De CHRISTO Servatore, contra COVETUM: sel A Treatise concerning the Saviour, against CoverUS. • De ftatu primi hominis ante lapfum: i. e. A Difcourse on the State of the firft Man before the Fall.

De natúra CHRISTI: i. e. A Treatife on the Nature of CHRIST.

Contra affertiones theologicas collegii Pofnanienfis: i. e. Animadverfions on the theological Affertions of the College of Pofnania, Mifcellanea facra.

Contra ERASMUM JOHANNEM: i. c. A Difputation against ERASMUS JOHANNES,

Contra WUJEKUM: i, e. The fame against WuJEKUS.

Breves tractatus: i. e: Short Tracts.

Contra EUTROPIUM: i. e. A Difputation against EUTROPIUS.

Contra CHRISTIANUM FRANKEN: i. e. The fame against CHRISTIAN FRANKEN.

A

Contra FRANCISCUM DAVIDEM: i. e. The fame against FRANCIS DAVID.

Many of these Treatifes and Difcourfes of SociNUS were drawn up in fubmiffion to the neceffity he was under of giving a more full and impartial reprefentation of the religious debates in which he was engaged: many were extorted from him by the importunities of his friends and the confidence the UNITARIAN Churches repofed in him. He often

modeftly

modeftly urged thefe pleas in excuse for his publications.

A quotation or two will fhew in what high, eftimation his works have been held by fome, and will affift the reader to judge what method of argumentation, what peculiar excellencies of writing, he may expect to find in them.

The pious and good Mr. BIDLE obferves," that "he fhewed the world a more accurate way to dif"cufs controverfies in religion and to fetch out the "very marrow of the holy Scripture, fo that a "man may more avail himself by reading his works than perhaps by perufing all the fathers, together with the writings of more modern authors."

And he gives us from another author (BODECHERUS) the following eulogium on the writings of SOCINUS. "The Truth is to be acknowledged

every where for neither doth fhe receive her "value from any perfon, but gives it to him. Nor "can we in this place forbear to give this teftimony unto SoCINUS where he agreeth with the orthodox; let the Chriftian world hear if it please. "He difputeth with the thruft; granteth to the ad❝versary whatsoever he may, without prejudice to ❝ the truth and his caufe: where the adversary is "to

ic

to be preffed, there he maketh á ftand, and ar"gueth to the confcience; contendeth rather "with Scripture; and with reason, not with preju

dices, as the fchool of CALVIN is for the most

part wont to do; he sheltereth not himself amidst "certain nice captions; he feeketh not starting"holes, but hits the very throat of the cause. In

him ATHEISTS, JEWS, GENTILES, PAPISTS, find "matter of employment otherwife than in the wri*tings of the CALVINISTS."

We will conclude with the encomium bestowed by his Polish biographer on the works of SOCINUS. The reader (fays he) will find in his writings those engines destroyed by which the hope of happi"nefs to which we aspire and the glory of the moft

high GoD are fubverted. He will find the ho"nour of our religion fupported, and its reputation "vindicated and afferted from thofe abfurd and

t

fhocking opinions on account of which it hath been moft injuriously traduced by ftrangers to it. Laftly, he will find all the impediments re moved by which men, difgufted with the piety required

*The Life of that incomparable Man FAUSTUS SoCINUS, 1653. Preface, p. 2. and p. 63, 64, of the work itself,

*required of us, have obftructed the hope and acquifition of the heavenly inheritance*."

THE CONCLUSION.

WE have now finished our review of the character and fentiments of SOCINUS. His fentiments ought not to be haftily adopted nor rafhly rejected, upon the short acquaintance with them the reader can have formed from the preceding pages. In questions of moment our enquiries fhould be conducted with deliberation, diligence and caution; no' names, how great or venerable foever, fhould determine our judgment; and our creed fhould be the fubmiffion of the foul to reafon, argument and Scripture.

But, with respect to the life and character of SoCINUS, we may be allowed to be more speedy in paffing fentence upon them. When a moral and religious character is exhibited to our view, the appeal is made to our fenfe of good and evil, and there is no room for long confideration and a chain of reafoning to determine whether it be amiable or not, whether it merit imitation or not.

The reader, as he has gone along with us, has formed in his own mind a judgment of SOCINUS:

SOCIN. Opera. Differtatio de hifce operibus, p. 8.

he

he has feen that, like other men, he had fome fail ings; but I flatter myself, whatever prejudices he had imbibed against him, he has been fo ingenuous as to own, this man had great virtues. The Polish biographer indeed concludes his account of him with expreffing his apprehenfions that pofterity perhaps, inftead of paying no honours to the name of SOCINUS, would hold it in too high veneration.

Many perfons, however, without carrying their good opinion of SOCINUS to an extravagant height, will be disposed to fall in with the reprefentation of his merit by a valuable writer. High, most de

servedly high, as thofe great Reformers ftand, « LUTHER, ZUINGLIUS, and CALVIN, in the book "of fame, FAUSTUS SOCINUS will be found to

rank as high in the book of life, which is of "more confequence; who, for the fake of CHRIST and his Gofpel, left his whole family, fortune, and expectancies, in Italy, and lived a stranger upon earth, in a strange country, irreproachable in his morals, indefatigable in his labours for the "caufe of God's revealed truth, and perfecuted to "the laft

Indeed, if I mistake not, these memoirs will ferve to convince us with what precipitancy men

Theological Repofitory, Vol. i. p, 106, 107.

form