THE Socinian Creed OR A Brief Account Of the Professed Tenents and Doctrines OF THE Foreign and English Socinians Wherein is shew'd The Tendency of them TO Irreligion and Atheism With Proper Antidotes against them By JOHN EDWARDS B. D. sometime Fellow of St. John's College in Cambridge 2 Tim. iii. 9. They shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men LONDON Printed for J. Robinson at the Golden-Lion and J. Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1697. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God EDWARD Lord Bishop of Worcester MY LORD I Presumed to dedicate my former Writings to two Eminent Persons of your High Order in the Church and now this present Undertaking comes to find shelter under your Lordships Patronage Which I despair not of because you have let the world sufficiently know how greatly you disapprove of the Sentiments of those Men whose Character is offer'd in the following Treatise It was observ'd that even in your Early Years you chose to encounter the Pontifician and Racovian Impostors not unlike Hercules that in his very Minority grappled with Serpents and Monsters Crellius felt the Strength of your Arm and hath laid a Baffled and Prostrate Foe ever since for there never yet appear'd any thing that had the face of an Answer to your Book And lately when Socinus's followers began to take heart again and to lift up their bruised heads your Lordship successfully struck at them and publickly vindicated the Mysteries of the Christian Faith from the bold and blasphemous insults of these persons In your former Attempts you were wont to exceed Others but now you outvied your self such were the extraordinary Acuteness and Sagacity of your Thoughts on this subject such the inimitable Pregnancy of your Reasons such the matchless Weight and Nervousness of your Arguments such your close application of Scripture every where Which the Adversaries were sensible of and accordingly that they might not be thought to be Idle advanced some Feeble Considerations against your Lordship's Excellent Discourse Here to support their Tatter'd Cause they made a stir with trifling sallies and excursions with faint shews of Criticism with Pedantick flourishes of Wit with mean and languid Efforts of Seeming Logick But chiefly these Socinian Sharpers endeavour'd to run down the Truth by their unparallell'd Confidence and by treating your Lordship as well as it with disrespect and disdain But so it is they have shew'd themselves Rude to their immortal shame And yet at the same time by attempting to Lessen your Worth and Deserved Fame they have inhansed them as all Envious and Malicious Persons do when they detract from those of Great Merit All the Learned World unanimously vote your Lordship to be the Chief of this number even those who disagree in all other things agree in your Lordships Praises For without the least Shew of Adulation it may be most truly said that your Name is now not so much the Name of a Person or Family as it is the Name of Profound Learning and Solid Religion But I shall offend against your Lordship's Modesty and call forth Blushes from those Reverend Cheeks which have so boldly look'd your Adversaries in the face if I proceed any further thus wherefore I am forced here to a Period Only let me be permitted to add my Hearty Wishes and Prayers viz. That the Allmighty would vouchsafe to bless Your Lordship with Long Life Health and Vigour to accomplish those Great Things which You have designed against the Church's Common Foes Papists and Socinians that You may be a Terrour and Scourge to Rome and Racovia that You may give an effectual check to the Sly pretences of Deists that You may bridle the Insolence of Atheists and be successful in mortifying all such Sworn Enemies of the Christian Faith and Practise So prayeth Your Lordships most Humble and entire Servant and Honourer John Edwards THE PREFACE SOME Eminent Persons of our Church having been pleas'd to honour me with their Approbation of what I have lately writ against the Socinians in defence of the Orthodox Faith I presume once more to assert and vindicate this Noble Cause And I am further animated and encouraged to such an Undertaking from what I meet with in the Learned Bishop of Worcester 's Preface to his Discourse concerning Christ's Satisfaction lately reprinted where he directly charges the Socinians with the promoting of Deism and promises to make good his Charge against them in a Discourse And in the close of his Preface he tells us that he will let the world know that he is no stranger to the Pamphlets of the Modern Racovians Thus we see the Cause doth not die nor indeed can it when so Able a Person is willing to uphold it and hath engaged himself to do it one whose Name is as terrible to the Socinians as that of Duke D'Alva heretofore to the Dutch Till this Great Champion shews himself anew I will make bold to enter the Lists and to attack our Common Foe and thereby prepare the way for the Conquests of so Renowned a Pen. But let me declare this and that with the greatest sincerity imaginable that it is not from any pleasure I take in contending with any Party of Men or from a desire to provoke and exasperate them for I bear a hearty Charity and Good Will to all mankind and especially I love and honour all Sincere and Good Men all that have the impressions of a Christian Spirit upon them nor is it from any other undue Principle but wholly from a sense of my Duty and that alone that I appear again in this Cause At first I purposely check'd my self and forbore to produce all those Arguments and Proofs whereby I might have evinced the Inclinableness of the Socinians to Irreligion and a spirit of Infidelity And this I did for several Reasons partly to suit my self to the then present Juncture partly to let the world see that I was not Hasty and Forward in censuring any sort of persons and partly to allow my self time to enquire further into the matter both to satisfie my self and others Because what I then suggested was design'd to be in the way of an Essay or Introduction I only offer'd some few Heads of my Charge against them but now I intend to give the Reader a Farther Account of some of them and likewise to superadd Several Articles to the former Charge and Indictment I will set before him Other Different-Demonstrations of that Atheistick Tang that Irreligious Genius which I tax'd them with So then I believe they will have little occasion to say that I mollifie that in a Treatise which was much more Harsh when preach'd in a Sermon Though I must profess to the world that I loath all Harshness and Severity which are inconsistent with the Candor and Meekness of a Christian and which are not absolutely requisite for the vindicating of the indispensable Truths of Religion Our Racovians may remember
the Socinian Writers there is a Necessity of openly adhering to some Congregation professing Christ's discipline and that Congregation must be such as they think to be purer than the rest This is the whole design and subject of Socinus's book De Officio hominis Christiani to shew that they must be of some Church and particularly of those who were then call'd Arians or Ebionites That is in plain terms those who are of the Anti-Trinitarian perswasion must have a Gather'd Church and there make publick profession of their belief and openly teach those Doctrines which they are perswaded to be true And yet I offer it to be taken notice of that though this be profess'd in their Writings to be an Indispensable Point of Religion c. yet they regard not the practising of it None of our English Socinians have any Set Meetings for the propagating of their doctrine as men of other perswasions have at this day We cannot but take notice that all Parties who think their Way to be True and Good hold distinct Congregations on the Lord's day or at other Solemn times and then make profession of their particular Way and Worship It is well known that this is the usage and practice of all the different Parties of Religion They did it even when they had a Prohibition from the Government but now much more openly when they are not restrained by Publick Authority But there is not so much as one single Meeting in the way of Religion and Worship upheld by the Socinians tho it is certain that their way of worship differs from that of all Other Parties because the very Object of Worship is different I mean as to their consideration of it for they look upon our Saviour as a Creature and no other Which one thing should make them assemble together in a distinct place and manner from all other Professors of Religion They should if they acted according to their own Principles have a peculiar Church and openly preach up their Perswasions and declare against the false and Idolatrous Worship of all Professors of Christianity but themselves for so it seems they esteem it Thus I say they are obliged to do if they will be consistent to themselves They must form an Assembly of their own and if they want Members they know where to have them it is but sending for some more of their brethren in Transylvania Poland c. and so they may be stock'd I do not see how they can possibly omit the Meeting together as a Church suppose in London or some other convenient place for their Principles of Ecclesiastical Government or Discipline oblige them to this If they say that some Prudential Considerations prevail with them to do otherwise then it is clear that their Prudence is of such a sort that it outweighs yea wholly excludes their Duty and surely men of their Reason and Judgment will not boast much of such a Prudence Besides if they pretend Discretion and Prudence for their not Assembling together then in so doing they tax all the Meetings and Congregations of other Perswasions as herds of Imprudent and Impolitick Men and whether such a Charge as this savours of Prudence I leave it to themselves to judg To say the truth these Gentlemen can be as smart upon the Dissenters when they think fit as upon Church-men we are told in the Trinitarian Scheme of Religion that the former have separated from the Church of England for small and inconsiderable causes And in an other of their late Essays they rattle all Dissenters at a high rate charging them with great inconsistency to themselves and their own principles and afterwards they call them Wiâ—…-Worshippers telling them that their worship is without any warrant of Scripture either by precept or so much as one example nay against the full current of Scripture-Worship Then they add their Worship iâ—… of their own invention and soon after they call it a Popish Invention Now one would think that these men who thus condemn all Dissenters and declare forâ—… Purer Congregation and Worship than other men should have Particular and Distinct Assemblies of their own but they have not they mix with others and particularly sometimes with the Churches of the Conformists yea some of them have been and are still professed Members of the Church of England joyning in that Service particularly the Liâ—…any where the Three Persons of the God-head are invoked and the Doxology which is so frequently repeated wherein the Deity not only of the Father but of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is publickly professed and owned Socinus had other thoughts when he endeavour'd to prove that the people of the kingdom of Poland and of the Great Dutchy of Lithuania ought to joyn themselves to the Assemblies of those that were call'd Arians that is those who profess'd Socinus's doctrine Now will not any rational and considerate man infer hence that our English Socinians are very cold and unconcerned in their Religion for though according to the Scheme of their Church-Government they ought to Meet together in a visible and solemn manner yet they are so Indifferent that they will not or so Cowardly that they dare not do it Which breeds a suspicion of them that they only act a Part and that at another time they will be at something else Which appears from this likewise that tho they under hand manage their Cause and write in defence of it yet they conceal their Names and Persons They are against Mysteries but they keep in the Clouds and will not let the world know who they are This evidently convinces us how Indifferent they are for if they were verily perswaded that their doctrine is really True and that it contains in it Substantial and Necessary Points of Faith and Religion they would not they could not act thus under a disguise but they would be sensible that it is absolutely requisite to discover themselves and to deal above board and to be plain and free in their owning of the Cause for if they be Verities of Necessary Concern in Religion as they sometimes pretend then they are worth the Publick owning and these persons may glory in the defence of them But we see they dare not even in this Juncture when Liberty was allow'd them and they might safely speak their minds appear with open face and set their Names before their Writings This shews that they have no true Zeal for their Cause yea that at the bottom they are but little or not at all concerned And if they be not deeply concerned for that which is their Darling Point what can we think of them as to the rest But it is not only Cowardize but something of a worse nature that makes them thus mask themselves These Knights Errant who come not like those of old to do kindnesses to the distressed will not vouchsafe to lift up the beavers of their helmets and let us see who they are because
Sacred Scripture hath recorded It is to be wondred at that notwithstanding this these men should be so blind it is strange and unaccountable that they take no notice of their being baffled by the Fulfilling of those Predictions Likewise who sees not that the Providence of God extends it self to this sort of future actions and occurrences for he manages these for great and excellent ends in the world But how can he do this if he hath no knwledg of them Can his Care and Providence be exercised about them and yet he be wholly Ignorant of them Thus it is evident that at the same time that these men deny the Divine Prescience they do also take away Providence for it is impossible that God should dispose order and take care of those actions and events which he knows nothing of Which shews how absurd and ridiculous that passage in Socinus is viz. that this Prescience which we assert to be in God doth in some part take away and obscure that continual Care which he takes of humane affairs and renders him in a manner Idle One would not imagine that such an Inconsistent Thought should come into a mans head and much less that it should be propagated as we see in Vorstius and others If they had not a strong propension to diminish and disparage the Divine Nature and to foster Atheism certainly they could not thus discourse certainly they could not maintain that God is ignorant of what any Man will say think or do the next moment and that he hath no notice at all of such Future Occurrences as depend on the free will of man till they actually come to pass i. e. when every intelligent creature hath a knowledg of them There is yet another Attribute of God concerning which they have a very unbecoming notion and such as is inconsistent with the Perfection of the Divine Nature God's Eternity is represented by them to have in it a Succession of Duration as there is in Time They are the very words of * Socinus and Crellius And the English Socinians shew themselves to be of this mind placing the nature of Eternity in a Continual Succession And as for the contrary notion it is laught at by some of them as a Whimsical Paradox But certainly this is no other than confounding of Finite and Infinite and making Time and Eternity the same Where there is a Succession there was a Beginning or First Moment which plainly demonstrates that there is no Succession in God's duration because all things are Together and at Once those things which are past present and to come are always coexistent and present with him One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day Psal. 90. 4. Which denotes that there are not in God those three differences of Time before mention'd which are in the duration of other things and consequently there are no Parts and no Succession in the Eternal Duration of God This I think no man will deny to be rational that the Permanency of the Existence of God should be differenced from that of Creatures and accordingly that he should not be measured by Time as they are I go upon this ground that we ought to attribute the most Excellent things to God and on the contrary that we must not ascribe any thing to him that hath the least Shew of Imperfection and will diminish his Divine Nature This is a safe and sound bottom and on this I build my Assertion viz. that a Temporal and Successive duration ought not to be attributed to God If the persons I am now dealing with had attended to this Rule had built on this basis they would not have pronounced such strange things as they do concerning the Deity they would have had more reverent conceptions of him they would not have vented such undue Opinions and Surmises concerning the Divine Nature But they having taken up these Perswasions endeavour to defend them and it hath happen'd that some persons of good Parts have undertaken the Cause and have rendred it very plausible to such as have not an eye to the Infinite and Superlative Excellency of God the Supreme Being I grant that there are some Learned Meâ—… that are no Socinians who seem to allow 〈◊〉 a Successive Duration in him but if we duly weigh what they say we shall find thaâ—… they chiefly set themselves against the nice speculations of the Schoolmen concerning Succession but they apply noâ—… this way of Duration in a proper and strict manner unto God They owâ—… some kind of resemblance of it in Eternity but there is no such thing formally and really The reason is because Succession implies in it Parts Divisibility Motion and Change but an Eternal Undivideâ—… Being is not capable of these and by consequence not of such a Duration Wherefore it follows that the Eternity of God is in a manner denied by the Socinians 〈◊〉 leave it to the Reader to apply the Censure CHAP. III. The Socinians renounce the doctrine of the Trinity though it be attested by the Scriptures and Fathers They prophanely ridicule it They are demonstrated to be Atheists from St. John's Words Epist. 1. ch 2. v. 23. The Argument thence is reduced into an unanswerable Syllogism The doctrine of the Trinity intended to be particularly treated of hereafter by the Author Christ's own words evince his Divinity The Socinians denying him to be God consequently deny his Satisfaction That Text Rom. 3. 25. is urged against them Whence are inferr'd the Unreasonableness and Impiousness of their Cavils Christ's Satisfaction proved from Isai. 53. 5. c. From those Texts which speak of Reconciliation made by him From other places which mention his Suffering and Dying for us his being a Propitiation an Atonement a Sacrifice his Redeeming us Both the former and present Socinians agree in reviling deriding and blaspheming the Merits and Satisfaction of our Saviour THUS far we have seen how defective they are in their Notions concerning God as he is considerd in respect of his Attributes We will in the next place observe how faulty they are in their Conceptions concerning Him as he is to be considered in regard of the Persons contain'd in his Godhead The Holy Scriptures especially of the New Testament bear witness that though there is but One Living and True God yet in Unity of this Godhead there is a Trinity of Persons of one substance majesty power and glory viz. the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that these are the very Eternal God There is abundant proof of this from a vast number of Plain and Obvious Texts and yet the Disciples of Socinus stubbornly disown this Clear Truth They have but a Text or two on which they pretend to build their belief of Christ's Ascending into heaven before he preach'd the Gospel and yet these though distorted and misapplied they think a sufficient basis for that Conceit of theirs but behold
they shall not be Tried or Judged Only they shall be Punished and their Punishment is this To utterly eease and perish for ever the Unquenchable Fire is nothing but Annihilation I believe as to Christianity it self that every thing in it is to be submitted to the dictates of Humane Reason and what cannot be explain'd and made out by this is no part of the Christian Religion and consequently that there are no doctrines appertaining to it which are Mysterious and Superiour to our Reason I believe as to Divine Worship that it may be given to another besides God that a Creature may if God thinks fit be the object of Adoration and consequently Christ who is but a Creature may be worship'd with Divine Worship even the same that is paid to God the Father I believe that Prayer as eminent an act of Worship as it is was not required in the Old Testament for God's people had no need of Praying then they were able to do all that was commanded them in their Religion without the Divine Assistance and therefore the Invoking of God became not a Duty till Christ's time I believe the Lord's day commonly so call'd is a Ceremonious Observance and abolish'd by the Gospel which takes away all Choice of Days I believe that there is no Spiritual Blessing convey'd or conferr'd in the use of the Sacraments and particularly that Baptism is an useless Rite which the Christian Church under the Gospel hath nothing to do with but more especially the Baptizing of Children is insignificant vain and childish and hath neither Precept nor Example to commend it to us I believe there is no Distinct Function or Office of Ministers in the Christian Church and that the Lord's Supper it self may be administred by any private Christian or Brother As to Moral Points I believe that Officious Lies are lawful that the Motions of Concupiscence are not Vitious that idle or obscene words gluttony drunkenness riot luxury and all impure desires and lusts were not forbidden till Christ's time and consequently were no Sins I believe concerning Magistrates that they have no power of Life and Death it is not lawful for them now under the Gospel to inflict Capital Punishments on any Offenders or Malefactors no not Murderers and Cut-throats Concerning some other Articles I believe as the Church believes I mean the Church of Rome for we symbolize with them in several points of doctrine Lastly after all I believe that though the foresaid Articles are necessary to make a man a Socinian yet the belief of only One is enough to make a Man a Christian and that One Article is that Jesus is the Messias in which it is not included whether he be God or Man whether he satisfied the Divine Justice for our sins and by vertue of his Death purchas'd Life for us But when I say I believe Jesus is the Messiah I mean only this that such a Man of Nazareth was Anointed Ordain'd and Sent of God to be a Saviour and that this is He who was foretold and promis'd to be sent by God This is all I believe and there is no Necessity of believing any thing more This is the Socinian Creed and I have faithfully drawn it up out of their own Admired and Applauded Writers I know it will be said here that some besides professed Socinians hold some of these things To which I answer I made it not my present business to observe what Others say but to represent what that body of men who are known by the name of Socinians profess and own Again it is not one of these Opinions alone excepting that concerning the Blessed Trinity which can give the denomination of Socinian it is the Complication of them that must do it Therefore Iinsist not on any one Single Opinion of lesser importance Those that bear upon them the General and Complex Characters which I have layd down in the preceding Discourse are the Persons that I design'd In short I write not and never will by God's assistance to humour and gratifie any Party of Men but to assert and vindicate the Truth which is pleasing to all Good Men. And therefore if any sort of persons shall censure my freedom I shall have recourse to my own Innocence and Integrity that is my hearty designs and indeavours to advance that Cause which I verily believe hath Truth on its side because it hath the Scriptures on its side If they shall say and what will they not say that the English Socinians give not their suffrage to all these Particulars which I have produced and named and therefore my Charge against the Foreigners doth not reach them I desire these following things may be considered and then this Evasion will be found to be very weak and useless and nothing to their purpose and it will appear that this Scheme of Socinianism belongs to them as well as to the rest First we are not sure that some of those who go under the name of English Socinians are not Foreigners Is not Crellius's Stock somewhere harbour'd among them Have there not been seen strange Outlandish Books at the Press of late May we not suspect some Transylvanians and Polanders employ'd in the work lately Are we not sure that there are some Irish as well as English ingaged in the service Why then are we nice in distinguishing when they are not differenc'd as to their work and design Secondly as for our very English and Native Socinians they borrow'd their Opinions from those Foreigners they fetch'd them from those Writers and they maintain them by the same Arguments that they did They use the very same Texts and urge them after the same manner they follow them step by step vouch their Reasonings applaud their Discoursings only they dress up their notions in an English garb and give them a more Modish Turn than they had before That 's all the difference between those Authors and these of late in England Thirdly though some of the Moderns are so politick as to be silent about some of the Points that I have mention'd yet we have no reason to gather thence that they are not inclin'd to imbrace them It is a remarkable hint of a very Observing Person There is reason to suspect saith he that the Socinians have some other odd Tenents which they think fit rather to conceal than to deny For we must consider this that they would first gain their Main Point the overthrow of the Trinity and all the Maxims that relate to that This is the Leading Card with them and therefore they chiefly insist on this intending we may suppose to urge the rest afterwards For it would be too much to undertake at one time to defend all the other doctrines And besides it would be too odious to reject so many receiv'd Propositions at once Therefore they go not this way to work lest they should be universally cried down It is their cunning to proceed gradually and to undermine Christianity
he speaks of is not sufficient to make a Man a Christian unless he will submit to this Nonsense that a man can be a Christian a True Christian though he believe not those things without which he can't be a Christian This is sufficient I suppose to give you a tast of Mr. Bold's Self-Contradiction and at the same time of the Unreasonableness and Groundlessness of the Notion which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity hath publish'd to the world I wish for the sake of this our present Penman who seems to be a Man that hath some relish of Religion and Piety that he had not thus expos'd himself and his Friend together There hath been a Pair of Advocates for this Conceit of a Christian of One Article the one a Layman the other a Churchman the first a Professed Socinian and having little to say for his Friend stuff'd his Pamphlet with what Crellius afforded him the latter you see after great study and deliberation hath made as inconsiderable advances in the Cause and though he appears in the form of a Preacher yet he hath said nothing answerable to the Specious Title of his Sermon The true Knowledg of Christ Jesus but on the contrary hath said very ill things to the lessening and impairing yea to the defaming of that knowledg and belief of our Saviour and of the Articles of Christianity which are necessarily required of us From what he hath delivered we may infer that there hath been one Vain Effort more in the world than there was before And this is his just and deserved Character that he hath betrayed the Cause he undertook and hath dispatch'd himself and it with his own Weapons unwarily handled But let me address my self to this Gentleman a little more closely if I can speak more closely than I have already Verily Sir it is strange that a Man of your Sobriety and Temper should be thus easily drawn off that you should so far debase your self and the Post you are in as to be Mr. L's Journeyman he having himself it seems given over working at the Trade that you should accept of the Office of an Under-Puller for Racovianism Was it not enough that the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity had been publickly defended by Deists and Scepticks that he had been approved of and vindicated by the profess'd Votaries and Disciples of Socinus that he had the good word of all the Indifferent and Neuters in Religion that he was caressed and admired by the Men of Wit about the Town who make it their business to banter Christianity and in a word that he was cried up by the Atheistical and Debauched who as concernedly railly all Religion as the late Field-Officer doth Priests was it not enough I say that the Rationalist found all these to be his Patrons but must Mr. Bold strike in with this Company and vote this Writer to be the Christianissimo next to LOUIS of this Age Not that I would be thought to detract in the least from the Gentleman's Worth for to give him his due it is most readily granted that he hath a'great share of Metaphysicks as his first book he publish'd sufficiently demonstrates and of Oeconomicks as his next book testifies and of Politicks as some late Papers assure us wherein he hath abundantly shew'd how acute and ingenious a Projector he is in the point of Trade and Money especially Guinea's and the Lowering of them But I am not obliged to think that his Talent lies so advantagiously towards Theology especially Christianity I can't approve of his introducing a Clipt Christianity and thrusting upon us a False Coin a Counterfeit Stamp in Religion I cannot and never will conceal my dislike of his teaching the men of this too Giddy Age to truck their Old Christianity for a New Notion or Fancy of the pretended Reasonableness of that Christianity which he shapes to himself And yet Sir you are pleas'd to take part here and that with no common Zeal Which strange behaviour or rather unaccountable Fascination hath stagger'd not a few of your Friends and Admirers who with my self own that you have done much Good by your former Writings but fear now that you will do as much Harm The Devout and Pious had other apprehensions of you when they look'd into your Practical Sermons Invitations and Meditations and therefore they stand amazed since they have perus'd your late Productions and observing there that you are come to the Necessity of but One Article of Faith they expect that you may in time hold that None is Necessary which is the scope and design whether you take notice of it or no of those that have lately influenc'd upon you Let me be free with you and tell you that it is the sense of your Friends that if your Pen runs for the future in this strain you will write rather like a Turkish Spy than a Christian Preacher I beseech you therefore Sir by all that is good and sacred and by that Repute which you have heretofore gain'd among the Religious and Pious that you would not dissemble with your self and choak your inward Perswasions and abuse your self and the world too I wish with all my heart that you would account with your self for this late Backsliding and consider how scandalous it will be when your Auditors and Readers shall find that you are sailing to Racovia with a side-wind I beg of you by the bonds of our most Holy Christianity that you would whilst it is time prevent a final Apostacy Wear not the detestable Character of a Renegade Sir I most passionately request you to ponder that smart and upbraiding Query which our Blessed Saviour used to some of his Disciples when he saw that they went back Will Ye also go away John 6. 67. Remember Good Sir that going away ended in Betraying REFLECTIONS ON THE Animadversions LET us come next to the Animadversions which are tack'd to the Sermon And truly I am inclined to clear the Gentleman under whose name this Pamphlet goes from being the Composer of this part of the book I can scarcely believe that Mr. Bold would offer such a Crude and Shallow thing to the publick but I am partly of the mind that these Animadversions were transmitted to him and he was desired to publish them as his own that it might be said which was never said before that a Man with a Name and with Open face that one without a Vizour warranted the late Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity that it might be said that a Clergy-man the Reverend Rector of Steeple vouched these strange notions But I must needs say I do not take him to be the Animadverter one reason of which Conjecture is because I have heard that these very Objections and Cavils which are here used were made use of by the Party and therefore it is probable that though they appear under the name of S. B. yet they might more truly have had J. L. or A.