here is a different use of the same Word and if in our Author's way of Arguing a different use of the same word will render us uncapable of attaining the sense contained in these words it would be to little purpose to read the word without an Infallible Assistant always at hand to explain it clearly and certainly to us So that if there be no better way to end the many Controversies of this Age than what he calls the only and surest way they are likely to continue for his time And if their Church has no surer way to bring the Case to an issue than this of exposing Christianity to save themselves they will as soon make men to quit all Religion as that which they have to be of theirs of which they cannot be but by subverting those Principles upon which the best Religion in the World the Christian is supported Here I might have concluded but our Author may take it ill if after I have traced him from Paragraph to Paragraph I should leave out his pathetical Conclusion which is as follows I conceive an Answer to these Doubts absolutely necessary for the Salvation of my Soul. For how can I be saved if I know not what is necessary thereunto I need not say a satisfactory one for no other can flow from your Learned and virtuous Pens I only fear that some Pin-feather'd Divine out of an itch to appear in Print may prevent yours and put me off with a Flim-flam or an uncharitable Jeer or Railing against some particular Church he may fancy me to be of which is nothing to my purpose who seek where I may find securely Necessaries to Salvation not where I cannot find them This would be also prejudicial to the Church of England for when Men see Doubts so sincerely and submissively Proposed Answered only with Jeers Railing and Invectives or omitted and let pass as not deserving an Answer they must needs doubt of the Learning ae well as of the Virtue and Charity of their Leaders Now were the Satisfaction I here desire intended for myself alone it might have seemed more proper to have made my Address in particular to some one of your Reverend and Learned Body but forasmuch as it concerns so many others and as I perswade my self will prove extremely beneficial to Religion it being the surest nay only way to end the many Controversies of this Age I am forced to desire of you whose high Character obliges you to a Zeal of Souls a publick and withal a speedy Answer by which you will highly oblige SIRS Yours ever LONDON Printed for Randall Taylor 1688. Our Author has too plainly discovered himself and had reason to suppose his Reader might well fancy him to be of some particular Church and he may as well expect to receive a due Correction for this his Dissimulation that pretends to be in doubt and yet to be in a Church as he supposes Infallible that pretends the Answer to these Doubts absolutely necessary for the Salvation of his Soul and yet is of a Church in which he is judged to hazard his Soul if he doth but doubt that Presents An Address to the Ministers of the Church of England to resolve his Doubts and yet has a Guide of his own whom it's necessary to believe and whom he is bound to follow that pretends to be sincerely desirous of finding out the Truth and doth all he can to involve it Lastly that brings these very Doubts to the Ministers of the Church of England that have been of late so frequently answered by them to the Confutation tho it seems not altogether to the Silencing of their Adversaries I will direct him to the Books and I hope by way of Courtesie he will in his next direct us to the Answers that have been since returned to them The Peoples Right to Read the Holy Scripture in Answer to the Representer A Discourse concerning a Guide A Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers Page 40 c. An Answer to a late Dialogue between a New Catholick Convert and a Protestant to prove the Mystery of the Trinity c. The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared c. in 2 parts An Answer to the Request to Protestants to produce plain Scriptures c. With the Vindication of it called A Short Summary of the principal Controversies An Answer to a Book Entituled Reason and Authority Page 1 2 c. The Difference betwixt the Protestant and Socinian Methods in Answer to the Potestant's Plea for a Socinian All these Books with several others to the same purpurpose were Printed the last year and if our Author had consulted them as he ought and had as sincerely read them as he pretends to propose his doubts whatever his Confidence might I am apt to think his Conscience would not have found any just occasion to have made this Address nor needed Another to Answer it But it seems nothing less will satisfy our Author than an Answer from the Ministers of the Church of England It 's not a particular person that he conceives sufficiently qualified to undertake his Case and to rescue his Soul which he is so solicitous to save out of this danger and to instruct him in this weighty Affair But it is their Reverend and Learned Body as he fleeringly stiles them that he presents his Address to from whom he expects a Publick and withal a Speedy Answer He writes as if they were now in Convocation or that they were all obliged through the Two Provinces forthwith to assemble about this important Case and by one Solemn Act of theirs to return an Answer to these Doubts which is absolutely necessary for the Salvation of his Soul. But because it 's now not a season for this purpose and 't will be too long to stay till the days grow longer and the ways better I thought I might as well presume to try what might be done by a private hand and he might as well accept of it as he might Present an Address to the Ministers of the Church of England in behalf of himself and others and at last subscribe in his own name with a Sirs Yours ever FINIS Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is prefixed a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4 0. With a Table to the Whole Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. Wake M. A 120. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A Private Prayer to be used in difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29. 1687. between A. Pulton Jesuit and Th. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4 0. The Vindication of A Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of thier Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4 0. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an Account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 4 0. A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the New Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The SECOND PART The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 4 0. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto published in his True Account his True and Full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Th. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Ancient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of Consensus Veterum Nubes Testium and other late Collections of the Fathers pretendâ—ng to the Contrary 40 An Answer to the Representer's Reflections upon the State and View of the Address Answer Address Answer De Doctr. Christ. l. 2. c. 9. Sum. Part 3. Tit. 18. c. 3. ff 3. White 's Way to the true Church Sect. 8. N. 2. Enarrat in ps 8. In John 1.1 c. 4. Homil. 1. in Math Hom. 3 de Laz. Address Answer Address Answer Address Answer Q. 4. Address Answer Address Answer Address Answer Address
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus An Answer to the Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England Febr. 11. 1687. Guil. Needam R mo in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuar. a Sacr. Domest AN ANSWER TO THE ADDRESS Presented to the MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVIII AN ANSWER TO THE ADDRESS Presented to the Ministers of the Church of ENGLAND An Address Presented to the Reverend and Learned Ministers of the Church of England by one sincerely desirous of finding out the Truth in behalf of himself and others equally concern'd as well for their own as the general Satisfaction IT 's a hard Shift the present Writers of the Church of Rome among us are brought to that when other helps fail them they take up with such a sort of Arguments which how useful soever they may prove to make some men of Their Religion have a plainer tendency to make others of None Certainly were these persons as much concerned for the Truth of Christianity as they are for their own Corruptions of it or could defend those Corruptions in a better way they would not put the case upon this extremity and had they the Scripture as much for the Church of Rome's Supremacy and Infallibility c. as it is for its own sufficiency the Trinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour we should have heard more of their Proofs from Scripture than of Requests and Addresses to the Church of England the great Patron it seems of these Points to prove from Scripture the Trinity and Incarnation These Articles of the Christian Faith are an Argument worthy of a serious Consideration if proposed by one that really needs as well as he pretends to desire Satisfaction But to have a Member of the Church of Rome as our Author apparently is personating an Arrian and other Hereticks and in the face of the World requiring Scripture-proof for those above-said Points of Catholick Doctrine To have this thrust upon us afresh after the unrefuted Answers given to the First Request the Catholick Dialogue and the Plea for a Socinian is no good sign whatever he pretends of one sincerely desirous of finding out the Truth nor would it be worth the while to take up the Cause anew for his sake who I am sensible is not to be satisfied in this way were it not for some better End it may be useful to The Address consists of several Proposals which thus begin There can be no doubt but that the main Concern of Man in this Vale of Tears is the Salvation of his Soul. If this be lost he loses all if this be gained he gains all and both for an Eternity No body then can blame me if being solicitous to save my Soul I have recourse to those whose Learning must needs enable them and whose Charity cannot but incline them to instruct me in this weighty Affair I therefore humbly beseech you most Reverend and Learned Doctors of the Church of England to afford me a clear and satisfactory Solution of these following Doubts First I desire to know Whether all things necessary to Salvation are contained in Scripture If not where must I seek them If they be then they are either clearly contained in it so that there is no need of an Interpreter for the meaning of the words or not If there be no need of any such Interpreter then I humbly ask what these Necessaries to Salvation are and in what Chapter and Verse of Scripture each of them may be found For example Is the belief of a Trinity c. For the clearer understanding of the whole I shall divide it into several Questions Q. 1. Whether all things necessary to Salvation are contained in Scripture A. If there are things necessary to Salvation that are not contained in Scripture the World is for ought I see at a great loss where to seek them For nothing can be necessary to Salvation which was not necessary in the Primitive and will be so to all succeeding Ages But where to find those things thus necessary out of Scripture that have been of a date and Authority equal to it I know none that have attempted the discovery Nor could we ever yet be favoured with an account of what these Necessaries are and where each of them may be found So that Scripture must contain these Necessary things or else we are left without any means of knowing them And the Scripture must fail of its end and we of the Salvation therein revealed if that be not as sufficient in its kind to beget Faith in us as Faith is to save us For faith St. John 20.31 These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name Nay we are as much assured of this as we are of its Divine Authority for the same Apostle that saith All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God doth immediately before as positively affirm that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 16. From which Consideration it was that all doubts relating to Salvation were hereby to be resolved which could not be were not all things necessary to Salvation contained in it So when that Question was put to our Saviour Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life He answered What is written in the Law How readest thou Thou knowest the Commandments Luke 10.25 26. Mark 10.17 19. And that they had Moses and the Prophets was in his estimation sufficient to dispose them to Repent without any other Revelation than was therein contained Luke 16.29 30 31. Till it can therefore be shewn that the Scripture was not written to make men wise unto salvation or that men might be wise to Salvation without knowing the things necessary to it Till it can be proved that the Old Testament was not a Rule of Faith and Manners to the Jews in all points necessary to their Salvation Or that both Old and New-Testament have not the same end or not the same sufficiency to that End now to the Christian as the Old Testament alone had to the Jewish Church we have no reason to think the Scripture defective in any thing necessary to Salvation or that there is any other means provided by God to supply its deficiency therein And in this Doctrine we are not alone but have the concurrence of the most Authentick Writers of the Christian Church of which sort in particular is that memorable saying of St. Austin All things which concern Faith and Manners of Life are found in those things which are plainly contained in Scripture A Truth that the Writers of the Church of Rome in their soberer thoughts do often acknowledg So Antoninus A. B. of Florence God saith he hath spoken but once and that in the Holy Scripture and that so
fully as to meet with all temptations and all cases that may fall out and all good works that as Gregory expounds it he needs speak no more to us concerning any Necessary matter seeing all things are found in Scripture Q. 2. Whether all things necessary to Salvation are clearly contained in Scripture It was we have seen the Opinion of St. Austin that not only all things thus necessary are contained in Scripture but also that they are plainly therein contained And yet neither that Father nor any of the same mind with him as who was not then and who is not now except the Church of Rome did ever thereby understand that all these Necessaries are expresly contained in Scripture since an evident Consequence is equivalent to a plain and express Proposition as it was Matt. 22.31 32. Nor 2. do they understand by being clearly contained in Scripture that all persons may immediately learn all Necessaries by the meer reading of it as our Author puts the Case without the use of those means for the understanding of it that God has appointed and the nature of the thing requires such as attention consideration and the assistance of Teaching Guides For the plainness or clearness of the things to be learned and understood and an Instructor to lead us to or help us in the understanding them are not only consistent but generally to be supposed It 's a good saying of one upon this Argument That is not obscure which by ordinary means may be apprehended but that is so which either hath no means at all to open it or hath such as are not ordinary Neither 3. can it be supposed that the Scriptures do so clearly contain all things necessary as that nothing of that kind ever was or can be excepted against For they may be plain and yet for some prevalent reasons it may not be confessed They may again be plain and yet not be understood to be so from several Impediments Sometimes this proceeds from a natural Impediment as it is in Children and such as are of a very weak capacity And yet even to such St. Austin supposes them to be intelligible God having bowed down the Scripture to the capacity of Babes and Sucklings that when proud men will not speak to their capacity he himself might Sometimes from moral Impediments such as prejudices and prepossessions as it was with the Apostles who understood not our Saviour when he told them openly and plainly again and again that he must be killed Mark 8.31 32. 9.31 32. Such again are vile affections as Pride and the Love of the World Interest and Obstinacy into which our Saviour resolved the Jews Infidelity John 5.40 44. Such are Partiality Negligence Sloth and Inconsideration There are also Judicial Impediments when for their contempt and obstinacy c. God sends men strong delusions that they should believe a lye 2 Thes. 2.10 11. But now where those and the like Impediments are not but that men lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and as new born babes in the Apostles Phrase desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.1 2. that they come with an honest heart and use a competent diligence with a Dependance upon God's assistance for the Wisdom he hath promised I know nothing necessary to Salvation unless what the Church of Rome hath made so but what is plainly taught in Scripture and may be learn'd from it But without this temper the plainest and most express words and the necessary meaning of those words will not convince some men As for Example what more plain than that in Exodus 20. there is a 2 d Commandment distinct from the First What more plain than thou shalt not make to thee any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing to bow down before it or worship it What more plain than drink ye all of it Matth. 26.27 What more plain than that Prayer is not to be in an Vnknown Tongue 1 Cor. 14. Lastly what more clear than that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation And yet we know where these things will not be confess'd The Truth is that as long as there are Prejudices and Interest and depraved Affections in mankind Truth will be obscure And the things that are easy are yet to Hereticks hard to understand saith St. Cyril But the defect in them makes none in the Scripture which is as entire compleat and clear when men do disagree about it as when it is by all unanimously consented to I shall sum up what I have said in the words of St. Chrysostom who thus delivers himself upon this Argument The Scriptures are easy to understand and exposed to the capacity of every Servant and Plough-man and Widow and Boy and him that is most unwise And again Therefore God penned the Scriptures by the hands of Publicans Fisher-men Tent-makers Shepherds Neat-herds and unlearned Men that none of the simple People might have any excuse from reading and that so they might be easie to be understood of all men the Artificer the Housholder and Widow-woman and him that is most unlearned Tea the Apostles and Prophets as School-masters to all the world made their Writings plain and evident to all men so that every man of himself only by reading them might learn the things spoken therein If the Reader desires further satisfaction he may find it in a Learned Book newly publish'd called A Discourse concerning the Nature and Grounds of the certainty of Faith p. 40 80 81 c. Q. 3. What are these Necessaries to Salvation Our Author offers Three Instances of such Necessaries as are not clearly revealed in Scripture viz. The Trinity the Incarnation of our Saviour and the observation of the Lord's Day Of the first of these he thus discourses For Example Is the Belief of a Trinity One God and Three Persons necessary to Salvation If it be as the Creed of S. Athanasius assures us it is in what Chapter and Verse of Scripture is it clearly expressed If you send me to the 1 Epist. of S. John Chap. 5. Ver. 7. where we read There are Three who give Testimony in Heaven the Father the Word and Holy Ghost and these Three are One or to the Gospel of S. John Chap. 10. Ver. 50. I and my Father are One I desire you to shew clearly out of Scripture that the word One here signifies a strict Identity or Vnity of Substance as the Church of England holds not a meer Moral Vnion as many Learned Arrians and others will have it and as we all confess the same word signifies in S. John Chap. 17. Ver. 21. where our Lord Prays that all Believers may be One as he and his Father are One where certainly he cannot be supposed to mean One in Substance In what Verse then and Chapter in Scripture have we these or the like words The word One in the 1 Epist. of S.
John Item in S. John ' s Gospel signifies a strict Identity which notwithstanding I conceive ought to be if all Necessaries to Salvation be clearly contained in Scripture Now if the Belief of a Trinity be not necessary to Salvation I desire it may be clearly owned in these or the like words 'T is not necessary for Salvation to believe Three Persons and one God notwithstanding the Creed of S. Athanasius and Definition of the first Council of Nice when the Church was in her Purity not the least corrupted The sum of our Author's Argument is this That the Doctrine of the Trinity is not clearly contained in Scripture because Unity in some places signifies not a Unity of Essence but of Will which way of arguing supposes that if a word be taken in two or more different senses then the Scripture doth not clearly contain the things contained in those words As for Example the word Door is sometimes taken in Scripture in a proper sense sometimes in a Metaphorical and being thus differently taken we cannot according to him certainly know when it is to be understood Properly and when Metaphorically and must be at a perfect loss to understand whether when our Saviour is called a Door John 10.7 it 's not meant properly and when St. Peter is said to stand at the Door John 18.16 it 's not meant Metaphorically Or to come nearer to our Author the Body of Christ is sometimes taken for a Natural sometimes for a Mystical Body and therefore we cannot be certainly assured whether when Joseph begg'd the Body of Jesus it 's not to be understood of the Mystical Body and that when the Apostles and Prophets c. were given for the edifying the Body of Christ Eph. 4.11 12. it 's not to be understood of Christ's Natural Body In this so difficult a case which is absolutely necessary to be answer'd for the salvation of his Soul p. 4. if you will believe the Addresser What is to be done What in reason will content him It 's nothing less than this That it be shewn that in some Verse and Chapter in Scripture we have these or the like words The Word One in St. John ' s Epistle signifies a strict Identity And he might have gone on without end in the same way and one as obstinate as himself may say Shew me some other Chapter and Verse wherein it is said that the word Door John 10. is to be understood Metaphorically and the word Body Ephes. 4. is to be understood Mystically or else it is apparent that we cannot know what Door Proper or Metaphorical or what Body whether Natural or Mystical is meant in those places for This ought to be if these things are clearly contained in Scripture This is a Thought for ought I know peculiar to our Author for I don't find this Address comes out with other Allowance than Printed for R. Taylor and as I do not envy him the Glory of the Invention so I shall leave him the satisfaction of self-enjoyment Indeed his Friends the Learned Arrians went not his way in opposing the Trinity nor the Orthodox in defending it and therefore if this Point was now to be argued the Ministers of the Church of England that hold with the Orthodox and amongst other places produce this of 1 John 5.7 for it would say that it 's as plainly said The Father Word and Holy Ghost are One as that they are Three and that tho Unity is sometimes taken in a Moral sense as John 17.21 yet the arguing of St. John in the former place shews it not to be understood in the same sense as the latter he making a plain difference betwixt the Unity that is betwixt the Three that bear record in Heaven and the Three that bear witness in Earth for of the Three that bear Record in Heaven it 's said They are one but of the Three that bear witness on Earth it 's said They agree in One. Now if it had been a mere Moral Union that was betwixt the Father Word and Holy Ghost who are the Three in Heaven it would have been as well said of them as of the Spirit the Water and the Blood which are the Three in Earth that they Agree in One. In like manner would the Ministers of the Church of England support the proof of this Article from John 10.30 I and my Father are One and shew that it 's to be understood of the Unity of Essence and not of mere Will and Consent because the Jews took up stones to stone him for blasphemy and because that thou being a man makest thy self God. But since there is a Union that may be betwixt God and Man without making man to be God as it is John 17.21 it follows that neither did our Saviour speak nor the Jews understand him to have spoken of a Moral but a Natural Union but for this let me recommend the Addresser to the Second Part of the Dialogue concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared p. 10 11. and Published the last Year His second Instance is of the Incarnation of which he saith Again Is the Belief of the Incarnation necessary for Salvation Where is it clearly expressed in Scripture You refer me to S. John chap. 1. The Word is made Flesh. But you know that many Learned Men Nestorius and others denied that word to signifie a strict Incarnation but either a Moral Vnion or a meer external appearance of a Man as those who held Christ not to have a real but a phantastick Body Now be pleased to shew me in what Verse or Chapter it is clearly expressed that the said words signifie a strict Incarnation But if you deny the belief of this Mystery to be necessary to Salvation own it for our satisfaction in these or the like words It is not necessary for Salvation to believe that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity was made true Man. And if the Belief of neither Trinity nor Incarnation are necessary shew me what 't is and where expressed in Scripture Setting aside what the Opinion of Nestorius was which our Author for ought I perceive understands not the sum of what is said amounts to this That the Scripture is not clear in this Point because as he saith Many learned Men Nestorius and others deny that word he means that phrase to signifie strict Incarnation So that if a learned Man or learned Men dispute the Point that Point so disputed or the words expressing it cannot be clear or the Sense certain But I have before shewed that this is no reason against the perspicuity of Scripture in such a case because nothing can be clearer express'd than many of those things which are sometimes made matter of Disputation As what can be clearer than that Christ had a Body of Flesh and Bones Yet there were some of our Authors Learned men that held Christ was a meer external appearance of a man and not
to have a real but a phantastic Body And the Ministers of the Church of England notwithstanding the denial of his learned Men do yet maintain the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour to be evidently delivered in the words The word was not is as he mistakes made Flesh. For who was the Word but he that is called God ver 1. that made all things ver 3. And what was his being made Flesh but his being made of the Seed of David Rom. 1.3 And how was he made Flesh but by being united to it and becoming Man Now if the Word that was God was the Word and not Man before he was made Flesh and when he was made Flesh did not cease to be the Word then there must be in him two Natures united which is the Incarnation His 3 d Instance is as he saith in order to Practice and the Query upon it is Then in order to Practice I desire to know whether it be necessary to Salvation to keep holy the Lord's-Day that is Sunday and not Saturday If it be I desire to know in what Chapter and Verse it is clearly contained in Scripture as also where the Abrogation of the Saturday is clearly expressed If it be not necessary for Salvation to keep holy the Lord's-Day I desire your warrant for it in these or the like terms It is not necessary to keep holy the Lord's-Day that is Sunday To this I answer That the obligation to observe the Lord's-Day is more or less necessary or unnecessary according to the Institution of it for such as the Institution is such is the Obligation If it be of mere Humane and Ecclesiastical institution it may by the same Authority be altered as it was established If of Divine Institution it 's not subject to humane arbitration And if it be of Divine Institution we must have it by the Revelation in Scripture or else it cannot be Divine And that it 's established upon such Authority I shall offer these considerations 1. There is as much in the Reason of the thing for this peculiar Day to be observed in the Christian Church as there was for the Sabbath in the Patriarchal and Jewish Church for what the Moral Sabbath was to Man upon his Creation and the Ceremonial Sabbath was to the Jews upon their Deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 that is the First Day of tâ—â— Week or the Lord's Day to Christians upon our Redemption by Christ which was accomplished and testified in his Resurrection on that Day 2. There is the Mark of Divine Institution set upon it when that which was otherwise called the first Day of the week was afterwards called the Lord's Day Rev. 1.10 It being usual in Scripture after that Times Places Things and Persons were set apart for the Service of God by Divine Institution to have his Name as a Mark of Propriety given to them Thus we read of the Lord 's Passover Exod. 12.11 The Sabbath of the Lord Exod. 20.10 The Temple of the Lord. The Lord's Sâ—pper 1 Cor. 11.20 Now I know not what Reason can be assigned that when the Things thus dignified by this Title are elsewhere of Divine Institution and so named because of that Institution that this Day should be called the Lord's Day and not be of Divine but Humane Institution 3. We may observe further That as the New World of Redemption began upon that Day so upon the same Day did Christ solemnly consecrate the Christian Church by the Descent of the Holy-Ghost upon the Apostles Acts 2.1 2. as of old the Jewish Church was by a Cloud or Divine Appearance Exod. 40.34 1 Kings 8.10 11. which they had the Promise of and until which they were not to depart from Jerusalem and to enter upon the work of gathering a Church Acts 1.4 4. It was the Day which the Primitive Christians in the Apostolical times held their stated Assemblies upon for Divine Worship as appears Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 This may suffice for the first branch of his Query I desire to know in what Chapter and Verse it is clearly contained in Scripture His next is Where the Abrogation of the Saturday he means the Sabbath is clearly expressed I may answer him it 's in the same Chapter and Verse where the Abrogation of Circumcision is clearly expressed And when he can find out Chapter and Verse for the one I will undertake to shew him Chapter and Verse for the other Indeed there was no need of an express Abrogation of either For Baptism being instituted by Christ as a means of Initiation into his Church Circumcision that was the old way of admission must fall in course because the one was inconsistent with the other So the Lord's Day being set a-part for the publick and solemn Worship of God in the Christian Church the Sabbath that was before appointed for it must in reason surrender to it So the Apostle Col. 2.16 17. Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy-day or of new-moons or of thâ— sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. Where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tho in the plural signifies the Seventh day or Jewish Sabbath as it doth Matt. 25.10 12. and for the most part in the New-Testament And which being a shadow as well as Meats and Drinks Holy-days and New-Moons was with those and for the same reasons to cease by the coming of Christ. Now as the Institution of Baptism abrogated Circumcision and the Lord's Day abrogated the Sabbath so we may certainly infer that if the Sabbath was a shadow and abrogated as such which the Apostle here asserts that there was some other day instituted in the place of it these things mutually inferring each other and what that day is I may leave to our Author's guess without again going to Chapter and Verse If you say that everyone is only bound to believe what is clear to him in Scripture reading it with Sincerity and Humility then I must desire to know What if I reading Scripture Sincerely and with Humility cannot find clearly expressed either the Trinity or Incarnation will it not be necessary for the Salvation of my Soul to believe these two Mysteries I Answer 1. Sincerity and Humility do imply the due use of all the means a person hath in possession for the finding out the Truth such as diligent reading the Word of God Prayers and Consultation with such as are most able and fit to assist him And where this temper is and this course is taken there will never be wanting what is necessary John 7.17 If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self 2. No man can believe but according to the motives of credibility and the reasons he hath for his Faith. An obligation lies upon all to believe all things necessary to Salvation but that is