mis-management I have heard objected to you which I cannot wholly excuse you for tho' I dont think it affects the main design of your Work so much as it is imagined by others to do and that is the obscurity of your way of Writing I have often heard it urged as an unpardonable thing for a Man to pretend to go about to prove that there 's nothing in Christianity Mysterious in a Book where every thing is perplex'd and obscure and where common easie Notions are deliver'd in such a manner as to be difficultly understood but especially your Notions of Reason and Evidence and your account of the Original and Progress of our Knowledge which seem to be taken out of a clear Writer were thought to be so confused and so odly sorted together in your Book that it was deem'd impossible for you to play your Game well with so ill a hand upon which occasion it was said that you must go to stock again if you hoped to make any thing of it And indeed I was not able to deny the charge I could not help observing this fault my self tho' I was willing to lay it upon my own Understanding till I found my self oblig'd by the general consent of others to put it to your Account However tho' I have been forced to allow your Book to be obscure and in the Phrase of those that ridicule it Mysterious yet I do and will maintain to any Man that condemns it upon that account that this can be no just prejudice to the Cause you have undertook For if you can but certainly prove that Christianity is not Mysterious 't is no matter how obscure a Style you write in if in clearing and brightning the dark parts of the Christian Religion some obscurity should stick to the hand that does it what Impeachment is that to the Work Or if you should take all the Mysteries out of the Scripture and put them into your Book what 's that to any body 'T is of Importance to have our Religion clear but not your Book And since I have taken this freedom with you give me leave to put you in mind of another thing which I cannot tell how to account for and that is the many Insinuations you have against the Priests as if it was for their Advantage to have Mysteries in the Christian Religion Several things of the same Nature I have met with in other Books that have come out of late and I am puzl'd to know what all the Authors of them mean by their common cry against Priests and laying all the Tricks and Mysteries of Religion at their Doors I desire next time you write you will be so kind as to inform me what good end you propose to your self by a ridiculous Representation of the Order of Priesthood and that perhaps may be a Key to let me into the design of those other Writers I know very well that they are Heathen and Popish Priests that are commonly exposed and insulted in this manner and I do not deny that a great many of them have deserved such usage but why they should be made the common Subject of Railery now in a Country where the Priests have freed themselves from the Bondage of Superstition and Religious Craft where they have reduc'd Religion to its Primitive Standard and constantly propose it to the People in the plainest and most simple Dress this I say looks very odd and seems to have something either of Trick or Mystery in it For my part I never read any one of our English Divines who talks of any Mysteries which upon consulting the Scriptures I did not find to be Mysteries there as well as in his Book and they are generally so far from making Christianity more Mysterious than it is that they are rather guilty of the fault of venturing upon too bold Explications of such things as they are not able to comprehend But pray what Honour or Advantage is there to be got by Mysteries Suppose the Arrian Socinian or as you are pleas'd to distinguish the Vnitarian Doctrines were received here would not they bring in as much Profit and Esteem to the Arian Socinian or Vnitarian Priests as the Orthodox Opinions do to ours I am afraid they would hardly be contented with that scanty Provision which Nineparts in Ten of our Clergy subsist upon What then can be the meaning of so many Jests and Reflections upon the Priests when there is no present apparent likelihood that Heathenism or Popery should prevail among us Such abundance of care and caution as is now used for our Safety and such Zealous Admonitions as are now given us to beware of being trickt and imposed upon when there is no manner of Danger to be perceived looks very impertinent but I can hardly perswade my self that you and so many other as considerable Writers that have appear'd of late in the Defence of our Intellectual Liberty have perfectly thrown away your time and pains and been only very impertinent though I must own I think my self sometimes obliged in Charity to believe so because I cannot otherwise give my self any account of your behaviour without ascribing it to such reasons and motives as I am not willing to judge you acted upon Pardon me therefore I intreat you that I am rather inclined to make a little bold with your understanding and to think you impertinent than to entertain any hard thoughts of your moâ—al Character which every Man ought to be most tender of These are all the Remarks I thought fit to trouble you with upon your Book Intituled Christianity not Mysterious The next thing that appeared in Print which was said to be yours was a Preface to the Lady's Religion but your Name not being to it I am not certain it belong'd to you and upon that account don't think my self obliged to undertake an express Defence of it but shall content my self with making this one observation upon it which if you are the Author will I think in some measure justify you from that untoward consequence some of our zealous Clergy were apt to draw from your raillery upon the Priests viz. That you was a sworn Enemy to their whole Profession For by this Preface if it be yours it is certain that there are some Priests who have the honour of your acquaintance and for whom you have a particular regard and esteem 'T is true indeed you are distinguishing in your respect to Men of that Order and you are very much in the right of it But if you meet with a Man of an unprejudic'd emancipated understanding who is likewise a person of strict integrity and purity of behaviour and of chast severe Morals you make him your Friend and Companion though a Priest and you allow it to be his proper province to teach Morality and who can blame you for giving a preference to Men of such flagrant and extraordinary Merits This is such a proof not only of your judgment but
A DEFENCE OF Mr TOLAND IN A LETTER to Himself A DEFENCE OF Mr TOLAND IN A LETTER to Himself LONDON Printed for E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall MDCXCVII A DEFENCE OF Mr TOLAND IN A LETTER to Himself SIR I Have not the Honour to know you any other way than by your Writings and Character but from thence I have entertain'd such an opinion of you that I thought my self obliged to justify you to the World in such things as I judged capable of any defence and to desire you to undertake your own vindication where I found my self at a loss how to serve you Some time ago you obliged the World with a Book Entitled Christianity not Mysterious which I perceive has given abundance of offence here in England and has drawn upon you the censure of the Irish Parliament I have heard a great many violent things said against this Book by Men of all ranks and conditions and a great many Pens have been ingaged in Writing it down but notwithstanding this mighty dislike People have generally taken to it I am very much disposed to believe that if they had not been too much prejudiced to read it over with due care and attention 〈◊〉 wanted patience to stay for the other parts you promiâ—â—â— they would hardly have conceived such terrible apprehensions of your performance and consequently would have been more moderate in their resentments The chief complaint I have met with is against the Title and Design of the Book 'T is an impudent thing I am told for a Man to publish to the World in huge Capital Letters that Christianity is not Mysterious when all Sects and Parties of Christians have agreed to speak of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion and a design to prove this seems to give tholye to all the Fathers and Writers of the whole Catholick Church and to call them a Company of Ignorant Fellows that did not understand any thing of the Religion they profess This is a severe charge indeed but if you prove your point I think a very unjust one for errours are to be opposed and confuted be they never so ancient and venerable and never so well established in the World nay the longer they have stood and the wider they are spread the more Heroick is the Adventures who lays his Pen to the root of them and has the courage to give the first stroke towards their fall And therefore the main Controversy betwixt you and the two Nations depends entirely upon the proof you have given of what you undertook to demonstrate to the World If then it can be shewn that you have made good all you pretended to prove in your Book you will be in a great measure justifyed as to the design and substance of your Work and we will see what can be said for the management of it afterwards Now I must needs own notwithstanding there are so many eminent Names against me that you have gone a great way towards proving the point you proposed to establish in your Book Christianity not Mysterious is your Title and your profest Design is to make it appear that there are no Mysteries in the Christian Religion but then it is to be remembred that this Title belongs to the whole undertaking which is to consist of three Parts and 't is as certain as any Maxim whatsoever that the design cannot be perfected before the conclusion of the Work All that you take upon you to do in the first part of your Work which is out is to acquaint us with the two different significations of the word Mystery to shew that there are no Mysteries in the Christian Religion according to one sense of the Word and to assure us there are none in the other sense of it with a promise of proving it in the other Parts that are to come and all this with submission to better judgments I humbly conceive you have performed to a tittle For in the first place it must be allowed to be true that the word Mystery does commonly signify either something which we do not understand because it is not discovered to us or something that we cannot comprehend or fully know after it is discovered It is likewise as plain that there can be no Mysteries in Christianity in the first signification of the Word because the whole Christian Religion being Revealed to us in the Scriptures of the New Testament and there being no further Discoveries to be expected it would be very Absurd to say we do not understand any part of the Christian Religion upon the account of its not being Revealed to us and therefore for Men who have this Notion of Mystery to say Christianity is Mysterious is as much as to say Christianity is not Revealed which is so false and unwarrantable a Position and so fully proved to be so by you that I hope hereafter whatever Jews or Deists may say there will be no Christians to be found that will dare to maintain the Mysteriousness of Christianity in this Sense But if we consider Mystery in the other sense of the Word I must confess all the Christians I have hitherto had occasion to Read of or Converse with have thought that there were Mysteries in the Christian Religion Since therefore you appear to be somewhat Singular in your Notions upon this Point if you please we will take a more particular account of the Popular Opinion before we examine yours that so we may be more capable Judges of the difference betwixt them and of the present Controversie that has occasioned Now the common Opinion concerning the Mysteries of the Christian Religion as far as I understand it is in short this That there are a great many things deliver'd to us in the Scriptures of the New Testament which without Revelation from God we should have known nothing at all of and which as they stand there Reveal'd to us we know now but in part Some of them we look upon to be of such a Nature that we are not able in the present state of our Faculties to conceive beyond such a Degree and which we expect a further Comprehension of in another state of more Perfection such as are the Doctrines of the Trinity Incarnation c. others there are which are but in part Reveal'd to us and which we are capable of knowing further in this state if God had been pleased to give us a clearer and fuller Discovery of them such as are the Prophecies contained in the Revelations and other parts of Scripture This is the Vulgar Faith to which yours being directly oppos'd it must be this That there is nothing in Scripture but what is fully discovered to us and what we fully comprehend that we do not now see through a Glass darkly but that we perfectly know even as we are known This is your Opinion and since you have kindly purposed and intended to make it ours too I cannot imagine what reason any body should have to Condemn so
of the sincerity of your intention in every thing you do as puts me in mind of an excuse for those severe things you drop now and then against the Priests which I wanted just before when I was discoursing with you upon this head and that is that you have dealt thus freely with them in general in order to excite the emulation of those of a lower form in worth and bring them up to the same pitch and Character with the Author of the Lady's Religion Your late Apology for your self which is the only thing extant that is certainly yours and remains to be considered is written in such a manner as needs no further Defence You have there sufficiently proved that the Lay-men are as improper judges of Religion as the Priests and that a Parliament is altogether as fallible as a General Council You have there likewise assured the World that you are not to be over ruled by censures or convinced by Arguments that you have as great an acquaintance among the Ladies as among the Men and that Dr. Payne writ the best of any Man that has yet entred the List against you But as to the last of these assertions give me leave to tell you with the same freedom I have all along used that I am not so intirely satisfied of the truth of this as of the former and I the rather give way to my distrusts because I am of Opinion it would be a more compleat Justification of your Book to say that Dr. Payne had as ill success in his attempts upon it as the other Answerers had I must needs say I took the Bp. of Worcester Mr. Norris and the Author of the Occasional Paper to be Men of a superiour Character in Writing but I allow you to have a peculiar tast and discernment in the choice of those Priests you are pleased to favour with your good Word and therefore I inquire no further into the reasons and motives of your liking Dr. Payne All that I have further to observe to you upon your Apology is that you are a little too much concerned for the treatment you have met with in Ireland and too apprehensive of the consequences of it Papist Impostour and head of a new Sect are only terms to flourish with and you need not fear but the Gentlemen who have bestowed this angry Rhetorick upon you when they come to be better acquainted with you and coolly examine their words by the severe rules of Truth will change their language and call in all their false and improper expressions When they consider well what laudable pains you have taken to rid your self of the first errours and prejudices of your Education they may probably be under the temptation to fear lest in throwing off Popery you might strip a little too far and not leave your self quite Religion enough And in truth I can't imagine what ground they could have to suspect you a Papist at all unless it was because you had the peculiar fancy of Printing some part of the Title of your Book in Red Letters and in your Opinion of the Irish understandings that was perhaps occasion enough for such a Charge But those that call'd you Impostour and compared you to Mabomet had a further reach with them which I am not able to fathom However I dare ingage to them that they have no reason to fear you upon any such account for if they will but take care to secure their Old Religion they are in no danger of your imposing a New one upon them for 't is your business to take away and pull down to mend and contract and not to lay any new Foundations where there has been too much Building already This no doubt they will quickly be sensible of as soon as their first transports of Zeal have had their due time of assuaging and therefore you need not trouble your self for such a strange undeserved imputation Neither as I think have you any more occasion to be concerned for that other aspersion of your being mark'd out and designed to be the Ring-leader of a new Sect of Religionists that are to be called after your Name I know you are not superstitious and therefore I need not advise you to give little credit to any Prophecy of this kind and for my part except it had been foretold and the Prediction confirm'd to me by unquestionable signs I cannot believe such a thing will ever come to pass What Mr. Recorder Hancock said in his ingenious Harangue must not be understood rigidly according to the Letter he had heard of a great many Hereticks that ended in ists and ians and he thought it a pretty short way of expressing all the Gentlemen and Ladies in and about Dublin that favoured you with their Conversation to call them Tolandists But this is a liberty that was always allowed to Oratours and therefore you may be sure of keeping your Name within its just dimensions for the future notwithstanding the Recorder of Dublin did once in a Figurative way make bold to add a Syllable to it Thus Sir have I given you my thoughts of your Writings in short I shall add one word or two more concerning your Character and then beg your Pardon for the whole trouble together I have always been of Opinion That the General Character of a Man is the best Interpreter of every thing he says and does and I am very sorry to find I must now be forced to go by a new rule if I take upon me to judge at all of your end and intention in Writing what you have already Printed For upon the best information I have been able to get after a diligent inquiry I find that the common Opinion of the World and even that of your particular acquaintance is such as renders what I am inclined to urge in your Defence perfectly ineffectual And therefore I will take this occasion to acquaint you how the matter stands betwixt me and my Friends when you are the subject of discourse and my charity puts me upon turning up the fairest side of things When they talk of Veracity Breeding Discretion or any such qualifications as those I wave the dispute as being foreign to the purpose But when they tell me you are look'd upon to be a Deist or at best but a narrow scanty Believer of Revelation when they assure me that not only the Priests and some of the bigotted People that are rid by them have this Opinion of you but that the Deists themselves take you to be in their interests that the Libertines are fond of you and caress you as one of their Party against all establisht forms of Religion and that this cannot be only an artifice of theirs to make their strength appear more formidable because you have said such things in their Company as give them sufficient reasons to believe you of their Sentiments When I am pressed hard with such accounts as these my Answer is That 't is very difficult for me to conceive how any Man that owns the least tittle of Natural Religion can publickly and solemnly profess to the World that he is firmly perswaded of the Truth of the Christian Religion and the Scriptures when at the same time he does not really and sincerely believe any thing of them and therefore since you have made such a profession as this I think my self obliged to believe you so far and upon that account I should chuse rather to suppose that your intimate conversation with Deists and Libertines and your seeming compliance with some of their opinions was by a mistaken policy carried on and continued with a design of winning them over to the Christian Faith this I tell them I had much rather imagine than make your behaviour an Argument for calling your own Christianity in question But with some seeming contempt of my Supine Charity they answer me that since I must be forced to call you Fool or Deist they believe you would be best pleased with the latter Title and they wonder I should be so unacquainted with the methods used by the Enemies of our Religion as not to know it is an usual Artifice with them to write booty and to cover themselves with the profession of Religion in order to undermine it more securely and give their impiety an easier vent for the truth of which observation they quote Mr. Blount who in the Oracles of Reason plainly owns himself a Deist and yet when he published his Philostratus he would have pretended to take it very ill if you had said he was not in earnest in all the encomiums he there bestows upon the Christian Religion and his Blessed Saviour though at the same time it was his design to have you believe him not in earnest Something I remember I said to this but you being the best judge of your own intention and the necessity of your own vindication in this matter I shall leave the further reply to you Excuse me Sir for having detained you thus long with a Defence which perhaps you may not very well like though never so well meant But I thought I could not doe you such impartial justice to the World if I had shewed my self so blind and passionate a Friend as to over-look all faults and justify every thing with the same degree of Zeal I am afraid my particular conduct in this matter so different from the usual behaviour of those who ingage in the service of a Friend or a cause may give occasion to some to suspect that instead of defending you I have been exposing you all this while to your Adversaries and the same nice-jealousy you know some people have entertained of several that have seemingly writ in the Defence of Religion but I can assure them that their suspicions are as ill-grounded here as there To be serious and plain with you I have made as good a Defence for you as I could for my life and though I think at present 't is as good as the subject will bear yet I heartily wish you may make a better for your self in expectation of which I profess my self Sir Your most humble Servant FINIS