The Protestants Plea for a Socinian / Justifying His Doctrine from Being Opposite to Scripture or Church Authority; and Him from Being Guilty of Heresie, or Schism

by R. H.

§. 7.

Prot. O strange Presumption! And is not your judgment, then, liable to mistake in the true sense of these Scriptures, because you strongly persuade your self, they are most evident on your side?

Soc. 'Tis true, that I may mistake in the sense of some Scripture; but it follows not from hence, that I can be certain of the sense of no Scriptures. To answer you in the words of Mr. Chillingworth[10]——Tho' I pretend not to certain means in interpreting all Scripture, particularly such places as are obscure and ambiguous; yet this methinks should be no impediment, but that we may have certain means of not erring in, and about the sense of those places which are so plain and clear, that they need no Interpreters; and in such this my Faith is contained. If you ask me, how I can he sure, that I know the true meaning of these places? I ask you again; Can you be sure you understand what I, or any man else saith; They that heard our Saviour and the Apostles Preach, can they have sufficient assurance that they understood at any time what they would have them do? If not, to what end did they hear them? If they could, why may not I be as well assured, that I understand sufficiently, what I conceive plain in their Writings? Again; I pray tell me, whether do you certainly know the sense of these Scriptures, for the evidence of which you separated from the Church that was before Luther, requiring conformity to the contrary Doctrines, as a condition of her Communion? If you do, then give us leave to have the same means, and the same abilities to know other plain places, which you have to know these. For if all the Scripture be obscure, how can you know the sense of these places? If some places of it be plain, why should I stay here?——[11] If you ask, seeing I may possibly err, how can I be assured I do not? I ask you again, seeing your eyesight may deceive you, how can you be sure you see the Sun, when you do see it? [12] A Judge may possibly err in Judgment, can he therefore never have assurance that he hath judged rightly? a Traveller may possibly mistake his way; must I therefore be doubtful whether I am in the right way from my Hall to my Chamber? Or can our London Carrier have no certainty in the middle of the day, when he is sober, and in his wits, that he is in his way to London?[13]—This I am certain of, that God will not require of me a certainly unerring belief, unless he had given me a certain means to avoid error, and if I use those which I have, will never require of me, that I use that which I have not[14].——This is Mr. Chillingworth's solid Plea, against the Papist's grand Objection, for the proving an uncertainty in the Protestant's Faith upon any their pretence of evident Scripture.

[Sect. 8.]

Prot. But the Scriptures, which you urge against the Son's being the same one only God with God the Father, carry not the same evidence and clearness, as those Scriptures do, whereon Protestants build the certainty of their Faith against the Papists, or against the common Church-Doctrines that were before Luther.

Soc. That say the Papists of your plain Scriptures, which you of mine: I pray, what can be said more plain, or in what point, in your Opinion, more fundamental (wherein we contend Scripture is most clear, even to the unlearned), than this, in Joh. 17. 3.—Ut cognoscant te [Pater] solum verum Deum; &, quem misisti, Jesum Christum—And, 1 Cor. 8. 6. Unus Deus, Pater; & unus Dominus, Jesus. And, Eph. 4. ver. 5. Unus est Dominus, [i. e. Jesus;] and then, ver. 6. Unus est Deus, & Pater omnium—And, Joh. 14. 1. Creditis in Deum, & in me credite——And v. 28. Pater meus major me est. I say, what more clear for proving the Father his being the true, most high God, and excluding the other Persons [the Son, or the Holy Ghost] from being the very same God?

Prot. And 1. what more clear, on the other side, than these Texts, Rom. 9. 5. Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever——And, Tit. 2. 13. The glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ. And [15]—we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life, spoken by St. John, the great vindicator, against Ebion, Cerinthus, Carpocrates and other, in his time, opposers of our Lord's Divinity[16]——And Apoc. 1. 8. compared with 1. 17.——I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty? I say, what more clear than these Texts, for shewing the true Deity of Christ? 2. And then, how many other clear Texts are there, asserting the Eternity of our Lord; that he is nothing made or created, but pre-existent before the constitution of the World; equal with God; and that Heaven, and Earth, and all things were made by him, that were made; and that he descended from Heaven from his Father, when he took our nature upon him? See Joh. 1. 1. &c.—3. 13. Heb. 1. 2, 3, 10 &c.—Joh. 17. 5, 24.—Phil. 2. 6.—Joh. 6. 38.——16. 28.——1. Tim. 3. 16.—Heb. 2. 14. And 3. then, his Deity and Eternity thus cleared, his Deity can be no other, than, in the total essence thereof, numerically the same with that of God the Father. For, those of your own Sect, together with the whole Christian world, do acknowledge, 1. That there is but one numerical most high God, an inseparable attribute of whom is his Creating of the world, and preexistence before it. And again; 2. That the substance or essence of this most high God, is not any way divisible, partible or multipliable; so that, Si Christus ex Dei substantiâ generatus fuit, tota ei Patris substantia, eadem numero, communicata fuit. See Volkel. de vera Rel. l. 5. c. 12. upon which consequence well discerned, your predecessors were constrained to desert Arianism, or semi-Arianism, and to take in other respects a more desperate way, of denying any pre-existence of our Lord before his Incarnation: To return then to our business. All Scripture being equally true; you know, no Text thereof can be pronounced clear in such a sense, which others, as clear contradict. The non-consideration of which by the passionate or unlearned, is the mother of all errors. The Texts therefore that you produce here so manifest on your side, that they may not contradict many more others as clear against you, are to be understood to speak of our Lord only according to his Incarnation, Messias and Mediatorship, in which he hath an inferiority to the Father and is our Lord, by a special Redemption with his blood, in another manner, than He together with his Father, in the same essence, is the one true God.

Soc. All the Texts you have mentioned have been diligently considered, and answered by our party.

Prot. And your Answers are new, forced, absurd, as may clearly appear to any rational and indifferent person perusing Volkelius l. 5. from the 10. to the 14. Chapter. But to omit this dispute, as now beside my purpose. If your sense of the Scriptures, you have urged, be so manifest and clear, as you pretend; how comes so great a part of the Christian world (doubtless rational men), in the sense of these very Scriptures so much to differ from you? Therefore here I cannot but still suppose in you the defect of a due industry, well comparing these Scriptures, and void of pride, passion, and other interest.

Soc. And I return the like question to you. If, on the clearness of the express sense of these Scriptures, I cannot infallibly ground my faith, against many other rational men contradicting; on what plainness of the sense of any other Scripture is it, that Protestants can ground theirs against a contrary sense given by the learned; by several Councils; by the whole Church of some ages, as they do; not promising to the Councils, even to the four first, an absolute, but conditional assent, viz. only so far, as their Decrees agree with these clear Scriptures? If neither the plain words of Scripture can afford a sufficient certainty to me in this matter, which Scriptures, you say, in fundamentals are to all perspicuous (and such do many deem this point); nor I can have a sufficient assurance of using an unbiast industry in the understanding of these Scriptures, and also in the comparing them with others, in which I am conscious to my self of no neglect, I see no sufficient ground of my presuming to understand any other part of Scripture; and then, wherein can lye the assurance of a Protestant's Faith, for his not erring in Fundamentals at least? Bishop Lany tells me, [17]That when we have certain knowledge of a thing, we may safely learn from the Schools, viz. Ubi non est formido contrarii; that after diligent search and inquiry when there remains no scruple, doubt, and fear of the contrary, when the understanding is fixt, we are said to be certain—And that they who will say it, and do think so too, may safely be absolved from the guilt of disobedience.

Prot. [18]You have a judgment of discretion I grant, and may Interpret Scripture for your self: without the use of which Judgment you cannot serve God with a reasonable service, who are also to give account of your self, and are to be saved by your own Faith, and do perish upon your own score.——[19]None may usurp that royal prerogative of Heaven in prescribing infallibly in matters questioned, but leave all to judge according to the Pandects of the Divine Laws, because each Member of this Society is bound to take care of his Soul, and of all things that tend thereto——[20]In matters of Religion, when the question is, whether any man be a fit judge, and chooser for himself, we suppose men honest, and such as understand the difference between a moment and eternity. And then I suppose that all the necessary points in Religion are plain and easie, and consequently every man in this case to be a compleat Judge for himself, because it concerns himself to Judge aright, as much as eternal happiness is worth: and if through his own default he Judge amiss, he alone shall suffer for it. To God's righteous Judgment therefore I must finally remit you. At your own peril be it. This, of the Socinian's Plea concerning the Scripture on his side.

[§. 9.]

Where the self-clearness of the sense of Scriptures, not mistakable in Fundamentals, or necessaries, upon a due industry used (of which also rightly used, men may be sufficiently assured,) being made the ground, as you see, of the Protestants and Socinians Faith, before these two proceed to any further conference, give me leave, to interpose a word between them, concerning this certainty so much spoken of, and presumed on.