A sermon of the credibility of the mysteries of the Christian religion preached before a learned audience / by Tho. Smith ... Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710. 1675 Approx. 108 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 42 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A60586 Wing S4250 ESTC R10064 13773207 ocm 13773207 101752 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A60586) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 101752) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 850:29) A sermon of the credibility of the mysteries of the Christian religion preached before a learned audience / by Tho. Smith ... Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710. [4], 76 p. Printed by Tho. Roycroft for Ric. Davis ..., London : 1675. Errata: p. [4] Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- Timothy, 1st, III -- Sermons. Faith -- Sermons. Faith -- Early works to 1800. Apologetics -- Early works to 1800. Apologetics -- History -- 17th century. 2005-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-06 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2005-06 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON OF THE Credibility of the Mysteries OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION , Preached before a LEARNED AUDIENCE . By THO. SMITH , Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College in Oxon. LONDON , Printed by Tho. Roycroft , for Ric. Davis Bookseller in Oxford , 1675. Imprimatur , Sept. 7 h. 1674. C. Smith R. P. D. Episc . Lond. à Sacris Domest . Nobilissimo Viro , D. ROBERTO BOYLE , Verae ac Solidae Pietatis , Summae eruditionis , Instaurandae sanioris Philosophiae , Optimè de literis tam Sacris quam Humanioribus merendi Famâ longè celeberrimo , Magno aevi Exemplo & Ornamento : T. S. Hanc Concionem ( unà cum Appendice ) coram Academicis Oxoniensibus , solenni S. Marci Evangelistae Festo , In sacello Collegii B. Mariae Magdalenae Superiori anno habitam , In debitae observantiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lubens merito dedicat consecrátque . ERRATA . P. 7. l. 10. — 〈◊〉 . p. 15. l. 13. belief . p. 17. l. 7. the ordin ▪ l. 23. ingenious . p. 21. l. 24. for its read his . p. 26. l. 10 ▪ revealed , . p. 28. l. 15. when . p. 34. l. 14. belongs . p. 42. l. 5. for I , read we ▪ p. 45. l. 12 ▪ the onely . p. 48. l. 24. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Appendix refers to Page 47. A SERMON Preached before a Learned Audience . 1 TIM . III. the former part of the 16. verse . — Without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness . HOW much the Doctrine of Christianity tends to the improvement of Reason and Learning , how it has brought into the World a better and more certain knowledg of God and of our selves , how it has advanced the common notices of nature , and has chased away with the clear evidences of its truth those thick shades of error , that had darkned the understanding , and has removed all those prejudices , that were taken up from sense and a very partial and deceitful observation of things , may be fully demonstrated by comparing the former estate of Mankind , before the coming of Christ in the flesh , with the present , wherever it is received in its truth and power . Men before were led by opinion and conjecture and fancy only , as to matters of Religion and the concerns of another World : They had fears upon them indeed of a divine justice , that would revenge the violation of the law of nature either here or hereafter ; and a reflection upon the strange traverses and difficulties of life had taught them to expect another life after this : but their eyes were dim however , and they could not see far into futurity ; they could have no clear deductions of particular truths for want of a right knowledg of true and certain principles : hence it was , that they were so inconstant and wavering , and knew not well where or what to fix on . But Christ by his appearance and manifesting the will of God to us , hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel , and children and persons of an ordinary reach and capacity may now easily apprehend those things , that is , in reference to God and his attributes , the misery we are in by sin , the means of our recovery from this woful estate of life , the immortality of the Soul , and the like ; which before those great Philosophers , notwithstanding all their vaunts and quests after learning , notwithstanding they set up Schools and were ambitious to give names to Sects , had but a very imperfect knowledg of . But while these truths were received by those , that were willing to be taught , and to submit themselves to the dictates of reason , and convictions of miracles , which were added to give all possible satisfaction to the understanding , others , who were resolv'd before hand not to be convinced , who had rather remain in their ignorance and idolatry and their sins , then be converted to a new Religion , and reduced to such strictness of life , as that requires , from their debaucheries and brutish pleasures , who had rather fall down before a Statue or a Picture , because their Fathers had done so before them , and because it was the established Religion of their Country , than acknowledg and adore a Crucified Saviour , reject it upon the account of the Mysteries of Faith , without ever examining the weight of the arguments , that would have enforced them upon their belief : They could not in the mean while but acknowledg the happy and glorious change , that Christianity had wrought in the World , how much it exceeds and goes beyond all the morality of the wisest and best Lawgivers and Founders of Republicks , how it not only laies down rules for the right ordering of life , but furnishes its votaries with a power to practise them ; not only shews us a way to walk in , but takes us by the hand and leads us in it : but the difficulties , it seems , that are to be met with in conceiving some of its mysteries , offended them . This was their pretence and their plea for their infidelity ; they would have demonstration for every thing , they would be taught and convinced by Syllogism , their Pride and their Self-conceit and the opinion they had of their own learning would not permit them to believe . They made their understanding the measure of all truth , and what did not suit with those narrow and low principles they had taken up , was scornfully rejected by them . The Jews , saies the Apostle , 1 Cor. 1. 22 , 23. require a Sign , and the Greeks seek after Wisdom ; but we preach Christ crucified , unto the Jews a stumbling-block , and to the Greeks foolishness . But how irrational was the demand of both ? for what greater sign could there be to the Jews , than the fulfilling of all the Prophesies in the person of Christ , even to the minute circumstances of his life and death , and those mighty miracles that shewed forth themselves in him ? what greater wisdom could the Philosophers pretend to or desire , than the wisdom of God in a mystery , as it is called , 1 Cor. 11. 7. than those clear discoveries of the divine nature and the essential perfections of the Godhead , than the admirable contrivances of the redemption of mankind by the sufferings and death of Christ , the Son of God , than the ways and means of recovering the dignity of our nature , and of living here like men , and of living hereafter like Angels ? Such a wisdom , as will not only gratifie our earnest desires and pursuits after knowledg , but will make us happy too for ever . Their weak and blear eyes could not endure such a great light that brake in upon them , and therefore they were desirous to retire into the shade . They could not fully conceive and comprehend them , they seemed therefore foolish and impossible notions , that were owing wholly to an ungovern'd imagination . And hereupon a they proceed to calumniate the Christians as a company of well-meaning and honest and good-natur'd , but very simple and over-credulous people , who took all things upon trust , without enquiring into their truth , and certainty ; for such were the slanderous accusations of b Celsus , c Lucian , and d Hierocles , and the rest of the learned enemies of the Christian Religion : They upbraided the Christians of their times , with whom they conversed , in their writings and in their discourses , that they received all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with an irrational Faith and an hasty assent , past without any examination , that they could bring no proof or demonstrative argument of what they held so pertinaciously , that nothing was required to make a Christian a Believer , as they used to speak by way of Scorn , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an unjudicious and groundless Faith ; yes certainly , a good life and a sanctified understanding , and an humble opinion of a mans self . But these are but words , and men are not to be laughed and rallied out of their faith and a well-grounded perswasion ; there is nothing of argument in scorn and passion ; they only shew the weakness of the cause , and want of reason in those , who make use of them . But now after so many myriads of Converts to the Christian Faith , after the attestation and consent of so many ages , who have examined severely the principles , on which it is founded , who would expect that any one should dare now to question the truth of it again , that men who have been baptized into it , should abjure and renounce it , should no longer acknowledg Christ their Saviour , should deny him to be God , or that he had any commission from Heaven to institute a new Religion , should act over the part of the Jews , and arraign the Son of God as an impostor , and side with the Heathen Philosophers against Christianity , as a doctrine not to be endured and embraced , and make use of their very arguments for the defence of their infidelity ? But we know whence the malice and the infidelity of these Theists proceed ; they have abandoned themselves to a wicked life , they are immersed in sensual pleasures , which they make the only end of life . They are convinced , that Christianity , which is a Doctrine according to Godliness is not consistent with such practices , which yet even nature and right reason utterly condemn . The Mysteries of Faith do not so much trouble these men , as the severity of its commands . These they cannot away with , their lusts help them to arguments against the other , and they content themselves with little pieces of Sophistry , and think to vindicate the ill course of life , they have taken up , this way . Natural conscience and an ordinary reflexion upon the works of nature will not permit them , it may be , to deny a God , though they live , as though there were none : They will acknowledg him , it may be too in a good humour , the Creatour of the World , but not the Judg and Governour of it ; they look upon themselves , as only born to gratifie their sensual appetite ; They declare equally for a liberty of living and thinking as they please . They will have no restraint laid upon their understanding , or their lives . Christianity is too strict , and therefore too difficult for them ; They may have the wit perchance , but not the morality of the Philosophers , whose very lives notwithstanding will condemn them as much as the Christian doctrine ▪ Their evil education and custome and prepossession , those great hinderances of truth , made their refusing Christianity the less inexcusable upon the account of its mysteries , while they acknowledged the rules and institutions of it to be according to the highest reason , and the exaltation of the humane nature , while these men pretend its mysteries to be therefore incredible , because the rules of it , which thwart their lusts so much , are so severe . Little or no good I know is to be done upon these men by perswasion or argument , of which they are scarce capable , who turn all things into Burlesque and ridicule : They it seems are too witty ( for so they call their boldness and want of judgment ) either to understand or embrace the principles of Christianity ; but their ill lives shew , that were they as clear as the principles of Geometry , so long as a strict and holy life is as necessary and essential to the being of a Christian , as a right and sound faith , they would except and cavil at them , and at last reject them ; and if the Gospel be hid , be esteemed after so many clear and undoubted revelations , after such evident proofs and convictions , an obscure and incredible doctrine , it is hid to them that are lost , or rather , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in them that are lost ; it is only so to such desperate and obstinate wretches , whom reason it self cannot satisfie , in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not , least the light of the glorious gospel of Christ , who is the image of God , should shine unto them . 2 Cor. iv . 3 , 4. But these are wild and extravagant persons , of debauched understandings and lives , and only to be confuted by the severity of laws ; and of the two the Christian religion has suffered more by the secret underminings of Hereticks , than by their bold attaques . These are the more dangerous enemies , who deny the truths and mysteries of it , upon a pretence of wariness and caution , and go soberly about to destroy it . But all their objections , how plausible soever , must at last resolve into obstinacy and pride : They fancy things must be , and are , as they would have them , or else they cannot be at all : They vainly suppose themselves able to search into the depths of all divine and humane knowledg , and being once prepossessed with this conceit , they grow peevish and angry because the Christian Religion proposes things to their belief , which they cannot grasp , and are too big for their understanding ; and rather than forego this beloved Principle , they will destroy the Fundamentals of Christianity , and to apply that of * Tertullian to them , nisi homini Deusplacuerit , Deus non erit , homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit : Christ shall not be God , nor satisfie the divine justice for the sins of mankind , because this seems incongruous to them ; it is a difficulty , that doth puzzle their understanding ; it is above the strength of their fancy ; their reason , they say , tells them , this cannot be ; allowing of no such thing as faith , which is the great duty of the Gospel , and forgetting , that Christianity is , as it is undoubtedly , the great mystery of Godliness . Thus under a pretence of clearing the truth of Religion , and making it the more easily intelligible , to Turks and Jews , they resist it in the true notion of it , and corrupt and destroy it ; to whom fully agrees that character , which St. Paul gave of the followers of Simon Magus , 2 Tim. iii. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men of corrupt minds , and reprobate concerning the faith ; such whose understandings are wholly vitiated and perverted , notwithstanding the great and fierce claims they laid to knowledg , as if they were the only men , that understood the will and mind of God ; such who reject the establish'd truths of the Gospel , who have no regard to the heavenly doctrine of the Evangelists and Apostles , the truth of which they sealed and confirmed with their blood ; but do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the words of St. * Polycarp in his Epistle to the Philippians , that is , by their fraudulent devices model the oracles of God according to their own fancies and lusts ; who set up a new Religion , which the Catholick Church of Christ never knew or was acquainted with , and endeavour to destroy the faith of Christianity , and think in the mean while they have reason on their side for so doing : and how far by their arts and subtilties and plausible insinuations , by this their slight and cunning craftiness , whereby they lie in wait to deceive ( for it is nothing else , however blancht over and disguised with shews of sober reason ) they have prevail'd upon this Age , is too sad to consider ; so that now it chiefly concerns us to secure the ground-work , the principles of the doctrine of Christ , and to oppose this growing evil , to watch and stand fast in the faith , and quit our selves like men , and not to be like children , carried away with every blast and wind of doctrine , and especially of the vain doctrine of Socinus , as it will appear , when the varnish and false colours are washt of , but to be establisht in the truth of the holy Gospel , as the Church hath taught us to pray in the Collect of this anniversary of St. Mark. To evince therefore the unreasonableness of their pretensions , I shall endeavour in the following discourse to make out these two particulars . 1. That the great mysteries of Religion cannot , and ought not to be any way prejudicial to the truth of it . 2. That the Christian Religion requires us to believe these mysteries , upon such grounds , as we cannot reject , without doing violence to our faculties , and consequently , that the rejecting and disbelieving them must be unreasonable . 1. The great mysteries of Religion cannot and ought not to be any way prejudicial to its truth . They who find fault with Christianity for proposing such great mysteries to our beliefs , and would have all things so plain and obvious , that they should command and force assent , should first trie their reason in solving the difficulties of nature ; and if notwithstanding all their labour and toil , after the most accurate researches into the nature of sensible beings , of things that we daily see and handle , of things that seem to lie level with our understanding , and are no way disproportionable to it , they cannot pretend to a perfect knowledg of them , if the ordinary operations of nature be so abstruse , and unintelligible , and these depths are not to be fathomed , if her secrets are beyond the discovery of the most piercing judgment and reason ; Religion with greater reason must be allowed to have its mysteries ; there being such a vast disproportion between things relating to God and his nature , and the things of the world . The contemplation of nature is curious and useful ; it is a part of the service and worship we owe to God the Creatour , to admire his wisdom and power in the beautiful frame and order of things , which is best done by enquiring into their natures and properties , into their powers and operations and qualities , by examining the curious contexture and the fitness and usefulness of their parts , and there is nothing in the whole universe , but deserves to be considered , and very much conduces to this end . This is the business of Philosophy , and what contemplative minds labour in the search of , to discover and make out how things were at first made , and are still continued in their being , and to find out their peculiar virtues , whereby they produce such a variety of effects , and how they may be altered or improved for the farther use and benefit of mankind . Nothing of which can be effected , at least but very imperfectly , and in a way scarce tolerable , by acquiescing in general observations , derived from weak and slight notices , without descending to severe trials and experiments , or by relying upon the principles of ordinary Philosophy , that are confessedly unintelligible , and which instead of explaining nature , do but perplex and confound the understanding , and which have nothing to maintain and keep up their credit , but the authority of a name and the immoderate love of antiquity . But whatever hypothesis we fix upon , they who have the deepest insight into nature will be forced to confess , they see but a little way , and all that they can pretend to is but conjecture and probability , that when they may seem to arrive at some satisfaction in the order and connexion of things , it is very possible and likely , that things may be made and exert their causalities otherwise , than they suppose , be their fancy never so ingenuous , and their reason never so profound and strong ( for who will be so presumptuous , as to limit either the wisdom or power of God , that he can do no more , or must do what they fancy ? ) that there are thousands of things , that they cannot give any satisfactory account of , and that the more they seek to comprehend the reason of things , the more they are at a loss , the more they are dissatisfied , and the effect of their study is nothing but disorder and trouble of mind . Now if we are convinced of the weakness and insufficiency of our reason in our ordinary speculations , if it fails us , when we attempt to give an account of our selves , and the operation of our minds , and when we have to do with plain matters of sense , how unfit and unable must it be to comprehend and make out things , that stand at that infinite distance from it , to which it bears no proportion ? They may as well pretend that all these great difficulties and perplexities , we meet with in the conceptions of things , should be taken away , that all men ought to be born compleat Philosophers , and be inspir'd with the perfect knowledg of things , which they cannot attain to after several years , spent in labour and study , that nothing should exist , but what we can conceive , and that the truth and possibility of things should not derive from the will and pleasure of God , and from that Idea he has in his divine understanding , but only take their measures , and be judged by those narrow conceptions , we borrow from sense . Men are not to be disputed out of the belief of their senses , that there is no such thing as motion , or continuity of parts in extended matter , because of the great difficulties , that attend the conception of them , and things are daily produced and by degrees arrive at the perfection of their being , and perform actions suitable to their respective natures , though Philosophers disagree in their opinions , and are dissatisfied one with another , and cannot tell how or in what manner they do all this . 2. Thus Nature has its Mysteries ; and who will undertake to explain Secondly , the Mysteries of Providence , and account for all those extraordinary events , which have hapned in all ages of the world ; O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and power of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments , and his wayes past finding out ! Rom. xi . 33. It is presumption to enquire too busily into the ends and reasons of God's proceedings with men , as well as impiety to find fault with them . This should satisfie us , that God , who is of infinite perfection , neither does nor can do any thing , that is unjust ; that he governs the World by an infinite wisdom , that he permits men to act according to the liberty of their will ; and that they stand accountable to him for the actions of their lives ; and that they are but his instruments to bring about his eternal purposes and decrees ; and that nothing comes to pass without his ordering or foresight ; and that all those cross dispensations are for wise ends , best known to himself . Why things are thus , for instance , why the Jews were selected by him to be his peculiar people ; why the coming of the Messias in the flesh was deferred so long ; why so many Heathen Nations lie yet unconverted , and the like , must be referred wholly to his divine will and pleasure , which is guided by rules of eternal rectitude and wisdom . Let it abundantly content us in all changes and chances of this mortal life , in all those distinguishing acts of Providence , that are every where visible between Nation and Nation , or between man and man in respect of the outward conditions and states of being , that God will have it so . God is wonderful in his doings with the children of men . These things call for our admiration : They are secrets not to be enquired into ; which way soever we look , whether up to heaven , or down upon the earth and sea , and observe what is done in each , or whether we turn our eyes inward , we shall find our selves surrounded with wonders , too great for our knowledg , and enough to baffle and confound our curiosity , and to convince us , that there is as well an infinite distance between God and us , in respect of wisdom , as of power . Now would these men have the state of things altered and changed , and the world new modelled , and new laws given to mankind , and a new nature too , and all things reduced to an easier order , and regulated by their fancies , that so nothing may be above their capacity and understanding ? What is this , but the effect of a foolish pride , that is discontented and troubled , that so many things are out of his reach and power , and that will scarce be brought to acknowledg , that God can do , more than they fancy or comprehend ? 3. Besides , those who object against the instituted religion of our Saviour , the greatness of its mysteries , may use the same arguments against the principles of natural religion . That there is an infinite being , in whose Idea is essentially included all possible perfection , is the voice and dictate of nature , right reason , and conscience , and evidenced by the constant and uninterrupted order and course and frame of the universe , and by the universal consent of mankind , who have rites and ceremonies of religion , their Priests and their Sacrifices , to whom they offer up prayers and oblations , to whom they appeal for justice when injured , and to whom they flie for refuge and succour , when they are distressed and in danger , as it were by instinct , and without any deliberation . But notwithstanding this evidence and clearness and demonstration of the existence of a God , they will not pretend to understand fully the nature of the Godhead . That God is infinite in essence and power , and that all things owe their being to his will , they must be forced to confess , or else deny his being , and fancy an infinite series of causes , infinite periods of motions , and an infinite succession of generations , which is absurd and contradictious and impossible , though they have only a negative notion of infinity . Our understandings cannot reach so far , as to have a compleat and comprehensive notion of it ▪ and when we cannot give satisfactory accounts concerning the affections of a natural body , as motion , place , time ; much less can it be expected , that we should do this concerning eternity , immensity , or the other necessary and essential attributes of God : so that the difficulty of conceiving a thing does not any way hinder the truth and possibility of its existence . However the most scrupulous and inquisitive may be satisfied , that there are such attributes , and that consequently upon a reflection , not only on the nature of God , but on the scant measures of knowledg in creatures , it is necessary , they should be above our reach and comprehension . As we may discover much in a curious piece of art , or wonder of nature , as the Load-stone , or any Electrical body : we may find out some virtue in a plant , or mineral , or peculiar sort of earth ; and yet oftentimes after a laborious search , the best Naturalists are forced to confess , that there is or may be at least a great deal more , than what they have discovered . But here , they say , that the understanding neither does nor can admit of any thing incredible ; and we say so too . God doth not , and consequently the Christian Religion , which is the doctrine and revelation of God , does not propose any thing to us , as the object of our faith , that is really impossible in it self , and involves in it a perfect and manifest contradiction ; and nothing less can or ought to be judged incredible . But when they pretend , that no proposition ought or can be believed farther , than it may be cleared up to the understanding by the evidence of natural reason , or of the things themselves contained in it , we reject it as an unjust and unreasonable demand , which will fully appear by shewing the falseness of both parts of the supposition . 1. It is utterly false , that nothing is credible , but what can be proved and made out by reason . There are indeed several degrees of credibility , according to which the mind does admit some things with a greater ease and freeness than others . But however be the matter proposed never so unlikely or unusual , if the authority be just and good , it must not therefore be pronounced incredible , because perchance it is not fully agreeable to the present state of affairs and practice of the World , or because I have some little prejudice against it . For as in a matter of fact , where there are sufficient proofs given of a Relators both honesty and knowledg , when I have all the assurance in the World , that such a matter is capable of , and that he could not mistake in understanding it , and that his words and thoughts do not in the least disagree , when I can object nothing but a groundless surmise , that possibly , and for ought I know , it may be otherwise , this will challenge my assent , and be a sufficient warrant to me to believe it , whether I have a clear Idea of it or no : for this unlikeliness and seeming repugnancy of it , may arise from my being ignorant of several circumstances , the knowledg of which would render it probable and easie : so is it in matter of Doctrine ; whatsoever is proposed by God , becomes thereby immediately credible , and my assent is rational and just , though the thing be above my apprehension ; and this I must ascribe to the greatness of the object , and the imperfections of my reason , which neither is nor can pretend to be an arbiter and judge in such matters , which are too high for it : so that before a man can safely pronounce a doctrine , that is revealed , incredible , and reject it as such , he must question the power and veracity of God , and maintain , that nothing is possible , but what we can comprehend ; and thus under a pretence of caution , betray the greatest immodesty in the world , when he himself believes several other things , upon the bare testimony of men , which neither his wit nor curiosity , nor his reason can ever be able satisfactorily to make out and demonstrate . 2. It is equally false , that no Proposition ought to be believed , but what may be cleared up to the understanding by the evidence of the things themselves . The falseness of which assertion I shall fully evince in these three particulars ; by shewing 1. That it destroyes the nature Faith. 2. It takes away the blessedness and rewardableness annext to it . 3. It reflects on the Wisdom and Soveraignty of God , who may , if it pleases him , propose such things to us , and command us to believe them . 1. It destroyes the nature of Faith. To believe in general , in the proper notion of it , is to assent to things upon the discovery and attestation of others , which are not evident and apparent of themselves ; that is , when I have no demonstrative or sensible knowledg of things , I admit and judge them to be true , not because I either saw them , and can assure my self of them by any of my other senses , or because they are so evident to my reason , that I must needs embrace them , as a principle or conclusion in Philosophy , but because I have received them from another , who informs me and gives me this account of them , for whose sake I assent to them as real and certain . By which it is distinguished from science , which is grounded upon the evidence and clearness of the apprehension of the respective propositions or objects , when things are so plain that they do necessitate our assent , as that the opposite members of a true and perfect contradiction cannot belong to the same thing at the same time , that equals added to equals make equals , that in a triangle , three angles are always equal to two right angles , and the like . And the like assurance and certainty of knowledg is gained , when we draw conclusions according to rule and the laws of method from first principles , which are assented to , assoon as they are proposed , and the terms understood ; whence there is an immediate dependance and connexion of things , and one thing naturally follows another ; Then we are said to know a thing , when we can run it up to its first principles , can trace its original and cause , and understand its effects and operations . This distinction being so just and natural , to call for evidence and demonstration in things proposed to be believed , is to confound different assents of the mind , to turn Religion into Science , to destroy the truth of History , and Tradition , and Revelation , and to fall into Scepticism , and doubt whether any thing be certain , but what we see and can prove and represent by a Scheme , and at last question whether our Sense , and what we call our Reason do not deceive us , or else , which is the effect of a greater phrensie , run our selves into this gross absurdity , that we are as wise as God , and that he can do no more , than what our gross fancies will have him . That then some of the grand articles of Religion are not so clear , as Propositions in Metaphysicks or Theorems in Geometry , or indeed are not clear at all , cannot be objected against their credibility . They are in themselves as certain and as infallible ; nay more certain and more infallible , if infallibility may be supposed to admit of degrees ; but in reason , it cannot be expected , our knowledg of them should be as explicit and as clear : Supernatural Truths are not , cannot be determined or judged of by proofs , derived from nature or sense ; they have proper proofs of their own , as all other arts and sciences have . To judge of these things therefore by our narrow conceptions , is a most false and unwarrantable way of procedure ; and indeed it cannot seem strange , that so much Error and Blasphemy and all that direful train of Heresies , in matters relating to God and Religion , which have so much disturb'd the peace of Christendome , should spring from this one absurd and corrupt principle . Hence it was also , that a Orpheus , and the other Greek Poets have dressed up their Gods in the habit and figure of men , and cloathed them with all the infirmities and passions incident to humane nature , and hereby made way for all the debaucheries and superstitions , that lust could possibly suggest , or a troubled fancy invent . They made use of no other faculty to judg of God , but a gross imagination ; b Epicurus upon this very slight pretence excluded God from having any thing to do in the ordering and governing of the world , because he fancied , this could not be done without anxiety and trouble , like the due management of a great charge or employment , which takes up ones whole time , and requires contrivance and study and foresight to keep things in an equal poise , to prevent disorders , to apply remedies to the least inconveniences , that otherwise might quickly grow and improve into a mischief , and to secure all by an equal distribution of rewards and punishments ; forgetting that God's power is infinite and inexhaustible ; that his eyes reach from one end of the world to the other , and see into the very essences of things ; that all things are at his absolute disposal and command ; that trouble only arises either from fear of success , or when we are overwhelm'd with business , or our strength is not proportionable or any way sufficient to sustain so great a weight . Aetius presently rejects the eternal generation of the Son of God , because this does not in all things agree with natural generations ; and because it cannot be so with men , he impiously and dogmatically concludes , it is an impossible notion , and thinks he has reason for his blasphemy and peremptoriness , by laying down seven and forty arguments for it , as they are numbred and confuted by * Epiphanius in his Panarium . The same gross fancies have the Mahometans of this article of faith to this day , who deride the Christians , by asking impious questions concerning it , and even in their Devotion renounce it with a great deal of earnestness , with a far be it from thee , what the Christians impute to thee ; as if man were the measure and standard of all things , even of God himself , who made him , and who is of infinite perfection , beyond the utmost reach of fancy , or conception . His actions and understanding must needs as much transcend ours , as does his essence . His ways are not as our ways , nor his thoughts as our thoughts . Isa. lv . 8. 2. This Hypothesis of theirs , that nothing is or ought to be believ'd but what is cleared up to the understanding by the evidence of the things themselves , does wholly take away the Blessedness and Rewardableness annext to Faith. One necessary condition to make any action capable of reward or commendation is , that it flow from a principle of liberty ; and herein man , who is endowed with reason , the only true foundation of it , has the preeminence above all other creatures , that act only by instinct , or the force of appetite , or by necessity of * Nature ; He becomes hereby as it were Lord of himself , and can act or not act , according as he is guided by counsel and rational motives , or meerly as it pleaseth him ; and according either to the right or ill use of this liberty , he is to be judg'd , whether he has deserved well or no. That Chrystals shoot out into curious and exactly regular figures , that the flakes of Snow are Hexagonal , and ten thousand other Rarities of Nature , are not to the commendation of the things themselves : They shew admirably the wisdom of the first contriver of them : the Artist , not the Pendulum , is praised , though it measures time so exactly , and performs all its various motions without any interruption or inequality , because this necesssarily arises from a due proportion of weights and wheels , and from a just adaptation of the several parts of it ; 't is the perfection of a man , that he acts freely , and consequently that he is virtuous out of choice , notwithstanding all the allurements and inclinations of sense . And the like is to be said of the several assents of the mind ; if the truths of Religion were in themselves so clear and evident , that we could not but assent , whether we would or no , if they could be prov'd by arguments , deriv'd from sense or nature , where then would be the blessedness of Faith our Saviour speaks of , which belong to those , who have not seen , and yet have believed ? when we have a clear and distinct perception of a thing , then we know it ; and he must be very stupid and very pertinacious , that ●ill not submit to the truth , and evidence , and conviction of a demonstration . How ridiculous would it be to raise a dispute , and heap up arguments against clear evidence , and pretend dissatisfaction in the midst of so great certainty , as science affords ? If there were no difficulty in the notions , where were that Obedience of Faith , the Apostle St. Paul mentions ? where would be our submission and humility ? for a trial of which I am perswaded , that many Mysteries are now proposed by God , which hereafter as a reward of our Faith shall be more clearly made out to us , and that this shall be one principal part of the glory that shall attend the blessed in the other world , when we shall be divested of those circumstances , that now hinder the exertions of Reason , when our understandings shall be enlightned , and our capacities enlarged , and our thoughts heightened and exalted ; not that it is possible for the most refined and raised intellect ever to attain to a full and comprehensive knowledg of them ( for the Angels , those glorious spirits , who attend the throne , and are continually in the presence of God , humbly vail their faces and adore ) but that what we now know by Faith and Revelation only , we shall have a somewhat clearer insight into , and be as fully and satisfactorily convinced of , as for instance , that there is a Trinity of Persons in one undivided Essence , as if we understood the manner of their several subsistences . 3. It reflects upon the Wisdom and Power of God , who may , if he please , propose these things to us and command us to believe them . For that God may do this , who can question ? or deny , that we are as much obliged to give up our judgments and understandings , as our wills , to his will , to assent to any speculation or truth of doctrine revealed by him , as to any mode of instituted worship commanded by him , or any precept of Morality ; and that I am not to object and throw in my little conjectures and probabilities , because it is not altogether , or in the least , evident to my reason , when the nature of the thing renders it impossible that it should , or if it did not , yet his command should be enough to force my assent ? now to fancy , that nothing is or ought to be credible , but what can be made out and cleared up to the understanding by the evidence of the things themselves , destroyes this supposition , which has its certainty from , and is supported by , several of the divine attributes . The Wisdom and Power of God are both infinite , and therefore he knows more , and can do more , than what we possibly can conceive : otherwise we must equal our little knowledg , which we chiefly derive from the images and representations of things in our minds , and which every contemptible insect and vegetable is too big for , with his ; and upon the same account , we must fancy our power equal too : which is the effect of an irrational pride and madness , like that of the Apostate Angels , and by consequence , throw off our dependence upon him , and deny to yield obedience to his laws , because they do as much cross our vitious and corrupt inclinations , as the Mysteries of our Faith do our narrow conceptions and sentiments . An infinite understanding only can fully comprehend an infinite perfection ; such a proportion between the faculty and the object being altogether necessary : for if it could be comprehended by a finite intellect , it would immediately cease to be infinite . How insufferable then is such an insolence ! How vain and foolish are such imaginations ! and every high thing , as the Apostle speaks , extravagant fancies and conceits , that get into the brain , that exalt themselves against the knowledg of God , which ought to be captivated and made subject upon the highest Reason in the World to the obedience and doctrine of Christ : which will appear by descending to the 2. Second Particular , I proposed to make good , that the Christian Religion requires us to believe its Mysteries upon such grounds , as we cannot reject without doing violence to our faculties , and consequently , that the rejecting and disbelieving them must be unreasonable . Now the grounds are chiefly these two . 1. That we believe and admit the divine Revelations . 2. That we yield obedience and submit our understandings and all the powers of our minds to the Will of God. 1. That we believe and admit divine Revelations ; because God is of infinite veracity , and to deceive is repugnant to the holiness of his Nature ; there is an utter impossibility in it . Now if we repose so much trust and confidence in a friend , because we have tried him , and know that he is a man of great integrity , and that he abhors the very thought of deceiving any one with the least falsehood , and speaks exactly according to his knowledg without any reserved or secret meaning or equivocation , or concealing part of the proposition in his mind that it may be otherwise understood than he intends it ; much more with all the readiness of submission of mind imaginable are we to receive , whatever comes from God , without the least demur , or doubt , or contradiction . This an infinite and eternal rectitude does justly challenge from us ; for God may assoon deny his being , as falsifie his word ; so that whoever goes about to question or disbelieve any thing that God has revealed , will run himself upon one of these two gross and absurd impieties , either doubt whether God himself has an exact and perfect knowledg of those things , he has propos'd to our belief , or whether he has been just and true to deliver what he knows . It is a most rational conclusion of St. John 1 Epist. v. 10. he that believeth not God , has made him a lyar . No difficulty then can or ought to deter me from the belief of a thing , if God has once revealed it ; nor can the mind of man possibly desire a greater satisfaction than this . 2. That we yield obedience and submit our understandings and all the powers of our minds to the will of God , for 1. That there are thousands of things de facto above our knowledg and conception cannot be deemed by any , without the highest immodesty , an unjust postulatum . 2. That all or at least most of our knowledg deriving from sense , the more things are freed and abstracted from the entanglements of gross matter , the more difficult is the conception ; because they fall less under the examination of our senses , from which we receive so great prejudices in our infancy and childhood , which make that deep impression on our fancies , that they are not easily to be removed . 3. God by virtue of his absolute dominion and soveraignty may command us to assent to things above our reach , and conception , and knowledg . Faith is not to choose its Object , no more than a mans will can prescribe and set to him a Law , because its whole and only power consists in the liberty of obeying or not obeying of a Law prescrib'd by a superiour Power . Whatsoever Doctrine therefore is delivered and revealed by God , becomes immediately credible , by reason of the authority , that does accompany it , and enforce it upon us . The Articles of Faith carry along with them sufficient motives of Credibility , but then these motives must not be fetched from the nature of the things themselves , as if they were to be so evident , that our Reason might fully discover their connexion and dependance , but from without ; that is , my Faith is rightly grounded , and an obligation lies upon me to believe , what is proposed by God , if it be evidenced so to be , by just and rational proofs ; and if the authority be certain and infallible : God therefore declaring his Will , and confirming the Revelations he has made of it by his divine Power , this latter is a sufficient proof , and a just and rational ground of my Belief ; for how absurd would it be for any one , because he cannot comprehend and make out a thing fully , which in the nature of it , and by reason of our weakness and incapacity , is incomprehensible , and which he ought to acknowledg to be such , unless he will presume to measure Eternity and grasp Infinity with a span , therefore to doubt of so plain a truth , as this is , that the divine Power cannot be made use of to confirm any Proposition , but what is exactly true and certain ? so that this is not to forego our Reason , as the Socinians plead , for nothing is more agreeable to the principles of right Reason , but to act according to it : and therefore to say that we Believe I know not what , if they mean , that the objects of our Faith cannot be proved to exist with the same kinds of proofs , as what is presented to our senses , or as a propriety may be demonstrated of the subject of a speculative Science , this cannot be any prejudice at all to our belief , because in all Faith , whether Humane or Divine , there cannot be the same clearness and evidence , but that there are such Objects of our Faith we are as certainly assured , as if we had a particular demonstration of each . Now that the Mysteries of Christianity are confirm'd by such an authority , and therefore are to be believed by us , and consequently that the Christian Religion requires our assent to no more , than what is apparent to be God's Will , we have this assurance , that they were attested and made good by the miracles of our Saviour ; by these he proved his Commission to be deriv'd from Heaven . This was the belief of the Jews in general , both Learned and Unlearned ▪ Nicodemus was fully convinced of the truth and evidence of it , Joh. iii. 2. Rabbi , we know , that thou art a Teacher come from God , for no man can do those miracles , that thou dost , except God be with him . In the case of the blind man , who was restored to his sight , the doubt was rational , How can a man , that is a sinner do such miracles ? Joh. ix ▪ 16. If this man were not of God , he could do nothing , v. 33. that is , he could not do such things , as are above the power of a meer Man , which we see him do . It was nothing , but a most unjust prejudice to our Saviours Person , and to the meanness of his Birth and Parentage , arising from a false principle concerning the temporal Kingdom of the Messias , through a misunderstanding of the Prophesies , that made them , against their Belief and Conscience , reject the authority of so many evident and often repeated miracles ; and though they would not acknowledg him for their Messias , that came in a way of humility and meekness , so opposite to their humours and expectations , who thought of nothing , but triumphs and revenge ; yet they are forced to acknowledg , that the Messias could not do greater ; and lastly our blessed Saviour appeals to miracles , as to his credentials , as being a most rational motive to work faith in the minds of the most scrupulous ; if ye believe not me , believe the works that I do . This then is a sufficient confirmation of our Saviours mission , and of the doctrine He and the Apostles delivered from him , and preach'd through the several parts of the World , which they travelled , and after put in writing for the benefit and greater satisfaction of all succeeding Generations . Nor are we now at this great distance of time to call for new signs from Heaven , or to desire a farther confirmation of what hath been received so universally for so many successions of Ages . The holy Scriptures are the authentick Registers of the Doctrine and Revelations of God , and that I may add this by the way , were they but of humane authority , they deserved not to be drolled upon , but to be treated with an equal , if not a greater , respect , than Polybius , or Livy , not only upon the account of their Antiquity , but for those excellent remarks they contain , and the Theists of our Age may as well doubt , whether there were such a man as Cyrus and Alexander , as Moses and Joshua , and question whether Cicero wrote those Orations , and the other excellent Books , that go under his name , or Virgil those admired Poems , as whether St. Mathew or St. John , who were the known Disciples of Christ , and conversed daily with him for above three years together , wrote those Gospels , which contain the History and Acts of his Life and Death . Upon these evidences our assent is raised , which make it rational and just ; our Faith is resolv'd into the testimony of God , which is only the rule of it , we believe nothing , but what our Saviour and his Apostles taught , for which we have the authority of their words , and what the whole number of Christian People embraced and received , as the just and true meaning of them . Now because we cannot reconcile these express and clear Revelations of the Gospel , laid down in plain expressions , as that Christ is the son of God , was in the beginning with God , before the world was made , God manifested in the flesh , God blessed for ever , and that he and the father are one ( not to descend to the other Articles , which are laid down as clearly ) with our narrow conceptions of things , is most irrationally to conclude against God in favour of our selves , meerly for this only reason , because we cannot tell or understand , how it can or should be , when he hath told us expresly it is so . Hereupon they heap up strange and absurd interpretations of Scripture , and which are impossible to be true ; they deny to words their proper , and natural and genuine significations ; they fancy nothing but improprieties and ambiguities of expression ; and admit of absurd notions for all their high vaunts and pretences to reason , which destroy the very design and institution of Christianity . Thus our most blessed Saviour , the only begotten son of God must be only so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God only by grace and favour , and for the holiness and excellence of his life , as a Ebion , and b Arius , and c Paulus Samosatenus used to blaspheme of old , or Deus Factus , a Created God only , such by Designation and Office , as our modern Socinians impiously distinguish , when , not only the name , but the essential Attributes of the Godhead are ascribed to him . Thus the Doctrine of the Ever blessed Trinity , which is clearly contain'd in the form of d Baptism , as might fully be made good against the exceptions and cavils of Wolsogenius , and in St. Joh. v. 7. ( a e Verse written by the same hand that wrote all the rest of the Epistle , as it is most evident from the verses in conjunction with it , which would be altogether defective and imperfect without it , however it be omitted in the Alexandrine Manuscript , rather by chance ( for that is not the only omission in that Copy ) than design , as if it had favoured the Heresie of the Antitrinitarians ; ) this Doctrine of the Trinity , I say , must be exploded , because they cannot satisfie their bold curiosity , as why the emanation of the Deity stops at three Hypostases , that is , why the Divine Essence is not communicated to more than Three Persons , and how it can be Communicated , and yet altogether remain Vndivided , and the like . That this Article was explicitly believed in the very beginnings of Christianity , may , to omit at present other wayes of proofs , be evinced hence , that the Heathens of those times used to upbraid the Christians with the belief of so unlikely a Doctrine . Thus Critias in the Dialogue Philopatris ( which if not Lucians , was written however in Trajan's time , whose victories and successes in the East , and particularly in the taking of Ctesiphon and Babylon and other places from the Persians , and in repressing the incursions of the Scythians , as hapning just at that time , are there mentioned ) when Triephon had expressed the belief and sense of the Christians about this Article , by adjuring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , makes a mock at it , and replies with a great deal of impudent raillery , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So far is that from having the least truth in it , which the Enemies and Opposers of this Doctrine affirm , without the least shew of Reason and Authority , that it derives wholly from Pythagoras and Plato , and was learned in their Schools , and afterwards drest up by the Fathers , who were admirers of that Philosophy , and not heard of till the Third or Fourth Century . So that upon the whole it will appear , that the Christian Religion has just and sure evidences , and therefore to fancy , which is the only thing they can alledge in behalf of their Unbelief , that nothing is or can be believed , but what ought to be fully comprehended by the Understanding , is so foolish , so unjust , so unreasonable a thing , that nothing but intolerable Pride and Obstinacy can possibly suggest such a Thought , and consequently that before any one can become an Arrian or a Socinian , he must forego his Reason , and forget that God is of infinite Perfection , and forget too , that he himself is a Man. To draw towards a Period . Christianity being a Great Mystery , and necessarily such : It is but a natural inference , that all our enquiries into the Articles of it be sober and modest ; that we expect not a comprehensive knowledg of them ; that we be not too busie and curious in our Searches into the Secrets of God ; that being conscious to our selves of the defects , and shallowness , and weakness of our Reason in lesser matters ; how imperfect and untrue oftentimes our collections are of sensible beings , to which our faculties may seem proportionate ; and to what errors and delusions we are subject , by taking up false notions , by fancy and prejudice ; we learn to be wise unto sobriety , and not to think of our selves , above what we ought to think . It was nothing at first , but an overbold curiosity , not content with Revelation , and with just proofs of it , that raised in the mind thoughts of Disbelief ; but it stopt not here ; it soon improved into a proud conceit of mastering all the difficulties of Religion by the strength of Reason ; and to this we may justly impute the original and growth of all those Heresies and Blasphemies , that have been vented from the very first Preaching of the Gospel to this day . It is a vain thing to think to do this ; 't is a passing beyond the bounds which God and our own Nature hath set us ; a piece of Sacrilegious rashness , as Salvian justly words it , in his third Book De Gubernatione Dei , speaking of the various dispensations of Providence : Hoc ipsum genus quasi Sacrilegae temeritatis est , si plus scire cupias quàm sinaris : The Articles of Faith , as they are not to be tried , so neither to be proved by the Principles of Mathematicks or Natural Philosophy . It is as great folly to attempt it , as to expect it , both arising from a wantonness of Wit , which quickly looses it self in a Labyrinth of wild Opinions , and pleasing it self with new Notions and Ideas , is more and more perplext and entangled , and is scarce ever reducible to a right and sober temper . What ill success the Schoolmen have had in their attempts this way upon the Articles of Religion , Christendome has long since had sad experience of ; these men guilty of the other extream would scarce acknowledg any thing of Mystery in it ; all things seemed so clear to them , as if they had had a particular Revelation ; they have thrown open the Vail , that covers the Ark ; they define boldly , and obtrude their Conjectures for Oracles . St. Paul and St. John shall be explained and proved by the Writings of Plato and Aristotle ; thus prostituting the Majesty of the Sacred Scriptures , and corrupting the Simplicity of the Christian Religion by their niceties and subtilities of Distinctions , and exposing it the more to the Cavils of Hereticks , who observing the falseness of their Principles , and the weakness and incompetency of their Proofs , are more encouraged to reject the truth of it . Hereby too a Contentious and Disputative Theology has been introduced in the Schools ; and unnecessary and bold questions started , impossible to be resolved with any satisfaction , which perplex and confound the Understanding , and are so far from Building us up in our Holy Faith , and from explaining the Doctrine of it , that it has scarce suffered by any one thing more . Some things we may understand , but we see more to admire , which with all our art and subtility we can never attain to . It is enough , that the Christian Religion doth perswade us by Rational Arguments to the acknowledgment of its Doctrine , that it laies down sufficient grounds of the certainty and necessity of our Belief , that it gives us all the assurance we can , with any modesty , pretend to , and all the proofs the nature of the things , proposed to our belief , are capable of and will bear . 'T is Faith in Christ , that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the World , that denominates us Christians ; to deny this , how excellent a Person soever we make him for Meekness and Holiness of Life , is to renounce Christianity , and in effect to turn Mahometans ; for they acknowledg Christ to have been a Great Prophet , to have been born of a Virgin , to have been assumed into Heaven , and the like . Satis sit pro universis rationibus Author Deus ; as the same Salvian has it . This is that , that is equivalent to ten thousand Demonstrations ; this will level all those objections , that are raised against the Mysteries of Christianity ; that will silence all the Sophistry of Corrupt Reason , and cut off all those Arguments , which presumptuous Men are wont to make : and certainly if we rightly consider it , the Mysteries of Christianity , as they are proposed in the Scriptures , are by reason of the great difficulties , that attend the conception of them , so far from being incredible , that they ought thereby to become more credible ; that is , they are more worthy of the infinite Majesty and perfection of God , by how much they are above the reach of our Faculties . 2. Let us remember that Christianity is a Mystery of Godliness , and consequently that the Great Mysteries of it ought to have an influence upon our Lives and Practices . As on the one hand , to say , that these Great Articles of our Faith are nice Speculations , and the explicit Belief of them , as they are proposed , not necessary , and to question that Sense of them , in which they have always been received by the Catholick Church , is to undermine the Fundamentals of Christianity ; So on the other side , it takes off very much from the obligation to Obedience , and dulls those affections , which a reflexion on these Great Mysteries must needs cause in the mind . That God should send his Son into the world to discover this Mystery to us in Person , and in order to our Redemption , was the Effect of an Infinite Wisdom , and of an Infinite Love ; that God should be Manifested in the Flesh for our sakes , and submit himself to the weaknesses , and imperfections , and contumelies of the humane nature ; that the Second Person of the Trinity , Co-essential and Co-eternal with the Father , should condescend to assume flesh , and therein to suffer ; a reflection on this cannot but fill us with admiration and love . One great part of the Worship we owe to God consists in our admiring his infinite Perfections ; all our Praises and Thanksgivings are but the outward significations of this , and faint expressions of our thoughts , which loose themselves in the contemplation of them . Now these Mysteries afford us eternal matter for our admiration . Besides , what greater obligation to Obedience can there possible be , than the Revelation of this Mystery , upon which our Salvation is founded ? A Holy and Religious Life then is the best evidence of our belief of these Articles of Christianity beyond all subtility of Disputation . This especially concerns us , who are dignified with the Holy Priesthood , who are Ministers of Christ , and Stewards of the Mysteries of God. This shews , that we do more than barely assent to the truth of them , when they produce in us all , both Priests and Lay , these effects , for which they were principally discovered ; that so living in obedience to the will of God revealed to us by his Son , whom he sent out of his own Bosom , and in all holy conversation and godliness , we may at last be admitted to the sight and fruition of his glorious Godhead , to sing Praises and Hallelujah's to the blessed Trinity for ever and ever , Amen . Appendix . IT must be confessed , that this Verse is not to be met with in several Old MSS. as particularly in the mentioned Alexandrine , now in the Kings Library at St. Jame's , brought out of Egypt by Cyrillus Lucari , when he removed from the See of Alexandria to the Patriarchate of Constantinople , who was strangled by the Turks in the year 1638 , and sent to K. Charles I. though not so antient , I believe , as is pretended , as if it had been wrote by the hand of Thecla , an Egyptian Woman of an honourable Extraction , and a Martyr for the Christian Faith , condemned to the Amphitheatre under Dioclesian , as Eusebius relates in the Supplement to the Eight Book of his Ecclesiastical History , which is found in several Copies , if it be his ( cap. 3. ) before the first Council of Nice , which is barely said and conjectured ; and I suppose , that it may be proved , that the Vatican exemplar is the more Genuine of the two , and comes nigher the Original . It is omitted also in an ancient Manuscript in the Archives of our Colledg Library , containing the New Testament entire ( except the Apocalyps ) with the Psalter and several Hymns collected out of the Old Testament , the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being also wanting in the eight verse , and in several others . Upon this the Enemies of this Doctrine triumph and boldly pretend , that it was inserted by the Catholicks : Thus to mention only one for all , Socinus himself in his Commentary on these words — Satis constat illa esse Adulterina , & ab hominibus , qui suum dogma de trino & uno Deo quâcunque ratione defendere & propagare volebant , in hunc locum infarcta . But let the appeal lye to any indifferent Person , which is most likely , that those , who professed their belief of this Doctrine , which was grounded too upon several other Texts of Scripture , and was derived down to them from the first Ages of the Church , and which they contended for with so much earnestness , should without any necessity dare commit , such a Forgerie , which could not but be taken notice of by their watchful Enemies , or that this should be done by the Opposers of this Doctrine , who were arraigned in general , by all the Catholick Writers , who had to do with them , as falsifiers of the sacred Records , and were so much concern'd to do it in defence of their private tenets and fancies , and especially to raze this Text , with which they were so oppressed , out of several Copies , from which by Transcripts it might easily be propagated into others : And consequently it is not to be admired , that several of the Fathers , no not Athanasius himself , nor Cyril of Alexandria , not St. Hilary , who defended with so much learning the truth of this great Mystery , did not make use of this Testimony , they lighting upon some of these Transcripts ; which is to be said also for St. Austin , in his Book 3. Chap. 22. against Maximinus an Arian Bishop , for St. Leo in his Epistle to Flavian Bishop of Constantinople , against the Heresie of Eutyches , Ep. 10. Cap. 5. for Eucherius de questionibus N. Testamenti , and for Oecumenius in his Commentary on this Epistle , and several others . The same reason holds for the omission of it in the Syriack , Arabick , and Aethiopick Translations , the two former of which , as they are now extant , as is most probable , were made long since the times of Arius , notwithstanding the pretensions of some to a far greater Antiquity , the last is confessedly of a later Date . The scarcity of Copies in those days , and the malitious industry and cunning of the Hereticks render the conjecture sufficiently probable , if no Copy were to be found with this Verse entire , and that we had only the authority of some of the Antients , who cite it as authentick , as having met with it in their Books . The Divines of Lovain in collating the N. T. with a great number of Latin Copies , found it only wanting in five . R. Stephanus in his Edition of the N. T. had the use of fifteen or sixteen old Greek MSS. above half of which retain'd it . So the Edition of the N. T. at Complutum compared with antient MSS. printed in the beginning of the Restauration of Polite Literature in Christendome , at the expences of the great Cardinal Ximenes , only with this variation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Thus Erasmus confesses he met with a Manuscript in England , which he calls by the name of Codex Britanicus , which had the whole seventh Verse , as we now read it , and the eight Verse , the latter part thus altered , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I shall lay no stress upon two Writings , which pass under the name of Athanasius , where this Verse is cited , because it is not to be met with in those larger works of his , which are acknowledged genuine , the one is an account of a disputation , according to the title , had with Arius in the Council of Nice ; but the title is faulty , as appears from the Discourse it self ; nor was Arius the Person disputed with there , but one of his followers ; and the reason of the mistake of the title may be ascrib'd to an ignorant Librarius , putting down Arius for Arianus , and the Dialogue not real , but supposed , as was usual amongst the Fathers , introducing the Hereticks pleading their Cause , and the Orthodox refuting their Cavils and defending the Truth . And if this may pass for likely , there can be no great reason to suspect the Authenticalness of it , the a words are , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The other is in a Book extant only in Latine b lib. 1. de unitâ Deitate Trinitatis ad Theophilum , dicente Joanne Evangelistâ in Epistolà sua , tres sunt , qui testimonium dicunt in Coelo , Pater , & Verbum , & Spiritus . But this piece , I confess , is very justly rejected as none of his , though perchance wrote not many years after his time . St. Cyprian , who suffered Martyrdome about the year of Ch. 258. Galienus and his Son Valerianus being then Emperours , about sixty years before the calling of the Council of Nice , in his book de unitate Ecclesiae Catholicae , cites this Text expresly , as found in the Copies of his time : — Dicit Dominus , Ego & Pater unum sumus , & iterum de Patre & Filio & Spiritu Sancto , & hi Tres unum sunt . It is not any way material to the design and purpose of this Scholion to inquire , in what sense St. Cyprian understood these words , but only to vindicate the antiquity of the Copies , that retained this reading , though it might easily be proved that it was a thing usual with the Fathers , as no one can be ignorant , who has turn'd over their Writings , to interpret places of Scriptures sometimes , not according to their primary intent , but by way of accomodation . Which testimony is so clear and convincing that Sandius in his Appendix quaestionum Paradoxarum , uses all his art and skill to avoid the force of it , by pretending , that several things have been changed , added , taken away , and some other way varied in the Epistle , as appears by the observation of Possevinus , who took the pains to compare the printed Copies with four MSS. and the acknowledgment of others , Perkins , James , and Rivet : from which premises he concludes very boldly upon a meer possibility , that this place was never cited by that blessed Martyr , but put in by some body else ; Quam facile itaque etiam hic locus interseri potuit ab his , qui non exhorruerunt sacras literas corrumpere propter metum Hereticorum . But first this is barely said without the least proof , and without the authority of any MS. Secondly neither Pamelius nor Rigaltius , nor any other , as I know of , who put forth St. Cyprian , make mention of any various reading in this place , all agreeing in it . Now that this Epistle is St. Cyprians is undoubted : St Cyprian himself referring to it , and that the reading is the same now , as it was in the old Copies written above eleven hundred and forty years ago , appears from Fulgentius , who not only cites this seventh verse in his book de fide Catholicâ adversus Pintam Episcopum Arianum , in his testimonies del rinitate , and in his book de Trinitate ad Felicem Notarium , c. 4. which thus begins , En habes in brevi alium esse Patrem , alium Filium , alium Spiritum sanctum , alium & alium in personâ , non aliud & aliud in natura ; & idcirco ego , inquit , & pater unum sumus ; unum , ad naturam referre nos docens , sumus , ad personas : smiliter & illud . Tressunt , inquit qui testimonium dicunt in Coelo , Pater , Verbum , & Spiritus , & hi tres unum sunt . Audiat Sabellius , sumus : audiat tres : & credat esse tres personas , & non sacrilego corde blasphemet , dicendo , ipsum sibi esse Patrem , ipsum sibi Filium , ipsum sibi Spiritum sanctum , tanquam modo quodam seipsum gignat , aut modo quodam a seipso ipse procedat , cum hoc etiam in naturis creatis minime inveniri possit , ut aliquid seipsum gignere valeat . Audiat scilicet & Arius unum , & non differentis filium dicat esse naturae , cum natura diversa unum dici nequeat , a but cites this very place of St. Cyprian , in his book contra objectiones Arianorum , in his answer to the tenth or last objection . His words are these , In Patre & Filio , & Spiritu sancto unitatem substantiae accipimus , personas confundere non audemus ; beatus enim Johannes Apostolus testatur , dicens , tres sunt , qui testimonium perhibent in Coelo , Pater , Verbum , & Spiritus , & hi tres unum sunt . Quod etiam beatissimus Martyr Cyprianus in Epistolâ de unitate Ecclesiae confitetur , dicens , qui pacem Christi & concordiam rumpit , adversus Christum facit : qui alibi praeter Ecclesiam colligit , Christi Ecclesiam spargit . Atque ut unam Ecclesiam unius Dei esse monstraret , haec confestim testimonia de Scriptur â inseruit , dicit Dominus , Ego & Pater unum sumus , & iterum , de Patre & Filio & Spiritu sancto scriptum est , & hi tres unum sunt . If it be said , that St. Cyprian cited only the latter part of the 8. v. where the vulgar Latine has those very words , & hi tres unum sunt b and that thus Facundus , Episcopus Hermianensis , in the time of Justinian , to whom he dedicates his book , which he wrote pro desensione trium capitulorum Concilii Chalcedonensis , seems to understand it , without taking any notice of the 7. v. citing this place of St. Cyprian , though by a lapse of his memory he saies it is to be found in Epistolâ sive libro , quem de Trinitate scripsit : I reply first in general that [ in ] might easily be left out by the oscitancy of the Librarii , not to say , razed out by the Hereticks ; the Syriack Interpreter reading in his Greek Copy , what we find in ours , as to the latter part , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and accordingly translating it so , & tres sunt testes , Spiritus & Aqua & Sanguis , & hi tres in uno sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bechad , and so the Arabick Interpreter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in uno , only the Aethiopick conforming to the present reading of the vulgar Latine . But what will they say to the Alexandrine MS. which they so much adore , which has the same reading , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which are the words also of our MS. so in the Copies , which Oecumenius followed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Hierom's translation leaves out in the 8. v. & hitres unum or in unum sunt , and so the Greek of Arias Montanus , and the Complutensian Edition ; in the Margin of which later it is noted , that Aquinas in the exposition of the second decretal de summâ Trinitate against Abbot Joachim , who perversely interpreting the end of the 7. v. of the unity of will and consent , alledges the end of the 8. v. for his authority and justification , had made this observation , sed hoc in veris exemplaribus non habetur , sed dicitur esse appositum ab Hereticis Arianis ad pervertendum intellectum sanum auctoritatis praemissae de unitate essentiae trium personarum . I suppose the great respect Aquinas had for the vulgar Latin , made him rather suspect the whole to be added , than that it was ill translated , which he would easily have acknowledged , had he consulted any Gr. MS. But this kind of learning they were not acquainted with in that Age of Scholastical ignorance and barbarousness . Secondly , as they take it for granted , that this was the reading of the vulgar Latine at that time , so they more vainly and weakly suppose , that St. Cyprian made use of the same vulgar Latine edition , the contrary of which appears in several of his citations , and it is more likely , that he might translate so literally the latter part of the 7. v. and not at all regard the 8. v. or the vulgar translation , and so it appears from the testimony of Fulgentius , cited above , that he understood it . Afterward when several , out of an evil design to overthrow the Mystery of the most blessed and adorable Trinity , omitted in their translations of the Scriptures into the Latin Tongue this Verse ( a liberty which , it seems , every Pretender almost made use of , and it may well be suspected , that an Arian then , as a Socinian now , in his translation would be over-favourable to his own opinions , by leaving out and putting in what might make for them , and accordingly interpreting what was retained to their best advantage : a St. Hierome in his preface to the Canonical Epistles , vindicates the antient reading , and laies open the baseness and perfidiousness of these men . I shall here put down the whole Preface ; Non ita ordo est apud Graecos , qui integrè sapiunt , & fidem rectam sectantur Epistolarum septem , quae Canonicae nuncupantur , sicut in Latinis codicibus invenitur : Quod quia Petrus primus est in numero Apostolorum , primae sunt etiam ejus Epistolae , in or dine caeterarum ; sed sicut Evangelistas dudum ad veritatis lineam correximus , ita has proprio ordini Deo juvante reddidimus . Estenim prima earum una Jacobi , duae Petri , & tres Johannis , & Judae una . Quae si sicut ab eis digestae sunt , ita quoque ab Interpretibus fidelitèr in Latinum verterentur eloquium , nec ambiguitatem legentibus facerent , nec sermonum sese varietas impugnaret , illo precipuè loco , ubi de unitate Trinitatis in primâ Johannis Epistolâ positum legimus , in quâ etiam ab infidelibus translatoribus , multum err atum esse à fidei veritate comperimus ; tria tantummodo vocabula , hoc est , aquae , sanguinis , & spiritus in ipsâ suâ editione ponentibus , & Patris verbique ac spiritûs testimonium omittentibus , in quo maximè & fides Catholica roboratur , & patris ac filii ac spiritûs sancti una divinitatis substantia comprobatur . In caeteris vero Epistolis , quantum à nostra aliorum differt editio ; Lectoris prudentiae derelinquo . Sed tu Virgo Christi , Eustochium , dum à me impensius Scripturae veritatem inquiris , meam quodammodo senectutem invidorum dentibus corradendam exponis , qui me falsarium corruptoremque sacrarum Scripturarum pronunciant . Sed ego in tali opere nec aemulorum meorum invidentiam pertimesco , nec sanctae Scripturae veritatem poscentibus denegabo . Erasmus and Socinus are so urged with this testimony of St. Hierome , that they are forced to make use of very pitiful and dis-ingenuous arguments to invalidate it . Socinus had said before — fortasse ante Hieronymum vix ullus invenietur , qui testimonium istud hoc in loco planè agnoverit , the falsity of which conjecture , however so warily laid down , has been disproved ; hereby craftily concealing the citation out of St. Cyprian , he very boldly accuses St. Hierome of Forgery , who having got a Copy or Copies , in which this verse was added , adversus fidem aliorum omnium exemplarium , tam Latinorum , quam Graecorum , lectionem particulae istius tanquam germanam defendere & promovere coepit , conquerens publicè eam culpâ & fraude hereticorum abrasam à vulgatis codicibus fuisse . But St Hierome has sufficiently confuted the falseness and boldness of this Cavil . He was used to this kind of language , as if he had corrupted the Scriptures , but he was no way moved by it ; though this accusation of those of his own time perchance may not so much be referr'd to this place , as to his translation in general , and may proceed not so much from heretical malice and pravity , as envy of several of his contemporaries , who were orthodox in the faith , but were no friends to his new translation . He charges the omission upon these unfaithful Translators ( questionless Sabellians and Arians ) and upbraids them with it as a thing manifest and notorious , and easily demonstrable ; and certainly he would not have made himself so obnoxious , unless he had grounded his confidence upon the authority of several Greek Copies : with what little pretence of reason therefore Erasmus and Socinus fancy St. Hierome to have changed the publick and common reading , let any indifferent person judge . But supposing that the Copies of those times varied , which Erasmus grants ( and therefore St. Hierome is most falsely and unjustly accused by Socinus to have been the author of this interpolation ) He enquires , quonam argumento docet utrum sit rectius , utrumve scriptum sit ab Apostolo , praesertim cum quod reprehendit , turn haberet publicus usus Ecclesiae ? To this it may be answered , 1. that some vitiated and defective Copies , ought not to prejudice the authority of entire and better Copies , whether Latin or Greek . 2. that St. Hierome had reason to prefer and vindicate that reading , which gives such an evident proof of this great Article of the Christian Religion , agreeable to the doctrine of the Catholick Church , derived down to them by an universal Tradition , and acknowledged as such , by all , excepting a few , whom either discontent , or pride and conceitedness of their own parts , and a love of innovation and of being the author of a Sect , had drawn into the contrary heretical opinion . Besides , his words are so clear , that one might justly wonder , that Erasmus should pretend any difficulty or perplex sense in them , as he does in his , non satis video , quid sibi velit hoc loco Hieronymus ; but that we have too just cause to suspect , how that great Scholar was biast and perverted in his judgment , concerning those great mysteries of Faith ; though he is so wary and cunning , as not to discover himself too openly . He indeed is forced to confess the nature of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost to be simple and undivided , and the essence the same , though he is peremptory , that it cannot be proved from this Text , constat hic agi de fide testimonii , non de substantia personarum , herein followed by a Beza , and with a great deal of ceremony confesses it to be pious to submit our understanding to the judgment of the Church , as soon as she shall declare herself ( as certainly she has done in this in her publick Creeds , to the great shame and conviction of Hereticks , who reject her authority ) yet still for all this demureness , he pleads for a liberty of interpreting Scripture , as if the truth were not yet wholly reveal'd , and the Church might err in her declarations , nec interim nefas est citra contentionem scrutari verum , ut Deus aliis alia patefecit ( which is also the pretence of Socinus and his followers : ) and accordingly he interprets several places of Scripture in favour of Arius and the other Hereticks , and particularly this , cum totus locus sit obscurus , non potest admodum valere ad revincendos Haereticos ( the same pretence being made use of for all places , though never so plain ) and endeavours to elude the force of that famous place in 1 Tim. 3. 16. by expunging the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as much as in him lies , that is , by pretending it was added by the Arian Hereticks . So that we need the less value the censure he passes upon S. Hierome in this matter , where nothing but pure zeal for the truths of God could make him so concern'd and fervent — Ille saepe numero violentus est parumque pudens , saepe varius , parumque sibi constans . Idacius Clarus a Spanish Bishop , who died about the year 388 , at what time the elder Theodosius and Valentinian were Emperours , cites both verses , though as to their order transposed , and with a little alteration , in his book against Varimadus an Arian Deacon , responsione 3. — Item ipse ( i.e. Johannes Evangelista , whose Gospel he had just before cited ) ad Parthos , tres sunt , inquit , qui testimonium perhibent in terrâ , Aqua , Sanguis , & Caro , & tres in nobis sunt : & tres sunt , qui testimonium perhibent in coelo , Pater , Verbum & Spiritus , & hi tres unum sunt ; which very citation is made use of , as being borrowed hence , by the author of the collections of the decretal Epistles , which beyond all doubt are proved to be counterfeit a and supposititious , in the 1 Epistle of Hyginus , and by this is to be corrected , Item ipse ad Parthos , tres sunt , qui testimonium perhibent in terram , Aqua , Sanguis & Caro ; & tres in nobis sunt , qui testimonium perhibent in coelo , Pater , Verbum , & Spiritus , & hi tres unum sunt . There is like variety of reading in both verses in several old Copies , some leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , others retaining them ▪ For this [ in terrâ ] Socinus confesses to be found in quibusdam emendatis exemplaribus , though that we may gain nothing by this confession , he tells us immediately after , it is not extant in emendationibus . It might easily be foreseen , that if either had been lest , and particularly this latter ; the one would have infer'd the other justly and necessarily , and therefore it cannot seem strange , if the first corrupters of this Scripture , to make all sure , and to render their false and perfidious dealing the more unsuspected , omitted both ; so too in that antient MS. Grotius made use of , though he gives us no proof of its antiquity in that place , and suppose it were written a thousand years since , we are not to be swayed by it , as if it were authentick , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and no more , who thereupon conjectures these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the former verse to have been added by the Arians to prove the father , son and holy ghost , to be one in consent only , but afterwards removed and altered by the Catholicks , and added to the former verse , which is said without any the least proof either from reason or antiquity , and has nothing to maintain the fancy , but the great name of the Author of it . That which * Sandius and several others allege in the first place , that eo omisso meliorem esse verborum connexionem , the connexion is far better , if the 7 v. were omitted , and that therefore it ought to be so , and was antiently omitted ; if the supposition were true , is not only vain and frivolous , but very bold and immodest to ty the spirit of God to such a way of writing , as pleases their humours and fancies best , and savours most of humane artifice , and by the same argument they may reject not only verses , but whole chapters in the N. T. for the meanness and inaccuracy of the stile , and the seeming carelesness of the method , which is not always conformable to the rules of the Gr. eloquence . 2. Indignum est summo Deo esse testem , inio coram quo judice testis foret ? is a groundless and bold cavil ; for this witnessing is nothing else but the declaration of God to mankind by evident signs and tokens concerning our Saviours being the true Messias , and of his being born in the flesh , and that he came from him . This God has attested and sufficiently made known to the World , and in this sense the Word often occurs in the Scriptures , without the least indignity offered to the Divine Nature . The only pretence he has for his fancy is a base and unworthy comparison he conceives in his mind between Gods being a witness , and mans being a witness in our Courts of Judicature , forgetting the genuine and easie sense of the word , as I have above expressed it . 3. That it is highly probable that this verse was inserted by a Sabellian , the contrary whereof is most true . 4. That in several MSS. and Editions of modern languages , there is a transposition of these two verses . The same before was acknowledged to be found in some Greek copies , which no way proves the pretended interpolation , but only that antient copies do not all agree . 5. That this v. does very highly favour the Arians , but this is such a strain of fancy , that he may as well allege the first words of the Book of Genesis , to prove Aristotles opinion of the eternity of the World. If men out of a prejudicate opinion , against the doctrine of the Catholick Church , allow themselves to interpret Scripture according to their own fancies , it cannot seem strange to any , that they should go about to prove and justifie their blasphemies from the plainest texts of Scripture , that in the judgment of all sober persons , who are free from those prejudices , do most evidently refute them . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A60586-e660 ● Tim. 1. 10. a Thus Eusebius sums them up in general , it being the common argument of the Heathen Philosophers against the Christian religion — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 4. Parisiis , A. C. 1628. b The words of Celsus , as we find them , in Orig●ns first book against that Epicurean Philosopher , are these — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. ● . edit . C●ntab . In this latter part he alludes to S. Pauls words , 1 Cor. 3. 18. which he most horribly and maliciously perverts , as Origen shews p. 12. He had before , out of his great Philosophical wariness , advised his readers not to take up opinions upon trust , without following reason and a rational guide , which he imputes to the Christians , and reckons them among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. such as rashly believe juglers and pretenders to Legerdemain tricks , whose credulity and simplicity they aluse to evil designs and intents . So in the third book ▪ he most falsly accuses the whole body of Christians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as diving away every wise man from the doctrine of faith , and only admitting persons void of understanding , and of a base and servile temper . p. 121. c De morte Peregrini , speaking of the Christians , whom he makes a company of idiots , easily cheated — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . d In Eusebius , in the confutation of his impious book ( which he intitl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) wherein he compared Apollonius of Tyana to our most blessed Saviour , where he objects to the Christians — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — lightness and easiness of nature , p. 512. and calls them — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — fools and rusiicks . p. 514. edit . Paris : in fine librorum de demonstratione Evangelica . * In Apologetico cap. 5. where he mentions an old decree of the Ron an Senate , Ne qui Deus ab Imperatore consecraretur , 〈◊〉 à Senatu prebatus ; and hereupon he tells us , that the Emperor Tiberius moved by the report of those [ mighty ] works , which declared the truth of our Saviours Divinity , he received out of Pal●stine , detulit ad Senatum cum praerogativa suffrag●i sui ; though the Senate were not disposed to admit him into the number . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : ex editione Reverendissimi Usserii Armachani , p 20. This perchance more particularly respects Marcion the heretick ; for by that name he called him to his face : as we read in Irenaeus 3. lib. adv . haereses , cap. 3. a See the excellent discourse of Plato about this subject , toward the latter end of his second book de Republica , p. 377. &c. lomi secundi ex editione Serrani . b In his Epistle to Herodotus , as it is extant in Diogenes Laertius — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . edit . Londinensis p. 285. — This he establisht as one of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or main principles of his Philosophy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. 300. and laid down therefore in the first place by his great admirer and follower Lucretius in the beginning of his philosophical Poem , to make the better way for the Atheism , which was to follow , that is , to exclude God , with a fairer pretence , from having any thing to do , either with the framing or governing of the world , and to deny a providence : that censure , which Cotta in Tully mentions to have bin past upon him by several , being exactly true — Video non●ullis videri Epicurum , ne in offensionem Atheniensium caderet , verbis reliquisse Deos , re sustulisse . lib. 1. de Nat. Deorum , speaking of this very Atheistical afhorism . * In haeresi An●maeorum , quae est LXXVI . * Principiorum Philosophiae parte primâ , sect . XXXVII . Joh. 20. 29. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epiphanius in haeresi Ebionaeoru● ▪ q●ae est XXX . sect . XVIII , ex edit . Pet●vi● . Peris●is 1622. pag. 142. b Epiphanius in haeresi A●i●ncrum , quae est LXIX . sect . XVIII . p. 741. c Gregorius Abulpharagius , in historiâ Dynastiarum , Arabicè , p. 129. edit . Oxon. 1663. Eu●ychius in Annalibus Alexandrinis Arabicè , edit . Oxon. parte primá p. 397. & 441. d This argument drawn from the Form of Baptism , is generally made use of by all the antient Fathers , against the blasphemy of Sabellius , Arius , and the rest of the Hereticks , who had departed from the true faith , establisht at first , to follow phansies and inventions of their own . But reserving these numerous citations for another work , I shall content my self at present to say with the Author of the Breviarium fidei adversus Arianos , who lived above 1200 years since , put out by the most learned Sirmondus , to whom the world is so much obliged , for his publishing several writings of the antients , out of MSS. — Qui [ Spiritus sanctus ] si Deus non esset , non in baptismo in uno nomine Deitatis patris & filio sociaretur , sicut scriptum est , ubi regulam baptismi posuit ipse Dominus : Ite , inquit , baptizate omnes gentes in nomine Patris , & Filii , & Spiritus Sancti . Quod solum testimonium deberet haereticis sufficere ad credulitatem insiparabilis Trinitatis , quia nec ipse audent aliter baptizare , ne regulant Domini corrumpere videartur . Et ubi unum nomen dicitur , ibi & mejor & miner excluditur . e Of this see the Appendix . Notes for div A60586-e6360 a 1 V●l. p. 147. Paristis . 1627. b Tom. 2 p. 55● . p. ●8● . p. 772. a p. 591 ex Editione Theophili Ranaudi , Soc. Jesu , ●arisiis 1671. printed with St. 〈◊〉 Maximus T●urinensis , and four others which make up the ●●pras ●raesulum . P. 447. b lib. 1. p. 16. ex Edit . I. Sirmondi Parisiis 1629. a This Preface is printed in an old edition of the N. T. with the interlineary Gloss , and I find it in several MSS both in the Bodleyan and our own Colledg-Library before the Catholick Epistles . The Stile is exactly St. Hierom's and questionless his , and acknowledg'd as such , both by Erasmus and Socinus , however omitted by Erasmus in his edition of St. Hierom's works at Basil . a de illâ ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) ut mihi quidem videtur non agitur hoc in loco ; quod & glossa ista interlinearis , quam vocant , agnosci● . Tom. 4. Bibliothecae veterum Patrum . Paris . 1610. pag. 372. a Consule Epistolarum Pontificalium censuram à D. Blondello editam Genevae . A. Chr. 1628. pag. 190. * In appendice Interpretationum Paradoxarum p. 381.