Mr. BIDLE'S CONFESSION of FAITH , Touching The HOLY TRINITY , Wherein His CHIEF DESIGNE To overthrow that SACRED MYSTERY And the DEITY of our Blessed SAVIOUR . IS EXAMINED AND CONFUTED . WITH VII . ARGUMENTS To Prove The DEITY of the SON of GOD .

BY NICHOLAS ESTWICK , B. D. Sometimes Fellow of Christs Colledg in Cambridg , And now Minister of Gods Word at Warkton in Northampton Shire .

London , Printed by Tho . Maxey for Nath . Ekins , at the Gun neer the West-end of Pauls , 1656.

THe Lord our good God is infinite in all perfections , and incomprehensible by a finite Creature ; the highest Angels may as soon lade all the water out of the deep Ocean with a spoon , as they can with their utmost abilities attain to the full knowledge of the great Lord ; but blessed be his holy Name for his cleare revelation of himselfe to us in his Word of Truth , to be but one in essence , most singularly one , and three glorious Persons , and that we may know so much of him , if we be not wanting in our search , as is necessary for our salvation .

It hath been the sinfull and industrious practise of the ancient Heretiques , as the laborious Magdeburgensians have observed , Centur . 2. cap . 5. either wholly to overthrow , or else to corrupt , at least to darken the Doctrine of the sacred Trinity , and to abolish the true apprehension of the Lord Almighty out of the mindes of men , to weaken the Article touching our blessed Saviour , and to intangle that saving Doctrine touching his Person and merits with many errors ; but the vigilancy of the spirituall Guides , and Pastors of the Christian Church , even then , by Gods blessing , when they were not assisted with the sword of secular powers rooted up , or at least kept downe those noysome weeds , that they did not much annoy the Wheat that grew in this happy Field : and notwithstanding the opposition of these , and all other Heretiques , Jerusalem , the City of God , was strong and beautifull , well compacted together , and in these main fundamental Articles harmonious and united together .

It is not denied , as we finde by the light of History , that the Heathen persecuting Emperours kept downe the Church from carrying any pompous visibility in the world , and if the flesh had drawn her Picture ( saith Luther in Psal . 10. Graduum ) she would have been painted like a deformed and poor Virgin , sitting in a perillous Wood in the midst of hungry Lions and Wolves , and surrounded with furious Thieves seeking to kill her , and amongst venemous Serpents . To omit all the rest , in that last and bloudy persecution , which continued ten years , begun by Dioclesian , was made a great Army of Christian Martyrs , a hundred thousand , & forty thousands in Egypt alone ( to say nothing of the banished ones for the name of Christ ) saith Scaliger de Emendat . Tempor . lib . 5.1 . an . Dioclesian . If that litle Province had so much innocent bloud shed in it , who can without tears recount the infinite Ocean , which was spilt in all the Roman Empire ?

These good Christians had prayed long and fervently that the Woman , the Church , might bring forth a man Child , which should rule all Nations , Revel . 12. and our wise God and mercifull Father ( lest the Spirits of his Children should faile ) gives them in due time a Christian Emperor , Constantine the great , to be a nursing Father to his poore Church , and happily to stanch the issues of blood , which the bloud-sucking Tyrants had wickedly shed . Jerusalem then , as was foretold , Esa . 19.23 . increased on the right hand and on the left , untill the Host of our David became great , as the Host of God , and his seed as the Army of Heaven which cannot be numbred ; then there began to be a path from Egypt to Assyria , and one Nation communicated with another in the Worship of the living God .

The Divel , the enemy of God and his Christ , raged to see his first-born sons , the Heathen Emperours , which were open professed Enemies to Christianity , cast out of the imperial Throne , and Christians to sit in their seats : the Divel , I say , this Mille-Artifex laboured to do mischief in another kind , and that was by seducing his ambitious and active Instruments to disturb the peace of the Church with damnable doctrines , and he found a choice Servant to promote this designe , Arius Presbyter of Alexandria : whether he was moved to do mischief out of hatred of his Bishop Alexander , or out of ambition , & an itching humor to make innovations , or vain ostentation of his subtle wit , or for what other cause he was moved , the Lord knows ; for certain , he introduced a new Doctrine , that Christ was only a Creature , and of him Constantine speaketh , and applieth a Verse of Homer to him :

{αβγδ} Baron ad An. 319. alluding to his name , he is like to Mars , that bloudy and pernicious God , but this wise and religious Prince , assisted by that famous Councel of Nice stayed that leprosie , that it did not spread dangerously to the infection of multitudes in his happy dayes .

After the death of Constantine , and his happy exchange of a corruptible for an immortall Crown of Glory , the sparke of Arianisme under Constantius the Emperour of the East , was kindled into a flame , and this was that pernitious Doctrine which the Serpent cast out of his mouth , as a floud after the woman , the Catholique Church to drowne her , Revel . 12.15 . nor was this wicked and malicious attempt without great success , as may appeare by that famous Dialogue betwixt that Hereticall Emperour and Liberius Bishop of Rome , concerning great and blessed Athanasius ; the whole world ( saith he ) hath given sentence of his impiety . thou alone dost imbrace communion with that wicked Man , and disturbe the peace of the whole Church ; whereunto the Bishop of Rome at the time answered both truly and resolutely , The word of Faith is not made one jot the worse by my being alone . Theodor . Eccles . Histor . lib . 2. cap . 16. And Modestinus , a Governour under Valens , another Arian Emperour durst triumphantly boast to Saint Gregory Nazianzen ; What dost thou thinke ( saith he ) that thou alone canst resist ? the rest are for the Emperour , and durst thou alone despise him ? Gregor . Nazian . in Monod . It is true , as the same Authour speaketh in the life of Saint Basile , that Athanasius and Basile , and a few eminent stout Champions of Christ were as bright sparks kept alive , when he lived to see the multitude of the whole world , which had received and professed the Gospel to be defiled with Sects and Heresies , and which is to be wondred at , at last Liberius Bishop of Rome , and Hosius Bishop of Corduba in Spaine , that famous and old experienced Souldier of Christ , and the greatest number , either through feare , flattery , penury , simplicity , were carried away with that tempestuous Whirlewinde , which extorted this complaint from Jerome more then once , That the whole world groaned , and wondred that it was become Arian , lib . de viris illust . Fortunatian . and lib . contra Luciferianos ; and to him Saint Austin accords , saying ; The godly which were most eminent were banished , and the rest in the whole world lay hid , Epistola 48. But this mist which for a time obscured the glory of the Church , was ere long scattered by the Truth , which shined forth most brightly , when the earth , the multitude of believers , Rev. 12.16 . in their Synods , and by their Writings helped the Church , and swallowed up the Floud , that pestilent Doctrine , as the earth doth water , and the Worthies of the Lord like Thunderbolts did confound those Heretiques , so that they coul dnot in many generations lift up their heads to prevaile any more in that kind , yet was the holy Doctrine , and pure Worship by degrees much corrupted , both with unwarrantable additions of mens devising , and with idolatrous and superstitious practises , and the further you go from the Fountaine , you shall find the streame more muddy and defiled , insomuch that the better sort much mourned to see the pollutions in Gods House in their dayes , and both longed , and earnestly prayed unto God for a Reformation .

As in the time of the first Preaching of the holy Gospel to all Nations , when the Husbandman sowed good seede , the Envious Man sowed tares , to discredit the holy Truth : so also when new Light burst forth in these latter dayes , when Luther , and many Worthies were raised by God to reforme the Church over-spread with Antichristian Doctrins , as was foretold , especially by Saint Iohn in the Revelation , Satan had his Apostles also , which taught damnable Doctrines , and ( which is the cursed fruit of sinfull Toleration ) largely transfused their Socinian venome in Transilvauta , Polonia , and the Provinces subject to that Crown ; to say nothing of many wilde Opinions in Germany , and other places which retarded much that blessed work of purging the Church from all pollutions : but , if I am not mistaken , a known professed Socinian in England was as rare as a poys●nfull creature in Ireland , and if a Legate appeared in that wicked cause , he must , and that justly , being obstinate , suffer for it : But since the beginning of our unhappy Divisions ( our sinnes being ripe for a heavy judgement ) men have risen up amongst us , and departed from the holy Faith , which they sometimes professed . and these like ravenous Wolves have not spared the flock , and by their perverse Doctrins have drawn away many Disciples after them . I instance only in the Anti-trinitarians , which have done the Devil great service in dishonouring the Lord of Glory , and have not only corrupt judgements , but do argue also for a creature Christ only , yea , and do preach their blasphemies against Him , and which is the height of impudencie , do expose in Print to the publike view their Hellish Herefies , such are Paul Best , Mr. Frie , Mr. Knowls , Mr. Biddle , and others I feare , which I have not heard of : these men are not worthy the name of Christians , as Athanasius faith of the Arians , that they are not to be called Christians , Orat . 1. & 2 , and Liberius when he had stoutly pleaded for Athanasius , and refused gifts offered to him by the Emperour , said to a great man , Go thou thy ways and become a Christian , Theodoret . lib . 2. Eccles . Histor . cap . 16. How should they be true Christians which besides many other Heresies , do deny the divine Nature , and the satisfaction of our Mediatour ?

Those that are fervent in Spirit , me thinks , should imitate that glorious Martyr Polycarpus , who was a Disciple of S. John , of whom Irenaeus his Scholar saith , if he had heard any such blasphemies , he would have stopt his ears , and as his custome was , have said , Good God! to what times hast thou reserved me , that I should heare such blasphemies ? and he would not have stayd in that place where he had heard them , Euseb . Eccles . Histor . l. 5. cap . 18. Is this the fruit of that vast expence of treasure , and of the spilling of an Ocean of blood for Religion , as was pretended , and for our Laws ? Is this religiously to keep the late Engagements of the Protestation and National Covenant ? Is this acceptably to praise God for his owning our Armies , as is professed , and crowning them , as it is famously known , with great successe , and many Victories ? I do humbly conceive , that if this Land had been before these dayes , pestred with such hurtfull Beasts ( as somtimes it was with Wolves ) the Governours which have the rule over us , should for Gods sake , their own , and the Churches good , have taken , not onely the old Foxes , but the little Foxes , that they might not without controle destroy the tender Grapes of our Vine ; but if we looke back to by gone yeares , and recount with our selves , that there was not , I believe , till these daies of trouble , the least number of professed Socinians in all the Land , and now may hear of many of these , and swarmes in some places of Schismatiques and Heretiques , this is , and ought to be for a lamentation . I wish that our Rulers would have laid to their hearts , and considered the practise of great Amphilochius , who requested the Emperor Theodosius to banish the Arians , which spoke ill of Christ , from the City of Constantinople and other Cities : but when he perceived that he set light by his motion , having taken a sit time purposely , when Arcadius his Son sat in Councel with his Father Theod●sius , he gave to the Emperor that honour which was due to him , but to Arcadius he said no more , but God save you my Son , whereat the Emperor being offended , this holy man told him plainly , You being but a mortal man take it heinously that your Son should be slighted ; do you think that God is not offended when his only Son is evil spoken of , Theodoret . Eccles . Histor . lib . 4. cap . 15.

Very commendable was the zeale of the primitive Doctors , which would not suffer corrupt Teachers , as Thieves to break into the Fold , and steale away the sheep , but as watchfull Dogs , they would bark and give faire warning to the sheep , and if possibly they could , skare away the Thieves , and as the industrious Historians say to maintain the integrity of the holy faith , they did not only pour out their prayers with groans to God , to prevent & remove Heresies ; but they openly declared against such Priests , they confuted them , and with their grave Writings they condemned them , which were strengthened also by the consent and subscriptions of many pious Fathers : for as they truly say , impudent lies are not confuted with silence and dissembling , nor is the Divel overcome and chased away by a sinful suffering him to do mischiefe without contradiction .

I have heartily wished , and I doubt not but many thousands of Christians well affected to the truth do concur with me in my desire , that some eminent Servants of God which have great abilities , and which are in respect of their gifts , higher then their brethren , as Saul was in stature from the shoulders and upwards , and which have both leasure and store of Books at hand to furnish them , would put forth their strength for Gods glory , the confusion of erroneous Spirits , and the clearing up of divine truths , and to encounter with heretical Authors : if these mighty ones would undertake the quarrel , which for ought I know is not yet done by them , I do conceive it might be said of their Writings , as Abishai , if they would smite them but once , neither they themselves , nor any others should have any need to smite them the second time .

Truly this is a matter of high concerment , the Deity of Gods Son is denied , true Divinity is overturned , the faith of many is shaken , salvation is lost , and horrible impiety , to the griefe of the godly , is pieced out of infamous , and long since condemned Heresies ; if these valiant Champions of the Lord ( and a thousand such may be found in England ) would by the Sword of the Spirit and the authority of Gods Word in their hands , set themselves against these growing evils , and as Aaron when the plague was begun , stand betwixt the living and the dead , they would be a Buckler to Gods people to keep off these poisonful darts of their Enemies from hurting them , which are too much neglected by them . These experienced Souldiers probably have not entred the Lists , partly because they in modesty put it off from themselves to others , and do think that such an one is fitter for the work then themselves ; or partly because they think the business concerns others more then themselves : or , which is more likely , because the Writings of these Adversaries are below them , & they are in their judgments , which is the truth , vain , & froathie , & of no solidity ; but I wish they would seriously consider , that it hath been a great honour to many of the ancient Fathers to write against those enemies which had lesse to speak for themselves then the subtile Heretiques have which live in our dayes , as against the Pagans , and those of the Jewish Religion , and all sorts of Heretiques , though some of them were but of a meancalling , as Hermogenes was a Painter , against whom Tertullian wrote , as appeares at the end of the Booke . And besides the great service they should do for God and his Church in standing up for the defence of the sacred Truth , I do conceive they would be no losers thereby , but by the serious perpending of the holy Scriptures alledged by the Adversaries , they would have a clearer insight into them , and a deeper impression of them in their memories , then perhaps they have at present , besides their great reward from the Lord for their zealous labours : but now when this work is done by such a weake Instrument as my self , Truth shines not forth with such a bright luster , the Enemy is not so clearly convinced , and his mouth stopped from gaine-saying , nor are the seducers , and seduced in that faire probability to be reclaimed , or the lovers of Truth so fully satisfied , as all these would have been succesfully done , if these Worthies of the Lord had shewed themselves in the Field with their Armes in this Cause of God .

I do confess the place of my Nativity was a great motive to me to study Controversies from my youth ; and when I came fresh from the Universities of Cambridge was unexpectedly surprized by a daring Jesuite , my Contemporary and Schoole-Fellow , as I heare , and in a manner forced to plead for Truth against Popish errours , and when a good part of some yeares had been spent in those Studies , and I had sufficiently tired my selfe and my Adversarie , and his silence had put a seasonable period to those cumbursome , and in comparison unprofitable Studies ; I hoped then that I should spend the remainder of my dayes without distraction from that weighty imployment , which did more properly belong unto me , I mean , the comfortable discharge of my Ministery : twenty years and upwards were run out from that time , before I saw Mr. Biddles twelve Arguments against the Deity of the Holy Ghost , and as I verily believe , I was moved by Gods exciting grace to examine them , and my utmost intentions were then to add something to a Discourse , viz. a piece of a Sermon which I had on that sacred subject ; but by the perswasion of some learned friends they were published , and I see no reason yet , why I should repent of those labours . This present yeare Mr. Biddle hath printed again those twelve Reasons , and hath taken no notice either of my Answer , or Dr. Cloppingburgs to them : he shall give me leave to guesse at his Reasons ; to these he hath added a Preface against the most glorious Trinity , and six Articles of his faith , tending for the most part to disprove the Deity of our blessed Saviour : these , though I never saw them , nor so much as heard of them , were ( as he saith ) printed in the yeare of Grace 1648. but are much inlarged in this Edition .

I have been incouraged by learned mens approbation of my former Treatise , once again in my old age to trie the strength of Mr. Biddle , and by the good hand of God with mee , have finished my Answer to the whole ; I have omitted nothing of moment , and I have been very sparing to alledge the testimonies of the ancient and later Writers , which might easily have been done , and have made those cited by me for the most part to speak English , being carefull to represent the meaning , though not the very words of the Authors , and as Luther speaks , reconciling the Evangelist Matthew and the Prophet Esa . on Matth : 12. they do differ ( saith he ) onely sono Grammatico , but they do agree tono Theologico : and this have I done for no other end , but that the bulk of the Book might not grow too big under my hands .

CHristian Reader , we are to advertise thee of our great mistake in prefixing this Title in the front of many pages : Mr. Biddles Socinian Catechism Examined and Confuted : whereas it should have been , A Confession of Faith touching the holy Trinity , according to the Scripture , Examined and Confuted : we tooke this his Confession of Faith to be his Catechism ; but now wee understand that they are distinct Treatises , and of a different nature .