means methods helps c. conducing hereunto with due explication and application of the same accoâ—â—â—ng to the acroamatick rules of that Divine art must needs be in foro Ecclesiae saving Preachers at leastwise no Hinderers of Salvation As That the condition of all mankind by nature is a state of sin and misery consisting in the loss of beatifick friendly union and communion with God the sum of all created happiness and the incursion of his wrath curse and all the accumulative misery attending his violated Law both in this world and that which is to come That there is no possible way of escape or recovery out of this condition without a Mediator or Redeemer interposing as a third person between God and the Delinquent partly by reason of that infinite both disproportion and opposition distance and repugnance between the two parties and partly by reason of the Sinners own invincible insufficiency hereunto That this only Mediator Redeemer and Saviour is the Christian 's Messias and Immanuel the Son of God incarnate in a true Humane Nature assumed into personal subsistence with the Godhead as being of all persons in Heaven and Earth and indeed a kind of compend of both alone qualified for such a negotiation his twofold-twofold-Nature Divine and Humane his threefold Office Kingly Priestly and Prophetical his twofold state of Humiliation and Exaltation his manifold Vertues especially his Spirit and Merit his Laws Ordinances and Institutions c. all co-effectual herein That true Faith namely that sacred principle and habit whereby we not only assent to Christ's Revelation of himself but receive and embrace his Person upon his own terms as therein offered and revealed together with true Repentance another pious qualification in turning from sin to God out of a due sense of the hainousness as well as danger of the Offence and Mercy through Christ in the Offended with firm resolutions and endeavours of amendment are the conditions necessarily required in and of all that partake of this Saviour and Salvation That Good Works or the acts of sincere and conscionable Obedience performed to the Moral Law are the necessary and inseparable testificats proofs and evidences of that Faith and Repentance the Decalogue being ever the best justification of the Creed That the Word Sacraments Prayer but your Heathen's touch of Devotion will not serve turn and the like are to be pursued as the ordinary means and methods instituted and appointed of God for the producing of that Faith Repentance and Obedience And Methinks I have waded through great Mysteries in a little time and if I gain a Proselyte by the means my labour is well bestowed Amen say I 't is pity Witt should perish The Publican two I say of such fundamental truths as these represented in this Scheam with due explication and application of the same must needs I think if there be any such in the world be an edifying and saving way of preaching not a hinderance but furtherance of Salvation And to apply That the usual preaching in the Church of England is such saving preaching as well as her Preachers both her first Refromers and their Successors infinitely emproved Answ pag. 25. since the High-Sheriff's Sermon in St. Marie's Pulpit at Oxford in point of Order and Office sufficiently authorised and the Religion by them purged and preached and in community with the People joyntly professed and practised truly Catholick-Apostolick She Sir is very well satisfyed and like to be dayly more and more confirmed in it I hope unless better Authority be offered for an innovation in either Creed or Clergy than what hath ever as yet appeared on this side the Sea or to some of us beyond it from the Learned'st either Men or Books But I 'll assure you for your comfort you have little reason to hope ever to see such days of vertue What! and yet our usual Preaching Folly and a hinderance of Salvation God forbid Sir If I have failed in the premisses disprove them if not pray deny not the conclusion but this is antiquated game 't is ordinary with the Old Serpent to act the Diabolus where he cannot be Apolyon accuse what he cannot destroy when as after a great expence of Venom and Subtilty he cannot thanks be to God either Vnminister our Clergy nor Vn-church our Laity to the ruine of the whole he cunningly playes his after-game in traducing all our Church as Apostate our Religion as Heresy our Discipline as Schism our usual Preaching as Folly and a hinderance of Salvation and Sir supposing I grant part of your charge that the Preaching of the first Reformers of our Church and what is usual in it at present was is the foolishness of preaching what then such was that of the very Apostles yet saving to them that believed and why not ours theirs notwithstanding the Folly charged upon it by the Greeks saving and ours because of the same charge from a Grecizer damning destructive a hinderance of Salvation Segnior no but to read your destiny in theirs by the same Oracle if the usual preaching in our Church be Foolishness it is to them that perish Foolishness and between Convert and Castaway I know and you will find no middle Limbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then who fool twice or worse Your own dear Minion with whom I will conclude this particular hath told you the same upon the matter in a more intelligible language plain English instead of Greek and that in a cornute and thereby indeed he pusheth you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but fool-hardy takes no warning Answ pag. 80. either you expect saith he that your Reader should believe nothing of what you say throughout your Letters and then you play the Fool and write to no purpose or you would have him believe all and then you do little better than 'twere almost actionable had I not a precedent for it play the Knave And now Sir By way of reflection upon the whole in order to a conclusion of this general What Reader that is not either prepossest with your poysonous Principles and prejudiced or else wholly stupified and insatuated when he shall recollect within himself and duly weigh the premisses What Reader I say thus qualified and considerate will not readily Joyn issues with me in this conclusion viz. that the scope project and designe of your Letters of Enquity can be no other then instead of the pretended redress of the Contempt of the Reformed Religion and Clergy to expose and betray both to it and by meanes thereof propagate what your Rhapsody abounds withall most pestilent and licentious Principles and Practices Atheisme Libertinisme preparatives to Popery Sensuality and what not to the utter subversion of both though you have Politician-like for cautelous Guards to the designe observable throughout your Epistles which I here note once for all cunningly interwoven Sly insinuations with dextrous retrieves prologues from Pilate and Epilogues from the Harlot washing your Hands with the one as if
the Testifiers a wise man may sometimes both be deceived and deceive but a multitude can hardly if ever in regard of choice of direction in case of errour or detection in case of forgery the publicity and openness of the testimony and consequently its lyableness to conviction if false or fraudulent the hazard of loss of peace ease and quiet honour credit and reputation profits pleasures and wordly delights means of subsistence liberty yea life it self which that Testimony and Profession exposeth to a practice quite contrary to the Law of Nature which obligeth to self-preservation but that it is warranted by those higher severe lawes of Mortification and Self-denial c. as to all those endearments prescribed in the Scriptures by them attested which whether observed or not observed is a certain conviction of a faithful testimony the observance being matter of credit thereunto non-observance of disgrace which by fore-going the profession might be avoided and lastly the vigilancy subtilty and potency of Enemies and opponents past and present for whom it was and is easie in case of imposture at once both to detect and to destroy who yet either have been wholly silent under the publick attestations of Sacred Truth or have added thereunto their own acknowledgments instances whereof History abounds withal or lastly have disputed the same with the sword rather then with argument though the Gates of Hell never could nor shall prevail herein Let those I say and the like be all duly scann'd and compared together and then undoubtedly the conclusion can be no other then that the Testifiers and Witnesses of the Revelation or Doctrine confirmed by Miracles contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are and have been a prudent honest and faithful Society which can or could neither be suspected of Errour or of being deceived in themselves nor yet of imposture or intent of deceiving others and consequently that this same Word or Revelation by them thus attested and professed is of a truth the Word of God At leastwise the whole may be of such vertue and influence as to beget in us that veneration and reverend esteem for those Testifiers and the Scriptures by them testified together with the Religion which according to the prescript thereof they profess as to bring us to the Bible and to perswade us to a research of the Scriptures with the applauded Bereans whether things be so as is reported without which take notice my testimony for the Scriptures ought to be of more force with you then yours against them can be expected to be with me mine being with you onely of suspected partiality yours with me of manifest prejudice and then are we half-Proselytes already for Sir the Divine Authority of the Scriptures may convincingly appear to one thus prepared by the subordinate and introductory attestation of the Church from the superiour Testimony of the Scriptures themselves the second thing propounded to be spoken to namely that evidence which may be collected from the intrinseck characters and cognizances of Divinity as so many dignifying prerogatives enstamp'd upon the Word it self as that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as saith Athanasius as in a manner self-manifestative and hence which is remarkable frequently likened to the objects or mediums of our natural senses as light voice and sound smell savour and taste fire and heat c. whence any that hath his senses exercised to the discerning hereof may gather that as the things mentioned doe indemonstrably discover themselves to be what they are so the Holy Scriptures whereof those are figurative resemblances doe infallibly prove themselves to be Divine Now these three or four Characters of the Scriptures seem of all others to be more especially argumentative and convictive of their Divinity to natural Conscience namely 1. the majesty of their stile witness those many majestick Titles of Divinity which the Author doth therein assume to himself which I must not hear recount importing either independency of being or universality of perfection or absolute power and authority or excellency of operation c. but all no less then Divinity and amongst other particulars that magisterial affidavit Thus saith the Lord familiar to the Holy Scriptures and pretended to in no writings in the world besides 2. The transcendency spirituality and sanctity of the matter and contents both in doctrines and duties the great mysteries of the Godhead and godliness three distinct persons in one nature in the one two distinct natures in one person in the other the mystery of diverse yea adverse both natures and persons united in one Covenant the mystery of Regeneration the mystery of the Resurrection c. and other Doctrines Duties as opposite to man's corrupt Will as these are to his Reason as the doctrines of original sin the impotency of pure naturals in spirituals the servitude and Bondage of Free-Will c. the duties of mortification of the Flesh self-denial and that strange retaliation of evil with good and hatred with returnes of Love c. infallible marks of Sanctity as is also finally the universal tendency and intendment of the whole contexture namely the exaltation and advancement of God and debasement of the Creature peculiar to Holy Writ beyond all other whatsoever 3. The sincerity and impartiality of the Writers and Compilers who appear to be so far from concealing that on the contrary they have faithfully divulged upon Record each other 's nay almost each his own defaults and infirmities Moses his Grand-father Levi's iniquity his Brother Aaron's Idolatry his and his sister Miriams sedition and his own faulty precipitancy David Mose's rashness and inconsideracy and his own Murther and Vncleanness the Evangelists their very Master's humane infirmities as hunger thirst weariness fear c. and their own dulness of understanding impertinent Queries St. John's and Jame's ambition Thomas's incredulity Peter's triple denial of his Lord and Master recorded by St. Mark his own Disciple Paul's dissention with Barnabas and accessary guilt of Stephen's Death recorded by St. Luke his own Follower St. Paul Peter's Judaizing and his own Blasphemy and Persecution c. an unquestionable conviction of the faithfulness and truth of their Testimony not to be match'd by any Writers whatsoever besides 4. And lastly the jnfallibility and veracity of their predictions the predictions themselves are recorded in the Holy Scriptures the accomplishment of them is sufficiently attested partly by Humane History partly by experience and to argue with Bellarmine if Scriptural predictions of things to come be true as is approved by the event why not scriptural attestations of things present All which duly considered what peruser of those Sacred Digests will not assent to and conclude upon the Divine Authority of the same till this same assent introduced by the Testimony of the Church as the preparative medium by which per non propter our Faith and obedience in and to the Holy Scriptures is first in order of time though not of
is such a near relation by your own confession and that else your politicks were as faulty as your cause under the disguise of a friendly pretence It is a grand maxime in Law but only with a Civilian non defendere videtur qui latitat very silence or non-appearance for the accused c. much more publication without vindication as in the present case is an implicite charge so that the very negative your non-vindicating of Religion and Clergy from that Contempt which you both too truly presuppose and divulge is an indirect proscription and exposal of both to a further degree and confirmation of it your Inquisition interpretative though there were no express accusation and hence according to this rule the properest paraphrase upon your Text and I dare say most congruous to the original must be this The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt and Contemptibility both of the Clergy Person and Function and of Religion under Colour of Friendly Enquiry into the same and pretence of Redress of the present Gâ—â—tempt but with a real intent of fomenting and propagating a further and firmer Prejudice and what hath a near relation thereunto Atheisme c. alledged or administred and in perpetuam rei memoriam published to the world by Oath ex officio c. And now ex ungue Leonem But Sir to subsume a fortiori in stead of Vindication of Religion and Clergy or the pretended redress of popular contempt of both by you both supposed and divulged you have exposed and betrayed both to what you have fowly bewrayed in your self accumulative prejudice and a confirmed contempt and in order to the more effectual propagation hereof and your Atheistick Antichristian design herein in a a most defamatory reproachful and blasphemous manner traduced and abused the doctrinal foundation of both viz. the Holy Scriptures to the infringing and subverting what you can the sacred authority and consequently the necessity and utility of the same and therein the Christian Faith founded thereupon for which you must be accountable As touching your first and cheif assault Sir This being made as is said upon the doctrinal foundation of both Religion and Clergy the Holy Scriptures and in them the personal God and his Christ or rather this complex God in Christ if those phrases may not be offensive to you and thus at once antiscriptural antichristian atheistical I Judge it necessary that I first by way of defence prepossess the Reader against it and then for conviction in a few instances amongst many a litle exemplify it As for the former I cannot better prepossess the Reader nor counter-work you then by asserting from the very principles of Reason the onely significant topick in this case the authority by you debased and disparaged namely That of the Holy Scriptures which I will briefly perform in these few ensuing paragraphs wherein I consult not so much his judgment as his memory the reality as the rationality of his Faith as being rather prompter hereof then founder hoping that I have not herein to do with more Atheists then one nor fearing in defence of such a rational interest to encounter them all First then Sir That there is an One only true and living God that to this God is due from the Creature all possible worship and service that upon the right performance of this worship depends all true and certain happiness are all truths demonstrable from principles of common Reason else I am willing to take shame for my assertion viz. That of a true Deity partly from natural Conscience as being in its latitude both Conservatory of common connate notions and principles of which that of a Deity divine worship and concomitant Reward are the chief the very Light and Law of nature and also witness and judge by way of domestick process in matters of fact vitious or vertuous accusing or excusing according to the tenour of that Law hence called by Gregory Nazianzen the Souls-paedagogess which would you become tractable disciple to I should not yet despair of you for none such ever died Atheist or Infidel and by Basile the Great a natural Judicatory most certainly authorised from a supream Law and Law-giver who can be no other than the true God whose authentick and righteous Will is therein exemplified Partly again by rational collection or conclusion of one absolute first Cause and Principle from obvious effects that being the production of the Creatures can neither be infinite that is of one by another the present by a former those again by a former and so still on far beyond Adam and the Prae-adamites even in infinitum by way of a direct unbounded procession nor yet Circular that is of a second by a first a third by a second another by that and so round to the first again producing and reproducing each other by way of continual circulation both those wayes being palpably inconsistent absurd and irrational it must of necessity be Original proceeding from one only universal supream absolute and independent Being the Original Author of all things which is no other then Jehovah the onely true God Deny this Sir and unman your self Again that of Religious Worship is evicted from the former the very same principle convincing of the truth of a Godhead and of Religious Worship due from Man as natural Tribute and Homage to this God as being not only a superexcellent nature in Himself but absolute soveraign Proprietary in Benefactor to his Creature more especially Man his Vsufructuary for life and being Himself independent upon any thing all things necessary dependants upon him Insomuch that there was never person or people in the world who did not alwayes Joyn with their sense and conscience of a Deity Religious and devotional acknowledgments witness sacred Rituals Temples Altars Sacrifices Festivals c. amongst the most Barbarous of Nations and thus it is observable that the Gentiles are not tax'd by their Doctor in his Letter to the Old Romans with a total neglect of Worship but with defect in the manner of it as being unsuitable and incongruous to the Divine Nature and Will Lastly that of a certain Reward and Happiness attending upon the due performance of this Worship as opposite misery upon the neglect of it is no less congruous to the Principles of Natural Reason than either of the former as being convincingly manifest partly from the infinite goodness and righteousness of God being equally disposed to reward Vertue and punish Vice partly from the intrinseck Equity and Justice of the thing it self In fine then Sir The truth of a Godhead Religious Worship due to this God true Happiness and Reward depending upon this Worship are all Articles of a very Heathen's Creed as well as of that of a Christian as being the dictates of Nature as well as of Scripture Read by the Light of Sun Moon and Stars common principles of Reason as well as Articles of Faith perspicuous to the World in general in