tant." And upon thefe words, ver. 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, he hath this expreffion, Quid autem hoc loco fibi velit Johannes, à nemine quod fciam adhuc rectè expofitum fuit: "But what "St John means in this place, was never yet, that "I know of, by any rightly explained." And Schlictingius after him, with more confidence, but much less decency, tells us, that concerning the meaning of thofe expreffions, in the beginning, and of thofe which follow concerning the Word, the ancient interpreters did ab Apoftoli mente delirare; went "fo far from the Apostle's meaning, as if they had raved and been out of their "wits." Which is fo extravagantly faid, and with so much contempt of thofe great and venerable names, who were the chief propagators of Chriftianity in the world, and to whom all ages do fo juftly pay a reverence, that nothing can be faid in excufe of him, but only that it is not ufual with him to fall into fuch rafh and rude expreffions. But the man was really pinched by fo plain and preffing a text; and where reafon is fo weak and blunt, paffion must be whetted, the only weapon that is left when reafon fails: and I always take it for granted, that no man is ever angry with his adverfary, but for want of a better argument to fupport his caufe.

And yet, to do right to the writers on that fide, I muft own, that generally they are a pattern of the fair way of difputing, and of debating matters of religion, without heat, and unfeemly reflections upon their adverfaries; in the number of whom I did not expect that the primitive fathers of the Chriftian church would have been reckoned by them. They generally argue matters with that temper and gravity, and with that freedom from paffion and tranfport, which becomes a ferious and weighty argument: and for the most part they reafon clofely and clearly, with extraordinary guard and caution; with great dexterity and decency, and yet with fmartnefs and fubtilty enough; with a very gentle heat, and few hard words: virtues to be praised where-ever they are found, yea even in an enemy, and very worthy our imitation. In a word, they are the strongest managers of a weak cause, and which is ill founded at the bot

tom,

tom, that perhaps ever yet meddled with controversy ; infomuch that fome of the Proteftants, and the generality of the Popish writers, and even of the Jefuits themfelves, who pretend to all the reafon and fubtilty in the world, are in comparison of them but mere fcolds and bunglers. Upon the whole matter, they have but this one great defect, that they want a good cause and truth on their fide which if they had, they have reason, and wit, and temper enough to defend it.

But to return to the bufinefs: That which I urge them withal, and that from their own confeffion, is this, That this interpretation of theirs is perfectly new, and unknown to the whole Chriftian world before Socinus ; and for that reafon, in my opinion, not to be bragged of; because it is in effect to fay, that the Chriftian religion, in a point pretended on both fides to be of the greatest moment, was never rightly understood by any fince the Apoftle's days, for fifteen hundred years together; and, which makes the matter yet worse, that the religion which was particularly defigned to overthrow Polytheifm, and the belief of more gods, hath, according to them, been fo ill taught and understood by Chriftians, for fo many ages together, and almost from the very beginning of Chriftianity, as does neceffarily infer a plu rality of gods: an inconvenience fo great, as no cause, -how plaufible foever it may otherwife appear, is able to ftand under, and to fuftain the weight of it.

For this the Socinians object to us at every turn, as the unavoidable confequence of our interpretation of this paffage of St John, and of all other texts of fcripture produced by us to the fame purpose, notwithstanding that this interpretation hath obtained in the Christian church for fo many ages. Now, whofoever can believe,' that the Christian religion hath done the work for which it was principally defigned, fo ineffectually, must have very little reverence for it; nay, it must be a marvellous civility in him if he believe it all. All that can be faid in this cafe is, that it pleafes God many times to permit men to hold very inconfiftent things, and which do in truth, though they themselves difcern it not, most effectually overthrow one another.

2. Another mighty prejudice against this interpreta

tion is this, that, according to this rate of liberty in interpreting fcripture, it will fignify very little or nothing when any perfon or party is concerned to oppofe any doctrine contained in it; and the plaineft texts for any article of faith, how fundamental and neceffary foever, may, by the fame arts and ways of interpretation, be eluded, and rendered utterly ineffectual for the establish. ing of it. For example; if any man had a man to call in queftion that article of the creed concerning the creation of the world, why might he not, according to Socinus's way of interpreting St John, understand the first chapter of Genefis, concerning the beginning of the Mofaical difpenfation, and interpret the creation of the hea ven and the earth, to be the inftitution of the Jewish po lity and religion, as by the new heavens and the new earth, they pretend is to be understood the new ftate of things under the gofpel: and why may not the chaos fignify that state of darkness and ignorance in which the world was before the giving of the law by Mofes ? and fo on; as a very learned divine of our own (Dr Stillingfleet) hath ingeniously fhewn more at large.

There is no end of wit and fancy, which can turn any thing any way; and can make whatever they please to be the meaning of any book, though never fo contrary to the plain defign of it, and to that fense which, at the first hearing and reading of it, is obvious to every man of common sense.

And this, in my opinion, Socinus hath done in the cafe now before us, by impofing a new, and odd, and violent fenfe, upon this paffage of St John, directly contrary to what any man would imagine to be the plain and obvious meaning of it, and contrary likewife to the fenfe of the Chriftian church in all ages down to his time; who yet had as great or greater advantages of underftanding St John aright, and as much integrity, as any man can now modeftly pretend to and all this only to ferve and fupport an opinion which he had entertained before, and therefore was refolved, one way or other, to bring the fcripture to comply with it; and if he could. not have done it, it is greatly to be feared that he would at last have called in queftion the divine authority of St John's gofpel, rather than have quitted his opinion. VOL. III,

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And

And, to speak freely, I must needs fay, that it seems to me a much fairer way, to reject the divine authority of a book, than to use it fo difingenuoufly, and to wrest the plain expreffions of it with fo much ftraining and violence from their most natural and obvious fenfe; for no doctrine whatsoever can have any certain foundation in any book, if this liberty be once admitted, without regard to the plain scope and occafion of it, to play up. on the words and phrafes, with all the arts of criticism, and with all the variety of allegory, which a brisk and lively imagination can devife; which I am fo far from admiring in the expounding of the Holy Scriptures, that I am always jealous of an over-laboured and far-fetched interpretation of any author whatsoever.

I do readily grant, that the Socinian writers have ma naged the cause of the reformation, against the innovations and corruptions of the church of Rome, both in doctrine and practice, with great acuteness and advantage in many refpects. But I am forry to have cause to fay, that they have likewife put into their hands better and fharper weapons than ever they had before, for the weakening and undermining of the authority of the Holy Scriptures; which Socinus indeed hath in the general ftrongly afferted, had he not, by a dangerous liberty of impofing a foreign and forced fenfe upon particular texts, brought the whole into uncertainty.

3. Which is as confiderable a prejudice against this new interpretation of this paffage of St John as either of the former, I fhall endeavour to fhew, that this point, of the existence of the Word before his incarnation, does not rely only upon this fingle paffage of St John, but is likewife confirmed by many other texts of the New Teftament, confpiring in the fame fenfe, and utterly incapable of the interpretation which Socinus gives of it.

I find he would be glad to have it taken for granted, that this is the only text in the New Teftament to this purpose; and therefore he fays very cunningly, that this doctrine of the existence of the Son of God, before his incarnation, is too great a doctrine to be established upon one fingle text. And this is fomething, if it were true, that there is no other text in the New Teftament that does plainly deliver the fame fenfe; and yet this were

not

not fufficient to bring in question the doctrine delivered in this paffage of St John.

That God is fpirit, will, I hope, be acknowledged to be a very weighty and fundamental point of religion; and yet I am very much mistaken if there be any more than one text in the whole Bible that says fo; and that text is only in St John's gofpel. I know it may be faid, that, from the light of natural reafon, it may be fufficiently proved that God is a fpirit. But furely Socinus of all men cannot fay this with a good grace; because he denies that the existence of God can be known by natural light, without divine revelation: and if it cannot be known by natural light that there is a God, much less can it be known by natural light what God is, whether a fpirit or a body.

And yet, after all, it is very far from being true, that there is but one text to this purpofe, which yet he thought fit to infinuate by way of excufe for the novelty and boldness of his interpretation; of which, any one that reads him may see that he was fufficiently conscious to himself; and therefore was fo wife as to endeavour, by this fly infinuation, to provide and lay in against it. I have likewise another reason, which very much inclines me to believe that Socinus was the first author of this interpretation; because it seems to me next to impoffible, that a man of fo good an understanding as he was, could have ever been fo fond of fo ill-favoured a child, if it had not been his own. And yet I do not at all wonder that his followers came into it fo readily, fince they had him in fo great a veneration; it being natural to all fects to admire their master; befides, that I doubt not but they were very glad to have fo great an authority, as they thought him to be, to vouch for an interpretation, which was fo feasonably deviled for the relief of their caufe, in fo much danger to be overthrown by a text that was fo plain and full against them.

And how little ground there is for this infinuation, that this is the only text in the New Testament to this purpose, I fhall now fhow from a multitude of other texts to the fame fenfe and purpose with this passage of St John. And I fhall rank them under two heads.

1. Those which exprefsly affert the Son of God to have

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