A Brief History of the Unitarians by Stephen Nye · 1687
[I post this because it traces long before the Socinians, the doctrines they held can be found in history prior to Nicea]
The First Letter, Concerning the Unitarians, vulgarly called Socinians.
SIR,
IN Answer to yours, demanding a brief account of the Unitarians, called also Socinians; their Doctrine concerning God (in which only they differ from other Christians, the Remonstrants, professedly agreeing with them in other points of Faith and Doctrine) and the Defense they usually make of their Heresy. They are called Socinians, from F. Socinus, an Italian Noble-Man, and a principal Writer of their Party.
They affirm, God is only one Person, not three. They make our Lord Christ to be the Messenger, Minister, Servant, and Firstborn of God; they confess he is also the Son of God, because he was begotten on blessed Mary by the spirit or Power of God, (Luke 1:25). But they deny that he or any other Person but the Father (the God and Father of the said our Lord Christ) is God Almighty and Eternal. The holy spirit, according to them, is the Power and Inspiration of God, (Luke 1:35).
That the Lord Christ was a Man, the Son, Prophet, Messenger, Minister, Servant, and Creature of God; not himself God, they think is proved by these (as they call them) Arguments.
1. If our Lord Christ were himself God, there could be no Person greater than he; none that might be called his Head, or his God; none that could in any respect command him. But the Holy Scriptures teach, that the Father is greater than Christ; is the Head, and the God of Christ; and gave Commandment to him, what he should say, and what he should do. (John 14:28). My Father is greater than I. (1 Cor 11:3). The Head of Christ, is God. (John 20:17). I ascend to my Father, and your Father, to my God, and your God. (John 12:49). The Father which sent me, he gave me a Commandment, what I should say. (John 14:31). As the Father gave me Commandment, so do I.
2. If our Lord Christ were indeed God, it could not without Blasphemy be (absolutely and without Restriction) affirmed of him, that he is the Firstborn, the Possession, the Servant, and Subject of God; or that for his Obedience, he was rewarded and advanced by God. But the inspired Authors of Holy Scripture do say, that the Son our Lord Christ is the Firstborn of God, the Possession of God, the Servant of God; was obedient to God, and for that cause by him rewarded and exalted; also that when God shall have subjected all Men to his Son our Lord Christ, yet even then shall he remain subject to God. (Col. 1:15). The first-born (from the dead, Col 1:18.) of every Creature. (Heb. 3:1-2) Consider the Apostle and high Priest of our Profession Jesus Christ, who was faithful to him that appointed him. In the Greek, and in the Margin of our Bibles, ’tis faithful to him that made him. (1 Cor. 3:23). You are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (Mat 12:17-18.) That it might be fulfilled that was spoken by Isaiah,—Behold my Servant. (Phil. 2:8-9). He humbled himself, and became obedient,—Wherefore God hath highly exalted him; and given him a Name above every Name. (1 Cor. 15:28). When all things shall be subdued to him, then shall the Son also be subject to him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
3. He that is true God, is not the Minister, or Priest of any other Person or Persons; he neither doth nor will (being himself Omnipotent and All-sufficient) mediate or intercede with any whomsoever, for his Servants and People. But ’tis certain that our Lord Christ is the Minister, and Mediator of God and Men; a Priest that appeared in the Presence of God, and intercedes with him for Men. (Heb 8:6). Now hath he obtained a more excellent Ministry. (1 Tim 2:5). There is one God, and one Mediator between God and Men, the Man Jesus Christ. (Heb. 2:17). A merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God. (Heb. 9:24). Christ is not entered into the Holy place made with Hands, but into Heaven it self, now to appear in the Presence of God for us. (Heb. 7:25). He ever lives to make Intercession for them.
4. Almighty God does all things in his own Name, and by his own Authority; He ever does his own Will, and seeks his own Glory; he declares himself to be the prime Object of Faith and Worship; and pronounces all Doctrines or Religions to be vain, which proceed not from Him alone.
But in our Lord Christ all things are contrary, for he declares, that he came not into the World in his own Name or Authority; not to do his own Will, or seek his own Glory, or propound himself as the principal Object of our Faith or Worship, or to publish a Doctrine of his own. (John 17:28). I am not come of my self. (John 5:43). I am come in my Father’s Name. (John 8:42). I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of my self, but he sent me. (John 5:30). I seek not my own Will. (John 8:50). I seek not my own Glory. (John 12:44). He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me. (Phil. 2:11). That every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father. (John 7:16). My Doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
5. God was always most wise, never ignorant of any thing: He needs not the concurrence of any other Person, to assure him that he judges right. He cannot (says James 1:13) be tempted. And as he is infinitely great, so he is no less Good. But the sacred Writers do not speak of the Lord Christ after this Tenor. They say our Lord Christ increased in Wisdom; that he professed himself ignorant of some things; that he ascribed the Certainty and Infallibility of his Judgment to the Father’s Presence with him; that he was tried by great Temptations, being thereto exposed by the Holy Ghost; that he refused to be called Good, because God only is Good. (Luke 2:52). Jesus increased in Wisdom,—and in Favor with God and Men. (Mark 13:32). Of that Day and Hour knows no Man (In the Greek tis, none knows) no not the Angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mat. 24. 36.) adds, But the Father only. (John 11:34). Where have you laid him? They say unto him, Lord, come and see. (John 8:16). My Judgment is true, for I am not alone; but I and the Father that sent me. (Matt 4:1). Then was Jesus led of the Spirit, to be tempted of the Devil. (Luke 18:19). Why callest thou me good? there is none good save one, that is God.
6. God gives what and to whom himself pleases; he needs not the Aid of any other; he entreats not for himself or People; he cannot die, and he derives his Power from none but himself. But ’tis certain that the Lord Christ could not himself, without the previous Ordination of the Father, confer the prime Dignities of Heaven, or of the Church. He placed his Safety in the Father’s Presence and Help. He prayed often and fervently to the Father, both for himself and for his Disciples. He died, and was raised from the dead by the Father. After his Resurrection he received of another, that great Power which he now enjoys. (Matt 20:23). To sit on my right Hand, and on my left, is not mine to give; but [it shall be given] to them, for whom it is prepared of my Father. (John 8:29). He that sent me, is with me; and the Father hath not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him. (Luke 22:42). Father, if thou be willing, remove this Cup from me. (Heb 5:7). Who in the Days of his Flesh offered up Prayers and Supplications, with strong Crying and Tears, unto him that was able to save him. (John 17:20). Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe in me through their Word. (Ephes 1:19-20). According to the mighty working of his Power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. (Matt 28:18). Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All Power is given to me.
7. Jesus Christ is in holy Scripture always spoken of, as a distinct and different Person from God; and described to be the Son of God, and the Image of God: (Rom 16:27). To God only wise, be Glory through Jesus Christ. (Luke 18:19). Why callest thou me good? there is none good save one, that is God. (1 Tim 2:5). There is one God, and one Mediator between God and Men, the Man Jesus Christ. (John 13:18) He that believes not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the Name of the only begotten Son of God. (Luke 1:35). The holy spirit shall come upon you (Blessed Mary) and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow you; therefore also (or, and therefore) the Holy thing that is born of you shall be called the Son of God. (Col 1:15). The Image of the invisible God. ‘Tis. (say the Socinians) as impossible that the Son or Image of the one true God should himself be that one true God, as that the Son should be the Father, and the Image that very thing whose Image it is; which they take to be simply impossible, and contradictory to common sense, which Religion came not to destroy, but to improve.
Whereas to these arguings: ’tis objected, that these things are in Holy Scripture spoken of Christ according to only his human Nature, or as he is a Man; but that he is also God the Son, though united to an human Nature, that is, to an human Soul and Body. The Socinians reply, that there is in Scripture no real Foundation for such a Conceit; that ’tis inconsistent with almost all the Texts already cited, especially those in which the Lord Christ is spoken of as a distinct and different Person from God; and that there are many other Considerations and Passages of holy Scripture, which no less than demonstrate it to be false.
8. Because so many Texts expressly declare, that only the Father is God: (John 17:1-3). Father, this is Life eternal, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; or Jesus Christ your Messenger. (1 Cor 8:6). But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him: and one Lord (or, Master, i. e. Teacher) by whom are all things. In the Greek thus, One Lord, Jesus Christ, for whom are all things, and we for him. See the Note on (Heb 1:2) in the Fourth Letter. (Eph. 4:4-6). One Spirit, one Lord, one God, and Father of all, who is above all. (1 Cor. 15:23-24). Then the End, when he (Christ, ver. 23.) shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father. (Jam. 3:9). Therewith (with the Tongue, ver. 8.) bless we God, even the Father. (Rom. 15:6). With one Mind, and with one Mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9. If Christ were indeed God as well as Man, or (as Trinitarians speak) God the Son incarnate in an human Nature; it had been altogether superfluous to give the Holy Spirit to his said human Nature, as a Director and Guide. For what other help could that Nature need, which was one Person with (as they speak) God the Son; and in which God the Son did personally dwell? (Luke 4:1). Jesus being full of the holy spirit, departed from Jordan. (Acts 1:2). After that he through the holy spirit (i. e. through direction and motion of the holy spirit, and Inspiration of God) had given Commandments unto the Apostles. (Acts 10:38). God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit.
10. Had the Lord Christ been (as Trinitarians speak) God the Son joined to an human Nature, he could not have ascribed his miraculous Works to the holy spirit, or to the Father, dwelling in him; but to the Son dwelling in him and united to him. (Mat 12:28). I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God. (John 14:10). The Father that dwells in me, he does the Works. (John 5:30). I can do nothing of my self. (Acts 2:22). Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God among you, by Miracles, and Wonders, and Signs, which God did by him in the midst of you.
11. Had our Lord been more than a Man, the Prophecies of the Old Testament in which he is promised, would not describe him barely as the Seed of the Woman; the Seed of Abraham; a Prophet like unto Moses; the Servant and Missionary of God, on whom God’s Spirit should rest. (Gen 3:5). I will put Enmity between you Seed and her Seed. Her Seed is by all Interpreters understood to be Christ. (Gen 22:18). In your Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed. This again is universally interpreted of Christ. (Deut. 18:18). I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren, like unto you; and I will put my Words into his Mouth. This is interpreted of our Lord Christ in many Texts of the New Testament, as (John 1:45) and (Acts 3:22) and (Acts 7:37). (Isaiah 41:1). Behold my Servant whom I uphold, mine Elect in whom my Soul delights; I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles. This is interpreted of Christ, Mat 12:17-18.
Now that the holy spirit is only the Power and Inspiration of God, at least is not himself God, they hold is ascertained by these Considerations.
1. The holy spirit, and the Power of God, are spoken of, as one and the same thing. (1 Cor 2:4-5). My preaching was not with enticing Words of Mans Wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power; that your Faith should not stand in the Wisdom of Men, but in the Power of God. (Luke 1:35). The holy spirit shall come upon you (Blessed Mary) and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow you. (Luke 11:20). I with the Finger of God (that is, by the Power of God, Exod 8:19.) cast out Devils. (Mat 12:28). I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God. Compare also (Luke 24: 49) with (Acts 1:4-5, 8).
2. A manifest Distinction is made, as between God and Christ, so also between God and the holy spirit, or Power and Inspiration of God; so that ’tis impossible the spirit should be God himself. (Rom 5:5). The Love of God is shed abroad in your Hearts, by the holy spirit which is given to us. (1 Cor. 3:16). The Grace (or Favour) of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you. (Rom 8:27). He (the spirit, v. 26.) makes Intercession for the Saints, according to the Will of God. They note here, that God’s Spirit or Inspiration (being designed to be a continual Director and Guide to the Faithful) it is spoken of, in these and some other Texts, as a Person; by the same Figure of Speech that Charity is described as a Person, (1 Cor 13:4-5) and Wisdom, (Prov. 9:11) and the Law or Commandments of God, (Psalm 119:24). They note also that in some Texts ’tis called the holy spirit: in the same sense that we commonly say the Holy Wisdom, Holy Will of God.
3. The Spirit is obtained for us of God, by our Prayers; therefore itself is not God. (Acts 15:8). God which knows the Hearts, bare them witness; giving them the holy spirit as he did to us. (Luke 11:13). How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. If we say, these Texts are to be understood, not of the Person of the holy spirit, but of his Gifts and Graces; the Socinians readily confess it, but they say also, that if the holy spirit were at all a Person, much more a God, his Gifts and Graces would be bestowed by himself, and asked of himself, not bestowed by, and asked of another Person; as ’tis manifest (and by all confessed) they are in these Texts. They add, there is neither Precept nor Example in all Holy Scripture, of Prayer made to the Spirit, on this or any other occasion: which (on the Trinitarian Supposition) that the holy spirit is a Person and God, no less than the Father, is very surprising, nay utterly unaccountable.
4. If the holy spirit, and our Lord Christ, are Gods or God, no less than the Father; then God is a Trinity of Persons, or three Persons: but this is contrary to the whole Scripture, which speaks of God as but one Person; and speaks of him and to him by singular Pronouns, such as I, Thou, Me, Him, &c. (Job 13:7). Will you speak wickedly for God?—Will you accept his Person? (Heb 1:1) God—hath in these last times spoken to us by his Son,—who being the Brightness of his Glory, and the express Image of his Person,—sat down at the right Hand of the Majesty on high. (Deut 6:4-5) Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shalt love the Lord your God with all your Heart. In the Hebrew thus, O Israel, hearken to Jehovah our God: Jehovah is one, and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine Heart. The Jews by a most ancient Tradition and Custom, are obliged to repeat this Verse every Morning and Evening, to keep it in perpetual Memory, that Jehovah, or God, is one only, not two or three. (Isa 45:5). I am the Lord,—there is no God but Me. (Psalm. 102:25) O my God,—of old have you laid the Foundation of the Earth. (Mat 4:10).—the Lord thy God, him only shalt thou serve. No Instance (say the Socinians) can be given in any Language of three Persons, whoever spoke of themselves, or were spoken to, by the singular Pronouns, I, Thou, Me, Him, Thee, &c. Such speaking is contrary to Custom, Grammar, and Sense, which are the Laws of Speech: therefore the Holy Scriptures always speaking thus of God, either he is only one Person; or the Scriptures are one continued ungrammatical Solecism and Impropriety, and that in the capital Article of Faith, which no reasonable or good Man can or ever will allow. For it no way helps the Trinitarians, that God (according to some Translations) says at Gen. 1. 26. Let Us make Man. Because nothing is so usual in common Speech, as for single Persons to speak of themselves, indifferently by singular or plural Pronouns; thus (2 Cor 10:2). I think to be bold against some, who think of Us, (saith Paul of himself only) as if We walked according to the Flesh. Briefly, they contend that when God speaks of himself in the plural Number, or by plural Pronouns, (which yet some deny he ever does; and if he doth, ’tis not above once or twice in the whole Scripture) he speaks according to the Custom of single Persons, especially Princes and great Persons, in all Nations and Languages: but were Almighty God three Persons, they could never speak of themselves, or be spoken to, by the singular Pronouns, I, Thou, Thee, Him, Me; because ’tis contrary not only to Grammar, (which is always to be observed, when there is no Custom to the contrary) but to the Custom of all Nations which understand to speak intelligibly and sensibly.
5. Had the Son, or holy spirit, been God, this would not have been omitted in the Apostles Creed. This Creed (say they) which is of next, if not equal Authority to any part of Holy Scripture, after having declared that God is the Father Almighty, and Maker of Heaven and Earth; speaks not a Word of the Godhead of the Son, or Holy Ghost. It describes the Son by all the characters of a Man, and by such only; it says, he was conceived or begotten by the Holy Ghost on Blessed Mary, that accordingly he was born of her; that he was crucified, died, and was buried; that he rose on the third day, and ascended into Heaven: all these are the Descriptions of a Man: for God cannot be conceived, or be born, or die, no nor ascend into Heaven, for he is always there. Not content to take no notice that he is God, this Creed distinguishes him very plainly from God, (that is, denies him to be God) by adding, He sits at the right Hand of God. i. e. He is advanced to be next to God, and is under the immediate and particular Protection of God. Concerning the holy spirit, this Creed says no higher thing than it says of the Church, I believe in the holy spirit, and in the holy catholic church. For in the Greek, the same Preposition in, is before both alike; and so also is this Creed recited by St. Cyril, and by St. Cyprian ad Numid. and by Socrates Hist. l. 1. c. 26. If the Compilers of this Creed had believed, that either the Son or Spirit is God; tis unaccountable that they should take no notice of it in a Greed, and such a Creed as was purposely drawn up to represent all the necessary Articles of Religion.
If a Socinian (say they) were to draw up a Confession of his Faith, he would do it in no other Words, but these of the Apostles; and on the contrary, no Trinitarian, after having described the Father, by all the usual Characters of God, (saying, he is God, Almighty, and Maker of Heaven and Earth) would fail to mention the Divinity of the Son and Holy Spirit; whence we must needs infer, that the Apostles believed as the Socinians, not as the Trinitarians believe concerning God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
6. To conclude; Theirs (they say) is an accountable and a reasonable Faith; but that of the Trinitarians is absurd, and contrary both to Reason and to itself, and therefore not only false, but impossible. For you (say they) teach, there are three almighty, and most wise Persons, and yet but one God; as if every Almighty and most wise Person were not a God, and consequently three such Persons, three Gods. You add yet more absurdly, that there are three Persons who are severally and each of them true God, and yet there is but one true God: This is an Error in counting or numbering; which when stood in, is of all others the most brutal and inexcusable; and not to discern it, is not to be a Man. But we would not (say they) trouble our selves at the nonsense of this Doctrine, if it did not impose false Gods on us; by advancing two to be Gods, who are not so: and rob also the one true God of the Honor due to him, and of which he is jealous.
This, Sir, is the Doctrine of the Unitarians, more commonly by others called Socinians, concerning Almighty God; and these their Arguments; which I have so related as not to judge or rail of their Persons, because however learned and reasonable Men (which is their Character among their worst Adversaries) may be argued out of their Errors, yet few will be swaggered or chode out of them. It remains, that I make a brief and fair Deduction of their History; from the time that they have been taken notice of in the World.
They whom we call Socinians, were by the Fathers and first Ages of Christianity called Nazarenes; by which name St. Paul is accused before Felix, Acts 24. 5. They were also in those first times called Ebionites, Mineans, Artemonites, Theodotians, Symmachians, Paulinists, Samosatenians, Photinians, and Monarchians. The Writings of these Ancients are all lost, being destroyed by the Arians and catholics: Notwithstanding they had (I find) some very considerable Men among them; as, 1. Theodotian, who translated the Old Testament out of the Hebrew into Greek, about the Year of our Lord 182. 2. Symmachus, who published another Translation from the Hebrew also into Greek, in the Year 193. Eusebius assures us, both these were Ebionites or Nazarenes; and their Translations were greatly esteemed, and much used in the Greek Churches. . Paulus of Samosatum, Bishop and Patriarch of Antioch; a Man not only learned and eloquent, but so much esteemed in that Capital City of the East, that an Episcopal Council there assembled, were not of sufficient Authority with his Citizens, to cast him out of St. Peter’s Chair. 4. Photinus Bishop of Sirmium, against whom other Bishops being by Imperial Authority assembled, proceeded by Conciliary Acts and Censures of the Church; but neither would his City part with him, till the Emperor sent an Army to expel him.
Eusebius (Hist. l. 5. c. 28.) and Theodoret (Haer. Fab. l. 2. c. de Artem.) say, that these Nazarenes constantly affirmed, that they derived their Doctrine from the Apostles of our Lord; and that it was the general Doctrine of the Church, till the Popes, Victor I and Zephyrinus, set themselves to root it up. Victor (say the Socinians) began to persecute the Apostolic Doctrine of one God, or (what is the same) that God is one, in the Year 194; but with little Success, till that which was afterwards the Doctrine of the Arians grew into general Credit and Acceptance. For Justin Martyr, Origen, and other principal Fathers teaching (as the Arians afterwards did) that the Father is indeed before the Son and Holy Spirit, in Time, in Dignity, and in Power, yet that the Word, or Son, who in the fulness of time took our nature on him, was generated or created some time before the World, and was the Father’s Servant and Minister in making the World; and that the holy spirit was the Creature of the Son, and subservient to him in making all things: this Doctrine being advanced by Justin, Origen, and others of note in the Church; and seeming more for the Honor of the Son, than the plain and simple Doctrine of the Nazarenes, by the Help of Persecution prevailed against theirs, and became the more current Doctrine of the Church, till in the Council of Nicea it was condemned, and another more popular (and so more taking) than that (as attributing to the Son, Eternity, and Equality with the Father) did generally obtain, being supported by Imperial Authority. But did Superstition (say the Socinians) stop here? No, for there shortly arose another Doctrine, that the Son and Holy Spirit are the same God with the Father, not only (as the Nicene Fathers explained this matter) by Unity of Wills, and specifical Identity or sameness of Substance, but by numerical or true Identity and sameness of Substance and Nature. This last has been established by so many terrible penal Laws, partly obtained of the Roman Emperors by Catholic Bishops; partly made by Popes in the times of their Omnipotence; that now not only the Nazarene Faith, but the Arian and the Nicene (truly so called) are no where openly protest in the Territories of Christian Princes and States; except in a few Cities of Transylvania, and some Churches of the United Netherlands, in which Countries Liberty of Conscience makes a part of their Civil Rights and Franchises. But in the Turkish and other Mahometan and Pagan Dominions, where also the conquered Provinces of Christians have Liberty of Conscience, the Nazarene and Arian Churches are very numerous. Much of the new Conquests of his present Imperial Majesty, in Hungaria, Sclavonia, and Illyricum, are Arian.
But though the open and avowed Profession of the Unity of God (as ’tis taught by the Nazarenes, or Socinians, and by the Arians) be suppressed; yet ’tis observed that not a few of the most learned and celebrated Writers of the Church, whether Catholic or Reformed, have certainly been either Arians or Socinians, or great Favorers of them; though they have used much Caution in so expressing themselves, as not to lye too open to Exception, Envy, or a legal Prosecution.
1. D. Erasmus, the restorer of Learning, hath given occasion both to his Friends and Enemies to think him an Arian. He saith, that (Phil 2:6) was the principal Argument of the Fathers against the Arians; but that to say true, it proves nothing against them. He notes on (Eph 5:5) that the word God being used absolutely, does in the Apostolic Writings always signifies the Father. In his Scholia on the third Tome of St. Jerome’s Epistles, he denies that the Arians were Heretics; he adds, farther, that they were superior to our Men in Learning and Eloquence. ‘Tis believed, Erasmus did not make himself a party to that which he esteemed the ignorant and dull side of the Question. In his Epistle to Bilibaldus, he speaks as openly as the times would permit a wise Man to speak, I (saith Erasmus) could be of the Arian Persuasion, if the Church approved it.
2. H. Grotius is Socinian all over. This great Man in his younger Years attacked the Socinians in a principal Article of their Doctrine: But being answered by J. Crellius, he not only never replied, but thanked Crellius for his Answer; and afterwards publishing some Annotations on the Bible, he interpreted the whole according to the mind of the Socinians. There is nothing in all his Annotations, which they do not approve and applaud. His Annotations are a complete System of Socinianism, not excepting his Notes on (John 1. 1), &c. which are written so artificially, and interwoven with so many different Quotations, that he has covered himself, and his sense of that Portion of Scripture, from such as do not read him carefully.
3. D. Petavius, the most Learned of the Jesuits, has granted that generally the Fathers who lived before the Nicene Council, and whose Writings are preserved, agreed in their Doctrine concerning God with the Nazarenes or Socinians, and concerning the Son our Lord Christ, and the holy spirit with the Arians. For ’tis to be noted that the Arians and Socinians agree in their Doctrine concerning God, that he is only one Person, the God and Father of our Lord Christ; but they differ concerning the Son and holy spirit. The Son, according to the Arians, was generated or created some time before the World, and in process of time, for great and necessary causes, became incarnate in our Nature: The holy spirit (they say) is the Creature of the Son, and subservient to him in the Work of Creation. But the Socinians deny, that the Son our Lord Christ had any Existence before he was born of Blessed Mary, being conceived in her by the holy Spirit of God: They say, the Spirit is the Power and Inspiration of God, saving that Mr. Biddle, and those that follow him, take the holy Spirit to be a Person, chief of the Heavenly Spirits, prime Minister of God and Christ, and therefore called the Spirit by way of excellence; and the Holy Spirit, to discriminate him from Satan, Prince and Chief of the wicked and Apostate Spirits. This difference notwithstanding, because they agree in the principal Article, that there is but one God, or but one who is God, both parties (Socinians and Arians) are called Unitarians, and esteem of one another as Christians and true Believers, as may be seen on the part of the Arians in their Historian Chr. Sandius; (Hist. Eccl. l. 1. c. de Paul. Semosat.) and for the Socinians in the Disputation of Alba. But to return to Petavius, He often affirms, that the Doctrine of the Trinity, and of the Divinity of the Son and Spirit, cannot be proved by Scripture only; and that those who have attempted it, have always been baffled. He adds, there is no way to Unity in the Church about these matters, but by contenting our selves to speak concerning them, as the Fathers who lived nearest to the Apostles time did speak.
4. S. Episcopius, so much esteemed by our English Divines, seems to have been an Arian. He saith, the Father is so first, as to be first in order (i. e. time) in Dignity and in Power. He saith, that to make three equal Persons in God or in the Godhead, is to make three Gods. He denies, that the Lord Christ is the Son of God by substantial Generation, that is, by Generation from the Father’s Substance or Essence. Speaking of the Creeds that express the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity, and the Divinity of the Son and Spirit, he saith, that Bishops in general Councils being led by Fury, Faction, and Madness, did not so much compose as huddle up Creeds for the Church: See for these things Episc. Inst. Theol. l. 4 c. 32, 33, 34.
5. C. Sandius, a Gentleman of prodigious Industry and Reading, and no less ingenious then learned, in all his Books refuses in Words to be called either Arian or Socinian; but has written an Ecclesiastical History in Quarto, with Addenda to it Coloniae 1678, on purpose to prove that all Antiquity was Arian; and that the Unitarian Doctrine has been reduced so low by the Persecutions of Rome, and the puissant Arms of Charles the Great, and other Kings of France, for which Services they have been requited by the Roman Pontiff. with the Titles of Most Christian Kings, and Eldest Sons of the Church. He has also (under the borrowed Name of Cingallus) written a small Treatise with this Title, Scriptura Trinitatis Revelatrix; here under pretense of asserting the Trinity, he has (as much as he could) defeated all the strengths of the Catholic Cause; and shews that there is no considerable Text objected to the Arians or Socinians, but is given up as an incompetent and insignificant proof, by some or other of the principal Critics and Authors, who were themselves Trinitarians; so that among them they have given away the Victory to their Adversaries.
But, Sir, I perceive I have drawn out this account of the Socinians, to already a sufficient length for a Letter; I will therefore conclude with a Passage out of Dr. Burnet’s second Book of the History of the Reformation abridged. George van Parr, a Dutch Man, refused to abjure; so he was burnt in the year 1549, (by virtue of a Law or Writ since abolished by Act of Parliament) for affirming, that only the Father is God, and denying the Divinity of the Son our Lord Christ. He had led a very exemplary Life, for Fasting, Devotion and a good Conversation; and suffered with extraordinary Composedness of Mind. These things cast a great Blemish on the Reformers: It was said, they only condemned Cruelty, when acted on themselves; but were ready to practice it when they had Power. The Papists made great use of this in the next (Queen Mary’s) Reign; and what Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridly (Authors of Van Parrs Punishment) suffered in her time, was thought a just Retaliation on them by that wise Providence, which disposes all things justly to all Men.
Thus far Dr. Burnet.
SIR, I am most sincerely Yours.