The Protestants Plea for a Socinian: Justifying His Doctrine from Being Opposite to Scripture or Church Authority; and Him from Being Guilty of Heresie, or SchismR. H.
Religion
The Protestants Plea for a Socinian: Justifying His Doctrine from Being Opposite to Scripture or Church Authority; and Him from Being Guilty of Heresie, or Schism
R. H.
Socinianism -- Early works to 1800
_Prot._ O strange Presumption! And is not your judgment, then, liable
to mistake in the true sense of these Scriptures, because you strongly
persuade your self, they are most evident on your side?
_Soc._ 'Tis true, that I may _mistake_ in the sense of _some_
Scripture; but it follows not from hence, that I can be _certain_ of
the sense of _no_ Scriptures. To answer you in the words of Mr.
_Chillingworth_[10]----_Tho' I pretend not to certain means in
interpreting all Scripture, particularly such places as are obscure
and ambiguous; yet this methinks should be no impediment, but that we
may have certain means of not erring in, and about the sense of those
places which are so plain and clear, that they need no Interpreters;
and in such this my Faith is contained. If you ask me, how I can be
sure, that I know the true meaning of these places? I ask you again;
Can you be sure you understand what I, or any man else saith; They
that heard our Saviour and the Apostles Preach, can they have
sufficient assurance that they understood at any time what they would
have them do? If not, to what end did they hear them? If they could,
why may not I be as well assured, that I understand sufficiently, what
I conceive plain in their Writings?_ Again; I pray tell me, whether do
you certainly know the sense of these Scriptures, for the evidence of
which you separated from the Church that was before _Luther_,
requiring conformity to the contrary Doctrines, as a condition of her
Communion? _If you do, then give us leave to have the same means, and
the same abilities to know other plain places, which you have to know
these. For if all the Scripture be obscure, how can you know the sense
of these places? If some places of it be plain, why should I stay
here?_----[11] _If you ask, seeing I may possibly err, how can I be
assured I do not? I ask you again, seeing your eyesight may deceive
you, how can you be sure you see the Sun, when you do see it?_ [12] _A
Judge may possibly err in Judgment, can he therefore never have
assurance that he hath judged rightly? a Traveller may possibly
mistake his way; must I therefore be doubtful whether I am in the
right way from my Hall to my Chamber? Or can our_ London _Carrier have
no certainty in the middle of the day, when he is sober, and in his
wits, that he is in his way to_ London?[13]--_This I am certain of,
that God will not require of me a certainly unerring belief, unless he
had given me a certain means to avoid error, and if I use those which
I have, will never require of me, that I use that which I have
not_[14].----This is Mr. _Chillingworth_'s solid Plea, against the
Papist's grand Objection, for the proving an uncertainty in the
Protestant's Faith upon any their pretence of _evident_ Scripture.
Sect. 8.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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