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book_n	find_v	great_a	read_v	2,892	5	5.5522	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28592	A reply to Mr. Edwards's brief reflections on A short discourse of the true knowledge of Christ Jesus, &c. to which is prefixed a preface wherein something is said concerning reason and antiquity in the chief controversies with the Socinians / by S. Bold ...	Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.; Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737. Short discourse of the true knowledge of Christ Jesus.	1697 (1697)	Wing B3486; ESTC R4215	40,346	69

Truth and Modesty by the way I may take notice that Truth and Modesty may pass for two things with some who are not over-fraught with an Opinion of their own innumerable Excellencies and that it would be no inconsiderable Ornament to some Books if much of either were to be found in them in confessing himself to be dull which yet the Reader was convinced of before this Acknowledgment Answ Poor Animadverter well worthy to be pitied who having been at the pains to read over a great many flaunting Pages to find out something that had at least the Appearance of Reason and finding no such thing was forc'd at last to entertain the Reader with a most obvious Truth having the Modesty to appropriate that to himself rather than blame the Author But why should this Omission be so unexcusable and intolerable The Animadverter did not promise to reply to every thing Mr. Edwards had writ in those Books and he did take notice of as much as concerned the one Article If a Man could not modestly lay down his Opinion of the absolute Necessity of believing only that Jesus is the Messias to make a Man a Christian with an intimation that the due Belief of that one Article brought People under an indispensable Obligation to endeavour to know and believe all the other Articles that Christ and his Apostles have taught but immediately an Vnder-puller to Racovianism Turkish Spy and twenty more such sulphureons Eruptions must biaze abroad against him what might be expected if those dainty Strictures the Animadverter hath passed over so gently had been brought under a severe Examination One would think an Author were grown very pettish if he think himself unsufferably affronted when his Books are touched by a Reader who hath not so much Penetration as to perceive Reason where there is none But the Animadverter was not decisive that there was not Reason in those Parts of Mr. Edwards's Books he only acknowledged he did not perceive the Reasons which might lie hid there and left the Reader to try his Skill whether he could find out what had escaped him when he look'd over those Pages Now I have read over those Chapters and Pages the Animadverter past over in such an intolerable and unexcusable manner and can find no more Appearance of Reasoning in them than he did But without any Offence to a piece of Mr. Edwards's one thing I may say I am not so dull but I can perceive in those Chapters and Pages a great many empty Flourishes many obvious Mistakes and a great many things not consistent with strict Reasoning In those Chapters I meet with these and such like Sayings This great Mufty viz. the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath given us a hopeful Draught of Christianity and it was fit the English Reader should know that a Turk according to him is a Christian for he makes the same Faith serve them both The very Devils are capable of all that Faith which he viz. the Author of the Reasonableness c. saith makes a Christian Man He viz. the Author of the Reasonableness c. tells them again and again that a Christian Man or Member of Christ need not know or believe any more than that one individual Point which he mentions Here is an effectual Plot to undermine Stationers-Hall for all Systems and Bodies of Divinity Philosophy c. must be cashier'd whatever looks like System must not be bought or sold This will fall heavy on the Gentlemen of St. Paul 's Church-yard and other Places If other People can perceive any great Strength of Argumentation in these and many like Passages much Good may their Sagacity do them I may be content they should pass for pretty Flowers to enchant the thoughtless but I must decline Truth if I should say I can take them for potent Reasons Mr. Edwards amongst his other Findings seems to have found a piece of Wit where nothing but Truth was intended And tho the same Genius that found out the Wit may hide or spoil it at pleasure the Country-man's Saying was as true as the other which is as much as I was concerned in Yet it may be his Agonistick Effort to spoil the Wit he had espied by jumping from the Steeple of a Church to the Name of a Parish will pass with some for no more than a C Pun. In the next place Mr. Edwards gives a very particular Account whom he understands by Men of Art And indeed he hath exceedingly dignified the Phrase making it synonimous with other Terms which properly denote Persons and Societies for which I have a very profound Veneration I see now he is not at utter Defiance with synonimous Terms provided the word Synonimous be left out I value no Man the less for his having had the Happiness of an Vniversity Education but am very ready to pay unto such all the Respect due to the Characters they have that way acquired and to receive from them all the Instruction my shallow Capacity can admit I have a very great Esteem for all the sober Heads both of our Church and of those who dissent from it in the Point of Discipline and Ceremonies I highly honour the whole Body of Protestant and Reformed Churches abroad as well as at home But whether these are properly to be called Artists in Religion others may determine I use not the Phrase in that Sense I would not disparage any of them to such a degree as I conceive that doth import No I abhor the Thought of imputing to them I reverence so much and so justly that they should be Masters of the Trick of importing and advancing the rate of Countreband Goods in Religion But there are some things in all the Parties I know any thing of which are not of Christ's Institution and there are some Persons in every Party who appear to lay more stress on those things than can be justified so that they seem to appropriate Christianity to themselves and will very hardly allow others to be Members of the Church of Christ who come not up to their Terms These are the Persons on every side I call the Men of Art And if any have a mind to applaud their being in a Confederacy on that account I do not desire to enter into their Secret I affect not any divining Denominations and Characters amongst those who heartily believe Jesus to be the Messias entirely depend on his Merits faithfully submit to his Authority and diligently observe his Laws I prefer the Communion of the Church of England for many Reasons before any other I know in the World yet there are some things relating to her which I do not think to be of her Essence nor indispensably necessary to her truest Advantage and Honour I am not so fond of some of these things as many some Years past appeared to be My Business is not to endeavour to draw People to a Party precisely under that Consideration which imports neither more nor less

A REPLY TO Mr. EDWARDS's Brief REFLECTIONS ON A Short Discourse of the True Knowledg of Christ Jesus c. To which is prefixed A PREFACE Wherein something is said concerning Reason and Antiquity in the chief Controversies with the Socinians By S. Bold Rector of Steeple Dorset One is your Master even Christ Mat. 23.10 London Printed for A. and J. Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-noster-Row 1697. THE PREFACE to the Reader I Have been preaching a considerable time on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians and coming to the 8th Verse of the third Chapter of that Epistle I preached the Sermon on which Mr. Edwards hath bestowed his Reflections I had not any Thoughts of making that Sermon more publick than the other Sermons I had preached on that Epistle till I afterwards found the Proposition laid down in that Sermon most unmercifully traduced by Mr. Edwards in his Books writ against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. The Sermon was published because I thought it did plainly manifest that the Proposition did not impair any of the Doctrines taught in the New Testament but did assert and secure to them all their Authority did preserve them in the Places where Christ had set them and for the Vses for which he intended them The Animadversions were designed to intimate that Mr. Edwards had mistaken or misrepresented the Proposition and to hint that in certain Respects the Considerations Mr. Edwards had offered against the Proposition were deficient But Mr. Edwards hath fancied other things and therefore puts a different Construction on them both I should be inclined to think it something strange that the Proposition discoursed of in the following Papers the Truth of which Proposition the most Ingenious Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath so fully proved from the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles should be so coarsely treated but that I am very well satisfied that there is no great Cause to wonder that even learned and good Men do differ in their Apprehensions about Matters of no small Moment and that neither Learning nor Piety no nor both together are always strong enough in this imperfect Estate to restrain the Fondness Men have for Notions they have a great while espoused from expressing it self in its Natural Dialect The Primitive Christians had a more honourable Esteem of this Proposition when they thought it of much greater Consequence than their Lives The Christians were at first persecuted not so much for any particular Doctrines they professed to believe but for Jesus's Name sake that is for their owning Jesus to be the Messias And afterwards when the Christians were murdered with a more immediate Respect to particular Doctrines they would not renounce because they knew Jesus whom they believed to be the Messias had taught them or would not embrace Doctrines for which there was no Proof that Christ ever taught them it was the Respect they had to Jesus as the Messias that did dignify their Sufferings and advance them to the Crown of Martyrdom The great Point of Anti-Christianism at least next to a professed disowning Jesus to be the Messias consists in setting up an Authority to make any thing a part of Religion which Jesus Christ hath not authorized And the great Malignity of that lies in this that it involves a tacit denying that Jesus is the Messias Those who are of the Opinion that true Christians are obliged to endeavour to encrease extensively in Knowledg and Faith and yet think that the Belief of more Articles than this that Jesus is the Messias is indispensably necessary to make or constitute a Man a Christian may if they consider Matters well perceive that the Notion of the Absolute Necessity of the Belief of more Articles to make a Man a Christian will prove in its just Consequences very injurious to Christ's Authority For those things the Belief whereof doth constitute a Man a Christian must be the Rule and Measure by which he is to judg and determine what he is to endeavour to know and believe So that whatever he can be obliged to endeavour to know and believe by virtue of his being a Christian must have a clear and plain Connection with every one of those Articles which are absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a Christian It s having ever so plain and immediate a Connection with one or two or more of those Articles will not prove he is obliged to believe it if there be yet more Articles the Belief of which was necessary to make him a Christian because it answers not or comes not up to that entire Rule by which he is to judg whether he be obliged to believe it For in that case it falls as really short of answering the Rule by which he is to proceed as a Person 's judging that a due believing that Jesus is the Messias makes a Man a Christian falls short of the Truth if the Belief of more Articles is indispensably necessary to make him a Christian Thus his knowing that Jesus Christ hath revealed such a Doctrine brings him not under an Obligation to believe it but he may notwithstanding that with-hold his Assent If it shall be said that knowing Christ hath revealed it he is by virtue thereof obliged to believe it with respect to the end for which it is revealed I answer that if a due Belief that Jesus is the Messias do not constitute a Man a Christian a Christian is to judg by all that which is necessarily to be believed to constitute him a Christian of his being obliged to believe any Point to any Purpose in Religion for what is necessary for any Purpose in Religion concerns him as he is a Christian and so is not to be judged of by what doth not constitute him a Christian but by what doth constitute him a Christian be that the Belief of more or fewer Articles Mr. Edwards hath thought fit to reproach the Proposition I speak of as a Socinian Doctrine and a way to extirpate the Christian Religion out of the World and to introduce Infidelity But I think it is the only Point that can with full Assurance be advanced and insisted on effectually and with the greatest Ease and Speed to prostrate the Opposers of Christ's Divinity and of the Doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity and to overthrow all the false and corrupt Notions which disfigure the Christian Church yea which do prevail in the World The Doctrines or Articles which Christians are to endeavour to understand and believe are those which are delivered in the New Testament And the Reason why they are to believe the Doctrines which are taught there is the Authority of Jesus considered as the Messias Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messias must assent to the Truth of every Proposition he knows that Jesus hath taught for his Testimony is the Great Evidence of the Truth of those Propositions If any Man pretends to believe that Jesus is