satisfying for us and purchasing Salvation by vertue of his Death when he designedly undertook to enumerate the Advanvantages and Benefits which accrue to mankind by Christ's coming into the World And in the making good of these Particular Charges I shall as I did before evidence to the World that this Writer hath not only a design to cherish Socinianism but at the same time to make way for Atheism I begin with the First on which I will enlarge more than on any of the rest because it comprehends in it several other Particulars and because in discussing of this I shall have opportunity to lay open the Sophistry and Dissimulation of this Vindicator and likewise to discover to the Reader how Mischievous and Pernicious his Design is First it is observable that this Guilty Man would be shifting off the Enditement by excepting against the formality of the Words as if such were not to be found in his Book But when doth he do this In the close of it when his matter was exhausted and he had nothing else to say Vindic. p. 38. Then he bethinks himself of this Salvo whereas he had generally before pleaded to the formal Enditement and had thereby owned it to be True And indeed he can do no other for it was the main work he set himself about to find but One Article of Faith in all the Chapters of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and accordingly he over and over again declares that there is but that One Truth viz. Iesus is the Messiah necessarily to be assented to by Christians or as he sometimes words it absolutely required to make a man a Christian or a member of Christ. This is the SOLE Doctrin press'd and requir'd to be believ'd in the whole tenour of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching p. 192. of his Reasonableness of Christianity And again in the same place This was the ONLY Gospel Article of Faith which was Preached to them This he often inculcates having left out several considerable passage in the very Gospels and having thrown aside the Epistles as if they were no part of the New Testament hoping that some of his Readers would be bubbled by this means And when I told him of his One Article he knew well enough that I did not exclude the Article of the Deity for that is a Principle of Natural Religion whereas I only took notice of his passing by and wholly omitting those points which are Evangelical Yet he willfully mistakes me in this p. 27. of his Vindication and saith he doth not deny the necessary belief of a Deity or One only True God and so the belief of the Messias with that makes Two Articles Thus he would perswade the Reader that I misunderstood him and that I tax'd him with setting up One Article when he acknowledges two But the Reader sees his Shuffling for my Discourse did not treat neither doth his Book run that way of Principles of Natural Religion but of the Revealed one and Particularly the Christian. Accordingly this was it which I taxed him with that of all the Principles and Articles of Christianity he chose out but One as necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian. And though since he hath tried to split this One into two p. 28. yet he labours in vain for to believe Iesus to be the Messias amounts to the same with believing him to be a King or Ruler his being Anointed i. e. being the Messias including that in it Yet he hath the Vanity to add in great Characters THESE ARE ARTICLES as if the putting them into these Great Letters would make one Article two Such is the fond fancy and conceitedness of the Gentleman whereas in other places he hath formally declared that there is but One Article that is the necessary Matter of Faith This I had just reason to except against and now I will give a farther account of my doing so by shewing that besides that One Fundamental Principle or Article which he so often mentions there are Others that are as necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian yea to give him the denomination of a Believer in the sense of the Gospel Several of these I particularly but barely enumerated in my former Discourse and now I will distinctly insist on the most of them and let the Reader see that it is as necessary for a Convert to Christianity to give assent to them as to that other he so frequently specifies This Proposition that by one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and this which follows Death passed upon all men for as much as all men have sinned Rom. 5. 12. and that other that even the Regenerate for the Apostle speaks of himself and the Converted Ephesians are by nature the Children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2. 3. these I say are as absolutely necessary to be known assented to and believed in order to our being Christians as this Proposition Iesus is the Messias or Sent of God For I ask what was the end of his being sent Was it not to Help Mankind to rescue and deliver them from some Evil And where can we be inform'd concerning the Rise and Nature of this Evil but in the Sacred and Inspired Writings And do not these foresaid Texts which we find in St. Paul's Epistles acquaint us with the true Source and Quality of our condition by nature Do they not discover the Root of Mans Misery viz. the Apostacy of Adam for he is that one Man and the dreadful Consequences of it expressed by Death and Wrath And is this set down to no purpose in these Inspired Epistles Is it not requisite that we should know it and believe it Yea is not this absolutely requisite For it is impossible any one should firmly imbrace or so much as seriously attend to the Doctrin of the Messias unless he be persuaded that He stands in need of him And can he be persuaded of this unless he be acquainted with his Degenerate and Miserable State his universal Depravity and innate Proness to what is Vitious and with the true Original of it viz. The voluntary Defection and Fall of our First Parents and with that the loss of our Happiness The word Messias is an insignificant term till we have a belief of this Why then is there a Treatise published to tell the World that the bare belief of a Messias is all that is required of a Christian Again it is not only necessary to know that Iesus is the Messias but also to know and believe who this Iesus this Messias is viz. whether he be God or Man or both For every one will grant that there is a Vast Difference between the one and the other as much as there is betwixt Infinite and Finite and therefore that we may have a due apprehension concerning the Messias it is absolutely necessary that we should believe him to be what he is declared to
Socinianism Unmask'd A DISCOURSE Shewing the Unreasonableness Of a Late Writer's OPINION Concerning the Necessity of only One Article of Christian Faith And of his other Assertions in his late Book Entituled The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scriptures and in his Vindication of it With a Brief Reply to another professed Socinian Writer By IOHN EDWARDS B. D. and sometime Fellow of S. Iohn's College in Cambridge LONDON Printed for I. Robinson at the Golden Lyon and I. Wyat at the Rose in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCVI THE INTRODUCTION THE following Discourse which was finish'd above two months ago but by reason of some Intervening Occurrences found not its way to the Press is design'd against the undertaking of a late Author in his book which bears the Title of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. But the Writer himself is wonderfully pleased with his Lying hid and being No Body I grant there may be Reasons why a man may sometimes conceal his Name and not prefix it to the Book he is Author of But there are some Reasons that are proper and peculiar to this Writer's circumstances for this is perfectly after the Mode of our late English Racovian Writers who constantly appear Nameless and accordingly herein he shews himself to be of the right Racovian breed And another good reason is this which indeed argues something of Modesty he would not set a Christian Name before that book wherein he so grosly abuses Christianity and renounces the greatest part of it I will not wast time and trouble the Reader and my self about guessing who this Writer is Out of Christian good will and charity I am backward to believe that he who is vogued to be the Father of these Extravagant Conceits is really so I will still perswade my self that there is an Error of the Person upon which account I shall be more free than otherwise I should have been But to come to the Book it self there was to express it in the most Learned and Rhetorical Stile of our Author himself a great flutter noise and buz raised about it even while it was yet under the Printers hands There were certain Factors and Emissaries who extravagantly extolled it and it was observ'd this Applause came from the Racovian quarter Those of that way knew before it came out that it was in favour of their Cause whence it was that they so mightily raised the Expectations of those they convers'd with and highly magnified this Piece before the world had seen it And as soon as it was blessed with the sight of it their language ran to an exorbitant heighth as if Christianity had been never known before the time of the compiling of this book All that went before this Author were deluded Creatures and were perfect Strangers to the Articles of the Christian Faith and to Christianity it self Now is risen up an Infallible Teacher all must obsequiously repair to this Great Oracle Now the Socinians have another Champion now they look brisk upon it and the day is their own Now Converts come in apace and the Youth begin to have a Polonian Aspect and in a short time we shall have a Brood of Socinians we shall be stock'd with Young Racovians And to let you into the whole Project this is the short account of it Socinianism was to be erected at this time they can stay no longer and in order to that all hands are to be employed i. e. all that they can get Among others they thought and made choice of a Gentleman who they knew would be extraordinarily useful to them and he it is probable was as forward to be made use of by them and presently accepted of the Office which was assigned him Now thinks he I had best to make use of this opportunity and to set up for a Divine Not only the Illiterate bulk of mankind but their Reverences and Right Reverences to use the words of a Writer of our own Brotherhood shall come to Me to have their understandings inform'd for we have but a sorry unthinking sort of Teachers now a-days whether they be Conformists or otherwise I could never approve of their Systematick genius their doating upon Creeds and Confessions and rendring our Faith cumbersom and burdensom It may be even these men will give ear to what a Thoughtful Musing Man dictates to them though they never think themselves but take all upon trust and swallow Epistles and Gospel together I have attained to such a heighth and perfection of knowledg that I am able to instruct these people after another rate I must tell them which I know they will look very strangely upon that the Apostles when they wrote the Epistles to their Christian Converts designed not to trouble their heads with any Articles or Truths that were necessarily to be believed they only dropt a few Occasional Documents And it may be now and then that One Article which I have propounded to the world may be hook'd in by the by but that is no place to look for any Necessary and Fundamental Truth of Christianity which is absolutely to be believ'd by us This seems to be Novel Doctrine and so indeed it is for I have the honour to be the first famous Inventer of it but I doubt not but in a short time I shall not only propagate this but the Cause to which it is subservient in a wonderful manner To this purpose I will carry it cunningly whilest the Double-Column'd Prints are openly and in a down-right way advancing the Cause I will do as much service under-hand They look directly towards Poland or Transylvania they publickly profess themselves to be Socinus's Followers but I 'll be upon the Reserve and so disguise my self that it shall be very difficult to discover me I will make the world believe that I never heard of such a man as Socinus and if they tell me that I speak his very language as perfectly as if I were a Native of Sienna I 'll face them down that I had it not by fingring of any Socinian Authors but by a kind of Natural Revelation Well this cause must be carried on and I can do it as well as any man by maintaining that there is but One Article of Christian Faith necessarily to be believ'd to make a man a Christian necessarily to be believ'd in order to salvation For if there be but One Point necessary to be believ'd then the doctrines concerning the Trinity concerning the Incarnation and Divinity of Christ concerning his Satisfaction c. are rendred unnecessary as to the making us Christians And this I will shove on under the colour of being serviceable to the bulk of Mankind of being obliging and merciful to the Multitude and Rabble and Poor People though to say the Truth I shew my self to be so far from obliging the Multitude that I do them an infinite deal of Mischief Yet if I compass my End it is enough and I care for no
Writer's passing by the Epistles and not collecting any Articles of Faith out of them shew his Contempt of them His Evasion viz. that the Epistles were writ to those who were already Believers is proved to be groundless If it were true it is nothing to his purpose The Epistles teach Fundamentals His other Evasion viz. that the Fundamental Articles in the Epistles are mixed without distinction with other Truths discovered to be of no force and Retorted upon him The true Reason why he went no further than the Gospels and the Acts. His other Excuses for rejecting the doctrines contained in the Epistles examined and found to be Sophistical He travels as far as China for Prudence and there borrows it of the Missionary Jesuites The Rom. 14. 1. which he alledges authorizes him not to impose upon Weak Christians His Evasions are inconsistent with themselves and accordingly not well approved of by the Party His Objection about the Apostles Creed fully answered Our Church's Iudgment concerning the Articles of this Creed This Profession of Faith hath several Articles in it which Socinians will not subscribe to Whilest he is censuring he commits a great Blunder He mistakes and misrepresents the Gospel-Dispensation BUT the Gentleman is not without his Evasions and he sees it is high time to make use of them This puts him into some disorder for when he comes to speak of my mentioning his ill treatment of the Epistles which he purposely omitted when he made his Collection of Articles or rather when after all his search he found but One Article you may observe that he begins to grow Warmer than before Now this Meek Man is nettled and you may perceive that he is sensible of the Scandal that he hath given to good people by his slighting of the Epistolary Writings of the Holy Apostles yet he is so cunning as to disguise his Passion as well as he can He requires me to publish to the World those passages which shew his Contempt of the Epistles p. 19. But what need I Good Sir do this when you have done it your self I appeal to the Reader whether after your tedious Collections out of the Four Evangelists your passing by the Epistles and neglecting wholly what the Apostles say in them be not publishing to the World your Contempt of them But let us hear why he did not attempt to collect any Articles out of these Writings he assigns this as One Reason The Epistles being writ to those who were already Believers it could not be supposed that they were writ to them to teach them Fundamentals p. 13 14. Vindic. Certainly no man could have conjectured that he would have used such an Evasion as this I will say that for him he goes beyond all Surmises he is above all Conjectures he hath a faculty of Shifting which no creature on Earth can ever fathom Do we not know that the Four Gospels were Writ to and for Believers as well as Vnbelievers Are we not particularly and expresly told by St. Luke that he writ his Gospel to the most Excellent Theophilus Luk. 1. 3. whom all grant to be a Believing Christian of some eminent rank Or if this Author be so singular as to question it he may be satisfied in v. 4. by the Evangelist himself And so the Acts of the Apostles we find are dedicated to the same Eminent Believer Acts 1. 1. By the same Argument then that he would perswade us that the Fundamentals are not to be sought for in the Epistles we may prove that they were not to be sought for in the Gospels and in the Acts for even these were writ to those that believed And yet it is clear that this Writer did not make use of this Argument otherwise he would not have confined the Fundamentals to the Gospels and the Acts. Here then is want of Sincerity in a great measure which hath been accounted heretofore a good qualification in a Writer Again granting that the Epistles were all of them writ to those that already believed yet what can this be to his purpose Must no Believers have any Fundamentals taught them What is the meaning then of 1 Iohn 2. 21. I have not written unto you because you know not the Truth but because you know it Suppose they have forgot the Fundamentals or have corrupted and perverted them as was the case of the Galatians who mixed the Law with the Gospal Legal Works with Faith and of the Dispersed Hebrews who had received the Christian Doctrine but were falling away from it Might not the Apostle yea did he not in his Epistles to these Persons remind them of the Great Articles of the Christian Faith Did he not when he writ to the Galatians assert the doctrine of Justification through faith in Christ's Righteousness without the Works of the Law Did he not in his Epistle to the Wavering Hebrews endeavour to establish them in Christianity by displaying the Excellency and Transcendency of the Priesthood of Christ by convincing them of the Efficacy and Perfection of the One Sacrifice of the Messias on the Cross whereby the sins of mankind are perfectly Expiated So St. Iohn's first Epistle was written on occasion of the Christian Churches converted from Judaism being endanger'd by certain Seducers that were crept in among them and labour'd to unsettle their belief concerning the Divinity as well as the Humanity of our Saviour Whereupon this Apostle who had clearly delivered the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the beginning of his Gospel now more especially urges that Principal Article of their Faith the Deity of Christ chap. 2. v. 22 23. and also in express words asserts the Whole Trinity chap. 5. v. 7. Thus it is manifest that the Apostles in their Epistles taught Fundamentals which is contrary to what this Gentleman saith that such a thing could not be supposed and he would pretend That as a reason why he did not look for any Necessary Articles of Faith in the Epistles But we see how groundless his pretence is Hear another feigned ground of his omitting the Epistles viz. because the Fundamental Articles are here promiscuously and without distinction mix'd with other Truth p. 14. But who sees not that this is a mere Elusion for on the same account he might have forborn to search for Fundamental Articles in the Gospels for they do not lie there together but are dispersed up and down the Doctrinal and Historical part are mix'd with one another but he pretends to sever them why the did he not make a separation between the Doctrines in the Epistles and those Other Matters that are treated of there He hath nothing to reply to this and therefore we must again look upon what he hath suggested as a cast of his Shuffling faculty Or if he should excuse himself by saying that Necessary and Fundamental Principles can't be distinguish'd from those other Truths which occur in the Epistolary Writings any one may discover the insufficiency of such a plea because
to be believ'd concerning him The Mahometans call themselves Musselmen of rather according to the true account of the Arabick word Moslemim i. e. Believers and what difference is there between one of them and our Author's Believer The former believes that Christ is a Good Man and not above the nature of a Man and sent of God to give Instructions to the world and the Faith of the latter is of the very same scantling Thus he confounds Turky with Christendom and those that have been reckon'd as Infidels are with him Christians He seems to have consulted the Mahometan Bible which saith Christ did not suffer on the cross did not die for he and his Allies speak as meanly of these Articles as if there were no such thing The Alcoran often talks particularly see the Last Chapter of it against Christ's being the Son of God by Generation It is one of the First Principles of Mahometism that there is but One God neither begetting nor begot See Sulburgius's Saracenica This is it which our Author drives at when he labours to prove the Messias and the Son of God are terms synony mous as you shall hear by and by This reminds me of that Affinity and Correspondence which hath been between the Turks and this Gentleman's Party Servetus conferr'd notes with the Alcoran when he undertook to fetch an Argument out of it to disprove the Deity of our Saviour It is observable that those Countreys of Europe which border on the Sultan's dominions as Hungary Transilvania c. abound with Socinians and Antitrinitarians The inhabitants of these places accommodate themselves to their Potent Neighbours they make some approach to the Conquerer's Creed Some of these men have lately got footing in England and because they and the Great Turk disbelieve the Trinity therefore we must all be Proselytes to their opinion They are making way for this by taking away all the Articles of the Christian Faith but One. And our late Writer is the Instrument they make use of for this purpose This Great Mufti hath given us a Hopeful Draught of Christianity and it was fit the English Reader should know that a Turk according to him is a Christian for he makes the same Faith serve them both Nay in the last place let us take notice that this Gentleman presents the world with a very Ill notion of Faith for the very Devils are capable of all that Faith which he saith makes a Christian man yea of more for we read that they believed Iesus to be the Son of God Mat. 8. 29. They cried out to him Thou art Christ the Son of God Luke 4. 41. which latter words in both places denote his Divinity as I shall shew afterwards But besides this Historical Faith as it is generally call'd by Divines which is giving credit to Evangelical Truths as barely reveal'd there must be something else added to make up the True Substantial Faith of a Christian. With the Assent of the Understanding must be joyn'd the Consent or Approbation of the Will All those Divine Truths which the Intellect assents to must be allow'd of by this Elective power of the Soul True Evangelical Faith is a hearty Accepting of the Messias as he is offer'd in the Gospel It is a sincere and impartial submission to all things requir'd by the Evangelical Law which is contain'd in the Epistles as well as the other Writings And to this Practical Assent and Choice there must be added likewise a firm Trust and Reliance in the Blessed Author of our Salvation But this late Undertaker who attempted to give us a more perfect account than ever was before of Christianity as it is deliver'd in the Scriptures brings us no tidings of any such Faith belonging to Christianity or discover'd to us in the Scriptures Which gives us to understand that he verily believes there is no such Christian Faith for in some of his Numerous Pages especially 191 192 c. where he speaks so much of Belief and Faith he might have taken occasion to insert one word about this Compleat Faith of the Gospel Having thus represented how Defective how Narrow how Erroneous how Mistaken this Unknown Writer's Christianity and especially his Faith is I will now proceed to shew how Dangerous and Pernicious this sort of Doctrine is Here is a Contrivance set up for the bringing in of Darkness and Barbarism into the Christian world The only Necessary Point of Belief that the Old Testament delivers is according to these Gentlemen that there is One God and all the New Testament affords us as matter of Necessary Faith is this that Iesus is the Messias Carry but these Two Articles along with you and you are a True Christian. There is no Necessity at all of being acquainted with the Reveal'd Doctrine concerning the Cause of Mankinds Degeneracy and Corruption which gave occasion to the Messias's Coming into the world There is no Necessity of knowing whether this Messias be God or Man or both there is no Necessity of understanding whether he came to suffer and dye in our stead and to satisfie the Divine Justice and to purchase Salvation for us by his Blood There is no Necessity of believing that without Faith and Evangelical Obedience we cannot have any Benefit by the Messias There is no Necessity of being perswaded that our Salvation springs from the mere Grace and Bounty of Heaven There is no Necessity of believing the Privileges and Rewards both here and hereafter which are entail'd on Christianity There is but a Single Article of Belief and this is a very Short one too viz. that Iesus is the Messias and if you assent to This you are as Sound a Christian and as Good a Believer as this Gentleman can make you One would think that seeing there are so many Branches of the Evangelical Faith commended to us and urged upon us by the Apostles in their Epistles some of which our Saviour himself in the Gospel had made mention of one would think I say that a man that hath a True Sense of Christianity and is a Lover of Souls should endeavour to display before the world these Several Parts of the Christian Belief and should be earnest with men to embrace them All and not to omit or neglect any of them seeing they all so nearly concern their Everlasting Wellfare But here comes One that makes it his great business to beat men off from taking notice of these Divine Truths he represents them as wholly Unnecessary to be believed he cries down all Articles of Christian Faith but One. He at this time of day when Christianity is so bright strives to darken and eclipse it he hides it from the faces of mankind draws a thick Veil over it will not suffer them to look into it takes the Holy and Inspired Epistles which are as much the Word of God as the Gospels out of their way and tells them again and again that a Christian man or