TRINITY VIXDICATED. 393
■which these men love to deny. Let not the infidelity of men, excited by the craft and malice of Satan, seek for blind occasions, and this matter is determined ; if the word and testimony of God be able to umpire a difference amongst the children of men. Here is the sum of our creed in this mattei', " In the beginning the Word was God," and so continues unto eternity, being Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the Lord God Almighty.
And to show that he was so God in the beginning, as that he was one distinct, in something, from God the Father, by whom afterward he was sent into the world, he adds, verse 2, " The same was in the beginning with God." Farther, also, to evince what he hath asserted and revealed for us to believe, the Holy Ghost adds, both as a firm declaration of his eternal Deity, and also his immediate care of the world (which how he variously exercised, both in away of providence and grace, he afterward declares), verse 3, " All things were made by him." He was so in the beginning, before all things, as that he made them all. And that it may not be supposed that the " all" that he is said to make or create was to be Umited unto any certain sort of things, he adds, that " without him nothing was made that was made;" which gives the first assertion an absolute universality as to its subject.
And this he farther describes, verse 10, " He was in the world, and the world was made by him." The world that was made, hath a usual distribution, in the Scripture, into the " heavens and the earth,
Transylvania, who had become Antitrinitarians, he was sent for by Blandrata, one of their leaders, lo reason Francis David out of some views he lield regarding tlie adoration due to Christ. Tiie result was, that David was cast into prison, where he died, — Socinus using no influence to restrain the Prince of Transylvania from such cruel intolerance ; a fact too often forgotten by some who delight in reproaching Calvin for the death of Servetus. He visited Poland in 1579; but before his visit, the Antitrinitarians of that country had, by resolutions of their synods in 15G3 and 1565, withdrawn from the communion of other churches, and published a Bible and a Catecliism,— commonly known, from Rakau, the town in which it was published, as the " liacovian Catechism." Faustus Socinus was not at first well received by his Polish brethren; but he overcame their aversion to him, which at one time was so strong that he was nearly torn to pieces by a mob. He acquired considerable influence amongst them ; managed to compose their ditferences, and became so popular, that his coreligionists adopted tiie name of Socinians, in preference to their old name of Unitarians. He died in 1604. His tracts were collected into two folio volumes of the " Bibliotheca Fratrum Polo- norum." Starting with mistaken views of private judgment, he inferi'ed, from the right to the exercise of individual belief on the authority of Scripture, the competency of reason to determine the credibility of doctrine; but his views differed from modern Rationalism, inasmuch as he adhered more to historical Christianity as the basis of his principles, and was by no means so free in impugn- ing the authenticity of Scripture, when it bore against his system. His heresies assumed a shape more positive and definite than is generally fancied, and affected the doctrines of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ (on wliich his views were some- what akin to Arianism), the necessity of an atonement, the nature of repentance, the efficacy of grace, the sacraments, and the eternity of future punishments. — Ed.
394 THE DOCTRINE OF THE
and all things contained in them;" — as Actsiv. 24, " Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is ; " that is, the world, the making whereof is expressly as- signed unto the Son, Heb. i. 10, " Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." And the apostle Paul, to secure our understandings in this matter, instancetli in the most noble parts of the creation, and which, if any, might seem to be excepted from being made by him. Col. i. 16, " For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him." The Socinians say, indeed, that he made angels to be thrones and principalities; that is, he gave them their order, but not their being: which is expressly contrary to the words of the text ; so that a man knows not well what to say to these persons, who, at their pleasure, cast off the authority of God in his word : " By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth."
What now can be required to secure our faith in this matter? In what words possible could a divine revelation of the eternal power and Godhead of the Son of God be made more plain and clear unto the sons of men? or how could the truth of any thing more e\\- dently be represented unto their minds? If we understand not the mind of God and intention of the Holy Ghost in this matter, we may utterly despair ever to come to an acquaintance with any thing that God reveals unto us ; or, indeed, with any thing else that is expressed or is to 1)0 expressed, by words. It is directly said that the Word (that is Christ, as is acknowledged by all) " was with God," distinct from him ; and " was God," one with him ; that he was so " in the be- ginning," before the creation, that he "made all things," — the world, all things in heaven and in earth: and if he be not God, who is? The sum is, — all the ways whereby we ma}^ know God are, his name, his propei-ties, and his works; but they are all here ascribed by the Holy Ghost to the Son, to the Word : and he therefore is God, or we know neither who nor what God is.