pleased to dose it no more nor no less than what is in his System He hath put himself into the Throne of Christ and pretends to tell you which are and which are not the indispensable Laws of his Kingdom Which parts of his divine Revelation you must necessarily know understand and believe and in what sense and which you need not trouble your head about but may pass by as not necessary to be believed He will tell you that some of his necessary Articles are Mysteries and yet as he does p. 115. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism that they are easy to be understood by any Man when explained to him In answer to that I demanded of him who was to explain them The Papists I told him would explain some of them one way and the Reformed another The Remonstrants and Anti-remonstrants give them different senses And probably the Trinitarians and Unitarians will profess that they understand not each other 's Explications But to this in his reply he has not vouchsafed to give me any answer Which yet I expect and I will tell him why Because as there are different Explainers there will be different Fundamentals And therefore unless he can shew his Authority to be the sole Explainer of Fundamentals he will in vain make such a pudder about his Fundamentals Another Explainer of as good Authority as he will set up others against them And what then shall we be the better for all this stir and noise of Fundamentals And I desire it may be consider'd how much of the Divisions in the Church and bloody Persecutions amongst Christians has been owing to Christianity thus set up against Christianity in multiplied Fundamentals and Articles made necessary by the Infallibility of opposite Systems The Unmasker's Zeal wants nothing but Power to make good his to be the only Christianity for he has found the Apostles Creed to be defective He is as infallible as the Pope and another as infallible as he and where Humane Additions are made to the Terms of the Gospel Men seldom want Zeal for what is their own To conclude What was sufficient to make a Man a Christian in our Saviour's time is sufficient still viz. the taking him for our King and Lord ordained so by God What was necessary to be believed by all Christians in our Saviour's time as an indispensable Duty which they owed to their Lord and Master was the believing all divine Revelation as far as every one could understand it And just so it is still neither more nor less This being so the Unmasker may make what use he pleases of his Notion That Christianity was erected by Degrees it will no way in that sence in which it is true turn to the advantage of his select Fundamental necessary Doctrines The next Chapter has nothing in it but his great Bug-bear whereby he hopes to fright People from Reading my Book by crying out Socinianism Socinianism Whereas I challenge him again to shew one word of Socinianism in it But however it is worth while to write a Book to prove me a Socinian Truly I did not think my self so considerable that the World need be troubled about me whether I were a follower of Socinus Arminius Calvin or any other Leader of a Sect amongst Christians A Christian I am sure I am because I believe Iesus to be the Messiah the King and Saviour promised and sent by God And as a Subject of his Kingdom I take the rule of my Faith and Life from his Will declar'd and left upon Record in the inspired Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists in the New Testament Which I endeavour to the utmost of my power as is my Duty to understand in their true sense and meaning To lead me into their true meaning I know as I have above declar'd no infallible Guide but the same Holy Spirit from whom these Writings at first came If the Unmasker knows any other infallible Interpreter of Scripture I desire him to direct me to him Till then I shall think it according to my Master's Rule not to be called nor to call any Man on Earth Master No Man I think has a right to prescribe to my Faith or Magisterially to impose his Interpretations or Opinions on me Nor is it material to any one what mine are any farther than they carry their own Evidence with them If this which I think makes me of no Sect entitles me to the Name of a Papist or a Socinian because the Unmasker thinks these the worst and most invidious he can give me and labours to fix them on me for no other reason but because I will not take him for my Master on Earth and his System for my Gospel I shall leave him to recommend himself to the World by this Skill who no doubt will have reason to thank him for the rareness and subtility of his Discovery For I think I am the first Man that ever was found out to be at the same time a Socinian and a Factor for Rome But what is too hard for such an Unmasker I must be what he thinks fit When he pleases a Papist and when he pleases a Socinian and when he pleases a Mahometan And probably when he has consider'd a little better an Atheist for I hardly scaped it when he writ last My Book he says hath a tendency to it and if he can but go on as he has done hitherto from Surmises to Certainties by that time he writes next his Discovery will be advanced and he will certainly find me an Atheist Only one thing I dare assure him of that he shall never find that I treat the things of God or Religion so as if I made only a Trade or a Jest of them But let us now see how at present he proves me a Socinian His first Argument is my not answering for my leaving out Matth. XXVIII 19. and Iohn I. 1. Pag. 82. of his Socinianism Unmask'd This he takes to be a Confession that I am a Socinian I hope he means fairly and that if it be so on my side it must be taken for a standing Rule between us that where any thing is not answer'd it must be taken for granted And upon that score I must desire him to remember some Passages of my Vindication which I have already and others which I shall mind him of hereafter which he passed over in Silence and hath had nothing to say to which therefore by his own rule I shall desire the Reader to observe that he has granted This being premised I must tell the Unmasker that I perceive he reads my Book with the same Understanding that he writes his own If he had done otherwise he might have seen that I had given him a reason for my omission of those two and other plain and obvious Passages and famous Testimonies in the Evangelists as he calls them where I say p. 11. That if I have leâ—t out none of those Passages or
A SECOND VINDICATION OF THE Reasonableness OF Christianity c. By the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. LONDON Printed for A. and I. Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row and Edward Castle next Scotland-Yard-Gate by White-Hall 1697. PREFACE TO THE READER IT hath pleased Mr. Edwards in Answer to the Reasonableness of Christianity c. and its Vindication to turn one of the most weighty and important Points that can come into Question Even no less than the very Fundamentals of the Christian Religion into a meer Quarrel against the Author as every one with Mr. Bold may observe In my Reply to him I have endeavour'd as much as his Objections would allow me to bring him to the Subject matter of my Book and the merits of the Cause Though his peculiar way of writing Controversie has made it necessary for me in following him step by step to wipe off the Dirt he has thrown on me and clear my self from those Falshoods he has filled his Book with This I could not but do in dealing with such an Antagonist that by the Vntruths I have proved upon him the Reader may judge of those other Allegations of his whereof the Proof lying on his side the bare Denial is enough on mine and indeed are wholly nothing to the Truth or Falshood of what is contain'd in my Reasonableness of Christianity c. To which I shall desire the Reader to add this further Consideration from his way of Writing not against my Book but against me for writing it That if he had had a Real concern for Truth and Religion in this Dispute he would have treated it after another manner And we should have had from him more Argument Reasoning and Clearness and less Boasting Declamation and Railing It has been unavoidable for me to take notice of a great deal of this sort of Stuff in answering a Writer who has very little else to say in the Controversie and places his strength in things besides the Question But yet I have been so careful to take all Occasions to eâ—â—lain the Doctrine of my Book that I hope the Reader will not think his Pains wholly lost labour in perusing this Reply wherein he will find some further and I hope satisfying Account concerning the Writings of the New Testament and the Christian Religion contained in it Mr. Edward's ill Language which I thought personally to me though I knew not how I had Provoked a Man whom I had never had to do with I am now satisfied by his Rude and Scurrilous treating of Mr. Bold is his Way and Strength in Management of Controversie And therefore requires a little more Consideration in this Disputant than otherwise it would deserve Mr. Bold with the Calmness of a Christian the Gravity of a Divine the Clearness of a Man of Parts and the Civility of a well bred Man made some Animadversions on his Socinianism Unmask'd Which with a Sermon Preach'd on the same Subject with my Reasonableness of Christianity he Published And how he has been used by Mr. Edwards let the World judge I was extreamly surprized with Mr. Bold's Book at a time when there was so great an Outcry against mine on all hands But it seems he is a Man that does not take up things upon Hearsay nor is afraid to own Truth whatever Clamor or Calumny it may lie under Mr. Edwards confidently tells the World that Mr. Bold has been drawn in to espouse this Cause upon base and mean Considerations Whose Picture of the two such a Description is most likely to give us I shall leave to the Reader to judge from what he will find in their Writings on this Subject For as to the Persons themselves I am equally a Stranger to them both I know not the Face of either of them And having hitherto never had any Communication with Mr. Bold I shall begin with him as I did with Mr. Edwards in Print and here publickly return him this following Acknowledgment for what he has Printed in this Controversie To Mr. Bold SIR THough I do not think I ought to return Thanks to any one for being of my Opinion any more than to fall out with him for differing from me Yet I cannot but own to all the World the Esteem that I think is due to you for that Proof you have given of a Mind and Temper becoming a true Minister of the Gospel in appearing as you have done in the Defence of a point a great point of Christianity which it is evident you could have no other temptation to dedeclare for but the love of Truth It has fared with you herein no better than with me For Mr. Edwards not being able to Answer your Arguments has found out already that you are a Mercenary defending a Cause against your Perswasion for hire and that you are sailing to Racovia by a side Wind Such Inconsistencies can one whose Business it is to Rail for a Cause he cannot defend put together to make a noise with And he tells you plainly what you must expect if you write any more on this Argument viz. to be pronounced a downright Apostate and Renegado As soon as I saw your Sermon and Animadversions I wonder'd what Scare-Crow Mr. Edwards would set up wherewith he might hope to deterr Men of more Caution than Sense from reading of them Since Socinianism from which you were known to be as remote as he I concluded would not do The unknown Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity he might make a Socinian Mahometan Atheist or what sort of Raw-head and Bloody-bones he pleased But I imagined he had had more sence than to venture any such Aspersions on a Man whom though I have not yet the Happiness personally to know yet I know hath justly a great and settled Reputation amongst worthy Men And I thought that that Coat which you had worn with so much Reputation might have preserved you from the bespatterings of Mr. Edward's Dunghil But what is to be expected from a Warrier that hath no other Ammunition and yet ascribes to himself Victory from hence and with this Artillery imagines he carries all before him And so Skimmington Rides in Triumph driving all before him by the Ordures that he bestows on those that come in his way And were not Christianity concerned in the case a Man could scarce excuse to himself the Ridiculousness of entering into the List with such a Combatant I do not therefore wonder that this mighty Boaster having no other way to Answer the Books of his Opponents but by popular Calumnies is fain to have recourse to his only Refuge and lay out his natural Talent in Vilifying and Slandering the Authors But I see by what you have already writ how much you are above that and as you take not up your Opinions from Fashion or Interest so you quit them not to avoid the malicious Reports of those that do Out of which number they can hardly be left
of any Argument that remains in his Book to be Answer'd But a great part of the World judging of Contests about Truth as they do of popular Elections that the Side carries it where the greatest Noise is 't was necessary they should be undeceived and be let see that sometimes such Writers may be let alone not because they cannot but because they deserve not to be answer'd This farther I ought to Acknowledge to Mr. Bold and own to the World that he hath entered into the true sence of my Treatise and his Notions do so perfectly agree with mine that I shall not be afraid by Thoughts and Expressions very like his in this my Second Vindication to give Mr. Edwards who is exceedingly quick-sighted and positive in such Matters a handle to tell the World that either I borrowed this my Vindication from Mr. Bold or writ his Animadversions for him The former of these I shall count no discredit if Mr. Edwards think fit to charge me with it And the latter Mr. Bold's Character is Answer enough to Though the Impartial Reader I doubt not will find that the same Vniform Truth consider'd by us suggested the same Thoughts to us both without any other Communication There is another Author who in a Civiller Stile hath made it necessary for me to Vindicate my Book from a Reflection or two of his wherein he seems to come short of that Candor he Professes All that I shall say on this Occasion here is that it is a wonder to me that having published what I thought the Scripture told me was the Faith that made a Christian and desired that if I was mistaken any one that thought so would have the goodness to inform me better so many with their Tongues and some in Print should intemperately find fault with a poor Man out of his Way who desires to be set right and no one who blames his Faith as coming short will tell him what that Faith is which is required to make him a Christian. But I hope that amongst so many Censurers I shall at last find one who knowing himself to be a Christian upon other Grounds than I am will have so much Christian Charity as to shem me what more is absolutely necessary to be believed by me and every Man to make him a Christian. ERRATA PAge â—6 line 22. read Are in the Apostles Creed set down as mâ—â—e â— 2â— r. and therefore may p. 46. l. 8. dele And in the next place wherâ— it iâ— that I say VIII That there must be nothing in Christianity that is not plain and exactly level to all mens Mother Wit p. 57. l. 20. r. Mistake p. 76. l. 25. r Enquiry p. 10â— l. 21. r. needs l. 22. r. needs p. 113. l. 1. r. Premissâ—s p. 146. l. 3. r. Scâ—rrâ—ity p. 167. l. 21. r. pâ—rpâ—sâ— which I p. 17â— l. 9. r. distinction p. 179. l. 3. r. baptizes him p. 181. l. 2. r. in the Vnmas p. 186. l. 5. r. Creed do not p. 228. l. 3. r. Gentleman p. 258. l. â— r. Article p. 260. l. 26. r Of the Doctrines p. 269. l. 21. r. St. Peter Preach'd l. 24. r. as well as he p. â—71 l. 19. r. inserted p. 316. l. 16. r. them but has p. 337. l. 13. r but what we understand p. 356. l. 1â— r. in them granted all I would have And shall not meddle with his spâ—â—king closely and strictly but l. 23. r bespatter'd p. 379. l. 11. r. sense and love p. 399. l. 2. r. Apostles p. 413. l. 2â— r. Sacrament p. 417. l. 18. r. mangleâ— p. 420. l. 10. r. a dangerous p. 432. l. 10. r. to which p. 433. l. 14. r. â—nanswerable l. 22. r. above four Pages p. 438. l. 3. believes all p. 451. l. 9. r. and to proceed l. 11. go for Payment should be in Roman Characteâ—â— p. 47â— l. 16. r have l. 17. â— these Questions A Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. A Cause that stands in need of Falshoods to support it and an Adversary that will make use of them deserve nothing but Contempt which I doubt not but every considerate Reader thought Answer enough to Mr. Edwards's Socinianism Unmask'd But since in his late Socinian Creed he says I would have answer'd him if I could That the Interest of Christianity may not suffer by my silence nor the contemptibleness of his Treatise afford him matter of Triumph amongst those who lay any weight on such boasting 't is fit it should be shewn what an Arguer he is and how well he deserves for his Performance to be dubb'd by himself Irrefragable Those who like Mr. Edwards dare to publish Inventions of their own for Matters of Fact deserve a name so abhorr'd that it finds not room in civil Conversation This secures him from the proper Answer due to his Imputations to me in Print of Matters of Fact utterly false which without any Reply of mine fix upon him that Name which without a profligate Mind a Man cannot expose himself to till he hath proved them Till then he must wear what he has put upon himself This being a Rule which common Justice hath prescribed to the private Judgments of Mankind as well as to the publick Judicatures of Courts That all Allegations of Fact brought by contending Parties should be presum'd to be false till they are proved There are two ways of making a Book unanswerable The one is by the clearness strength and fairness of the argumentation Men who know how to write thus are above bragging what they have done or boasting to the World that their Adversaries are baâ—â—led Another way to make a Book unanswerable is to lay stress on Matters of Fact foreign to the Question as well as to Truth and to stuff it with Scurrility and Fiction This hath been always so evident to common sense that no Man who had any regard to Truth or Ingenuity ever thought Matters of Fact besides the Argument and Stories made at pleasure the way of managing Controversies Which shewing only the want of Sense and Argument could if used on both sides and in nothing but downright railing And he must always have the better of the Cause who has Lying and Impudence on his side The Unmasker in the Entrance of his Book sâ—ts a great distance between his and my way of Writing I am not sorry that mine differs so much as it does from his If it were like his I should think like his it wanted the Author's Commendations For in his first Paragraph which is all laid out in his own Testimony of his own Book he so earnestly besâ—eaks an opinion of Mastery in Politeness Order Coherence Pertinence Strength Seriousness Temper and all the good Qualities requisite in Controversie that I think since he pleases himself so much with his own good opinion one in pity ought not to go about to rob him of so considerable an Admirer I shall not therefore contest any of those
Apostles if they were but ordinarily fair and prudent Men did in an History publish'd to instruct the World in a new Religion leave out the necessary and Fundamental parts of that Religion But let them be consider'd as inspired Writers under the Conduct of the infallible Spirit of God putting them upon and directing them in the writing of this History of the Gospel and then it is impossible for any Christian but the Unmasker to think that they made any such gross Omissions contrary to the design of their Writing without a Demonstration to convince him of it Now all the reason that our Unmasker gives is this That it is confessed by all intelligent and observing Men that the History of the Scripture is concise and that in relating Matters of Fact many Passages are omitted by the Sacred Penmen Answ. The Unmasker might have spar'd the Confession of intelligent and observing Men after so plain a Declaration of St. Iohn himself Chap. XX. 31. Many other things did Iesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book And again XXI 25. There are also many other things that Iesus did the which if they should be written every one I suppose the world could not contain the Books that should be written There needs therefore no opinion of intelligent and observing Men to convince us that the History of the Gospel is so far Concise that a great many Matters of Fact are omitted and a great many less material Circumstances even of those that are set down But will any intelligent or observing Man any one that bears the Name of a Christian have the Impudence to say that the inspired Writers in the relation they give us of what Christ and his Apostles Preach'd to Unbelievers to convert them to the Faith omitted the Fundamental Articles which those Preachers proposed to make Men Christians and without a belief of which they could not be Christians The Unmasker talks after his wonted fashion seems to say something which when examin'd proves nothing to his Purpose He tells us That in some places where the Article of Iesus the Messiah is mention'd alone at the same time other matters of Faith were proposed I ask were these other matters of Faith all the Unmasker's necessary Articles If not what are those other matters of Faith to the Unmasker's Purpose As for Example in St. Peter's Sermon Act. II. Other matters of Faith were proposed with the Article of Iesus the Messiah But what does this make for His Fundamental Articles Were They all propos'd with the Articles of Iesus the Messiah If not Unbelievers were converted and brought into the Church without the Unmasker's necessary Articles Three Thousand were added to the Church by this one Sermon I pass by now St. Luke's not mentioning a Syllable of the greatest part of the Unmasker's necessary Articles and shall consider only how long that Sermon may have been 'T is plain from v. 15. that it began not till about Nine in the Morning and from v. 41. that before Night Three Thousand were converted and Baptized Now I ask the Unmasker whether so small a Number of Hours as St. Peter must necessarily imploy in Preaching to them were sufficient to instruct such a mixed Multitude so fully in all those Articles which he has propos'd as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian as that every one of those Three Thousand that were that day Baptized did understand and explicitly believe every one of those his Articles just in the sense of our Unmasker's System Not to mention those remaining Articles which the Unmasker will not be able in twice as many Months to find and declare to us He says That in some places where the Article of Iesus the Messiah is mentioned alone at the same time other matters of Faith were proposed Let us take this for so at present yet this helps not the Unmasker's case The Fundamental Articles that were propos'd by our Saviour and his Apostles necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are not set down but only this single one of Iesus the Messiah Therefore will any one dare to say that they are omitted every where by the Evangelists Did the Historians of the Gospel make their relation so concise and short that giving an account in so many places of the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles for the Conversion of the Unbelieving World they did not in any one place nor in in all of them together set down the necessary Points of that Faith which their Unbelieving Hearers were converted to If they did not how can their Histories be called the Gospels of Iesus Christ Or how can they serve to the end for which they were written Which was to publish to the World the Doctrine of Iesus Christ that Men might be brought into his Religion Now I challenge the Unmasker to shew me not out of any one place but out of all the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles recorded in the four Gospels and the Acts all those Propositions which he has reckon'd up as Fundamental Articles of Faith If they are not to be found there 't is plain that either they are not Articles of Faith necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian or else that those inspired Writers have given us an account of the Gospel or Christian Religion wherein the greatest part of Doctrines necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian are wholly omitted Which in short is to say that the Christianity which is recorded in the Gospels and the Acts is not that Christianity which is sufficient to make a Man a Christian. This as absurd and impious as it is is what our Unmasker charges upon the Conciseness as he is pleased to call it of the Evangelical History And this we must take upon his word Though these inspired Writers tell us the direct contrary For St. Luke in his Preface to his Gospel tells Theophilus that having a perfect knowledge OF ALL THINGS the Design of his Writing was to set them in order that he might know the certainty of those things that were believed amongst Christians And his History of the Acts begins thus The former Treatise i. e. his Gospel have I made O Theophilus of ALL that Iesus began to do and to teach So that how concise soever the Unmasker will have his History to be he professes it to contain ALL that Jesus taught Which ALL must in the narrowest sense that can be given it contain at least all things necessary to make a Man a Christian. 'T would else be a very lame and imperfect History of ALL that Jesus taught if the Faith contained in it were not sufficient to make a Man a Christian. This indeed as the Unmasker hath been pleased to term it would be a very lank Faith a very lank Gospel St. Iohn also says thus of his History of the Gospel Ch. XX. 30 31. Many other signs truly did Iesus in
who unprovoked mix with the management of their Cause Injuries and ill Language to those they differ from This at least I am sure Zeal or Love for Truth can never permit Falshood to be used in the Defence of it Your Mind I see prepar'd for Truth by resignation of it self not to the Traditions of Men but the Doctrine of the Gospel has made you more readily entertain and more easily enter into the meaning of my Book than most I have heard speak of it And since you seem to me to comprehend what I have laid together with the same Disposition of Mind and in the same Sence that I received it from the Holy Scriptures I shall as a mark of my respect to you give you a particular Account of the Occasion of it The Beginning of the Year in which it was Published the Controversie that made so much noise and heat amongst some of the Dissenters coming one Day accidentally into my Mind drew me by degrees into a stricter and more through Enquiry into the Question about Justification The Scripture was direct and plain that 't was Faith that justified The next Question then was what Faith that was that justified What it was which if a Man believed it should be imputed to him for Righteousness To find out this I thought the right way was to Search the Scriptures and thereupon betook my self seriously to the Reading of the New Testament only to that Purpose What that produced you and the World have seen The first View I had of it seem'd mightily to satisfie my mind in the Reasonableness and Plainness of this Doctrine But yet the general Silence I had in my little Reading met with concerning any such thing awed me with the Apprehension of Singularity Till going on in the Gospel History the whole tenour of it made it so clear and visible that I more wonder'd that every body did not see and imbrace it than that I should assent to what was so plainly laid down and so frequently inculcated in Holy Writ though Systems of Divinity said nothing of it That which added to my Satisfaction was that it led me into a Discovery of the marvellous and divine Wisdom of our Saviour's Conduct in all the Circumstances of his promulgating this Doctrine as well as of the necessity that such a Law-giver should be sent from God for the reforming the Morality of the World Two Points that I must confess I had not found so fully and advantageously explain'd in the Books of Divinity I had met with as the History of the Gospel seem'd to me upon an attentive Perusal to give Occasion and Matter for But the Necessity and Wisdom of our Saviour's opening the Doctrine which he came to publish as he did in Parables and figurative ways of speaking carries such a Thread of Evidence through the whole History of the Evangelists as I think is impossible to be resisted and makes it a Demonstration that the Sacred Historians did not write by concert as Advocates for a bad Cause or to give Colour and Credit to an Imposture they would Usher into the World Since they every one of them in some place or other omit some Passages of our Saviour's Life or Circumstances of his Actions which shew the Wisdom and Wariness of his Conduct and which even those of the Evangelists who have recorded do barely and transiently mention without laying any Stress on them or making the least remark of what Consequence they are to give us our Saviour's true Character and to prove the Truth of their History These are Evidences of Truth and Sincerity which result alone from the Nature of things and cannot be produced by any Art or Contrivance How much I was pleased with the growing Discovery every Day whilst I was employed in this search I need not say The wonderful Harmony that the farther I went disclosed it self tending to the same Points in all the parts of the sacred History of the Gospel was of no small Weight with me and another Person who every Day from the beginning to the end of my search saw the Progress of it and knew at my first setting out that I was ignorant whither it would lead me and therefore every Day asked me what more the Scripture had taught me So far was I from the thoughts of Socinianism or an Intention to write for that or any other Party or to publish any thing at all But when I had gone through the whole and saw what a plain simple reasonable thing Christianity was suited to all Conditions and Capacities and in the Morality of it now with divine Authority established into a legible Law so far surpassing all that Philosophy and humane Reason had attain'd to or could possibly make effectual to all degrees of Mankind I was flatter'd to think it might be of some use in the World especially to those who thought either that there was no need of Revelation at all or that the Revelation of our Saviour required the Belief of such Articles for Salvation which the settled Notions and their way of reasoning in some and want of Understanding in others made impossible to them Upon these two Topicks the Objections seemed to turn which were with most Assurance made by Deists against Christianity But against Christianity misunderstood It seem'd to me that there needed no more to shew them the Weakness of their Exceptions but to lay plainly before them the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles as delivered in the Scriptures and not as taught by the several Sects of Christians This tempted me to publish it not thinking it deserved an Opposition from any Minister of the Gospel and least of all from any one in the Communion of the Church of England But so it is that Mr. Edwards's Zeal for he knows not what for he does not yet know his own Creed nor what is required to make him a Christian could not brook so plain simple and intelligible a Religion But yet not knowing what to say against it and the Evidence it has from the Word of God he thought fit to let the Book alone and fall upon the Author What great Matter he has done in it I need not tell you who have seen and shew'd the Weakness of his Wranglings You have here Sir the true History of the Birth of my Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures and my Design in publishing it c. What it contains and how much it tends to Peace and Union amongst Christians if they would receive Christianity as it is you have discovered I am SIR Your most humble Servant A. B. My Readers will pardon me that in my Preface to them I make this particular Address to Mr. Bold He hath thought it worth his while to defend my Book How well he has done it I am too much a Party to say I think it so sufficient to Mr. Edwards that I needed not have troubled my self any further about him on the account
Integral Parts of the Christian Faith any more than the Head the Trunk and the Arms Hands and Thighs are the Integral Parts of a Man For a Man is not entire without the Legs and Feet too They are some of the Integral Parts indeed But cannot be called the Integral Parts where any that go to make up the whole Man are lâ—ft out Nor those the Integral but some of the Integral Parts of the Christian Faith out of which any of the Doctrines proposed in the New Testament are omitted For whatever is there proposed is proposed to be believed and so is a part of the Christian Faith Before I leave his Catalogue of the Essential and Integral Parts of the Gospel which he has given us instead of one containing the Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian I must take notice of what he says whilst he is making it p. 9. Why then is there a Treatise publish'd to tell the World that the bare belief of a Messiah is all that is required of a Christian. As if there were no difference between believing a Messiah and believing Iesus to be the Messiah No difference between required of a Christian and required to make a Man a Christian. As if you should say renouncing his former Idolatry and being Circumcised and Baptized into Moses was all that was required to make a Man an Israelite Therefore it was all that was required of an Israelite For these two Falshoods has he in this one short Sentence thought fit slily to Father upon me the humble imitator of the Iesuits as he is pleased to call me And therefore I must desire him to shew XIII Where the World is told in the Treatise that I publish'd That the bare belief of a Messiah is all that is required of a Christian The Six next Pages i. e. from 28. to the End of his Second Chapter being taken up with nothing but Pulpit Oratory out of its place and without any reply apply'd or applicable to any thing I have said in my Vindication I shall pass by till he shews any thing in them that is so In pag. 36. This Giant in Argument falls on me and mauls me unmercifully about the Epistles He begins thus The Gentleman is not without his Evasions and he sees it is high time to make use of them This puts him in some disorder For when he comes to speak of my mentioning his ill treatment of the Epistles you may observe that he begins to grow warmer than before Now this meek Man is nettled and one may perceive he is sensible of the Scandal that he hath given to good People by his slighting the Epistolary Writings of the Holy Apostles yet he is so cunning as to disguise his Passion as well as he can Let all this impertinent and inconsistent stuff be so I am angry and cannot disguise it I am cunning and would disguise it But yet the quick-sighted Unmasker has found me out that I am nettled What does all this notable Prologue of Hictius Doctius of a Cunning Man and in effect no Cunning Man in disorder warm'd nettled in a passion tend to but only to shew that these following words of mine p. 19. of my Vindication viz. I require you to publish to the World those Passages which shew my contempt of the Epistles are so full of heat and disorder that they need no other Answer But what need I good Sir do this when you have done it your self A Reply I own very soft and whether I may not say very silly let the Reader judge The Unmasker having accused me of contemning the Epistles my Reply in my Vindicat. p. 19. was thus Sir when your Angry Fit is over and the abatement of your Passion has given way to the return of your Sincerity I shall beg you to read this Passage in the 297. p. of my Book These holy Writers viz. the Penmen of the Epistles inspired from above writ nothing but Truth and in most places very weighty Truths to us now for the expounding clearing and confirming of the Christian Doctrine and establishing those in it who had imbraced it And again p. 299. the other Parts i. e. besides the Gospels and the Acts of DIVINE REVELATION are Objects of Faith and are so to be received They are Truths of which none that is once known to be such i. e. revealed may or ought to be disbelieved And if this does not satisfie you that I have as high a Veneration for the Epistles as you or any one can have I require you to publish to the World those PASSAGES which shew my contempt of them After such direct words of mine expressing my veneration for that part of Divine Revelâ—â—on which is contain'd in the Epistles any one but an Unmasker would blush to charge me with contempt of them without alledging when summon'd to it any word in my Book to justifie that charge If hardness of Forehead were strength of Brains 't were two to one of his side against any Man I ever yet heard of I require him to publish to the World those Passages that shew my contempt of the Epistles and he answers me he need not do it for I have done it my self Whoever had common sense would understand that what I demanded was that he should shew the World where amongst all I had published there were any Passages that expressed contempt of the Epistles For it was not expected he should quote Passages of mine that I had never published And this accute Unmasker to this says I had published them my self So that the reason why he cannot find them is because I have published them my self But says he I appeal to the Reader whether after your tedious Collections out of the four Evangelists your passing by the Epistles and neglecting wholly what the Apostles say in them be not publishing to the World your contempt of them I demand of him to publish to the World those Passages which shew my contempt of the Epistles And he answers he need not I have done it my self How does that appear I have passed by the Epistles says he My passing them by then are Passages published against the Epistles For publishing of Passages is what you said you need not do and what I had done So that the Passages I have published containing a contempt of the Epistles are extant in my saying nothing of them Surely this same passing by has done some very shrewd displeasure to our poor Unmasker that he so starts whenever it is but named and cannot think it contains less than Exclusion Defiance and Contempt Here therefore the Proposition remaining to be proved by you is XIV That one cannot pass by any thing without contempt of it And when you have proved it I shall then ask you what will become of all those parts of Scripturâ— all those Chapters and Verses that you have passed by in your Collection of Fundamental Articles Those that you have
vouchsafed to set down you tell us are in the Bible on purpose to be believed What must become of all the rest which you have omitted Are they there not to be believed And must the Reader understand your passing them by to be a publishing to the World your contempt of them If so you have Unmasked your self If not but you may pass by some parts of Scripture nay whole Epistles as you have those of St. Iames and St. Iude without contempt Why may not I without contempt pass by others But because you have a liberty to do what you will and I must do but what you in your good pleasure will allow me But if I ask you whence you have this Privilege above others You will have nothing to say except it be according to your usual Skill in Divining that you know my Heart and the Thoughts that are in it which you find not like yours right and orthodox and good But always evil and perverse such as I dare not own but hypocritically either say nothing of or declare against But yet with all my cunning I cannot hide them from you your all knowing penetration always finds them out You know them or you guess at them as is best for your turn and that 's as good And then presently I am confounded I doubt whether the World has ever had any two-eyed Man your equal for penetration and a quick sight The telling by the Spectators looks what Card he guesses is nothing to what you can do You take the heighth of an Author's Parts by numbring the Pages of his Book You can spy an Heresy in him by his saying not a syllable of it Distinguish him from the Orthodox by his understanding places of Scripture just as several of the Orthodox do You can repeat by heart whole Leaves of what is in his Mind to say before he speaks a word of it You can discover Designs before they are hatch'd and all the Intrigues of carrying them on by those who never thought of them All this and more you can do by the Spirit of Orthodoxy or which is as certain by your own good Spirit of Invention informing you Is not this to be an errant Conjurer But to your Reply You say after my TEDIOUS Collection out of the four Evangelists my passing by the Epistles and neglecting wholly what the Apostles say c. I wondred at first why you mention'd not the Acts here as well as the four Evangelists For I have not as you have in other places observed been sparing of Collections out of the Acts too But there was it seems a Necessity here for your omitting it For that would have stood too near what followed in these words and neglecting wholly what the Apostles say For if it appear'd to the Reader out of your own Confession that I allowed and built upon the Divine Authority of what the Apostles say in the Acts he could not so easily be mislead into an Opinion that I contemned what they say in their Epistles But this is but a slight touch of your Leger-de-main And now I ask the Reader what he will think of a Minister of the Gospel who cannot bear the Texts of Scripture I have produced nor my Quotations out of the four Evangelists This which in his Thoughts of the Causes of Atheism p. 114. was want of Vivacity and Elevation of Mind want of a Vein of Sense and Reason yea and of Elocution too is here in his Socinianism Unmask'd a tedious Collection out of the four Evangelists Those places I have quoted lie heavy it seems upon his Stomach and are too many to be got off But it was my business not to omit one of them that the Reader might have a full view of the whole tenour of the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to the Unconverted Iews and Gentiles and might therein see what Faith they were Converted to and upon their assent to which they were pronounced Believers and admitted into the Christian Church But the Unmasker complains there are too many of them He thinks the Gospel the good News of Salvation tedious from the Mouth of our Saviour and his Apostles He is of opinion That before the Epistles were writ and without believing precisely what he thinks â—it to cull out of them there could be no Christians And if we had nothing but the four Evangelists we could not be saved And yet 't is plain that every single one of the Four contains the Gospel of Iesus Christ and at least they all together contain all that is necessary to Salvation If any one doubt of this I referr him to Mr. Chillingworth for Satisfaction who hath abundantly proved it His following words were he not the same Unmasker all through would be beyond Parallel But let us hear why the Vindicator did not attempt to Collect any Articles out of these Writings He assigns this as one Reason The Epistles being writ to those who were already Believers it could not be supposed that they were writ to them to teach them Fundamentals p. 13 14. Vindic. Certainly no Man would have conjectured that he would have used such an Evasion as this I will say that for him he goes beyond all surmises he is above all Conjectures he hath a faculty which no Creature on Earth can ever fathom Thus far the Unmasker in his Oratorical strain In what follows he comes to his closer reasoning against what I had said His words are Do we not know that the four Gospels were writ to and for Believers as well as Unbelievers Answ. I grant it Now let us see your Inference Therefore what these holy Historians recorded that our Saviour and his Apostles said and preach'd to Unbelievers was said and preach'd to Believers The Discourse which our Saviour had with the Woman of Samaria and her Townsmen was addressed to Believers because St. Iohn writ his Gospel wherein it is recorded as a part of our Saviour's History for Believers as well as Unbelievers St. Peter's Preaching to Cornelius and St. Paul's Preaching at Antioch at Thessalonica at Corinth c. was not to Unbelievers for their Conversion Because St. Luke dedicates his History of the Acts of the Apostles to Theophilus who was a Christian as the Unmasker strenuously proves in this Paragraph Just as if he should say that the Discourses which Caesar records he had upon several Occasions with the Gauls were not addressed to the Gauls alone but to the Romans also because his Commentaries were writ for the Romans as well as others Or that the Sayings of the Ancient Greeks and Romans in Plutarch were not spoke by them to their Contemporaries only because they are recorded by him for the benefit of Posterity I perused the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles to the Unconverted World to see what they taught and required to be believed to make Men Christians And these all I set down and leave the World to be judge what they contain'd The
necessary to be believed till there be some other way found to distinguish them than that they are in a Book which is all of Divine Revelation Though therefore Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Practice are very distinguishable in the Epistles yet it does not follow from thence that Fundamental and not Fundamental Doctrines Points necessary and not necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are easily distinguishable in the Epistles Which therefore remains to be proved And it remains incumbent upon him XVIII To set down the Marks whereby the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles may easily and exactly be distinguished into Fundamental and not Fundamental Articles of Faith All the rest of that Paragraph containing nothing against me must be bound up with a great deal of the like stuff which the Unmasker has put into his Book to shew the World he does not imitate me in Impertinencies Incoherences and trifling Excursions as he boasts in his first Paragraph Only I shall desire the Reader to take the whole Passage concerning this Matter as it stands in my Reasonableness of Christianity p. 295. I do not deny but the great Doctrines of the Christian Faith are dropt here and there and scatter'd up and down in most of them But 't is not in the Epistles we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith where they are promiscuously and without distinction mixed with other Truths and Discourses which were though for Edification indeed yet only occasional We shall find and discern those great and necessary Points best in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to those who were yet Strangers and ignorant of the Faith to bring them in and convert them to it And then let him read these words which the Unmasker has quoted out of them It is not in the Epistles that we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith they were written for the resolving of Doubts and reforming of Mistakes With his Introduction of them in these words He commands the Reader not to stir a jot further than the Acts. If I should ask him where that Command appears he must have recourse to his old shift that he did not mean as he said or else stand Convicted of a malicious Untruth An Orator is not bound to speak strict Truth though a Disputant be But this Unmasker's Writing against me will excuse him from being of the latter And then why may not Falshoods pass for Rhetorical flourishes in one who hath been used to popular Haranguing to which Men are not generally so severe as strictly to examine them and expect that they should always be found to contain nothing but precise Truth and strict Reasoning But yet I must not forget to put upon his Score this other Proposition of his which he has p. 42. and ask him to shew XIX Where it is that I command my Reader not to stir a jot farther than the Acts In the next two Paragraphs p. 42. 46. The Unmasker is at his natural Play of Declaiming without Proving 'T is pity the Mishna out of which he takes his good breeding as it told him that a well-bred and well-taught Man answers to the first in the first place had not given him this Rule too about Order viz. That Proving should go before Condemning Else all the fierce Exaggerations ill Language can heap up are but empty Scurility But 't is no wonder that the Iewish Doctors should not provide Rules for a Christian Divine turn'd Unmasker For where a Cause is to be maintain'd and a Book to be writ and Arguments are not at hand yet something must be found to fill it Railing in such cases is much easier than Reasoning especially where a Man's Parts lie that way The first of these Paragraphs p. 42. he begins thus But let us hear further what this Vindicator saith to excuse his rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles and his putting us off with one Article of Faith And then he quotes these following words of mine What if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly and firmly Christians purposing to work upon those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion Answ. This as he has put it is a downright Falshood For the words he quotes were not used by me to excuse my rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles or to prove there was but one Article But as a reason why I omitted the mention of Satisfaction To demonstrate this I shall set down the whole Passage as it is p. 6. of my Vindication where it runs thus But what will become of me that I have not mention'd Satisfaction Possibly this Reverend Gentleman would have had Charity enough for a known Writer of the Brotherhood to have found it by an Innuendo in those words above quoted of laying down his Life for another But every thing is to be strained here the other way For the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. is of necessity to be represented as a Socinian Or else his Book may be read and the Truths in it which Mr. Edwards likes not be received and People put upon examining Thus one as full of happy Conjectures and Suspitions as this Gentleman might be apt to argue But what if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly or firmly Christians Proposing to work on those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion To this he tells me p. 43. that my Title says nothing for me i. e. shews not that I designed my Book for those that disbelieved or doubted of the Christian Religion Answ. I thought that a title that professed the Reasonableness of any Doctrine shew'd it was intended for those that were not â—ully satisfied of the Reasonableness of it unless Books are to be writ to convince those of any thing who are convinced already But possibly this may be the Unmasker's way And if one should judge by his manner of treating this Subject with Declamation instead of Argument one would think that he meant it for no body but those who were of his Mind already I thought therefore The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture a proper Title to signifie whom it was chiefly meant for And I thank God I can with satisfaction say it has not wanted its effect upon some of them But the Unmasker proves for all that that I could not design it chiefly for Disbelievers or Doubters of the Christian Religion For says he p. 43. How those that wholly disregard and disbelieve the Scriptures of the New Testament as Gentiles Iews Mahometans and Atheists do I crave leave to put in Theists instead of Atheists for a reason presently to be mention'd are like to attend to the Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture is not to be conceived
I shew'd that the World received by his coming This appears by the words he here quotes as my excuse for that omission In which place I also produced some Passages in my Book which sounded like it some words of Scripture that are used to prove it But this will not content him I am for all that a Betrayer of Christianity and Contemner of the Episâ—les Why Because I did not out of them name Satisfaction If you will have the truth of it Sir there is not any such word in any one of the Epistles or other Books of the New Testament in my Bible as Satisfying or Satisfaction made by our Saviour and so I could not put it into my Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture If mine be not a true Bible I desire you to furnish me with one that is more Orthodox or if the Translators have hid that main Article of the Christian Religion they are the betrayers of Christianity and Contemners of the Epistles who did not put it there and not I who did not take a word from thence which they did not put there For truly I am not a Maker of Creeds nor dare add either to the Scripture or to the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion But you will say Satisfaction though not named in the Epistles yet may plainly be collected out of them Answ. And so it may out of several places in my Reasonableness of Christianity some whereof which I took out of the Gospels I mention'd in my Vindication p. 5. and others of them which I took out of the Epistles which I shall point out to you now As p. 74. I say the Design of our Saviour's coming was to be OFFERED up And p. 158. I speak of the Work of our REDEMPTION words which in the Epistles are taken to imply Satisfaction And therefore if that be enough I see not but I may be free from betraying Christianity But if it be necessary to Name the word Satisfaction and he that does not so is a Betrayer of Christianity you will do well to consider how you will acquit the Holy Apostles from that bold Imputation which if it be extended as far as it will go will scarce come short of Blasphemy For I do not remember that our Saviour has any where named Satisfaction or implied it plainer in any words than those I have quoted from him And he I hope will scape the Intemperance of your Tongue You tell me I had my Prudence from the Missionary Iesuits in China who conceal'd our Saviour's Suffering and Death because I undertake to ininstruct the World in Christianity with an omission of its Principal Articles And I pray Sir from whom did you learn your Prudence when taking upon you to teach the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity in your Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism you left out several that you have been pleased since to add in your Socinianism Unmask'd Or if I as you say here betray Christianity by this Omission of this Principal Article What do you who are a Professed Teacher of it if you omit any principal Article Which your Prudence is so wary in that you will not say you have given us all that are necessary to Salvation in that List you have last published I pray who acts best the Jesuit whose humble Imitator you say I am you or I when pretending to give a Catalogue of Fundamentals you have not reduced them to direct Propositions but have left some of them indefinite to be collected as every one pleases and instead of telling us it is a perfect Catalogue of Fundamentals plainly shuffle it off and tell me p. 22. If that will not content me you are sure you can do nothing that will If I require more it is Folly in you to comply with me One part of what you here say I own to you savours not much of the Skill of a Jesuit You confess your inability and I believe it to be perfectly true That if what you have done already which is nothing at all will not content me you are sure you can do nothing that will content me or any reasonable Man that shall demand of you a compleat Catalogue of Fundamentals But you make it up pretty well with a Confidence becoming one of that Order For he must have rub'd his Forehead hard who in the same Treatise where he so severely condemns the Imperfection of my List of Fundamentals confesses that he cannot give a compleat Catalogue of his own You publish to the World in this 44 and the next Page that I hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian Religion I disguise the faith of the Gospel betray Christianity it self and imitate the Iesuits that went tâ— Preach the Gospel to the People of China by my Omission of its principal or main Articles Answ. I know not how I disguise the Faith of the Gospel c. in imitation of the Jesuits in China unless taking Men off from the Inventions of Men and recommending to them the Reading and Study of the Holy Scripture to find what the Gospel is and requires be a disguising of the Faith of the Gospel a betraying of Christianity and an imitating of the Iesuits Besides Sir if one may ask you in what School did you learn that prudent warineâ—s and reserve which so eminently appears p. 24. of your Socinianism Unmask'd in these words These Articles meaning those which you had before enumerated as Fundamental of Faith are such as must IN SOME MEASURE be known and assented to by a Christian such as must GENERALLY be received and imbraced by him You will do well the next time to set down how far your Fundamentals must be known assented to and received to avoid the suspicion that there is a little more of Jesuitism in these Expressions in some measure known and assented to and generally receiv'd and imbraced than what becomes a sincere Protestant Preacher of the Gospel For your speaking so doubtfully of knowing and assenting to those which you give us for Fundamental Doctrines which belong as you say to the very essence of Christianity will hardly scape being imputed to your want of Knowledge or want of Sincerity And indeed the word General is in familiar use with you and stands you in good stead when you would say something you know not what as I shall have occasion to remark to you when I come to your 91 Page Further I do not remember where it was that I mention'd or undertook to set down all the principal or main Articles of Christianity To change the â—â—rms of the Question from Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian into principal or main Articles looks a little Jesuitical But to pass by that The Apostles when they went to preach the Gospel to People as much Strangers to it as the Chineses were when the Europeans came first amongst them Did they hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian
advise a Buâ—â—oon to talk gravely who has nothing left to draw attention if he should lay by his scurrility The remainder of this 4th Chapter p. 61. â—67 being spent in shewing why the Socinians are for a few Articles of Faith being a Matter that I am not concern'd in I leave to that forward Gentleman to examine who examined Mr. Edwards's Exceptions against the Reasonableness of Christianity and who as the Unmasker informs me p. 64. was chosen to vindicate my attempt c. If the Unmasker knows that he was so Chosen it is well If I had known of such a choice I should have desired that somebody should have been chosen to Vindicate my attempt who had understood it better The Unmasker and Examiner are each of them so full of themselves and their own Systems that I think they may be a fit match one for another And so I leave these Cocks of the Game to try it out in an endless battle of wrangling till Death them depart which of them has made the true and exact Collection of Fundamentals And whose System of the two ought to be the prevailing Orthodoxy and be received for Scripture Only I warn the Examiner to look to himself For the Unmasker has the whiphand of him and gives him to understand p. 65. that if he cannot do it himself by the strength of his Lungs the vehemency of his Oratory and endless attacks of his Repetitions the Ecclesiastical Power and the Civil Magistrates lash have in store demonstrative Arguments to convince him that his the Vnmasker's System is the only true Christianity By the way I must not forget to mind the Unmasker here again that he hath a very unlucky hand at guessing For whereas he names Socinus as one from whom I received my Platform and says that Crellius gave me my Kue it so falls out that they are two Authors of whom I never read a Page I say not this as if I thought it a fault if I had for I think I should have much better spent my time in them than in the Writings of our learned Unmasker I was sure there was no offending the Unmasker without the guilt of Atheism only he here p. 69. very mercifully lays it upon my Book and not upon my Design The tendency of it to Irreligion and Atheism he has proved in an Eloquent Harangue for he is such an Orator he cannot stir a foot without a Speech made as he bids us suppose by the Atheistical Rabble And who can deny but he has chose a fit Imployment for himself Where could there be found a better Speech-maker for the Atheistical Rabble But let us hear him For though he would give the Atheistical Rabble the Credit of it yet 't is the Unmasker speaks And because 't is pity such a pattern of Rhetorick and Reason should be lost I have for my Reader 's Edification set it all down verbatim We are beholding to this worthy Adventurer for ridding the World of so great an Incumbrance viz. That huge Mass and unweildy Body of Christianity which took up so much room Now we see that it was this bulk and not that of Mankind which he had an eye to when he so often mention'd this latter This is a Physician for our turn indeed We like this Chymical Operator that doth not trouble us with a parcel of heavy Drugs of no value but contracts it all into a few Spirits nay doth his business with a single drop We have been in bondage a long time to Creeds and Catechisms Systems and Confessions we have been plagued with a tedious Beadroll of Articles which our Reverend Divines have told us we must make the Matter of our Faith Yea so it is both Conformists and Nonconformists though disagreeing in some other things have agreed in this to molest and Crucifie us But this noble Writer we thank him hath set us free and eas'd us by bringing down all the Christian Faith into one Point We have heard some Men talk of Epistolary Composures of the New Testament as if great Matters were contain'd in them as if the great Mysteries of Christianity as they call them were unfolded there But we could never make any thing of them and now we find that this Writer is partly of our Opinion He tells us that these are Letters sent upon occasion but we are not to look for our Religion for now for this Gentleman's sake we begin to talk of Religion in these places We believe it and we believe that there is no Religion but in those very Chapters and Verses which he has set down in his Treatise What need we have any other part of the New Testament That is Bible enough if not too much Happy thrice happy shall this Author be perpetually esteemed by us we will Chronicle him as our Friend and Benefactor It is not our way to Saint People Otherwise we would certainly canonize this Gentleman and when our hand is in his pair of Booksellers for their being so Beneficial to the World in publishing so rich a Treasure It was a blessed day when this hopeful Birth saw the Light for hereby all the Orthodox Creed-Makers and Systematick Men are ruined for ever In brief if we be for any Christianity it shall be this Author's for that agrees with us singularly well it being so short all couch'd in four words neither more nor less It is a very fine Compendium and we are infinitely obliged to this great Reformer for it We are glad at heart that Christianity is brought so low by this worthy Pen-man for this is a good presage that it will dwindle into nothing What! But one Article and that so brief too We like such a Faith and such a Religion because it is so near to none He hath no sooner done but as it deserved he crys out Euge Sophos And is not the Reader quoth he satisfied that such Language as this hath real truth in it Does not he perceive that the discarding all the Articles but ONE makes way for the casting off that too Answ. 'T is but supposing that the Reader is a civil â—entleman and answers Yes to these two Questions and then 't is Demonstration that by this Speech he has irrefragably proved the tendency of my Book to Irreligion and Atheism I remember Chillingworth somewhere puts up this Request to his Adversary Knot Sir I beseech you when you write again do us the favour to write nothing but Syllogisms For I find it still an extream trouble to find out the conceal'd Propositions which are to connect the parts of your Enthymems As now for Example I profess to you I have done my best endeavour to find some Glue or Sodder or Cement or Thread or any thing to tie the Antecedent and this Consequent together The Unmasker agrees so much in a great part of his Opinion with that Jesuit as I have shew'd already and does so infinitely out-doe him in spinning Ropes of Sand and a
the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book So far his History is by his own Confession concise But these says he are written that ye might believe that Iesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name As concise as it was there was yet if the Apostle's word may be taken for it against the Unmâ—sker's enough contain'd in his Gospel for the procuring of eternal life to those who believed it And whether it was that one Article that he there sets down viz. That Iesus was the Messiah or that Set of Articles which the Unmâ—sker gives us I shall leave to this Modern Divine to resolve And if he thinks still that all the Articles he has set down in his Roll are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian I must desire him to shew them to me in St. Iohn's Gospel or else to convince the World that St. Iohn was mistaken when he said that he had written his Gospel that Men might believe that Iesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that believing they might have life thorugh his Name So that granting the History of the Scripture to be so concise as the Unmasker would have it viz. That in some places the infallible Writers recording the Discourses of our Saviour and his Apostles omitted all the other Fundamental Articles propos'd by them to be believed to make Men Christians but this one that Iesus was the Messiah Yet this will not remove the Objection that lies against his other Fundamentals which are not to be found in the Histories of the Four Evangelists nay which are not to be found in every one of them If every one of them contains the Gospel of Jesus Christ and consequently all things necessary to Salvation Whether this will not be a new ground of Accusation against me and give the Unmasker a right to charge me with laying by three of the Gospels with contempt as well as he did before charge me with a contempt of the Epistles must be left to his soveraign Authority to determine Having shew'd that allowing all he says here to be as he would have it yet it clears not the Objection that lies against his Fundamentals I shall now examine what truth there is in what he here pretends viz. that though the one Article that Jesus is the Messiah be mention'd alone in some places yet we have reason to be perswaded from the conciseness of the Scripture History that there were at the same time join'd with it other necessary Articles of Faith in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles It is to be observed that the Unmasker builds upon this false Supposition that in some places other necessary Articles of Faith join'd with that of Iesus the Messiah are by the Evangelists mention'd to be propos'd by our Saviour and his Apostles as necessary to be believed to make those they Preach'd to Christians For his saying that in some places that one necessary Article is mention'd alone implies that in other places it is not mention'd alone but join'd with other necessary Articles And then it will remain upon him to shew XXXVI In what place either of the Gospels or of the Acts other Articles of Faith are join'd with this and propos'd as necessary to be believed to make Men Christians The Unmasker 't is probable will tell us that the Article of Christ's Resurrection is sometimes join'd with this of the Messiah as particularly in that first Sermon of St. Peter Acts II. by which there were Three Thousand added to the Church at one time Answ. This Sermon well consider'd will explain to us both the Preaching of the Apostles what it was that they propos'd to their unbelieving Auditors to make them Christians and also the manner of St. Luke's recording their Sermons 'T is true that here are deliver'd by St. Peter many other Matters of Faith besides that of Iesus being the Messiah For all that he said being of Divine Authority is Matter of Faith and may not be disbelieved The first Part of his Discourse is to prove to the Iews that what they had observed of Extraordinary at that time amongst the Disciples who spake variety of Tongues did not proceed from Wine but from the Holy Ghost And that this was the pouring out of the Spirit prophesied of by the Prophet Ioel. This is all Matter of Faith and is written that it might be believed But yet I think that neither the Unmasker nor any body else will say that this is such a necessary Article of Faith that no Man could without an explicit belief of it be a Christian Though being a Declaration of the Holy Ghost by St. Peter it is so much a Matter of Faith that no body to whom it is now propos'd can deny it and be a Christian. And thus all the Scripture of the New Testament given by Divine Inspiration is Matter of Faith and necessary to be believed by all Christians to whom it is propos'd But yet I do not think any one so unreasonable as to say that every Proposition in the New Testament is a Fundamental Article of Faith which is required explicitly to be believed to make a Man a Christian Here now is a matter of Faith join'd in the same Sermon with this Fundamental Article that Iesus is the Messiah And reported by the Sacred Historian so at large that it takes up a Third part of St. Peter's Sermon recorded by St. Luke And yet it is such a matter of Faith as is not contain'd in the Unmasker's Catalogue of necessary Articles I must ask him then whether St. Luke were so concise an Historian that he would so at large set down a matter of Faith propos'd by St. Peter that was not necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian and wholly leave out the very mention of all the Unmasker's additional necessary Articles if indeed they were necessary to be believed to make Men Christians I know not how any one could charge the Historian with greater unfaithfulness or greater folly But this the Unmasker sticks not at to preserve to himself the Power of appointing what shall and what shall not be necessary Articles and of making his System the Christianity necessary and only necessary to be received The next thing that St. Peter proceeds to in this his Sermon is to declare to the Unbelieving Iews that Iesus of Nazareth who had done Miracles amongst them whom they had Crucified and put to Death and whom God had raised again from the Dead was the Messiah Here indeed our Saviour's Crucifixion Death and Resurrection are mentioned And if they were no where else recorded are matters of Faith which with all the rest of the New Testament ought to be believed by every Christian to whom it is thus propos'd as a part of Divine Revelation But that these were not here propos'd to the Unbelieving Iews as the Fundamental Articles which
viz. as the Unmasker tells us here that it included or signified God and that Philip who we read at Samaria preach'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Messiah i. e. instructed them who the Messiah was had here taken pains only to instruct him that this God was Iesus the Messiah and to bring him to assent to that Proposition Whether this be Natural to conceive I leave to the Reader The Tautology on which the Unmasker builds his whole Objection will be quite removed if we take Christ here for a proper Name in which way it is used by the Evangelists and Apostles in other places and particularly by St. Luke as Act. II. 28. III. 6. 20. IV. 10. XXIV 24 c. In two of these places it cannot with any good sence be taken otherwise for if it be not in Act. III. 6. and IV. 10. used as a proper Name we must read those places thus Iesus the Messiah of Nazareth And I think it is plain in those others cited as well as in several other places of the New Testament that the word Christ is used as a proper Name We may easily conceive that long before the Acts were writ the Name of Christ was grown by a familiar use to denote the Person of our Saviour as much as Iesus This is so manifest that it gave a Name to his Followers who as St. Luke tells us XI 26. were were called Christians And that if Chronologists mistake not Twenty Years before St. Luke writ his History of the Apostles And this so generally that Agrippa a Iew uses it Act. XXVI 28. And that Christ as the proper Name of our Saviour was got as far as Rome before St. Luke writ the Acts appears out of Suetonius l. 5. And by that Name he is called in Tacitus Ann. l. 15. 'T is no wonder then that St. Luke in Writing this History should sometimes set it down alone sometimes join'd with that of Iesus as a proper Name which is much easier to conceive he did here than that Philip propos'd more to the Eunuch to be believed to make him a Christian than what in other places was propos'd for the Conversion of others or than what he himself propos'd at Samaria His 7th Chapter is to prove that I am a Socinian because I omitted Christ's Satisfaction That Matter having been answer'd p. 147. where it came properly under consideration I shall only observe here that the great stress of his Argument lies as it did before not upon my total omission of it out of my Book but on this that I have no such thing in the place where the Advantages of Christ's coming are purposely treated of from whence he will have this to be an unavoidable Inference viz. That I was of Opinion that Christ came not to satisfie for us The reason of my omission of it in that place I told him was because my Book was chiefly designed for Deists and therefore I mention'd only those Advantages which all Christians must agree in and in omitting of that comply'd with the Apostle's Rule Rom. XIV To this he tells me â—latly that was not the design of my Book Whether the Unmasker knows with what design I publish'd it better than I my self must be left to the Reader to judge For as for his Veracity in what he knows or knows not he has given so many Instances of it that I may safely referr that to any body One Instance more of it may be found in this very Chapter where he says I pretend indeed p. 5. that in another place of my Book I mention Christ's restoring all Mankind from the state of Death and restoring them to Life and his laying down his Life for another as our Saviour Professes he did These few words this Vindicator hath picked up in his Book since he wrote it This is all through his whole Treatise that he hath drop'd concerning that Advantage of Christ's Incarnation i. e. Christ's Satisfaction Answ. But that this is not all that I drop'd through my whole Treatise concerning that Advantage may appear by those places above-mentioned p. 157. where I say that the design of Christ's coming was to be offered up and speak of the Work of Redemption which are Expressions taken to imply our Saviour's Satisfaction But the Unmasker thinking I should have quoted them if there had been any more besides those mention'd in my Vindication upon that Presumption sticks not boldly to affirm that there were no more and so goes on with the Veracity of an Unmasker If affirming would do it nothing could be wanting in his Cause that might be for his Purpose Whether he be as good at proving this Consequence amongst other Propositions which remain upon him to be proved will try viz. L. That if the Satisfaction of Christ be not mentioned in the place where the Advantages of Christ's coming are purposely treated of then I am of Opinion that Christ came not to satisfie for us which is all the Argument of his 7th Chapter His last Chapter as his first begins with a Commendation of himself Particularly it boasts his freedom from Bigolism Dogmatizing Censoriousness and Vncharitableness I think he hath drawn himself so well with his own Pen that I shall need referr the Reader only to what he himself has writ in this Controversie for his Character In the next Paragraph p. 104. he tells me I laugh at Orthodoxy Answ. There is nothing that I think deserves a more serious Esteem than right Opinion as the Word signifies if taken up with the Sense of Love and Truth But this way of becoming Orthodox has always Modesty accompanying it and a fair Acknowledgment of Fallibility in our selves as well as a Supposition of Error in others On the other side there is nothing more ridiculous than for any Man or Company of Men to assume the Title of Orthodoxy to their own set of Opinions as if Infallibility were annexed to their Systems and those were to be the standing Measure of Truth to all the World from whence they erect to themselves a power to censure and condemn others for differing at all from the Tenets they have pitch'd upon The Consideration of humane Frailty ought to check this Vanity But since it does not but that with a sort of Allowance it shews it self in almost all religious Societies the playing the trick round sufficiently turns it into ridicule For each Society having an equal right to a good Opinion of themselves a Man by passing but a River or a Hill loses that Orthodoxy in one Company which puâ—â—ed him up with such Assurance and Insolence in another and is there with equal Justice himself expos'd to the like Censures of Error and Heresie which he was so forward to lay on others at Home When it shall appear that Infallibility is intailed upon one set of Men of any Denomination or Truth confined to any Spot of Ground the Name and Use of Orthodoxy as now it is in Fashion every where
will in that one place be reasonable Till then this ridiculous Cant will be a Foundation too weak to sustain that Usurpation that is raised upon it 'T is not that I do not think every one should be perswaded of the Truth of those Opinions he professes 'T is that I contend for And 't is that which I fear the great Sticklers for Orthodoxy often fail in For we see generally that Numbers of them exactly jump in a whole large Collection of Doctrines consisting of Abundance of particulars as if their Notions were by one common Stamp printed on their Minds even to the least Lineament This is very hard if not impossible to be conceived of those who take up their Opinions only from Conviction But how fully soever I am perswaded of the Truth of what I hold I am in common Justice to allow the same Sincerity to him that differs from me And so we are upon equal Terms This Perswasion of Truth on each side invests neither of us with a right to censure or condemn the other I have no more reason to treat him ill for differing from me than he has to treat me ill for the same cause Pity him I may inform him fairly I ought but contemn malign revile or any otherwise prejudice him for not thinking just as I do that I ought not My Orthodoxy gives me no more Authority over him than his for every one is Orthodox to himself gives him over me When the Word Orthodoxy which in effect signifies no more but the Opinions of my Party is made use of as a pretence to domineer as ordinarily it is it is and always will be ridiculous He saith I hate even with a deadly hatred all Catechisms and Confessions all Systems and Models I do not remember that I have once mentioned the Word Catechism either in my Reasonableness of Christianity or Vindication But he knows I hate them deadly and I know I do not And as for Systems and Models all that I say of them in the Pages he quotes to prove my Hatred of them is only this viz. p. 8. of my Vindication Some Men had rather you should write booty and cross your own Design of removing Mens Prejudices to Christianity than leave out one Title of what they put into their Systems Some Men will not bear it that any one should speak of Religion but according to the Model that they themselves have made of it In neither of which places do I speak against Systems or Models but the ill use that some Men make of them He tells me also in the same place p. 104. that I deride Mysteries But for this he hath quoted neither words nor place And where he does not do that I have reason from the frequent Liberties he takes to impute to me what no where appears in my Books to desire the Reader to take what he says not to be true For did he mean fairly he might by quoting my Words put all such Matters of Fact out of doubt and not force me so often as he does to demand where it is as I do now here again LI. Where it is that I deride Mysteries His next Words p. 104. are very remarkable They are O how he the Vindicator grins at the Spirit of Creed making p. 18. Vind. the very thoughts of which do so haunt him so plague and torment him that he cannot rest till it be conjured down And here by the way seeing I have mention'd his rancour against Systematick Books and Writings I might represent the Misery that is coming upon all Booksellers if this Gentleman and his Correspondents go on sucâ—essfully 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 Here the Politick Unmasker seems to threaten me with the Posse of Paul's Church-yard because my Book might lessen their Gain in the Sale of Theological Systems I remember that Demetrius the Shrinemaker which brought no small gain to the Crafts-men whom he called together with the Workmen of like Occupation and said to this purpose Sirs Ye know that by this Craft we have our Wealth Moreover ye see and hear that this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much People saying that they be no Gods that are made with hands so that this our Craft is in danger to be set at naught And when they heard these Sayings they were full of wrath and cried out saying Great is Diana of the Ephesians Have you Sir who are so good at Speech-making as a worthy Successor of the Silver-smith regulating your Zeal for the Truth and your writing of Divinity by the Profit it will bring made a Speech to this purpose to the Craftsmen and told them that I say Articles of Faith and Creeds and Systems in Religion cannot be made by Mens Hands or Fancies But must be just such and no other than what God hath given us in the Scriptures And are they ready to cry out to your content Great is Diana of the Ephesians If you have well warm'd them with your Oratory 't is to be hoped they will heartily join with you and bestir themselves and choose you for their Champion to prevent the Misery you tell them is coming upon them in the loss of the Sale of Systems and Bodies of Divinity For as for Philosophy which you name too I think you went a little too far Nothing of that kind as I remember hath been so much as mention'd But however some sort of Orators when their hands are in omit nothing true or false that may move those that they would work upon Is not this a worthy Imployment and becoming a Preacher of the Gospel to be a Sollicitor for Stationers-Hall and make the Gain of the Gentlemen of Paul's Church-yard a Consideration for or against any Book writ concerning Religion This if it were ever thought on before no body but an Unmasker who lays all open was ever so foolish as to Publish But here you have an account of his Zeal The views of Gain are to measure the truths of Divinity Had his Zeal as he pretends in the next Paragraph no other aims but the defence of the Gospel 't is probable this Controversie would have been managed after another fashion Whether what he says in the next p. 105. to excuse his so oâ—ten pretending to know my Heart and Thoughts will satisfie the Reader I shall not trouble my self By his so often doing it again in his Socinianism Unmask'd I see he cannot write without it And so I leave it to the Judgment of the Readers whether he can be allow'd to know other Mens thoughts who in many Occasions seems not well to know his own The Railing in the remainder of this Chapter I shall pass by as I have done a great deal of the same
is to establish one of my own or to foster Scepticism by beating down all others For clear Reason or good Sence I do not think our Creed-maker ever had his fellow In the immediate preceding words of the same Sentence he charges me with a great Antipathy against Systems and before he comes to the end of it finds out my Design to be the establishing one of my own So that this my Antipathy against Systems makes me in love with one My Design he says is to establish a System of my own or to foster Scepticism in beating down all others Let my Book if he pleases be my System of Christianity Now is it in me any more fostering Scepticism to say my System is true and others not than it is in the Creed-maker to say so of all other Systems but his own For I hope he does not allow any System of Christianity to be true that differs from his any more than I do But I have spoke against all Systems Answ. And always shall so far as they are set up by particular Men or Parties as the just Measure of every Man's Faith wherein every thing that is contained is required and imposed to be believed to make a Man a Christian Such an Opinion and Use of Systems I shall always be against till the Creed-maker shall tell me amongst the Variety of them which alone is to be received and rested in in the absence of his Creed which is not yet finished and I fear will not as long as I live That every Man should receive from others or make to himself such a System of Christianity as he found most conformable to the Word of God according to the best of his understanding is what I never spake against but think it every one's Duty to Labour for and to take all opportunities as long as he lives by Studying the Scriptures every day to perfect But this I fear will not go easily down with our Author for then he cannot be a Creed-maker for others A thing he shews himself very forward to how able to perform it we shall see when his Creed is made In the mean time talking loudly and at Random about Fundamentals without knowing what is so may stand him in some stead This being all that is new which I think my self concerned in in this Socinian Creed I pass on to his Postscript In the first Page whereof I find these words I found that the Manager of the Reasonableness of Christianity had prevailed with a Gentleman to make a Sermon upon my Refutation of that Treatise and the Vindication of it Such a piece of Impertinency as this might have been born from a fair Adversary But the Sample Mr. Edwards has given of himself in his Socinianism Unmask'd perswades me this ought to be bound up with what he says of me in his Introduction to that Book in these words Among others they thought and made Choice of a Gentleman who they knew would be extraordinary useful to them And he it is probable was as forward to be made use of by them and presently accepted of the Office that was assigned him and more there to the same purpose All which I know to be utterly false 'T is pity that one who relies so entirely upon it should have no better an Invention The Socinians set the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. on Work to write that Book by which Discovery the World being as Mr. Edwards says let into the project that Book is confounded baffled blown off and by this Skilful Artifice there is an end of it Mr. Bold preaches and publishes a Sermon without this irrefragable Gentleman's good Leave and Liking What now must be done to discredit it and keep it from being read Why Mr. Bold too was set on Work by the Manager of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. In your whole Store-house of Stratagems you that are so great a Conquerour Have you but this one Way to destroy a Book which you set your Mightiness against but to tell the World it was a Jobb of Journey-work for some body you do not like Some other would have done better in this new Case had your happy Invention been ready with it For you are not so bashful or reserved but that you may be allowed to be as great a Wit as he who professed himself ready at any time to say a good or a new thing if he could but think of it But in good earnest Sir if one should ask you do you think no Books contain Truth in them which were Undertaken by the Procuration of a Bookseller I desire you to be a little tender in the Point not knowing how far it may reach Ay but such Booksellers live not at the Lower End of Pater-Noster-Row but in Paul's Church-Yard and are the Managers of other-guess Books than The Reasonableness of Christianity And therefore you very rightly subjoin Indeed it was a great Master-Piece of Procuration and we can't but think that Man must speak truth and defend it very Impartially and Substantially who is thus brought on to undertake the Cause And so Mr. Bold's Sermon is found to have neither Truth nor Sence in it because it was Printed by a Bookseller at the lower End of Pater-Noster-Row for that I dare say is all you know of the Matter But that is hint enough for a happy Diviner to be sure of the rest and with Confidence to report that for certain Matter of Fact which had never any being but in the forecasting Side of his Politick Brain But whatever were the Reason that moved Mr. B to Preach that Sermon of which I know nothing This I am sure it shews only the Weakness and Malice I will not say and ill Breeding for that concerns not one of Mr. Edward's Pitch of any one who excepts against it to take notice of any thing more than what the Author has Published Therein alone consists the Errour if there be any and that alone those meddle with who write for the sake of Truth But poor Cavillers have other Purposes and therefore must use other Shifts and make a bustle about something besides the Argument to prejudice and beguile unwary Readers The only Exception the Creed-maker makes to Mr. Bold's Sermon is the Contradiction he imputes to him in saying That there is but one Point or Article necessary to be believed for the making a Man a Christian And that there are many Points besides this which Jesus Christ hath taught and revealed which every sincere Christian is indispensibly obliged to endeavour to understand And That there are particular Points and Articles which being known to be revealed by Christ Christians must indispensibly assent to And where now is there any thing like a Contradiction in this Let it be granted for Example that the Creed-maker's Set of Articles let their Number be what they will when he has sound them all out are necessary to be believed for the making a
does in the same Address to him p. 248. and write contrary to his Light Had the Creed maker had reason to think in earnest that Mr. Bold was going off to Socinianism he might have reasoned with him fairly as with a Man running into dangerous Errour Or if he had certainly known that he was by any By-ends prevailed on to undertake a Cause contrary to his Conscience he might have some Reason to tell the World as he does p. 239. That we cannot think he should speak truth who is thus brought to undertake the Cause If he does not certainly know that Mr. Bold was THUS brought to undertake the Cause he could not have shewn a more Villainous and Unchristian Mind than in publishing such a Character of a Minister of the Gospel and a worthy Man upon no other Grounds but because it might be subservient to his ends He is engaged in a Controversie that by Argument he cannot maintain Nor knew any other way from the beginning to attack the Book he pretends to write against but by crying out Socinianism a Name he knows in great Disgrace with all other Sects of Christians and therefore sufficient to deterr all those who approve and condemn Books by hearsay without examining their Truth themselves from perusing a Treatise to which he could affix that imputation Mr. Bold's Name who is publickly known to be no Socinian he foresees will wipe off that false Imputation with a great many of those who are led by Names more than Things This seems exceedingly to trouble him and he labours might and main to get Mr. Bold to quit a Book as Socinian which Mr. Bold knows is not Socinian because he has read and considered it But though our Creed-maker be mightily concerned that Mr. B d should not appear in the Defence of it Yet this concern cannot raise him one jot above that Honesty Skill and good Breeding which appears towards others He manages this Matter with Mr. B d as he has done the rest of the Controversie just in the same strain of Invention Civility Wit and good Sence He tells him besides what I have above set down that he is drawn off to debase himself and the post i. e. the Ministry he is in p. 245. That he hath said very ill things to the lessening and impairing yea to the defaming of that knowledge and belief of our Saviour and of the Articles of Christianity which are necessarily required of us p. 245. That the Devout and Pious whereby he means himself for one and none is his own beloved Wit and Argument observing that Mr. Bold is come to the necessity of but ONE Article of Faith they expect that he may in time hold that NONE is necessary p. 248. That if he writes again in the same strain be will write rather like a Turkish Spy than a Christian Preacher That he is a Backslider and Sailing to Racovia with a side Wind Than which what can there be more Scurrilous or more Malicious And yet at the same time that he outrages him thus beyond not only what Christian Charity but common Civility would allow in an ingenuous Adversary he makes some awkward Attempts to sooth him with some ill timed Commendations And would have his under-valuing Mr. Bold's Animadversions pass for a Complement to him Because he for that reason pretends not to believe so crude and shallow a thing as he is pleased to call it to be his A notable Contrivance to gain the greater Liberty of Railing at him under another Name when Mr. B d's it seems is too well known to serve him so well to that purpose Besides it is of good use to fill up three or four Pages of his Reflections a great Convenience to a Writer who knows all the ways of baffling his Opponents but Argument and who always makes a great deal of stir about Matters foreign to his Subject which whether they are granted or denied make nothing at all to the Truth of the Question on either side For what is it to the Shallowness or Depth of the Animadversions who writ them Or to the Truth or Falshood of Mr. B d's Defence of the Reasonableness of Christianity whether a Lay-man or a Church-man a Socinian or one of the Church of England answer'd the Creed-maker as well as he Yet this is urged as a matter of great weight But yet in reality it amounts to no more but this that a Man of any Denomination who wishes well to the Peace of Christianity and has observed the horrible Effects the Christian Religion has felt from the Impositions of Men in Matters of Faith may have reason to defend a Book wherein the Simplicity of the Gospel and the Doctrine proposed by our Saviour and his Apostles for the Conversion of Unbelievers is made out though there be not one Word of the distinguishing Tenents of his Sect in it But that all those who under any Name are for imposing their own Orthodoxy as necessary to be believed and persecuting those who dissent from them should be all against it is not perhaps very strange One thing more I must observe of the Creed-maker on this Occasion In his Socinian Creed Ch. VI. The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. And his Book must be judged of by the Characters and Writings of those who entertain or commend his Notions A professed Unitarian has defended it therefore he is a Socinian The Author of A Letter to the Deists speaks well of it Therefore he is a Deist Another as an Abettor of the Reasonableness of Christianity he mentions p. 125. whose Letters I have never seen And his Opinions too are I suppose set down there as belonging to me Whatever is bad in the Tenets or Writings of these Men infects me But the Mischief is Mr. Bold's Orthodoxy will do me no good But because he has defended my Book against Mr. Edwards all my Faults are become his and he has a mighty Load of Accusations laid upon him Thus contrary Causes serve so good a Natured so Charitable and Candid a Writer as the Creed-maker to the same purpose of Censure and Railing But I shall desire him to figure to himself the Loveliness of that Creature which turns every thing into Venom What others are or hold who have expressed favourable thoughts of my Book I think my self not concerned in What Opinions others have published make those in my Book neither true nor false and he that for the sake of Truth would confute the Errors in it should shew their Falshood and Weakness as they are there But they who write for other Ends than Truth are always busie with other Matters and where they can do nothing by Reason and Argument hope to prevail with some by borrowed Prejudices and Party Taking therefore the Animadversions as well as the Sermon to be his whose Name they bear I shall leave to Mr. B d himself to take what Notice he thinks fit of the little Sence