnderstandings But he asked me to what end could an Vnintelligible Doctrine be revealed Not to instruct but to puzzle and amuse What can be the effect of an Vnintelligble Mystery upon our minds but only Amusement That which is only above Reason must be above a Rational Belief and must I be saved by an Irrational Belief If a proposition be inconsistent with its self I cannot but believe it to be false But what doth this signifie less than that whatever transcends our Understandings and is above our Reason is an Absurdity an Unintelligible Doctrine fit only to puzzle and amuse and the belief thereof Irrational so that if they can't frame an Adequate Idea or comprehend the whole of what their thoughts are conversant about if they can't reduce every thing to their own Preconceived order and know it to perfection it cannot in their opinion be true but must you see be rejected as Absurd False and Irrational Though nothing more manifest and clear than that the most enlarged Create Mind is Finite Confin'd and Limited and that there is a Being whose Essence and Perfections are Boundless Unconfin'd Incomprehensible and past finding out and that it 's impossible and a contradiction to suppose a Finite Mind able to comprehend what is Incomprehensible or to get to the uttermost Bounds and Limits of what is Boundless and Unlimitable yet with these Men the notion of a Deity if we assign unto it Infinite Perfections though essential thereunto must be rejected that is they will believe nothing of God unless they may take him to be such another as themselves or themselves such as He is as to the extent of his Being nor must any things be received into our Religion as true that speak of his Transcendency but must be esteemed as false and irrational which amounts to thus much nothing in these matters must be believ'd to be true but what is impossible to be so However to an unbyassed mind it s most evident that there is a God with whom are the Secrets of Wisdom Job 11.7 whose Being by searching cannot be found out and who cannot be known to Perfection And that the Life of true Religion lyeth in the knowledge of this God and seeing an Adequate Knowledge which is the same with a knowing to Perfection is impossible and yet there can be no true Religion without some knowledge of God the inference is Manifest Natural and Easie viz. That we may attain to a knowledge of God according to Truth tho' we can't have an Adequate and Comprehensive knowledge of him and that it 's not sufficient to say we can't comprehend it therefore not true The most Momentous parts then of true Religion being about the Perfections of God such as his Holiness his Justice as distinct from his Goodness and Mercy together with the unchangeableness of his Being and the like must be above our Reason too and yet may be true The same may be said of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God which are not more Transcendent and Incomprehensible than what we find to be said of the Essential Perfections of his Nature nor is there any thing more difficult and inscrutable in what is reveal'd about the Eternal Decrees and the Modes of Divine Operation than there is in the Doctrine of the Trinity or Divine Attributes and therefore our belief of them equally Rational Well then if the points in Controversie between us are all reduced to one or other of these heads as really they are for either to the Glorious Attributes Personalities Decrees or Modes of Divine Operations the Doctrine of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Son the necessity of a proper satisfaction to Justice and those other points about Election Reprobation Irresistible Grace are reducible a rejecting these Doctrines because there is somewhat in them exceeding the utmost extent of our Knowledge and Unsearchable or which is the same because there is somewhat Mysterious in them must be upon a reason that necessarily obliges us to cast off the Belief of a Deity Besides the Grand Maxim of those Gentlemen who pretend so much to Reason being as I have already noted this that nothing is to be received into our Religion as true but what we can Comprehend a spice of the first sin must be at the bottom as the cause of all their Errors namely an ambition to be like unto God in his essential Perfections which in good earnest is the import of this Maxim for it 's impossible for them to know God to Perfection unless the extent of their Understandings bears a proportion to his Perfections So that in the issue they cannot fairly deny the mysteries of our Holy Religion but on a Topick whereby they make themselves equal with God Thus you see that by opposing our Holy Religion for the sake of the Mysteries there are in it they are driven either to the denyal of a God or to the making themselves Gods either of which is of all Absurdities the most vile and
about the Holiness and Rnighteousness of God cannot but profess to believe that there is no Justification to be had in the sight of God wâ—â—o it a perfect Righteousness and to the end they may the more easily quiet an awakenâ—d Conscience without the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness they either hold that the Law of Works is Abolished and a New Law Erceled A New a mere easie Law so siamâ—d and squar'd to their corrupt Natures as to make their Defective Obedience a perfect Gospel Righteousness fully answering the New Rule they have invented Or affirm That their Faith though it falls short of the Law is nevertheless counted by God for a compleat Performance of it as a late Author supposed to deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ hath expressed it in his Reasonableness of Christianity who saith The Law of Works is that Law which requires Perfect Obedience without any Remission or Abatement The Language of this Law is Do this and Live Transgress and Die. P. 20. Those that Obey are Righteous those that in any part Disobey are Unrighteous and must not expect Life the Reward of Righteousness But by the Law of Faith Faith is allowed to supply the Defect of full Obedience and so the Believers are admitted to Life and Immortality as if they were Righteous P. 22. The Moral Law which is every where the same the Eternal Rule of Right obliges Christians and all Men every where and is to all Men the standing Law of Works But Christian Believers have the Privilege to be under the Law of Faith too which is that Law whereby God justifieth a Man for Believing though by his Works he be not Just or Righteous i. e. though he come short of Perfect Obedience to the Law of Works God alone does or can justifie or make just those who by their Works are not so which he doth by counting their Faith for Righteousness i. e. for a compleat Performance of the Law So far this Learned Author who in Opposition to the former that destroys the Old and invents a New Law so framed as to turn our Defective into a Perfect Obedience doth first by Reasons Invincible Establish the Law of Works in all its Parts and then adds a New Law unto it and God's Gracious Esteeming our Faith as fully answering the Law of Works and so stretcheth our Defective Faith to the utmost length of Perfect Obedience As the one brings down the Law to our Imperfection the other raises our Imperfection to the same height with the Law But so long as the Law of Works remains in its Strength there can be no New Rule brought down to make Sin cease to be Sin or turn a Defecrive into a Perfect Obedience And so long as the All-knowing God Judges of things as they are Imperfect Faith can never pass at his Tribunal for a Compleat Performance of the Law there must be then a Perfect Righteousness fully answering the Law of Works or no Justification And it 's more easie as well as more conform to Holy Scripture to believe That the Righteousness of Christ which consists in a full Performance of the Law of Works is given to all that have Faith and by Donation is really made theirs and being really theirs may be justly esteem'd to be theirs and they justified by it But these Men if not mistaking yet surely misrepresenting the old Doctrine as covered with innumerable Absurdities do not only drive their Admirers off from Examining it but so sill their Minds with Prejudices against it as to make them willing to take up with any thing rather than with the Truth especially in a Case so pleasing because somewhat of their own is made their Justifying Righteousness CHAP. III. The deceitful Methods used by Hereticks a cause of Error more generally proposed The approaches of Socinus and his Followers towards the Orthodox The real difference there is between them in Fundamentals A Reflection on these Methods Arminians take the same course c. SECT I. The deceitful methods used by Hereticks more generally proposed Their rise in the Apostles days The deceitful Methods used by some Men of great Learning is another Cause of the growth of Error THERE being some Foundation-Truths so fully clearly and distinctly reveal'd in Holy Writ as to command the Assent of the Church Vniversally in all Ages excepting that in which the Christ an World became Arian they who have been their chief Opposers have retained the Words and Phrases by which those Truths have been transmitted down unto us and introduced their particular Opinions by an Heterodox sense they have fixed on them And when suspected that they might the more effectually conceal their Errors have subscribed sound Catechisms and Confessions whereby they have had the fairer opportunity to instil their Dogmata into the minds of Youth and other less studied Persons and under the Notion of being firm Adherers to the common Faith have engaged them to a closure with the unsoundest Parts of their Heretical Scheme In the Apostles days they who err'd from the Faith attempted by good words and fair speeches to seduce the simple Rom. 16.18 And Irenaeus who lived near that time Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans describing the Hereticks of that Age Digres de 〈◊〉 â—heol Helmstad Râ—g Syn◠〈◊〉 pag. â—88 as Calevius observes tells us that they speak like unto the Orthodox This was the way Arius after he was driven from Alexandria for his Heresie took to be restored to the Emperour's favour tho' he retained his Error yet subscribed a found confession of Faith as 't is reported by Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. l. c. 25 c. Pelagius when conven'd before a Provincial Synod at iâ—iospolis in Pelaestine at which Fourteen Bishops were present but not his Accusers August â—eâ—ract lib. 2 〈◊〉 47. 〈◊〉 ad 〈…〉 doth concur with the Orthodox in condemning his own Opinions but as Vossius out of St. Austin observes he dâ—d it very deceitfully Pelagianamsententiam pectore quidem ficto sed tamen Catholicos judices timens Pelagius ipse damnavit And as the same Possius adds Hierom. Epist 79. St. Hierom calls this Synod a miserable one because tho' they err'd not in Doctrines yet not discerning the falshood of the man they â—rrâ—d in the Judgment they past on him who being better known at Rome could not conceal his Treacherous Endeavours but was soon detected by the Bishops of that place Vâ—ss Hest Pelar lib. 1. Cap. 41. Hareâ—ici imitantur Catholicos fâ—eut simiae imitantur homineâ— Cyâ—â—â—ian ad Jubajanum This being the common practice of Hereticks St. Cyprian compares them to Apes saying they imitate the Orthodox as Apes do Men. Now this having been a very successful as well as a most pernicious Articice in constant practice amongst the Ancients the Socinian and Armintan Leaders whose Reputation hath been and is still so great that the respect multitudes have for them in regard to
a Person or not About the Invocation of Jesus Christ whether a Duty or not So that from any thing hath been Published by â—em we can't be sure that any two of them are of the same Religion Howbeit altho' they can't Agree what Religion to be of they are most Vnanimous in Determining what to be against it being their Master-piece to Quarrel with our Confessions and Catechisms Destroy our Systems and Tare up old Foundations One saith He can't find any Satisfaction or Consistency in any of our Systems Praes to Reas of Christian Another Complains that there is no Catechism yet Extant that he could ever see or hear of from whence he could Learn the True Grounds of Christian Religion Praes to Bid. Catechism as the same is Delivered in the Holy Scriptures The Examiner of Mr. Fdward's Exceptions runs higher Declaring that the Obscurity p. 4. â— Numerousness and Difficulty of Understanding Systematical Fundamentals Promotes Deism and Subverts the Christian Faith These are some of their ways SECT II. The English Socinians do studiously Endeavour to Conceal the Religion They are of THat they may make it the more Difficult for us to Know what it is they are for they Hide themselves under the Comprehensive Name of Vnitarians and Anti-Trinitarians whereby they Reserve to themselves the Liberty of setting up either for Arians Photinians Jews Mahometans or Deists who Call themselves Vnitarians nor will they when hard Put to it Undertake the Defence of any One no not of Socinus himself altho' they hold what is Peculiar to men of his Spirit Tho' they say That Jesus Christ was the Son of God Some The. p. 4. only in a sense of Consecration and of Mission and consequently that his Unity with the Father is not an Essential and Natural Vnity but a meer Moral and Relative Vnity which consisting in the Equality of Works not of Essence which is Absolutely Incommunicable c. When this is Socinianism all over p. 18. yet are they not Socinians any more than they are Papists Lutherans or Calvirists Answer to Dr. Wallis Four Letters p. 16. They do not Profess to Follow Socinus but the Scripture If Socinus has at any time spoken Erroneously or Vnadvisedly or Hyper bolically 't is not Socinus who is their Master but Christ When they Pretend to tell us what they are it 's so Mysteriously that no one can tell what to make of ' em They are Christians they thank God they Side with Truth Some The p. 18. and take Shelter in the Bosom of that Catholick Church which stands Independently upon any thing that goeth under the Name of a Party But where shall we find such a Church Not among Ebionites Nazarenes Meneans Alogi Arians or Socinians All these go under the Name of Parties Wherefore seeing they Renounce the Fundamentals of Christianith as Embraced by us they must be Acknowledged to wrap themselves up in some Mastery Or to have no Catholick Church to Shelter themselves in To Compleat the Mystery They are upon Dr. S's Terms heartily of the Communion of the Church of England but Independently upon any Faction whatsoever It 's like we have Anti-Trinitarians as well as Trinitarians in the Communion of the Church of England which is not more Possible nor less Mysterious than that the Denyal of the Trinity should fignify the Affirmation and Belief of it However giving them this 't will unavoidably sollow that two Distinct Parties as contrary to each other as Light and Darkness do constitute the Church And such of us as want their Sagacity are Tempted to conclude that so long as they are against the Doctrine of the Trinity they are Anti-Trinitarians And if they think we are a Faction we know them to be so If therefore they are not of the Orthodox Party except they believe with Teague that my Lord Duke is neither Dead nor Alive they must be of the Anti-Trinitarian Faction and yet be heartily of the Communion of the Church Independently upon any Faction whatsoever That is to say they are of a Communion made up of but two Parties vid. Trinitarian and Anti-Trinitarian without being in Communion either with the One or the Other But do we what we can seeing they Profess to Believe there is but One Person Only in the God-Head they must be we count Anti-Trinitarians and the Belief of the Trinity being essential to our Christianity as Christianity is to Church Communion t is as impossible for any One to be of the Communion of the Church whilst an avowed Anti-Trinitarian as it is to be a Christian without the Essentials of Christianity We can't therefore Comprehend How these Men can be of the Churches Communion If they have a Distinction to solve this Difficulty it must be a monstrous Mysterious One Whether Intelligible or Contradictions let them Judge Touching their Sincerity in the using these Methods I will not concern my self knowing that however it be it 's clear that their Design is to Conceal their Religion which I confess is their wifest Course seeing it is such as can't bear the Brightness and Glory of the Light SECT III. The English Socinians judge more Charitably of the Salvation of Jews and Turks than of Orthodox Christians whom they make to be as Bad as Egyptian and Roman Pagans WHen I first made Enquiry after the Reason why these Gentlemen declined a Defence of the Foreign Socinians and Refused to be Described from their Books I was of Opinion they thought themselves Unable for so great an Undertaking But on a more close Examination I am convinced that this is not the Only Reason there is another namely this They can't Extend their Charity so far towards us as Foreign Socinians have done How ill soever I have Proved the Forreign Socinians to be it must still be Acknowledged that not only in Learning but in Temper they greatly Excel the English And tho' they look'd upon the Orthodox to have Erred from the Truth yet esteemed them not to be either Idolaters or Hereticks or out of the Way to Salvation Ruarus in an Epistle to Mersennus Ruarus Epist 56. p. 260. doth clear us from the guilt of Idolatry tho we Worship the Divinity of Christ as Eternal which he esteems an Error For saith he Who is there of our own way that dares arrogate to himself so perfect a Knowledge of the Divine Nature that another more sharp and acute than himself may not Convince him that in some respect he had Framed a False Idea of God Socinus in his second Answer to Volanus enters his Protestation against the making us Hereticks Partic. 5â— His words are Altho' I hold that Christ before he was Born of Mary had no Existence yet do I Confess him to be God even to be True God in Opposition to a False and Imaginary God And altho' I Deny Christ to be that God who Created the Heavens and the Earth yet do I not make them
Account thereof The Ministers and Elders of the Church at Vilna were much movâ—d at Calvin's writing against him and therefore after they had reprovâ—d him do advise him to reconcile himself unto Blandrata who was to their Knowledge Ubi sup 258. a most sincere Man free from the least Suspicion of Errors For they believed not a word of what Calvin had said to the contrary However Calvin persists in the Opinion he had of Blandrata and can by no means be taken off from exposing his Heresies and evil Practices expressing his Trouble to observe him by his crafty method to get such an Interest in the favour of so eminent a Person as his Anonymous Friend was In his Letter to Stanislaus saith he I cannot but observe how all men in a manner as if they had been under a Fascination admire Blandrata 't is you alone who begin to suspect the Truth of what is said of him but that you may obtain a more certain Knowledge of him I must tell you that Valentinus Gentilis whose wild Notions I have confuted is of the same Faction and another Blandrata altho the one will not give place unto the other If his Frauds his Ensnaring and crafty Courses had not been taken notice of in Poland it might have been more tolerable but I am amaz'd to think that a Man who hath nothing else but Pride and Ostentation to recommend him should get such a Reputation amongst you as to be esteemed the Atlas that bears the Church on his Shoulders In his Answer to Felix Cruciger and his Collegues and other faithful Pastors and Ministers in Lesser Poland There is oâ—e thing I cannot but suggest unto you saith he that they who did with so much Humanity and Respect entertain Blandrata were not so cautiâ—ns and wary nor did they consult your Reputation as they should have done and am more surprized that some of the Chiefest Rank are greatly offended because I did as it became me discover the Man I beseech you not to believe that I have hastily taken up any Reports I have written a Narrative which will clear the Truth of Matter of Fact And to the Ministers and Elders of the Church at Vilna Tho you saith he have no Suspicion touching Blandrata his Errors and Practices yet with me he is clearly convicted and so he is before this Church Ye believe not what I say why then should I believe what you say You have much time to spare to call Synods about such Tristes You admire him as if he had been an Angel dropt down from Heaven but he is in other Nations a Man of no Account A brief History of him I will give you and lest you should have no regard to what I say it is attested by the Elders of the Italian Church with us and by the Renowned Peter Martyr The History they give of him is to this purpose 〈◊〉 â—â—orge Blandrata a Physician demeanâ—d himself amongst us for some time very peaceably and with much Temper desirous of Instruction so that we innocently receivâ—d him into our Number At length he began to talk as if he designed to call in question the Article of Christ's Divinity and privately spread this Notion amongst the more ignorant Then would he weary Calvin with his Enquiries and seem abundantly satisfy'd with his Answers but carry'd it so that at last Calvin discover'd his persidious and deceitful Courses and his Carriage to be such as made it necessary for the Senate to deal with hâ—m where altho he was convicted of notorious Falshoods against Calvin yet never blush'd His intimate Friend and Companion was Johannes Paulus Alciatus who said that we worship three Devils much worse than all the Popish Idols because we hold Three Persons There arose a fresh Complaint of the Italian Church against him for using Clandestine Arts to ensnare the Vulgar to a Closure with his Dotages Thus this Man a real Enemy to the Fundamental Doctrines of Christian Religion the great Patron of Socinus and his Partizans to the end he might the more effectually propagate his Errors pretends a Zeal for the Truth joyns himself to the Orthodox subscribes sound Confessions gains a Reputation amongst the châ—efest of the Orthodox for being sound and sincere This deceitful Method of â—landrata hath been exactly observ'd as by many of the same Principles abroad so by the Socinians in our Country who notwithstanding the Contradiction there is in the Doctrines by Law established to their Tenents and the strict Subscriptions required of all that enter into the Ministry get into the Church and fix their Communion there That they may pave the way for the Consciences of others their Attempts are to make the Subscription to the Thâ—rty-nine Articles to signify nothing The Belief of the Athanasian Creed not requiâ—ed by the Châ—ef Eng. p. 2. Those Thirty-nine Articles say they are not Articles of Faith but Peace As several of her most learned Bishops have declared and in a word the Title of the Articles says as much and the Preface before them And yet in the Title 't is declared that these Articles were agreed upon for the avoiding Diversities of Opinion and for the Establishing of Consent touching true Religion And in the Preface 't is declared That the Articles do Contain the True Doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to Gods word And the Charge his Majesty gives is That no Man shall either Print or Preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the Plain and full meaning thereof And shall not put his own sense or Comment to be the Meaning of the Article but shall take it in the Literal or Grammatical Sense So that whatever any Bishops have declared The Import of the Title and Preface is That the Subscribers Agree in Believing the Doctrines contained in the Articles to be True that the Articles taken in the Literal and Grammatical Sense are agreeable to God's word How can a Socinian then subscribe the first Article where 't is said There is but One Living and True God and in Unity of this Godhead there be Three Persons of one Substance Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Doth this Article contain in it the Truth If it doth the Socinian Principle is False If it doth not they subscribe to a Lye And tho' the Church did not Require the Belief of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity as delâ—vered in the Athanasian Creed as Necessary to Salvation Yet seeing it Requires the Belief of this Doctrine as True they who deny this Doctrine can't without being guâ—lty of grossest Hypocrisy subscribe it But what can't a designing English Socinian do Thus you see that tho' the Thirty-nine Articles are as expressly against the Dogmata of our â—nglish Socinians as words can make them yet can they not keep an English Socinian out of the Church And having broken their Subscriptions they go on to tell us Trinitar Scheme
with Socinianism Plures Deos si non ve bo Re taâ—en ipsa profâ—tentes Epist 19. p. 129. Vid. Epist 81. p. 361 c. That their first Effort against the Trinity was a setting up of Tritheism not avowedly but Clandestinely is Affirmed by Beza In the beginning saith he they were for the most part Tritheists transforming the Three Persons into so many Essences Then did they Appropriate the Appellation of the One True God unto the Father to whom they also ascribed an Hyperoche a Preheminence or Superiority above the Son This was the Principle which at first they advanced as most likely to bring the Blessed Trinity of Persons in one undivided Essence into contempt Against which Calvin Zanchy and the Reformed did set themselves as against a most Pernicious and Hurtful Heresie as undoubtedly it is For it being affirm'd that every Person hath a Peculiar Substance of his Own there must be as many Substances or Essences as there are Persons which being of the same Nature must be as many Gods as they are Persons which is Tritheism Three Distinct Infinite substances or Three Eternal Spirits cannot be less than Three Gods But tho' its affirmed 1 That it is gross Sabellianism to say That there are not Three Personal Mands or Spirits or Substances 2 That a distinct Substantial Person must have a distinct substance of his own Proper and Peculiar to his own Person yet if it be owned that there are not Three Gods but One God or One Divinity which is intirely and Inseparably in Three distinct Persons or Minds it cannot be Heresie As a very Learned Person avers because in this case saith he the Fundamental Article is Believed and the Error is only a Mistake in the Explication However the Doctrine of Three Distinct Substances hath been not only Learnedly as well as sharply charged with Tritheism but Condemned for being Impious and Heretical I will therefore it lying so much in my way venture humbly to Offer what inclines me to Conclude that this turning the Three Persons into Three Essences is Heretical For tho I am far from Hereticating every one that differs from me in Matters of Moment or from making every Erroneous Explication of a Fundamental Article to be Heresie yet I am perswaded that the Doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in one undivided Essence is of such a Nature that many in their explicating it have fall'n into divers Heresies and that thus it is in the Present Case The Doctrine condemned for Heretical is a makeing the Persons in the Blessed Trinity to be Three Dictinct Substances or Individual Natures which is as Direct a Contradicton to the One Intire and Indivisible Nature of God as can be Three Individual Essences are as much Opposed to one Individual Essence as Three Persons are to one Person and Three Persons may be as well One Person as three Individual Essences be one Individual Essence The Author therefore of this Notion cannot in Reason be supposed to Believe these Contradictory Propositions to be both true and being so vehement in his Asserting Three Individual Natures as to make the Denial thereof to be Heresie and Nonsence we must be so Civil to him as to suppose that he doth not Believe the Essence of God to be one Intire Indivisible Essence which I do the more readily suppose because it 's so Common for Tritheists to do so It is owned That Photius grants that Conon and his Followers held a Consubstantial Trinity and the Unity of the God-head Phot. Bibl. Cod. 24. and so far were Orthodox but then adds they were far from it when they Asserted Proper and Peculiar Substances to Each Person I have not that Bibliotheke by me but Suicerus in his Account of the Tritheists saith they held Three Substances and Natures in all things alike and yet would by no means own Three Divinities or Three Gods and refers to the Bibliotheca Photij where it 's thus These men vid. Severus and Theodosius spake many things excellently well Cod. 24. p 16. as that there was a Consubstantial Trinity of the same Nature and but one God one Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But they Blasphemed when they said the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost had their Proper Natures and Divinities or Particular Substances and so contradicted themselves as well as the Truth c. So that their asserting the Consubstantiality of the Trinity and it 's being of the same Nature could not secure their making the Three Persons three Distinct Substances from being Blasphemy But what I mostly Press is this Consideration that if the contradictory Affirmation of three Individual Essences being but one Individual Essence will clear the Notion from being Heresie then Valentinus Gentilis Lismaninus Blandrata and the many other Propagators of the Socinian Abominations must be also for the same reason cleared from Heresie I will begin with Gentilis who held Lubien Histor Ref. l. 2. c. 5. p. 107. that there were three distinct Eternal Spirits or Minds in the Trinity that the Son was Begotten from Eternity Ante Saecula in Latitudine Aeternitatis Thus much Lubieniescius And Gentilis himself in his Epistle to the Ministers at Geneva was Positive that the Father only is true God and the Son also true God Tract Theol. p. 660 661. and yet not Two but One and the same God because Christ hath one and the same Essence with the Father and therefore saith he I am neither Arian nor Servetian Lismaninus and Blandrata held the same for Substance with Gentilis To clear thus much I must Observe what Lubieniescius reports of Laelius Socinus who was one of the forty Italian Combinators It is to this Effect Laelius Socinus saith he travelled first into Helvetia then into Italy Britain and Germany and about the year 1551. he got into Poland from whence after he had instill'd his Errors into the Hearts of Lismaninus and many others he went into Moravia and then returned to Helvetia That in Moravia Paruta Gentilis Darius and Alciatus of the same Combination with Laelius did their Part to spread their Notions sending into Poland their Theses about the Trinity and doubtful Phrases in the Holy Scriptures There were near twenty Theses about the Trinity Ubi sup l. 3. c. 1. which they did put into the hands of their Friend Prosper Provana who committed them to the Care of Budzinius He no sooner Read 'em but gave them unto Johannes Pustelnecius from whom Stanislaus Lutomirskius got a Copy which being communicated to sundry others the Controversie about the Trinity had there its Rise some firmly adhering to the Faith received from the Lord Christ and his Apostles others ensnared by the Objections raised against it by the Italian Combinators vehemently opposed the Truth not that they did it openly but as our Vindicated Author displeased with the Old offered their New Explications in the very same manner He hath done Amongst others