have a good opinion of themselves in that they make not only their reason to be the adequate Judge of his revelations but even their own passions and weakness the rule by which they measure at least make an estimate of his infinite nature and most adorable perfections an attempt besides the impiety of it more ridiculous then if a man should endeavour to take the dimensions of the Heavens with a single span or to fathome the depth and reach the bottome of the Ocean with his little finger In the next place we must consider God Relatively in the great mystery of the Trinity And that which the Scriptures teach us to believe of this matter is briefly summed up in the first Article of our Religion established in this Church concerning faith in the Holy Trinity in these words In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons of one substance Power and Eternity Father Son and Holy Ghost Or as it is with some alteration of words but to the same purpose expressed in the Doxology to be repeated upon Trinity Sunday wherein we are taught to make this acknowledgement of Almighty God That he is one God one Lord not one only person but three persons in one substance for that which we believe of the Glory of the Father the same we believe of the Son and of the Holy Ghost without any difference or inequality A brief but comprehensive Epitome of what is more largely declared and explained in the Creed which the Socinians and Remonstrants have so great a spight against commonly called the Athanasian Creed This is the Faith of all the Reformed Churches being herein Agreeable to the doctrine held by the Church of God in all Ages ever since the first planting of Christianity in the world what we and they believe of this matter being conformable to the plain and express declarations of Scripture and especially of what Christ and his Apostles have delivered to us concerning this matter in the writings of the New Testament For this you may consult the Harmony of their Confessions both Lutheran and Calvinist all exactly agreeing in this doctrine without any the least difference or variety where you may likewise see the consent of the Catholick Church from the first Ages next to that of the Apostles from whose inspired writings the Fathers received this Doctrine which by an uninterrupted Tradition thro all the successive Ages of the Church hath bin delivered and brought down to the times we live in In this Faith we have all bin baptized being at our first admission into the Christian Church solemnly consecrated to the worship and service of those three ever blessed and glorious persons Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28. These being the three that bear witness in Heaven and these three are one 1 Jo. 5. 7. For that Text we shall not easily part with notwithstanding the Cavils of the Socinians and the over officious endeavours of some others whether Papists or Protestants who would weaken the Authority of that Testimony and thereby rob us of the advantage of it For tho some Greek MSS. want it yet there are others more approved and of greater antiquity in which you may meet with it Besides it is to be found in the writings of the Ancients Tertull. Cypr. Athanasius and Jerome who quote these very words and if you have a mind to know more of this matter without going any further you may peruse what Mr. Poole in his Synopsis hath quoted out of Gerhard Dr. Hamond and other Writers in vindication of this Text. From which I think it will appear that the Authority of this place remains clear and in full force notwithstanding the attempts that have bin made to overthrow it Tho if we gave up this Text yet we should not the holy Doctrine contained in it which is so plainly delivered in other places of Scripture and shines there with so bright a lustre that a man had need wink hard who would avoid the conviction or else must have so great a confidence in his Eyes that he may hope in time to stare the Sun it self out of countenance For as in some places of Scripture he will find the unity of the Godhead asserted so in others he will find the name and not only so but to avoid any Cavils and exceptions that may be made about the ambiguous signification of that word he will find the same divine Attributes and Operations on all hands acknowledged to belong to God the Father ascribed likewise to the Son and the Holy Ghost who yet are allwaies mentioned as distinct from one another from whence by an easie and a necessary deduction it must unavoidably follow that since they are really distinguished from each other and yet agree in the same common nature as the same properties and the same operations irrefragably evince they must be what we have bin taught hitherto to believe and profess of them in the Language of the Church three Persons and one God And as we pretend to agree in the same doctrine with the Ancient Church so I think it is highly fitting and for many just reasons in a manner necessary to preserve the same words in which it hath bin delivered down to us in opposition to any new modes of speaking For the Ancient words by prescription and long use have obtained both a just Authority among Christians and a setled and determinate signification whereas new phrases may be liable to great exceptions and introductive at long run of new and unwarrantable opinions about these mysteries beyond the intention of them who first made use of them Now against all this the Socinians will tell you that this doctrine concerning the Trinity is so far from being a fundamental truth that it is indeed the foundation of all the errors that have crept into the Christian Church as being opposite to the Scriptures and plainly repugnant to reason it is a Popish doctrine so saith Socinus Lib. quod Regm Polon c. cap. 4. so Welsing Lib. de Oâ—â—ic Hominis Christiani and by so saying they do exceedingly advance the Reputation of Popery by making it of so great and venerable antiquity embraced by all sound Christians ever since the Apostles days It is a Paganish opinion Ethnicismum sapit so saith Smalcius Exam. Cent. Err. So opposite to reason that it is a wonder how any man in his wits could ever have thought of it So saith Ostorod he cannot imagine quomodo homini ulli ratione praedito in mentem venire posset Inst Rel. Christianae Cap. 4. that is sure it could never have entred into any mans head that ever had any brains there Nay it is not only a very foolish but a very dangerous error that puts a stumbling block and rub in mens way to Heaven Strange that that doctrine should be thought an hindrance to mens happiness the belief of which by all good Christians hath hitherto bin thought necessary to salvation but so it is if you
therefore one might be tempted to imagine against his Conscience would perswade the world to believe that the difference between us and the Socinians in the point of the Divinity of the son of God was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a contention about words rather then any real difference in a matter of faith which is quite contrary to the notion that either the Orthodox or the Socinians have of this matter who lay a greater and truer stress upon their Opinions then this man doth who pretends to bless the world with a discovery of what no body ever knew before But I believe the Reader who hath perused the foregoing discourse will be induced to believe that either the Socinians or we are in a very great mistake the distance between us being wider then that between Heaven and Earth and indeed no less then between Finite and Infinite So that upon a true state of things I believe it will be found that our Opinions are not only seemingly inconsistent but absolutely irreconcileable forasmuch as in order to reconcile them we must part with the Infinite nature of God the Father and the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And surely that man must be very fond nay he must be mad for peace that can be content to sacrifice both Truth and the Divine Author of it in order to purchase it Once indeed our Blessed Saviour came down among men and offered up himself upon the Cross in order to reconcile the two greatest Enemies God and Man but it is too much in all Conscience which is expected of us that we should make a new Oblation of our Saviour and not only as the Jews did nail his Body to the Cross but sacrifice even his Divinity to compose the differences in Religion But perhaps some may say the Socinians are men of more reason and moderation then to desire us presently to part with all our Religion to gratifie them They only plead for liberty and in order to their joyning with us that we would remove those obstacles of communion viz. Articles Creeds Confessions of Faith some useless expressions in our Common Prayer which contain too plain and uncharitable acknowledgments of the Trinity which hinder many pious useful and excellent persons from coming to our Churches Why should we not strip our Faith of all those larger and unwarrantable explications which Councils and Fathers have made of it and reduce all to the naked expressions of Scripture that is content our selves with a few Ambiguous words which the perverse and subtile Interpretations of Hereticks have made so and let every man abound in his own sense They believe Christ to be the Son of God so as to be true God likewise what need we trouble our selves or them with the word Consubstantial pity it is that a word nay a Letter should divide men in their Opinions and Affections To all which tho I have a great deal that I could answer yet at present all that I shall say shall be this That the Socinians are wise men persons of a deep reach but they must not think that all the rest of the World are fools It were too much in all Conscience to desire us to part with all at first but they know what advantage to make of our Concessions if they can perswade us with that foolish woman Prov. 14. 1. to pull down our house with our own hands it will save them the toyl and drudgery of so doing at least if they can prevail with us to demolish our Outworks then they will be able as with greater ease so likewise with greater hopes of success to attack the main Fort. In short the Ancient Creeds and Confessions and those Ancient words in which the Doctrine of Faith hath bin conveyed down to us are only an Hedge of Thornes as they have bin truly and pertinently styled with which the Christian Faith hath bin guarded against the designs of disguised Hereticks and I hope they will prick their fingers who shall attempt the removing of them And thus much shall serve to be said upon the first Head of the great difference there is between what the Scriptures affirme and what the Socinians say of the great object of our Religion God Allmighty And if there were only this in the case I hope it might prove sufficient to guard any pious well meaning Christian from the Infection of their Impious Opinions which furnish him with notions so dishonorable and injurious to his maker and who by denying the blessed Trinity and the Divinity of our Saviour have subverted the very foundations of Christianity altered the whole Oeconomy of mans Salvation so that they and we must go different waies to Heaven as having neither the same meanes of Grace nor the same hopes of Glory I should now proceede to shew the Opposition between the Socinian tenets and the other parts of the Christian Doctrine which are thereby contradicted and overthrown But this must be referred till a time of further and better leasure But by this Taste which I have given the Reader of Socinianism I may have reason to hope that he will be of the Opinion that Religion is like Wine the older the more excellent and desireable And therefore that no man of wisdome or indeed of common sense who hath not lost all Relish of divine things when he hath tasted of the old Religion will straightly desire the New because he will find that the Old is much better Now to the Holy Blessed and undivided Trinity three Persons and one God be all Honour Glory and Praise both now and for evermore Amen FINIS 1 Ad evertendam Rempublicam sobrium accessisse Suet. in Jul. Caes 1 Quasi nos Christum verum deum esse negamus quod tamen à nobis non sit Socin oper Tom. 2. p. 645. 2 Ut pro Deo ac Domino suo venerentur p. 631. 3 In eo homine supra quam dici potest extollendo deificando Ibid. 4 Ut potius id gloriae nobis laudi ducamus Wolzogen Prolegom in Evangel Johannis cap. 8. de vera divinitate Christi 1 Quod vero Deus ille unus qui pater est solus verus dicitur id non ideo fieri dicimus quod nemo alius praeter Patrem deus verus sit sed quia nemo alius praeter Patrem isto prorsus modo deus verus sit quo ille est Smal. Exam. Cent. Err. p. 4. 2 Certissimum est quod non unus tantum verus Deus sit Ibid. 3 Contendimus firmissime docemus esse plures Deos praeter unum Eosque veros Refut Smigl de Novis Monst Nov. Ar. p. 14. 4 Tantum unum summum deum agnoscere unum tantum natura Deum Colere unum tantum Independentem Deum confiteri esse Judaicum quiddam abnegationem Christianae Religionis Ibid. p. 26. 1 Ea verba speaking of those words Jer. 23. 23. Am I a God at hand and
asserting of his own honour and vindicating the authority of his Laws and in short the revenging the contempt and violation of them as is evident in certain invisible punishments inflicted upon some sinners in this life such as are obduration and giving them up to a Reprobate sense and will be much more evident in those everlasting punishments for so we will make bold to call them whatever the Socinians may say to the contrary in the life to come where God can aime at nothing but the satisfaction of his Justice and thereby the manifestation of his own Glory But whatever the reasons may be of inflicting punishment either by God or man yet Justice is the hand that inflicts it which is called distributive or vindictive and is therefore defined by an Ancient writer from one of its noblest offices to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an exacting of punishment And by Plutarch to the same purpose to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ultrix in eos qui adversus legem divinam delinquunt Now these things being thus premised I proceed to make good my charge against the Socin in calling that not only a false but a dangerous Opinion of theirs which makes Justice to be no necessary or essential Attribute in God but a matter purely Arbitrary and Contingent as being the effect only of his free will 1. Then this Opinion I say is false and impious because it furnishes us with such an Idea of God as is dishonourable to him and will naturally lead us to a contempt of him because it teaches us so to conceive of God as of one that is not necessarily concerned in the Actions of men and the affairs of the World that is it gives us a notion of a God without a providence for if there be a providence it must chiefly and principally be imployed as was said in our first Prop. in the care and government of Human Affairs there can be no government without Laws no laws without the Sanctions of Punishment either expressed or necessarily implyed in all such Laws no punishment without Justice to inflict it and consequently that we may bring both ends of our Sorites together where there is no Justice there is no Providence and where the one is not necessary the other is not so too Therefore tho the Socinians do acknowledge Gods providence and that he doth actually govern the World yet this doth not take off the charge of falshood and impiety from this position of theirs because thereby they make his providence to be a contingent and perfectly an Arbitrary matter you may notwithstanding all this have a true notion of God and do him no wrong if you conceive of him as of one that may be unconcerned in the actions of men who after he hath sent them into the world may suffer them to live as they please every man doing that which is right in his own eies which yet is great Impiety so much as to imagine forasmuch as it is repugnant to the infinite perfections of Almighty God helps to debase him in our thoughts to weaken that reverence and esteem which arises in our minds when we conceive of him and thereby leads us naturally and inevitably from a disesteem to a denyal of him So that what at first I called a dangerous I am now afraid in the conclusion will prove to be an Atheistical assertion upon which account Epicurus among the Ancients was generally accounted an Atheist Posidonius the Stoick thought him so and that it was only the Envy and Infamy which attended such persons which obliged him not to profess himself one But what in words he affirmed he did in deed effectually overthrow For by denying Gods providence Re sustulit Oratione reliquit deos In which charge against Epicurus Cotta the Academick hath had the consent of all wise men among the Heathens as well as the suffrage of Christians whose way of arguing would be of no force had they not bin of Opinion that if there be a God who made the World there must necessarily be a Providence and if a Providence I am sure there must be that Attribute in God which we call Justice without which that other can never be exercised But you will say that God may give men Laws for the government of their Actions and that will be a sufficient vindication of his providence tho he assigns no punishment to the breach of them That is tho we cannot conceive a God without a providence yet we may conceive a providence without Justice Indeed Socinus hath told us so for speaking of the command of God to Adam in Paradise requiring him not to eat of the forbidden fruit and the threatning annexed In the day thou eatest thou shalt dy the death Gen. 3. which threatning Covet his adversary told him did flow from that Justice in God which we have hitherto bin speaking of he Answers that this Justice was not any thing in God inhering in him and therefore nothing could flow from it as being only an accidental effect of his free will Cum à me ostensum fuerat ejusmodi justitiam in Deo non veré residere nec proprié Dei qualitatem dici posse sed tantummodo effectum voluntatis ejus nihil ex ea fluere potuit as much as if he had said non entis nullae sunt operationes what is not can have no influence to produce any thing And for a confirmation of this he adds that God might have given Adam and what God might have done to Adam he might undoubtedly have done to all the Sons and posterity of Adam this law and not have annexed Death as the punishment of the breach of it nay if he had so pleased he might have assigned no punishment at all But this is delivered by Socinus with the same Confidence as are many of his other absurd Errors in which he stands single by himself against the constant and uniform suffrage of Divines Ancient and Modern Fathers and Schoolmen Philosophers and Lawyers and those both Canonists and Civilians among whom it passes for an uncontrolled maxim That that is very vainly and impertinently commanded which may be securely neglected Frustra est aliquid praecipere quod impuné potest negligi and this bold position he lays down and gives us not the least reason for it but his own affirmation But tho he gives us no reason for his assertion I am sure there is very great as well as very apparent reason against it forasmuch as such Laws as these will neither secure the honour of God nor serve the ends of his providence being but in the nature of good advice which as we said before every man is at liberty to take or refuse at his pleasure So that while he makes the Law precarious at the same time and for the same reason he makes the Obedience of men so too in which case God must be beholding not to his own Authority but