Such was the estate of things and men in those days wherein Socinianism, or the o])position to Christ of this latter edition, set forth in the world. Among the many that were convinced of the abominafions of Popery before they were well fixed in the truth, some were deceived by the cunning sleight of some few men that lay in wait to deceive. What event and issue an alike state and condition of things and persons hath gone forth unto in the places and days wherein we live is known to all ; and that the saints of God may be warned by these things is this addressed to them. To what hath been spoken I had thought, for a close of this discourse, to have given an ac- count of the learning that these men profess, and the coui'se of their studies, of their way of disputing, and the advantages they have therein ; to have in- stanced in some of their considerable sophisms, and subtile depravations of Scripture, as also to have given a specimen of distinctions and answers, which may be improved to the discovering and slighting of their fallacies in the most important heads of religion : but being diverted by new and unex- pected avocations, I shall refer these and other considerations unto a pro- dromus for the use of younger students who intend to look into these con- troversies.
And these are the persons with whom we have to deal, these their ways and progress in the world. I shall now briefly subjoin some advantages they have had, something of the way and method wherein they have pro- ceeded, for the diftusing of their poison, with some general preservatives against the infection, and draw to a close of this discourse.
1. At the first entrance upon their undertaking, some of them made no small advantage, in deahng with weak and unwary men, by crying out that the terms of triniti/, person, esseiice, hypostatical union, communication of pro- perties, and the like, were not found in the Scripture, and therefore were to be abandoned.
With the colour of this plea, they once prevailed so far on the churches in Transylvania as that they resolved and determined to abstain from the use of those words ; but they quickly perceived that though the words were not of absolute necessity to express the things themselves to the minds of believers, yet they were so to defend the truth from the opposi-- tion and craft of seducers, and at length recovered themselves, by the advice of Beza •} yea, and Socinus himself doth not only grant but prove that in general this is not to be imposed on men, that the doctrine they assert is contained in Scripture in so many words, seeing it sufficeth that
> " Nam ego qui Jem sic statuo, etsi non pendent aliunde rerum sacrarum Veritas quam nh unico Dei verbo, et sedvilo vitanda est nobis omnis xtvofm^x : tamen sublato essen- ti;xj et hj'postasocjn disci-imine (quibuscunque tandem verbis utaris) et abrogato iy.o<a<riai, vix ac ne vix quidem istorum blasphemorum fraudes detegi, et errores satis perspicue coargiii posse. Nego quoquo sublatis vocabulis naturre, proprietatis, hypostatics^ uni- onis, iSiu^x-iruv xoivmix; posso Nestorli et Eutychei blasphemias commode a quoquam rc- I'elli : qua in re si forte halluciuor, hoc age, nobis demonstret qui potest, et nos Ulum coronabimus." — Beza, Ep. 81.
THE PEEFACE TO THE READER. 47
the thing itself pleaded for be contained therein.^ To which purpose I desire the learned reader to peruse his words, seeing he gives an instance of what he speaks somewhat opposite to a grand notion of his disciple, with whom I have chiefly to do ; yea, and the same person rejects the plea of his companions, of the not express usage of the terms wherein the doc- trine of the Trinity is delivered in the Scripture, as weak and frivolous.'* And this hath made me a little marvel at the precipitate, undigested con- ceptions of some, who, in the midst of the flames of Socinianism kindling upon us on every side, would (contrary to the wisdom and practice of all antiquity, no one assembly in the world excepted) tie us up to a form of confession composed of the bare words of the Scripture, in the order wherein they are placed. If we profess to believe that Christ is God blessed for ever, and the Socinians tell us, " True, but he is a God by office, not by nature," is it not lawful for us to say, " Nay, but he is God, of the same nature, substance, and essence with his Father ?" If we shall say that Christ is God, one with the Father, and the Sabellians shall tell us, " True, they are every way one, and in all respects, so that the whole Deity was incarnate," is it not lawful for us to tell them, that though he be one in nature and essence with his Father, yet he is distinct from him in person ? And the like instances may be given for all the expressions wherein the doctrine of the blessed Trinity is delivered. The truth is, we have sufficient ground for these expressions in the Scripture, as to the words, and not only the things signified by them : the nature of God we have. Gal. iv. 8 ; the person of the Father, and the Son distinct from it, Heb. i. 3; the essence of God, Exod. iii. 14, Eev. i. 4; the Trinity, 1 John V. 7 ; the Deiti/, Col. ii. 9.